"Oh, Selwyn..." Regulus greeted with a nervous chuckle as he combed his fingers through his hair, "Good to see you, buddy."

Selwyn was not impressed in the slightest as he bit back, "What did you just say, buddy?"

"I believe we were talking about the possibility that stupidity is contagious." Esme sharply interjected, "I sure hope it isn't because just this mere conversation with you could be putting me at risk."

Selwyn frowned in confusion, "I don't g-"

"Give it a minute." She replied with a scoff.

"Esme... Maybe now isn't the best time-" Regulus was cut off as the puzzle pieces connected in Selwyn's mind and he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh you rude cow! I ought to curse you, Avery - you piece of shit!"

For once in her life, Esme was completely caught off guard at genuinely being insulted. "I-a-wh-" She stammered, blinking quickly as she processed what had actually happened - unable to even begin coming up with a sly comeback.

However, Regulus' wit wasted no time in bursting out.

"That's rich coming from you! You're lucky I don't punch you, but I wouldn't want my hands touching the guy who is biologically one degree of separation away from being an actual piece of shit." The raven-haired boy spat venomously.

"Black-"

"Don't you dare." Regulus harshly wanted, "I'm telling you to walk away, so you better. Now."

After a few tense moments of the boys glaring at each other, eventually Selwyn appeared to decide the disagreement wasn't worth causing a scene, and promptly turned to leave.

Regulus watched him walk away, and had almost forgotten where exactly they were until Esme mumbled in his ear, "Thanks for that. Though it might have been nice to emphasise that I'm not actually a piece of shit."

"Oh gee, well would you like me to run after Selwyn to tell him that? Because I'm not sure that'll make a difference either way." Regulus replied with a sigh, rubbing his temples as he felt the anger fading away.

Esme slid her hands around his arm and hugged it against her body, "I might need to go to the Hospital Wing - something's got to be wrong with me if I can be made speechless by Selwyn. What you did was very attractive though." She smiled.

"Yes, thank you." He shrugged, quite happy with himself, "I know."

"You really have a knack for going from hot to irritating in the blink of an eye." Esme rolled her eyes as she watched a wide grin grow on the boy's face.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment before they started to laugh.

No joke had been told, of course, but it was one of those things that happen. One of those things where people who know each other so well, and have done for so long, can communicate without words and in ways neither of them entirely understand.

Perhaps it was how ridiculous their lives had become (pranking and partying in the midst of a wizarding war) or simply the fact that this was the beginning of an inside joke between them, but they could barely control their breath as they laughed together.

"Sorry, erm... Back to..." Regulus paused for a moment to catch his breath as he held a hand over his chest, "Back to what you were doing before. You can't leave the party early."

Esme sighed, "Why, exactly?"

"Well... I don't really have a good reason but you can't." He shook his head and stepped back slightly to look down at the dress again, "Let's be honest, I'm probably not going to see you wear this dress ever again am I?"

An involuntary smile emerged across her mouth, "I used to think you were like an old man, but you're a proper teenager, aren't you?"

"I'm just saying, if you wore this every single day forever, you'd hear no complaints from me."

Esme narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment, looking around the room before she turned to face Regulus again and held out her hand, "If I'm going to stay at this god awful party, for appearances only, you'll have to dance with me."

"Dance?" He raised an eyebrow with heavy scepticism, "Why?"

"Because then I won't have to talk to any of these dreadfully boring people." She explained simply.

"You'll have to talk to me." He pointed out, "All night long."

Esme let out a laugh, grasped ahold of his hand, and lead the way towards the space in the centre of the room where there were now many more dancing people, "I've been going out with you for nearly two years. I think I probably don't mind the idea of having a conversation with you."

Regulus chuckled at this, "You probably don't mind? Well that's shot my ego through the roof."

"Don't be funny. You know what I mean." She huffed disapprovingly, wrapping her arms around his neck as he placed his hands on her waist.

"Unfortunately so." He replied, "I'm cursed with always knowing what you actually mean."

Esme didn't reply, instead glancing past Regulus as she carefully watched Slughorn making his way around the room and chatting loudly with the large variety of guests he had invited to the party. Her fingers instinctively combed through the hair at the nape of Regulus' neck as she tuned out the music coursing through the room and came to a standstill without realising it.

"Esme." Regulus clicked just fingers in front of her face, "Are you alright?"

"What? Yes." She snapped out of it, flashing an insincere smile as she started to sway side to side again.

Though Regulus didn't believe this as he replied, "You hate dancing. Why are we dancing? We could stand in a corner somewhere and talk."

