Piper watched, quietly, as Esme read over the letter in her hands. She wasn't quite suspicious, just concerned. This was about the sixth mysterious letter Esme had received and she refused to explain it to Piper.

"Did you say something?" Esme looked up suddenly as she reached the end of the letter.

Piper shook her head, "No."

"Oh."

Esme turned back to the letter and after a few more moments, she finished and finally pocketed the parchment out of sight.

"Esmerelda, I know you kind of have you own issues to deal with at the moment." Piper began quietly, "But we didn't really properly talk about what I said the other day."

"What did you say?" She asked.

"Esmerelda!" Piper hissed.

"Oh." She remembered, "Right, yes."

"You know you can't tell anybody, right?" Piper urged.

Esme sighed, "I know, of course. I wouldn't ever put you at risk."

"Thank you."

Esme smiled at the girl and then leant down to reach into her bag, in search of a book. After a while of rustling around, she pulled out one of the studies of occlumency- although it was proving to be quite difficult to master that specific field of magic by reading alone.

"I spoke to Regulus, too." Piper spoke up.

"Oh?"

"Have you spoken to him recently?" She asked.

"Um..." Esme hesitated, "I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"We've both been busy. I don't really remember. Why?"

Piper snatched the book from Esme and slammed it shut, holding it out of reach as she asked, "Don't you think you should talk to him?"

Esme tried to reach across to grab the book but missed, so she grumbled, "Is something wrong?"

"You are dense, huh?"

"Merlin, what did I do?" Esme exclaimed sharply.

"You're avoiding him." Piper bluntly stated.

"No I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"No."

Piper scoffed, "I've had my fair share of boyfriends to hide behind and... I also know what it's like to avoid boys. You're avoiding him. Why? What did Regulus do?"

"He didn't do anything." She mumbled.

Piper sighed, "I get you're trying to be some sort of hero who protects everyone, but Regulus thinks he did something wrong."

"He does?" Esme's face fell. She'd been so busy trying to keep her distance from him that it had never occurred to her how Regulus would be feeling.

Piper smiled softly, "He gets more attention from Egeria than he does you."

"Alright, fine!" Esme exclaimed as she rose to her feet, "You win. Now you can put that book back."

"Pleasure." Piper grinned broadly as she placed the book back down on the table in front of her and continued to grin as Esme walked away in search of Regulus.

Regulus Black was slowly trudging down to the quidditch stands, on his way to yet an other quidditch practice session. The new Slytherin captain seemed to be particularly paranoid about the Gryffindor team. Apparently they had a new captain too and they would be against each other in the first match of the year, which was only next week.

"Reggie! Not still sulking, are you?" Selwyn chuckled obnoxiously loud as he slung his arm around the taller boy's shoulders and tugged him into his side.

"Get off." Regulus shoved him away.

"I got to tell you..." Selwyn continued, "I'd probably feel the same if Avery dumped me. You really let a fine piece go there."

"Selwyn," Regulus sighed, trying not to shout at the stupid boy, "Just stop talking."

"Alright, as long as you still play well. Lucinda might kick us all off the team if we lose this first match." Selwyn spat.

They had just about reached the stands when there was a distinct but unintelligible yell from behind them. Both of the boys turned around to the source of the noise and, to their surprise, saw Esmerelda jogging down the hill towards them.

"Oh I can't wait to see this." Selwyn smirked.

Regulus whacked him in the stomach and replied, "You're going to go and tell Lucinda I'll be there in a few minutes."

"What?"

"Go."

"Merlin..." Selwyn grumbled under his breath as he left and headed out onto the quidditch pitch.

Regulus watched and waited as Esme finally caught up to him. She came to a stop in front of him and paused, just looking up at the boy.

"What're you doing?" He asked, adjusting the broom under his arm.

"I'm coming to watch you." Esme stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and Regulus was foolish for even bothering to ask.

He furrowed his eyebrows in scepticism, "Why?"

