"Where's the best place to do this?" Esme asked, glancing over her shoulder to see Dirk struggling to balance all of the potion ingredients in his arms as he stumbled to keep up with her.

Dirk shrugged, nearly dropping a piece of boomslang skin, "Somewhere we won't get caught."

"Oh boy, Cresswell, you are smart... I hadn't thought of that!" Placed a finger on her chin and pulled a ditsy expression.

"Shut up, Avery."

Dirk gasped, dropping dozens of lacewing flies all over the floor. Sighing again, Esme turned to see the mess and planted her hands in her hips, "I thought you said you could carry it all."

"No." Dirk argued, "You said I needed to carry it all."

"Oh, whatever."

Esme pulled out her wand and pointed it at the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion. "Wingardium Leviosa." She cast the charm, causing the items to float up and hover in the air beside Dirk, who had started to blush furiously.

"Now where did Piper tell us to meet her?" Esme asked, turning on her heels and continuing to stride down the corridor, the ingredients beginning to quickly follow after her.

A couple of hours later, the trio sat in a circle around a small, bubbling cauldron in the prefect's bathroom. Dirk was absentmindedly stirring the potion as Esme and Piper leant back opposite him.

"Nobody is going to walk in are they?" Dirk questioned, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the door.

Piper shook her head, "No. It's occupied."

"Imagine the chaos if someone could just wander freely in on an occupied bathroom." Esme mused.

Sighing, Dirk agreed, "I guess that's what locks are for, yes."

"You know..." Piper began, fixing her gaze on stirring the contents of the cauldron, "This is a lot of effort to go to just to prank your brother."

Esme smirked to herself, "Go big or go home, that's the saying."

"Y-yeah. Esme and Ignatius are always winding each other up." Dirk stammered nervously, growing increasingly uncomfortable about lying in regards to their real intentions with the potion.

Piper furrowed her eyebrows, "Why?"

"Because he's a bit of a pillock and needs to know I'm just generally better than him." Esme nodded happily.

"And that's not even a lie." Dirk hissed into Esme's ear, causing her to let loose a chuckle.

The Polyjuice potion, however, proved to be tremendously tricky to brew and after several hours of measuring, weighing and calculating, Esme had lost all will to live. She had grown fidgety and irritated staring at the same old cauldron for so long. Piper had eventually grown tired of Esme's pestering and insisted the girl leave Dirk and Piper alone to continue brewing the potion.

Esme took this opportunity with open arms and within a couple of minutes she was happily strolling across the grounds with a warm mug of coffee in her hands. The cold, dry autumn air whipped at her numb hands as she blew on the drink to cool it down. Sitting on a rickety bench at the top of the grounds, Esme looked down at the view over the sprawling hills below, her small figure was drowned in an enormously baggy jumper that must have been nearing fifty years old - the style of clothing Esme most often gravitated towards.

"What're you doing out here? Up to something?" Regulus had appeared beside the bench, his broom tucked neatly under his arm as his hair clung limply to his forehead.

"Oh, hello Regulus. How nice to see you. How are you?" Esme mocked with a roll of her eyes.

Regulus sighed before sitting down beside her, as far away as he could physically be without falling off the bench, "What're you doing out here? Spying on me?"

"If I wanted to watch a bunch of boys zip through the air on sticks I'd watch Ravenclaw's hellish practices." She replied before raising her cup to her lips and taking a sip.

"Have..." Regulus relaxed his posture a bit and turned his head to observe the girl, "Have you had any other letters from your mother?"

"No."

"No letters from anybody?" Regulus pursued.

"No. Just the latest issue of the daily prophet. I haven't heard from my parents."

The two sat in silence for a moment, staring out at the vast Hogwarts grounds. Esme believed Regulus knew exactly what was happening over Christmas at the Black household. However Regulus had been kept completely in the dark about the happenings and knew Esme would eventually find the answer and was hoping he could figure it out from her.

They were stuck in a cycle of chasing each other for information neither of them had. Yet their stubbornness and lack of communication kept them wasting their time.

"They'll probably be visiting us over Christmas. They usually drop by for an afternoon." Regulus pointed out, suddenly unsure of why he was attempting to comfort the girl.

Esme hummed in response, "Somehow that's more worrying to me."

"What do you mean?"

She turned to face Regulus now, narrowing her eyes suspiciously, "What do you think of the Dark Lord?"

"W-what? Well... I-erm... I support him." His voice dropped considerably as it shook and he looked down at the ground, "Muggleborns in this school is dangerous. The more we invite the more muggles know about our kind and... Someday the wrong muggle will find out and they'll all want to kill us before you know it."

"Yeah." Esme nodded, "I see how it's a scary thought. Although, if we kept ourselves to just pure bloods we'd all be inbred and with six fingers." She joked, a smile growing on her face.

Regulus let out a shaky breath, "You can't go from talking about... that... to jokes about incest." He chuckled lightly, "My heart was about to beat through my chest."

"So you admit he's terrifying?"

"You'd be an idiot not to." Regulus nodded.

"Then why support him?"

Regulus furrowed his eyebrows, "What do you think would happen if I dated a muggle girl and took her home to my parents at Christmas? One of my uncles would actually murder me. We'll all die if we don't."

Esme pursed her lips and trained her eyes on the boy, "Sometimes I think that might not be so bad."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Have you ever heard of an obscurus ?" Esme questioned.

"No?"

She turned her full body around so the two were facing each other now, "They form when children suppress their magic. It's this uncontrollable force of magic that bursts out causing destruction and death. The child will die when they're like ten. That's what happens to children with magic when they're not taught about it. That would happen here."

Regulus opened his mouth to reply but truthfully had no real response. "How do you know that?"

"If I'm not going to support the Dark Lord, I need a bloody good excuse other than I just fancy being nice to some muggleborns." She shrugged nonchalantly before standing up to walk away.

Esme wasn't sure what it was about the boy, but the more time she seemed to spend in his company the more she found herself talking about things she had promised to herself not to share. He had distracted her and they had spent too long talking about matters that Esme would rather turn a blind eye to.

"I won't tell anyone." Regulus whispered, his hands almost shaking as they clutched the broom and he looked up at Esme.

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

Regulus let out a long breath, he had never expected himself to admit his fears to Esme, let alone offer to protect her by keeping this secret. What was he doing? It was like her presence sent his mind wonky, like he lost sight of what he was meant to be doing.

"They'll... You'll be in deep trouble." He stammered, "If our families find out about that... You won't stand a chance."

Esme swallowed deeply, "I really am just one disappointment after another to my parents, aren't I?" She forced out a small smirk before turning and quietly walked away.

Regulus chuckled slightly, aware at Esme's ability to change his mood at the flick of a switch.