"What?" She frowned in thought for a second, "You like dancing though."

Regulus nodded, "Well, yes. But I wouldn't like it if I knew you were hating it the whole time."

Esme looked up at him, "Oh, but... Well, I do hate dancing. But I don't hate dancing with you."

This caused a blush to emerge over Regulus' cheeks as he opened his mouth but struggled to actually come up with something to say.

"Oh yeah," She smirked, "You got lucky with me, alright."

"Guys! Hey!"

Esme almost let out a yelp and jumped forward against Regulus' chest as she felt the air get knocked out of her.

Though she was much more accustomed to dealing with more life threatening matters that the sudden shock seemed a disproportionate reaction as she looked over her shoulder to see Levi and Dirk stood very closely to her indeed.

"What are you two doing?" She asked bitterly, still tightly gripped onto Regulus.

"We just wanted to suggest something to you guys." Levi explained with a smile.

Esme frowned, "Is it the possibility that I'm surrounded by idiots?"

"I tried to convince Levi that this could wait. It's not actually urgent." Dirk exhaled slowly.

Levi exclaimed, "I could forget if I don't say it now!"

"Oh, it's not a possibility, it's certain - I am surrounded by idiots." Esme grumbled.

Regulus stepped to the side to allow Esme to move back slightly and regain some personal space, and he calmly asked, "What's up?"

"Well-" Levi began,

"Perhaps we shouldn't have a conversation in the middle of the dance floor? Merlin knows what people will think." Dirk ushered the group to the corner of the room where they were more secluded and had some degree of privacy.

"Well..." Levi began again, "My father is away for work over Christmas, so I'm staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. Dirk is staying too because he wants to use the library for... Something to do with books?"

"Obviously something to do with books; it's a library, Levi." Esme took a deep breath.

Dirk rubbed the bridge of his nose, starting to feel a headache coming on, "I just want to keep up my research so I can send an impressive application to the Ministry of Magic."

"Anyway, that's not the point." Levi held up his hand to continue again, "We thought that all of us could stay at Hogwarts over Christmas. It might be nice. We'll be able to hang out more because we'll finally all be free at the same times."

It was a struggle trying to organise time for the four of them to actually meet up together - given that most of them had multiple responsibilities to uphold alongside their usual studies. Though the semi-regularly made time to sneak into the Forbidden Forest to practice their defence and duelling skills, these times rarely included the opportunity for pleasant conversation.

"Well that's not a completely terrible idea. Christmases have always been notoriously tense at my house." Esme shrugged, "I'd actually enjoy a break from my parents being disappointed in me."

"Great." Levi beamed before turning to Regulus, "So, what do you think?"

"Oh..." The boy rubbed the back of his neck, "I would but... I can't."

Esme frowned at this and spun around to face him, "Can't?"

"I-er..." He paused, his mind racing a million miles an hour before he suddenly blurted out, "I have plans to meet my brother. I was going to stay with him for a couple of days and tell my parents I was at your house, Esme - though I'd say I was visiting Ignatius."

"Oh." She replied shortly, "Well, why didn't you say something sooner?"

He glanced over at the over two boys, neither of whom knew the full extent of Regulus' complicated relationships with both his parents and his brother. "I guess..." He trailed off slightly before explaining, "I was hoping to pretend it wasn't as soon as it is - I'm not greatly looking forward to it."

"Well it's no problem either way." Levi lightened the mood with a short chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders, "We'll just see you again in the new year."

"Yeah, of course."

The group then started to make their way back over to the tables full of food, hoping to snag the last few good desserts before they all vanished.

Despite it not being the healthiest of dinners, it was Christmas so it didn't really matter.

"I hadn't realised things had developed so fast with your brother." Esme whispered to Regulus as they stepped aside from the others for a moment.

"Ah, well it still seems a little surreal to me. He's been writing to me a fair bit - which is weird in and of itself because he used to hate even having to sign his name on birthday and Christmas cards." Regulus explained, looking down at the small plate of fruit he had in his hands, "He's being nice though, which is a change."

Esme cupped her hand against one side of his face, "A good change, of course."

"I think so. Well, yes, obviously it is, but I don't feel that way. It's weird; I spent so long resenting him that talking to him now... Him being nice to me... It's like talking to a different person. I almost don't recognise Sirius anymore."

"Do you think perhaps that's a good thing?" She inquired, "Perhaps the Sirius you knew before was actually a different person. Perhaps the person he's grown to become now is really the brother you deserved all along."

Regulus held his hand over hers and smiled, "That's a nice thought."