Time truly was an illusion.

Reality was a concept designed to distract people from their inevitable demise and a mere attempt to provide meaning to human's lives.

It felt almost as if time around Hogwarts had stopped. The students and staff were going about their lives but the outside world had seemed to slow down. Technically, it was the start of February, but it didn't feel like it.

The amount of time that had passed and the amount of stuff that had happened, it had to be at least April.

Esme was starting to loose track of the days and was certain this was the beginning of her going insane.

Yet, despite all of the worries and confusion, Esme was starting to feel truly happy. She sat in the Great Hall, Dirk beside her and Regulus and Piper sat opposite. She couldn't help but smile at how much time Regulus was spending with her friends and how well they all seemed to get along. Although, Esme had noticed some slight iciness from Dirk. He did not like Regulus, regardless of how nice the Slytherin boy tried to be.

"Yes, well, then Professor Vector put them all in detention for a month." Regulus chuckled, causing Piper to shriek with glee.

She leant towards him slightly, "But... Them? How did you get out of it?"

Esme pursed her lips tightly as Piper placed a hand over his arm. Regulus made eye contact with Esme, opposite him, for a moment before breaking the gaze and slowly saying "Ah..." and moving her hand away by tightly folding his arms across his chest, "Well whilst they were trying to catch the Niffler, I copied this Hufflepuff boy's work so at the end of the lesson I actually had a homework to hand in. Vector was definitely suspicious but she didn't say anything. I ended up with nearly full marks."

"How fabulous!" Piper exclaimed, "Now, go on Esmerelda. It's your turn. I bet you've sweet talked yourself out of a fair few detentions."

Dirk scoffed, "I'm not sure you can call endless arguing 'sweet talking'."

"You're just jealous, Cresswell, that your charm doesn't get rewarded like mine." Esme nudged him playfully.

"Jealous?" Dirk raised an eyebrow, "I'm too busy actually doing my class work. I don't need to go out of my way to escape punishment."

"Smart arse." Esme grumbled, earning a gentle kick from Regulus. "Oi, what was that for?" She glared across at him.

"For being bloody rude." Regulus laughed.

"Merlin, you're annoying."

"He's annoying because he's right." Piper countered.

"Oh, suddenly everyone's right except me!" Esme threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. Regulus tried to mask his flinch as she nearly knocked over a large jug of water but couldn't stop himself from leaning across the table and sliding it out of harm's way.

She was about to poke fun at him but was cut off when Piper burst out, "The owls are here!"

And so they were.

The animals burst in the Great Hall, swooping down over the tables and causing the students to excitedly shriek. Groups of students surrounding them leapt to their feet, reaching up to catch their letters as soon as physically possible.

A single, small, grey owl darted towards the group, dropping a tattered letter in Piper's lap. The corners of the envelope were bent and there appeared to be multiple coffee stains blotched on the paper. However, the blonde girl erupted into unrivalled joy upon picking it up.

"It's from my dad!" She gasped, tearing open the message and hurriedly unfolding the letter. Dirk had received a couple of books from his mum and Regulus was subject to reading yet another letter from his own mother about how the family next door were still to blame for the mole in their garden. The Slytherin boy sighed as he scanned over the incredibly dull letter, a small part of him hoping that at some point his mother would ask to hear back from him. She never did though.

Esme pursed her lips tightly as she looked down at the Daily Prophet in front of her. Countless stories littered the front page, but all of them had one thing in common. The number of disappearances and abductions of wizards and muggles alike was growing exponentially.

"No letter?" Dirk asked quietly, leaning towards her so his voice was barely a whisper.

Esme shrugged nonchalantly before replying with an air of carelessness, "My parents never write. I haven't heard from them since they wrote one letter to wish my brother and I 'Merry Christmas'."

"I can always ask my mum to write to you. I'm sure you'd love to hear about how the scarf she's knitting is coming along." Dirk laughed slightly, but still felt sympathy for Esme.

She rolled her eyes, "I understand why you are the way you are."

He furrowed his eyebrows, glancing across to the others, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Piper giggled and flicked some of her golden hair over her shoulder, "Oh, Dirk! Don't worry about it."

"But I don't understand." The boy sulked, opening his book to start reading it in the hopes that they might stop winding him up some point soon.

Regulus exhaled with a soft smile, "Esme means you're a little... Innocent. You're content with the small things in life."

