"Mother?" Esme's throat had dried up and her voice cracked slightly at the surprise.

They just stared at each other for a moment before Antoinette smiled softly and inquired, "I think it's best if I come in off the doorstep, yes? It won't look good if anyone of importance to us happens to walk past."

And Esme, still in a mild state of shock, moved aside to let her mother into the hallway of Grimmauld Place.

"Through here, if I remember correctly?" She purred as she gestured towards the living room briefly before striding in and making her way through to the kitchen.

"Er..." Regulus faltered slightly, "Yes, that's right." He called out despite the fact that the woman had already made her way there.

He frowned slightly, and turned around to ask, "Esme, what's-are you alright? What's going on?"

"I don't know."

"Do we need to worry?"

"I don't know."

It was, even with everything they'd been through, a surprise for Esme to not know if she could trust her own mother or not.

At last, she put her own wand in her back pocket and placed a hand on Regulus' arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Are you alright?" She asked, suspecting this might be a bit much for the boy to deal with at the moment,

"Yeah, I'm okay. You?"

She nodded, "Yeah, we'll figure this out. No need to worry."

"Of course not." Regulus nodded, not entirely believing himself. He was hoping to convince himself of the fact as much as Esme.

Nevertheless, she gave his arm a last reassuring squeeze before the two of them made their way towards the kitchen in order to face Antoinette Avery.

The woman in question, refined as always, was stood at the head of the table as they entered. Her brown hair was noticeably darker and pulled back into a tight, long ponytail. She appeared to be quite tired as there were deep set lines beneath her eyes, but these went unnoticed as she wore a deep purple lipstick to draw the attention away.

Antoinette had removed her floor-length black coat and hung it over the back of the chair, revealing a floor-length plain black dress beneath it.

"First things first..." She began, "Esmerelda, what are you doing here?"

Instinctively, Esme and Regulus sat down beside each other at the table - much like they were young children again being told off for being too loud or wild.

"I could ask you the same thing." The girl quipped.

"This is no time for that." Antoinette warned, "If people know you're hiding out here, it won't look good."

Regulus was still hung up on his less than appropriate greeting to Antoinette Avery - the moment of confrontation between himself and his girlfriend's mother playing over in his head still.

Esme snapped him out of this by nudging him in the side as she asked her mother, "Why are you here though? Did you know I was here?"

"Esmerelda Marie Avery." Antoinette warned her daughter again.

"Alright." Esme gave in, "Yes, alright, I left Hogwarts. Something happened and Regulus needed me."

Antoinette, at last, pulled out a seat and sat down at the head of the table, "To do with what the Dark Lord had asked?"

"Yes." She responded, "Now it's your turn to answer my question."

The slender woman nodded slowly, "Of course."

"How did you know I wasn't at Hogwarts?" Esme knew, of course, that it was technically possible for Antoinette to have paid a visit to Grimmauld Place on her own accord. However, she had shown no sign of surprise at seeing her daughter there, and it was fair to say the woman always knew more than she ever let on - which was what made her such a good wife to Lucas Avery as she knew everything about everyone for him.

"Really..." She sighed gently, "That is what I came to explain to you, mon amour. I... I saw you were no longer there."

"Saw?" Regulus asked, the question slipping past his lips in that moment of surprise he wished hadn't caught him off guard.

Esme nodded in agreement, "What do you mean by that? Did you visit Hogwarts?"

"I did a little more than visit, chère. Perhaps it is best if I show you-both of you. You must not be alarmed." Antoinette took a long, deep breath in and then, all of a sudden, without standing up from her seat, she appeared to melt out of sight.

"W-what?"

Esme jumped up to her feet as Regulus slowly leant back in his chair.

"I don't-"

Esme walked around the edge of the table and felt her face pale as she watched an eerily familiar small black cat stretch out on the seat of the wooden chair and finally clamber up onto the tabletop.

"Oh, that can't be good." Regulus shook his head slowly, almost in a state of shock which was preventing him from properly processing or reacting to what was happening in front of him.

Esme had practically frozen on the spot as she lifted her heavy head up to look over at Regulus, her jaw hanging open. She stammered for a moment, glancing back down at the cat before looking up at Regulus again, "This-this is a really sick joke."

Then, as soon as Antoinette as disappeared, she had materialised before them again and the black cat had vanished.

"I'm sorry, are you serious?" Esme asked, sitting back down again and letting out a sharp sigh.

Antoinette resumed her place at the table and revealed the tiniest traces of a smile as she responded, "Serious about what?"

"Oh!" Esme laughed bitterly, "Oh, you're telling jokes now? Well let's forget all about what you've just done! My mother is telling jokes everyone!"

"Don't overreact, Esmerelda." Antoinette shook her head.

"I'm sorry... I-I really don't mean to interrupt, but..." Regulus was already regretting speaking up as he felt quite uncomfortable in the older woman's company, but he continued anyway, "Just to be absolutely clear, your animagus is a black cat and... You've been posing as Egeria for about eighteen months?"

Antoinette almost smirked, "Well yes, Regulus, you would be right about that."

"Right, thanks." He muttered.

"I don't..." Esme frowned, "I'm still confused. I've seen you and Egeria in the same room together. She was a kitten when I first got her. And, perhaps more importantly, what the hell?"

