"I've been told to warn you of something, though I can't entirely remember what."

Esme peered over the top of her book in order to ensure Levi had heard what she'd said. The boy in question, however, was perched on the very edge of his seat as he watched what was going on down below - apparently oblivious to his more immediate surroundings.

"Rogers, did you hear me?" Esme asked, rather irritably. The mix of being up so early - not helped by the fact she was barely sleeping to being with - and sat in dreadfully cold weather out in the quidditch stands had put the girl in a rather awful mood. She tugged her coat tightly around her shoulders as she waited for a reply.

After a few moments, Levi felt as if someone was watching him and he turned to see the girl staring directly at him. "Sorry, did you say something?" He inquired.

"You're an idiot, but that's beside the point." She grumbled, "What I said was I've been told to tell you off, but I can't remember what for."

"Well what good does that do me? There's no point in even telling me that if you can't remember any important details." He pointed out.

Esme took a deep breath, attempting to stay calm as she replied, "Regulus told me. Oh... I wasn't really listening at the time... He said to tell you not to do something and he'd raise hell if you did."

"Oh, about spying on the Slytherin quidditch practices, that's what he's talking about." Levi mused, turning his gaze back to the players who were darting about the pitch below.

She shrugged, turning back to her book, "Probably. Quidditch is all he talks about at the moment."

Dark grey clouds were beginning to swirl in the sky above their heads, threatening to rain at any second. Esme muttered a couple curse words under her breath as the quidditch practice was still far from finishing and she probably couldn't make it back to the castle before the storm began.

"Yes, Reg is worried I'm going to tell the Gryffindor quidditch team what his strategy is. As if we need to cheat. I really think this is the year we beat Slytherin, you know." Levi rambled absentmindedly as he seemed to forget who he was talking to and resumed watching the players.

Esme sighed, folding down the corner of the page she had been reading and tucked the book deep into her coat pocket. Pulling out her wand, she waved it once in a circular motion and out of the tip of her wand sprouted a translucent umbrella which she promptly held above her head.

Then, an idea occurred to her.

"Are you still keeping tabs on Selwyn?" She questioned, her tone laced with false innocence.

This immediately spiked the boy's interest as he snapped around to face her, "Why?"

"Are you?"

"Yes, obviously. He isn't so cruel to my sister anymore but he's horrid to her friends." Levi sighed.

She offered a small smirk, shuffling along the bench to sit closer to the boy as she extended her umbrella to cover both of their heads as light rain began to patter down on them. "Want to cause some trouble for him?" She suggested.

"Why?" Levi asked.

"Do you need a reason?"

He thought for a moment before admitting, "I suppose not. Do you have a plan?"

Esme rubbed her eyes tiredly, starting to feel one of them twitch as she attempted to stay awake. Since returning to Hogwarts, though it had only been nearly two weeks, she had been finding herself struggling more and more with falling asleep.

Not only did Esme have great difficulty actually falling asleep, but once asleep it was often interrupted by sudden nightmares that jolted her awake. Needless to say, Andrea Goodman thought the new Head Girl was going insane.

Perhaps Esme was going mad. That's if she hadn't been mad to begin with.

Honestly, she was becoming consumed by her fear of the Dark Lord and what he might to do if she was discovered to have betrayed him.

The lack of sleep was starting to affect the girl as she was struggling to keep up with her studies - though this was nothing she would confess to Regulus out of concern for stressing the boy out who was already struggling to juggle Quidditch Captain, Prefecting, NEWT studies, and getting along with his brother.

Esme hoped that causing some mayhem with Levi might distract her a little, at least until she decided it was the right time to confide in Dirk.

"Leave it with me for a couple of days. I'll think of something." She assured Levi, nudging him playfully with her shoulder.

They continued to watch the Slytherin training session for some time, though neither of them could work out what was going on due to the fast pace of the blurry figures and the fact that they didn't see me to be playing a match at all but rather shooting about in a random, haphazard manner.

