A young, dark-haired girl stood on the patio, staring intently out at the trees lining the bottom of the garden as the were battered by the ferocious autumn winds. The cold air nipped at her cheeks, turning the a vibrant red shade as she tried to hide her trembling knees and hands.

Evening was setting in and it wouldn't be long until the girl was completely encased in darkness as the sun set behind the large house.

"Esmeralda!"

The sound of a woman from inside the house caught the girl's attention. She turned her head slightly to the side but showed no intention of actually heading indoors.

"Smell-merelda!" The voice a young boy rang out just behind her. Spinning around suddenly with a piercing gaze already settled on her face, the girl spotted her brother stood in the doorway with a cheeky grin on his face.

Esme scoffed at the sight, "Not your smartest insult." The young child pointed out.

"Still older than you though." He stuck his tongue out.

"Only by eleven months!" Esme exclaimed suddenly.

"I'm still seven, and you're only six!" Ignatius cackled as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

"Go away, stupid." She folded her arms tightly and turned her back to the boy.

"Mother told me to come and get you." Ignatius added, "The Black family is here."

"Oh! Is Reg here?" The girl squealed excitedly, not bothering to wait for an answer as she dashed past her brother and towards the front door of their home. As she expected, in the hallway stood Regulus Black, with his mother and their house elf: Kreacher.

"Es!" Regulus threw his arms out as a huge smile erupted over his face. Esme took little time to barrel into his arms as the two embraced tightly, laughing the whole while.

"Reggie!" The girl exclaimed gleefully.

"Aren't they just the sweetest?" Antoinette Avery doted, placing a hand on her chest.

"They just are." Walburga nodded slightly as she draped her coat over Kreacher, "Orion has taken Sirius to a quidditch match this evening."

Antoinette forced out a tiny smile, "Ah, well he and Igantius will have to catch up another time. It's been a while since they've seen each other - well, since any of us have seen Sirius."

Walburga only hummed shortly in response, removing her gloves and dropping those on top of Kreacher as well.

"Let's go upstairs, before Ignatius finds us." Esme whispered to her friend, gripping his hand and leading him upstairs.

Regulus happily followed, keeping up with the girl as she guided him into the office space where Lucas Avery often worked during the week.

"Es, I need need need to tell you something!" Regulus exclaimed suddenly upon remembering what had happened earlier that day.

Esme sat down in one of the large leather arm chairs, swinging her legs back and forth as they barely scraped the floor, "What?"

"I did magic today."

Regulus laughed. Not just a normal giggle, he laughed so much tears were brought to his eyes and he could barely breath. The young boy clutched his stomach and his cheeks flushed red.

But something was happening behind him.

Esme's jaw dropped open as she watched the lamp on the desk flash brighter than it ever had before. As Regulus continued to laugh louder, the light flashed more, growing bright every time. The girl held her hands over her eyes, barely able to look directly at it.

The Kreacher apparated into the room.

Regulus let out one final, loud laugh before leaning against one of the bookshelves to finally catch his breath.

"Reg-" Esme was cut off as the lamp flashed so bright it illuminated the entire room and caused her to see white spots in her vision.

The light had caught Kreacher completely off guard as he covered his eyes feebly with his skinny hands and stumbled back. He knocked into the desk and suddenly...

Crash!

"Oh no..." Esme gasped, rushing over to the house elf who awkwardly clutched his side.

"Kreacher! Are you alright?" The girl asked, worry flooding over her face.

"What happened?" Regulus asked, turning around as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"The light got really bright because you were laughing and Kreacher fell over and... Oh... No..." Esme straightened up, her eyes locking on the object that had smashed on the floor.

Regulus furrowed his eyebrows, walking over to stand next to the girl, "What is it?"

"It's my dad's self-operating typewriter. It's destroyed. He's going to be so mad." Esme whispered. The typewriter was completely broken, loose keys had spread out all over the floor and bits of glass were shattered beside the desk.

"What's going on in here?" The office door silently slid open and Walburga Black entered.

"It-it was an accident." Esme blurted out, trying to mask her fear of the terrifying woman.

Walburga spotted the scene on the floor, gasped, and then turned to see Kreacher still weakly holding onto his side.