"Well... Because it'll be nice."

"But you don't like quidditch." Regulus reminded her.

Esme opened her mouth but no words came out. Then she closed her mouth for a moment before finally saying, "I didn't mean to ignore you."

Regulus sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Really."

"Esme."

"Alright, fine."

Esme could sure keep a secret, but the way Regulus looked at her just made her want to spill everything. She couldn't have anticipated how difficult it would be to try and keep him safe and oblivious.

She reached up and ran the small strand of Regulus' hair that normally fell forward over his forehead between her thumb and forefinger.

"I have an idea. You're not going to like it."

So Esmerelda explained her plan. First, she introduced the idea of her communication with Andromeda. She finally told Regulus, in great detail, about how she planned to defy the Dark Lord. Esme delineated how she would sell Death Eater secrets to Albus Dumbledore in exchange for him protecting individuals who wanted to escape from Voldemort's grasp of influence.

She continued, even as Regulus' face paled, and emphasised the clear dangers of what she was doing and how she was trying to keep him safe.

Esme could only protect herself, she couldn't ensure the safety of anyone else involved in her plan and therefore, up until then, nobody else had been involved.

"I didn't initially mean to avoid you." Esme sighed slowly.

"Despite the fact that I hate your plan, and I think you're utterly insane, I am mildly relieved. I thought you'd lost interest in me." He admitted somewhat sheepishly.

"Lost interest? Reg, are you joking?" She almost laughed at how ridiculous it was.

He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and then, quietly replied, "So you do still enjoy my company?"

"Of course, you loon." Esme smiled and lifted her hand to graze her thumb across his cheek, "Besides, I have something to ask you."

He lowered his head and smiled, "What is it?"

Esme lowered her hand and dug at her nails as she finally asked him, "In my mind, you're already my boyfriend. So, I suppose, officially speaking, can I be your girlfriend?"

Regulus laughed, dropping his broom as he cupped Esme's face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her temple, "Where did that come from?"

"Piper got into my head about it." She admitted.

"I also thought you weren't one to bother too much on defining things?" He inquired, tucking some hair behind her ear.

She exhaled, "Regulus, I simply cannot win with you. Now shut up and just accept the fact that I'm your girlfriend. Shall I go sit up in the stands?"

"Very pleased to hear I have no say in the matter." Regulus chuckled lightly.

"Obviously." Esme replied simply and then she leant in briefly to press a kiss to his mouth.

"Well..." Regulus reached down to pick his broomstick back up, "I imagine there are plenty of empty seats."

"You'll also need to explain the rules of quidditch again..." Esme began as she started to walk in the stands, Regulus beside her, "Especially if I'm to make any sense of the upcoming matches."

He smiled and took ahold of her hand, "So you're going to watch the matches now too?"

"Yes. I'm also going to need one of your Slytherin scarves. You guys stand much more of a chance of winning than Ravenclaw ever does; we're hopeless."

"Wow, look at the effect I have on you." He mused contentedly, leaning down to peck her cheek.

"You're a pain in the back, Reg, now go and shoot some hoops, or whatever it is you do." She grumbled.

He laughed and as they emerged out onto the pitch they let go of each other's hands, and he said, "I'll try my best to shoot some hoops, given I'm a Seeker."

"I don't really know what that means." Esme shrugged.

"Also, we need to talk about this psychotic plan you've come up with." Regulus reminded. She didn't respond as he turned away from her and strode our to the centre of the grass. In the blink of an eye, he had shot off from the ground, several feet into the air, and had joined into his team's quidditch practice.

Sitting up in the stands a few minutes later, Esme was regretting not bringing any books with her. Nevertheless, she found quidditch to be more interesting than she had suspected.

Often times, Esme even found herself clinging to the edge of her seat as Regulus made a nosedive towards the ground or vanished up into the clouds above.

Perhaps actually watching the full quidditch matches wouldn't be so bad at all.

Regulus was nice to look at.