"You alright?"

Esme, who had been sat with her eyes closed for the past few minutes, suddenly opened her eyes and turned to the boy beside her. "What?" She asked.

He repeated, "Are you alright? You seem to be falling asleep whilst sat upright."

"I'm fine." She insisted quickly, rapidly blinking her eyes as if she could bat away the exhaustion.

"You can go. Back up to the castle, I mean, if you want. I'll tell Regulus. He won't mind." Levi offered.

She forced out a small smile as she joked, "What? I can't let you sell out Slytherin secrets; I need to watch you."

He rolled his eyes, "As if you care who wins!"

"I do so!"

"You can't even tell what the players are doing!"

Esme pulled the umbrella across so it only provided shelter for her head, "Hey, I've gotten so much better. I can point out which player is which. Look, that's the Seeker." She pointed down to one of the players.

Levi laughed, "I'd bloody hope you could point out the Seeker, seen as it's Regulus!"

"Shut up." She replied shortly.

They continued to watch the practice in silence once again. Slowly, Esme's arm stretched out so eventually she was holding the umbrella over both of their heads again - the rain now coming down much faster.

Levi could tell something was up. No matter how much Esme liked to joke that he was dense, the boy was actually quite bright. Though he suspected even if he asked, Esme wouldn't tell him what was wrong.

Theirs was the kind of friendship where you would joke and mock each other, rarely delving any deeper than that. Perhaps he would write to Piper, the girl had always been awfully good at prying information out of people and she might offer whatever support needed to Esme.

"You coming, Rogers?"

Levi was snapped out of his thoughts as he looked over to Esme, who was stood near the stairwell of the stands, ready to leave. He hadn't even noticed the rain that was pouring down on him.

"Yes!" He called back, yanking the hood of his coat over his head as he hurried towards her.

"Are you going back up to the castle now?" Levi asked as the two descended the stairs together.

She shook her head, "I don't think so, though Regulus will probably want to go back for a change of clothes. We're going into Hogsmeade, you see."

Levi exaggerated a groan, "So that means I'm stuck with Dirk in the library. All he does anymore is study - as if he wasn't reading enough beforehand!"

Esme snickered, holding open the door for them to exit out onto the grass, "Sooner or later we will have to start studying too. I really need these NEWTs."

"Well of course, you'll be in one of those high paid Ministry jobs before most of us have even got an interview." He huffed.

She laughed, "I'll probably need a secretary or an assistant. How are your organisational skills?"

"Oh, you're too cheeky-" Levi clamped his mouth shut as the members of the Slytherin quidditch team emerged from the changing room and strode proudly past them, up towards the castle. Despite not liking any of them, Levi was also very intimidated by them - especially seen as he now knew how many of them were actual Death Eaters.

"I'm surprised you waited in the rain." Regulus greeted as he stepped out into the fresh air. His damp hair cling to his forehead where he had been sweating profusely as he adjusted his bag under his arm.

"Of course." Esme nodded with a smile, "I'm very supportive and I love quidditch now."

He chuckled, "You can't even keep a straight face when you say that!"

"Yes, alright, fine." She grumbled as the trio began walking up the hill back to the castle, "I've been waiting for us to be able to eat. It's nearly lunchtime and I'm starving now."

"I'll change quickly then and we can head down to Hogsmeade." He promised.

Levi spoke up, "Perhaps I could also crash in on this? I mean, I'm hungry too, you know."

"Er..." Regulus hesitated, looking over at Esme who was deliberately avoiding his gaze, "Sure-of course. Just to be clear though, I'm not paying for your meal too."

Levi grinned, "Oh, Avery, now I see why you're going out with him."

She smirked, "Took you long enough."

-

a/n

i hadn't actually planned to make levi a central character when i started putting this story together

initially i'd planned to phase him out after regulus stole levi's letter to esme but i ended up liking levi a lot more than i expected, especially his relationship with esme (and i'm planning to show more of how he gets along with regulus too)