"Egeria does exist, of course." Antoinette explained, "I went out and bought her - knowing that she would grow up to look exactly like my animagus. When your father gave her to you, that was an ordinary kitten. However, I went to Hogwarts in her place, in my animagus form, and used shrinking solution so as to appear as a kitten. Then when you returned for the holidays, Egeria would be at home to act as the cat you'd known at school, and I would return to my natural human form."

"Wow... That's smart." Regulus mumbled under his breath, but just loud enough for Esme to hear as she gave him a sharp elbow in the chest.

Esme had dealt with a lot of twists and turns over the past few years, but hearing that news was really testing her patience. She felt like she couldn't sit still and so she stood up and began pacing up and down the kitchen - holding her hands together behind her back.

"I don't think you answered my question of: what the hell? Why on earth would you spy on me like that? Were you feeding back information to my father and the Death Eaters this whole time?" Esme ranted, growing slightly red in the face.

Antoinette exhaled slowly and closed her eyes, "Stay calm, please. Take a breath."

"T-take a breath?" Esme scoffed, stopping dead in her tracks, "Are you mad? What the hell have you been-"

"Let me explain," She interrupted, "Of course I wasn't spying on you. Your father had been so busy with the Dark Lord and organising the Death Eaters that he was rarely home and I told him I was going to be spending more time with my family over in France; he doesn't know anything. I just... I feared for you, Esmerelda. After your initiation I know how distraught you were - though your father chose to ignore that. I know you never wanted to be involved in this and I feared you would get in trouble over your reservations. I only wanted to protect you. And, of course, Regulus, I was aware of what your brother had done. I assumed you might follow your brother's example and thought you would lead Esmerelda astray. I just wanted to keep an eye on the both of you - mostly to keep you out of trouble. When you got in trouble with Ignatius last year, I nearly returned home to obliviate Bellatrix Lestrange just in case, but you handled it yourselves. I know now, of course having spent all that time with you and your friends, that you're not just rebelling but you don't agree with what I and then rest of your family believe. As much as that breaks my heart, I really just want you to be safe. You're not safe with us, either of you. While you were at Hogwarts, I just wanted to protect you; you are my daughter."

Esmerelda didn't know what to say.

It was an awful lot to take in all in one go. Her mother had never been particularly affectionate and this whole thing seemed quite out of character for her. It was as if the woman before her know what a completely different one to the mother she had previously known.

"What if you'd been caught?" Regulus asked.

Antoinette turned to him, "If would have taken a lot for anyone to suspect I had done something out of the interests of the Death Eaters. You've got to know that I do support them. Any sign of someone being suspicious and I would have gotten you two to safety as quickly as possible. I had made a plan to send you to some relatives in the south of France, and from there you could flee across Europe."

"Did you know... The mission the Dark Lord gave to Regulus, did you know about it?" Esme narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"No." She confidently shook her head, "That was the only plan I had no knowledge of beforehand. I'm not even sure if your father knew until word got out that the house elf had been involved in something. I still don't know anymore details than that - though I'm sure you know everything already."

"If everything you're saying is true... Why are you here now? Just because you knew I'd left Hogwarts? You could have gotten away with it the whole thing because I won't be returning home." Esme ran her bottom lip between her teeth.

Antoinette sighed again, "Because I need to know your safe. Both of you. No matter what you believe, or what you do, I need you to be safe. You're my daughter. I need to tell you that not a lot the Death Eaters trust you, and the few that do only do because of your association with your Father. Even Lucas can't keep you in everyone's good books forever, dear. And Regulus, people suspect you are falling out of favour too. Everyone is watching your moves carefully and neither of you should be around in case you slip up. If you're sure about this, about going against the Dark Lord, then you both need to get out now."

It was a terrifying warning - the words of a mother begging her daughter to escape - that sent shivers down their spines.

And after the three of them had a drink to calm their nerves, none of them felt entirely at ease.

Even after Antoinette had left Grimmauld Place and returned home, things did not feel safe.

Later that night, Esme and Regulus lay beside each other in bed, both staring up at the dark ceiling above them.

"We can't run away." She whispered, breaking the silence between then that had previously been heavy with thoughts and concern.

"No, we can't." Regulus agreed, "We might be the only ones that know about the horcrux and we need to see this through until it's destruction."

She sighed, and titled her head to rest on his shoulder, "Clearly I get my insane schemes from my mother. We don't even know if she was telling the truth. She could be dobbing us in right this second."

"I don't think so. I believed every word she said and maybe I'm stupid, but I believe her even more now it's settled in." He responded.

"Alright." Esme replied, "If you trust her, then I do too. She made it sound like we're so close to being caught and... I guess I knew that but I'd never really realised it, you know?"

"I know."

"Besides... Ha!" A grin suddenly emerged across her lips, though Regulus couldn't see this in the dark, "It makes sense that Egeria spent so much time following you around. She thought you were a bad influence - leading me astray."

"Well, we all know what a reckless badass I am." He chuckled lightly, relief unclenching his shoulders as the conversation softened, "I suppose what's really bothering me is the fact that I spent about eighteen months petting your mother.

"Yeah..." She laughed, rolling onto her side as she joked, "And my dad already didn't like you."

"I mean I don't think many guys will have stroked their girlfriend's mother's tail." He grimaced at the thought.

Esme let out another light laugh and closed her eyes as she wrapped an arm around Regulus' stomach and mumbled, before drifting off to sleep, "Christmas dinner with our families sure is going to be weird."