"You're insane. I mean, I always knew you were mad but... You've really lost the plot now. Do we need to take you to the Hospital Wing?" Levi folded his arms, one eyebrow raised and a frown across his lips as he stared across at Esme.

The group, consisting of Esme, Levi, Dirk, and Piper, were sprawled out on the grass in the sun. Relaxing down by the Black Lake, they were relishing in the first signs warm signs of summer.

"You're an imbecile, Rogers. Don't you get it?" Esme scoffed, propping herself up on her elbows as she gazed up at the sky through squinted eyes.

"Can you argue quieter, please? Some of us have NEWTs to pass." Piper muttered bitterly as she shielded her eyes with one hand and continued to read from the enormous tattered book in front of her as she lay on her front.

Esme rolled her eyes, "You're missing the big picture here, Rogers."

"Which is what? It isn't enough for you to be trying to take down the whole of the Death Eaters from the inside - when even the Ministry and all of the Aurors can't manage it? You're just meddling now." He hissed in response.

"I'm not meddling!" She argued, closing her eyes and allowing the warm sunlight to wash over her.

"You so are." Levi smirked from where he was, opposite her but sprawled our lazily on the grass as he watched the trees on the horizon.

Dirk, sat cross legged with his own book in his lap, interjected, "Do you two ever stop bickering?"

"I'm not sure it's possible. Levi is just so wrong all of the time, it's impossible to let it slide." Esme mused cheekily.

Levi scoffed, "God forbid Avery has a nice bone in her body."

"You're both insufferable." Dirk muttered under his breath.

Levi sighed, giving in, "Go on then, Avery, explain your plan."

"I knew you'd come around." Esme flashed a grin, "Because this plan is going to work."

"You said that about all of your other plans. May I remind you that none of them worked as expected and all of them were dangerous?"

"This plan is safe, physically speaking."

Piper laughed, "As long as we don't actually have to do anything in your scheme to annoy Regulus."

"That's the best part. I'm solely relying on Sirius Black." She explained, "I will make them get along and this will work."

Levi sighed again, "I'm bloody happy I'm not Regulus and I don't have to put up with you."

"Oi, you watch it, Rogers!" Esme snapped with a hint of mischief, though she remained facing up to the sun with her eyes closed.

"What have you done this time?"

She opened one of her eyes to look up at Regulus stood over her. He smiled, placing a hand on her head and combing his fingers through her hair.

"Hi, Regulus!" Piper greeted warmly.

Dirk chuckled, "You took your time. Prefecting troubles?"

"Third years are the worst." Regulus explained with a heavy sigh.

"I say we get rid of them all." Levi laughed.

"What have I done?" Esme grumbled, "Me? I haven't done anything. Why do you always assume I've done something?"

He shrugged, "You're always up to something, of course."

Piper looked over at him, "Maybe you can get her to give us some peace and quiet? Yet again, I'm trying to revise."

"Careful you're skin doesn't burn." Regulus pointed out to Esme, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before sitting down beside her and reclining across the grass.

"Ugh." She only groaned in response.

"Glad to see you too." He replied.

Esme turned to him and, with a smile, whispered, "Whatever."

"Whatever to you too." He responded.

Levi narrowed his eyes at the two of them, "Sometimes I think you two have your own language."

"What's that?" Esme opened her eyes and frowned.

"Oh brilliant." Levi rolled his eyes, "Are you ignoring me now?"

She pushed herself upright, "What? No. Go away." and turned around to see Egeria padding across the grass towards the girly, "Awe! Look who it is!"

Esme lifted the cat into her lap, petting it gently as she curled up in the girl's lap.

Regulus rested his arms over his eyes to block out the sun as he explained, "Oh, I forgot to mention she's been following me around all afternoon."

"You've got a first class stalker." Esme mused with a giggle as Egeria rolled onto her back and flailed her legs in the air.

"She just knows who's worth spending her time with." He replied.

She rolled her eyes, "Clearly."

It was almost surreal for the group to be relaxing in the sun - although Piper wasn't quite relaxing as she struggled to cram for her exams.

It was almost like they weren't in the early days of a war. The sun-warmed rolling hills of Hogwarts were a far cry from the dozens of missing witches and wizards.

"I feel a bit guilty." Esme rolled onto her side to confess to the boy beside her.

Regulus replied, "We've been through this. It's really not your fault that Selwyn got in trouble for giving Mulciber a nose bleed. Even though it was you that tripped over Mulciber, nobody can prove it."

"What?" She frowned, "No, you idiot." She whacked him in the stomach, "I mean about this." She gestured to their surroundings.

He finally lowered his arms from covering his eyes so he could look around them, "What?"

"Us. All of us. I feel bad that we're here, relatively care free and safe when there's people fighting and dying out there - the Death Eaters are continuing to grow everyday." Esme insisted.

"Oh, well that's a lot more simple." He stated, closing his eyes as he felt the warmth of the sun on his face.

Esme scoffed, poking the boy again, "Are you going to explain that at any point today?"

"Oh, okay." Regulus propped himself up on his elbows so they were at eye-level, "You really have no need to feel guilty. Firstly, I think you need to remember we are still only just students. Secondly, that's a lot of pressure to put yourself under. You're not solely responsible for taking on the Death Eaters and you've already done more than most people ever will; you deserve some time to relax."

"I can't help thinking though... What if having this time off... People are still dying. If we were out in the real world we could be helping them." She dropped back down to lie on her back and look up at the blue sky. Esme hated the feeling of not doing anything when there was stuff that needed to be done.

She continued, "If everyone had that attitude of thinking they deserved rest, nothing would ever change and no progress would be made."

"I hear you. I understand, I really do. You can't take on that kind of pressure though. It's not your whole burden to carry." Regulus comforted, snaking his arm under her neck and around her shoulders.

She glanced over at the others in their group. Piper's face was now so close to the book she was reading from her nose was practically grazing against its pages. Dirk and Levi were engaged in some sort of conversation that seemed to entail Dirk explaining something complicated and Levi incessantly complaining.

"You think I'm mad, don't you?" Esme asked.

He chuckled lightly, "Absolutely, but that's not new."

It was wild, really, for Esme to come face-to-face with the Death Eaters so heavily feared and plastered all over the Daily Prophet and then be flung back into the normality of Hogwart's studies.

She sighed softly, "I guess if we're not fighting Death Eaters for the next month I can spend all my time annoying you."

"That's not new." He retorted with a cheeky grin.

"Remind me why I don't yell at you more often? I really should." She pouted.

"Do you really want to me tell you why?"

"Why?"

"Because you lo-ove me." Regulus replied in a sing-song voice.

She scoffed, lifting her head to push his arm away, "You are the worst. Completely and utterly."

"Thank you."

"It's so warm as well. I'm starting to sweat. Ugh, this day is ruined." Esme complained grumpily.

He laughed, "Glad I could play such a significant role in that."

"You're welcome." Her lips involuntarily tugged upwards into a small smile.

"I'm welcome?"

She laughed airily, "Welcome that you can play such a significant role in my days."

"Gee, and I'm the annoying one?" Regulus raised an eyebrow.

"You bet." Esme patted him on the shoulder before whispering, "Oh, and I still love you."

He sighed, refraining from rolling his eyes as he replied, "Yeah, I love you too."