"Did you do this... Kreacher?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Reg!" Esme turned to the boy so he could explain what he'd done but Regulus was frozen to the spot, eyes focused solely on the ground by his feet. "You've got to explain what really happened." She hissed.

"What did really happen?" Walburga placed her hands on her hips.

"I don't know." The boy shrugged finally, digging his hands deep into his pockets, "I didn't see anything."

"Reg!" Esme exclaimed, quickly clamping her jaw shut as Walburga glared down at her.

"Was it you?" The woman inept down, narrowing her eyes at the young girl.

Esme scoffed, "No it wasn't!"

"Well then who did this?"

Esme really didn't want to throw Regulus into the middle of it - nobody wants to hurt their best friend. Yet, she couldn't just stand by and allow an innocent house elf to take the blame.

"If it wasn't either of you, that leaves only one suspect," Walburga concluded, pulling her wand out of her purse.

"Kreacher did-" The house elf opened his mouth, starting to speak.

"No! It was me! I lied." Esme leapt to his defence, standing in front of the house elf with her hands planted on her hips.

Walburga raised an eyebrow, a small smile tracing her lips, "Kreacher, is this true?"

Esme turned to Regulus now, her eyes full of desperation. He stared back at her, not knowing what to do. He couldn't admit to causing the breakage of the typewriter; his parents had always reminded him how important it was that he never did anything wrong. The most important thing in the world was that he never did anything wrong.

That fact had been tirelessly drilled into his his whole childhood - the pressure of perfection.

That was why he allowed his best friend to take the fall for it.

But, as Esme pleaded with him non-verbally, a quick idea formed in his mind.

"Kreacher can't speak right now." Regulus explained, "He's forbidden to."

Kreacher's eyes widened upon hearing this and all attention turned to the boy. "Regulus?" His mother inquired.

"We-we were playing a game. It's a secret game and Kreacher had to be quiet. I forbade him from speaking about it." The boy explained with a slight shrug, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Is this true?"

"Yes. Of course. Obviously." Esme stammered quickly.

Kreacher slowly opened his mouth, "Kreacher is forbidden to explain."

The memory swirled around in Regulus' head. That was one of his many regrets. For some reason his whole life, he had been putting his family and reputation before what he actually cared about. He had spent so long trying to be perfect for parent's that barely cared to know him. He would always feel regret for making his best friend feel so isolated for so long.

The pure blood world was a vicious one.

Regulus Black started intently at Esmeralda sat across the room from him. She was curled up in one of the armchairs, a blanket pulled up to her neck and her nose buried in a book. He sat closer to the fireplace, near his parents and Ignatius as they all opened their Christmas presents. The boy couldn't imagine what it was like to be away from his family during the festive period. He was reminded of how weird it was just without Sirius there, let alone spending Christmas in another family's home.

"What are you staring at?" Ignatius snapped the boy out of his thoughts.

"Nothing... I was just daydreaming." He replied shortly, staring at the book he held in his own hands. It was a Christmas present from his grandfather. Regulus turned it over, examining the cover of the book intently. Apparently the book was about the history of the wizarding community during the second World War and all of the tragedies that occurred.

"Did you hear anything I just said?"

Regulus looked back up at Ignatius and realised he had completely tuned the boy out again. "Yes, of course I heard all of it. Every word."

"So what do you-"

"Back in a second." Regulus cut off the older boy, rising to his feet and tentatively making his way over to where Esme sat in the corner of the room. She didn't appear to notice him at first and only looked up when Regulus let out a cough.

"Can I help?" The girl asked coolly.

"I thought you might like this. You'd at least make more use of it than me." Regulus held out his new book to the girl, revealing a tentative smile.

"God forbid you educate yourself on muggle matters." She tutted bitterly, taking the book and turning it over in her hands to glance over the blurb.

"Seriously?" The boy raised an eyebrow, "You're the only reason I know anything about muggles. I still remember the shock I had when you told me their photographs don't move."

Esme let out a sudden laugh, which caught both of them off guard as she raised a hand to cover her mouth.

"I think that perhaps... I may be open to learning more about muggles." He dropped his voice considerably as he looked directly down at her.

The skepticism in her eyes fell away and for a moment, the girl's expression was completely unreadable. Then suddenly, as Regulus had suspected, a cocky smirk spread across her lips.

"I suppose you'll need someone of incredible intelligence to widen your small world."

"Something like that."