"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.

"Why?" Dirk asked.

"Has something happened with you two?" Piper inquired.

But they received no response as Esme had already grabbed her bag and was making a quick dash back into the castle, leaving Egeria still sat in Piper's lap.

Just as the door closed behind Esme, Regulus reached the bench where Dirk and Piper were.

"Hi." He greeted rather sheepishly as he propped his broom up against the bench and sat down beside Piper.

"Hey, Regulus." She smiled at him as he began to pet Egeria, causing the kitten to clamber over into his lap. Then, perhaps because she was on such a roll, Piper suddenly blurred out, "I-er... I'm gay."

Regulus looked up at her and paused for a moment before replying, "Oh. Lovely."

Piper turned to look at Dirk, who's shoulders were bobbing up and down as he held in light laughter.

"So that's okay?" She asked.

"With me?" Regulus continued to stroke the cat, "Of course. I mean it doesn't really affect me either way. Whatever you want."

"Well..." Piper sighed with a small smile, "That's everyone."

"Congrats, Pipes." Dirk placed a hand on her arm and nodded approvingly. She thanked him, still a little shocked at how well it had all gone. Piper really had picked the best friends possible.

Dirk then nudged the girl, getting her attention, and directed her to Regulus who was continuing to play with Egeria.

"What?" Piper hissed.

"Ask him what's wrong." Dirk whispered.

"Why don't you?"

"Because that's weird."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It just is. We don't know each other that well."

"Alright! Fine."

Piper turned back around to Regulus and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Everything?" He didn't look up, "In the whole world? Probably not. There's probably muggles at war somewhere. That's not alright."

She cleared her throat with a cough and this finally garnered enough of Regulus' attention to cause him to stop petting Egeria and finally look up at the girl.

"Is everything with you alright?" She adjusted her question.

He shrugged, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you seem mopey." Dirk interjected.

"Oh." Regulus replied, turning his attention back to the kitten who had now peacefully fallen asleep.

"So what's going on?" Piper asked again.

"I think Esme might not like me anymore."

Piper and Dirk looked at each other for a moment before she turned back yet again to the Slytherin boy and told him, "Don't be stupid. Why would you think that?"

"She's avoiding me, clearly."

She paused for a moment, then finally asked what she'd been waiting months to ask, "Are you two actually going out?"

Regulus coughed, a heat rising to his cheeks as he mumbled his response, "I'm not quite sure."

"Not quite sure?" Piper frowned.

"Sounds like a no to me." Dirk shrugged nonchalantly, still not entirely a fan of Regulus.

"Stop being rude." Piper hit him in the chest.

"Regulus, what do you mean?"

He sighed, "Well I don't know if we've ever been on an official date."

"But..." Piper continued, desperate for information, "You do other couple-y stuff?"

"Don't pry." Dirk pointed out.

"I'm not prying! He doesn't have to answer." She retorted.

Regulus lifted the kitten into his arms and slowly stood up, "I... If it's alright, I'm going to go. I've got some work to do."

"Wait." Piper urged, "I'll stop pestering you. But, you should know that Esme talks about you a lot. I don't think she even realises she's doing it sometimes. She's just got some family stuff going on at the moment that she's a little distracted with."

"Family stuff?" Regulus asked.

"Y-yeah. She didn't really explain what's going on, just that it's family stuff." Piper stammered, trying to come up with a believable lie on the spot. She knew Esme's reason for keeping secrets, and was trying to do her best to stop it from affecting Regulus.

This didn't work.

Piper hadn't known how close the Avery and Black families were, that if something was wrong with one then the other would know. She also hadn't anticipated that Regulus would see right through her lie.

"Oh, right. Well that explains it. No need to worry." He flashed them a tiny smile and headed back into the castle.

They sat and watched him leave, and as soon as the door closed behind Regulus, Piper turned back to Dirk, "Do you think he believed that?" She hoped.

Dirk pursed his lips and hesitated because he could tell that Regulus hadn't bought a word of it. He also didn't have a clue what Esme was hiding, but Dirk suspected that Piper knew more than she was letting on.

It was all getting awfully complicated.

So Dirk shrugged as he added another lie to the mix, "I think he did."