"Innocent? I'm not naive." Dirk tucked the books under his arm, getting ready to leave.

"No, of course!" Piper reached across the table to place a hand on his arm, "You're the smartest of all of us. You just... You prefer to read quietly in a corner, like your mum prefers to knit peacefully."

"They're too polite to say it, Cresswell, so I'll save your suffering. The word they're too scared to say is: dull." She stated bluntly.

Dirk scoffed, "Dull?"

"Not dull! We don't mean that!" Piper burst out, "No, Esmerelda!"

"Grounding." Regulus almost gasped as he found the word he'd been looking for, "You're a grounding character. You're in the real world and you're calm."

"Still sounds like an insult to me." Dirk muttered under his breath.

Esme laughed, "That's because it is."

"Shut up, no it isn't." Piper came to his defense, "Dirk is grounded, I'm delightful, Regulus is stoic, and you're..."

"Mad?" Dirk offered, causing Esme to punch him in the arm. "Ow! Avery!" He yelped.

"You deserved that." She smiled sweetly at him.

Piper shook her head, "No... Esme is..."

"Esmerelda." She corrected.

"Esmerelda is... Reckless. Without regard."

"Without Regard? What?" Esme's jaw dropped open, "Are you saying I'm inconsiderate?"

"Sounds about right." Dirk mumbled under his breath.

The blonde shook her head again, "Not inconsiderate. You don't always do what you want, you always do what you feel is right - what you believe will benefit most people. You always do that and you never worry what anybody thinks. It's brave, really."

"Check me out." Esme sat up straight with a smug smirk, "I'm brave."

"Yes, it is brave that you're so annoying." Dirk hit back.

Esme's eyebrows scrunched together as she frowned, "Cresswell, I swear to-"

The three of the continued to bicker somewhat endlessly amongst themselves as a large grin emerged across Regulus' face. Despite it all, he couldn't quite believe the good luck that had come his way. His heart ached every time he saw Esme, but he couldn't stop himself from wanting to be around her. It almost acted as a reminder as to why he had to suppress everything. Regulus had hurt Esme, plenty of times. But he would never put her in harm's way. He would do anything to protect Esme, even if that meant prolonging his own suffering. Since his confrontation with Esme regarding the letter from Levi, little over two weeks had passed.

"Regulus?" Dirk waved his hand about, snapping the boy out of his thoughts.

"Sorry." The boy apologised sheepishly.

Dirk hummed slightly, narrowing his eyes, "Esmerelda does that sometimes... Tunes out from reality."

"It's called daydreaming, Cresswell, and it's because you're painfully boring. I'm just thankful you're not trying to teach us about Goblin history anymore." Esme retaliated, earning a snort from the blonde girl.

Piper gasped at her unintentional response, clapping her hands over her mouth before replying, "Please pretend I didn't just do that."

Esme smiled warmly at Regulus, opposite her. They held each other's gaze for a moment. A million words needing to be said but neither of them wanting to break away.

Despite Esme finally being surrounded by people she liked and appreciated, she had never really felt so alone. And gosh, did she know what it was like to be lonely. She was happy, that much was for certain. Yet Esme still felt somewhat detached.

She wanted to be around Regulus every waking moment. Even two weeks later, she couldn't forget what he'd said to her.

Regulus had, in his own obscure way, admitted his feelings for the girl. Something she never would have even considered prior to the confession. Before she could even process the news, he'd already pushed any discussion off the table. For some reason, Regulus had taken it upon himself to decide that they needed clear minds to focus on how to deal with the threat of Death Eaters - even if that meant causing their own emotional suffering.

Esme couldn't quite understand his perspective; if anything, she was more confused than ever.

Everything seemed confusing.

The only thing that was simple, was that she wanted a normal life. She wanted to be able to ask Regulus how his day was. She wanted to watch him in quidditch matches and make fun of his obsessively neat character.

The fear of what their families could do, what the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord could do...

Regulus was determined this would never allow him to be happy.

Esmerelda Avery wasn't so sure.

She was witty and confident and always so determined to get what she wanted. Esme was constantly making extravagant plans to outmanoeuvre those who backed her into a corner.

So that's why it was little surprise that Esme wouldn't allow anyone to stand between her and what she truly wanted.

She didn't just want her best friend to be safe.

She wanted Regulus Black.

Esme wanted him to be happy.