Not that he would dare admit it to anyone, but the Christmas holidays were taking a particularly large toll on Regulus Black.

With Sirius not being there, it felt weird.

Sure, the brothers would clash viciously on common occasions, but Regulus still deeply missed his brother. He suspected Sirius leaving home was partly the reason for Walburga opening their doors to Esme and Ignatius for the holidays. Their presence certainly distracted the Black's from their missing family member.

Regulus could tell, as well, that Walburga and Orion were affected just as much as he was. The concern was etched on the boy's face. As if he hadn't dealt with enough pressure in his short life, trying to be perfect to compensate for his troublesome brother. Regulus had the job of maintaining his perfect facade and now also filling the hole Sirius had left behind.

This would always prove to be an impossible job.

The kitchen door clattered open and the door shaking in its hinges was hurriedly followed by an exclamation: "I did not mean for that to happen!"

Seeing Esme in the doorway, her arms mounted high with books stacked to her chin, it wiped the worry from Regulus' face in an instant.

"I'll get the door, wait there a second." Regulus stopped pacing and immediately made his way over to the girl, holding the door open so she could move freely into the room.

Esme set down the books on the table and turned to the boy with narrow eyes full of suspicion. "What are you doing?" She inquired.

"Nothing." He replied shortly.

She raised an eyebrow, "Blatant lie."

"How so?"

"Someone as smart as you never chooses to waste their time doing nothing. What were you doing?"

"You know..." Regulus mused with a smirk, "Bar the accusation, that was almost a compliment."

"Oh shut up, Regulus." She muttered disapprovingly, separating the stack of books and spreading them out over the table.

He watched for a moment, as Esme moved the books about, ordering them and reordering them over and over.

"The better question is: what are you doing?" He quizzed.

"I'm trying to figure out the best way to read these books. You have to rely on information from one to understand the other but there's no clear order to any of it." She mumbled, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she moved one of the books again.

Regulus chuckled slightly, intently watching her, "Your tongue is sticking out."

Esme's face fell as she pursed her lips together, "No it wasn't."

"Yes." He replied, "You always do that when your concentrating. Nothing wrong with it."

"You... You have a real knack for something. I just don't know how to explain it." Esme looked up at him now, her expression curious.

"What does that mean?"

She smiled softly, "Normally I can tune out my surroundings when I really want to focus on stuff. I almost become oblivious. If you're around, I can't seem to do that."

"Is it because of my dazzling personality?" Regulus laughed, leaning forward onto the kitchen table.

"I put it down to you being so annoying that nobody could ever stand a chance of ignoring it."

"Charming."

"Thank you."

"Actually." Regulus mused, an idea beginning to form in his head, "On the note that we've agreed to understand each other more, I have a proposition."

"Proposition? You really sound like your father. What's with the formalities?" She scoffed, stacking the books into an ordered pile.

"Stop being annoying and listen to what I have to say." Regulus couldn't even pretend to be annoyed at the girl as a smile spread across his lips.

"Alright." Esme shrugged, "What is it?"

"I'm open to you teaching me more about the muggle world." Regulus admitted quietly, watching intently for her reaction.

Esme's eyes widened suddenly, "Are you serious?"

"When am I not?"

"Good point. You are fairly boring."

Regulus pursed his lips tightly as the girl laughed again, poking him in the side with one of the books.

"Anyway, in exchange for that, I'm going to teach you more about some sacred wizarding traditions." It was the boy's turn to smirk this time.

"What does that mean? This isn't some sort of pureblood satanism, is it?" Esme laughed somewhat nervously.

Regulus chuckled, "I was thinking more along the lines of quidditch. We can save satanism for another day."

Esme looked the boy up and down; she was somewhat suspicious. She wasn't concerned he had anything bad up his sleeve, but she worried for him. Regulus hadn't quite been himself over the holidays. Normally the boy was very calm tempered and patient, but over the past week he'd had an incredibly short temper and seemed almost restless. Regulus was constantly pacing and fidgeting and tapping - this was uncommon for the stoic boy.

Nevertheless, the boy seemed to need a distraction from his worries. Esme could give him that.

"You're on." Esme held out her hand and flashed her lopsided smirk as Regulus gripped her palm and shook it.

Esme couldn't believe where she'd ended up. It had been little over an hour and she was stood in the middle of a field, clutching a tattered broom, and wearing one of Regulus' large quidditch shirts.

"I can't believe you're betraying your own house like that." Regulus smirked, referencing the enormous Slytherin emblem on the top Esme had on.

She scoffed and tightly folded her arms, "It's not like I have any choice. Besides, the use of archaic teams to competitively pit students against each other is a complete waste of time."

"Don't be so bitter. There's more to it than that."

"Yes, there is more to life that Hogwart's houses." She replied smugly, wincing slightly as the winter wind whipped at her flushed cheeks.

Regulus mounted his broom and adjusted the goggles over his eyes, "I know the wizarding world is rife with injustices, and we definitely should be doing more to tackle that, but sometimes people need to relax. Don't look at quidditch as a waste of time, see it as an opportunity for people to feel a part of something, it's a chance for people to escape their problems and feel safe and excited for a little while."

Esme pursed her lips, not completely knowing how to react. Her first instinct was to argue her point more, but there was no real point. Regulus was right. She wouldn't say it out loud, but she knew he was. Surprisingly, Esme had also been caught off guard by the fact that Regulus knew and understood her viewpoint in such detail. It almost brought a smile to her face.

Feeling quite accomplished with himself, Regulus proudly lifted off from the ground slightly, hovering just in front of Esme.

"How do you even do that?" Esme kicked at the ground, twirling the broomstick between her hands.

Regulus landed back down, sighing happily, "Stand over the broom, and grip the handle tightly."

Esme frowned slightly and she mounted the broom, awkwardly holding the handle and staring up at the boy opposite as if it were the most stupid thing ever.

"You're not gripping the broom correctly." Regulus stated.

Scrunching up her nose, Esme grumbled "This is just ridiculous. I'd much rather be reading a good book."

"Here." Regulus tucked his broom under his arm and took Esme's hands, positioning them correctly on the broom handle.

"I don't see how this will make any difference." Esme admitted, silently noting that Regulus still had his hands over hers.

He let out an airy laugh, dropping her hands and moving away, "It's magic. Plus, I'm a pretty decent Seeker."

"More than pretty decent from what I've heard."

Regulus raised an eyebrow, "So you've been talking about me?"

"Get over yourself, Regulus." Esme retorted, tightening her grip on the broom, "Just, show me how to get this thing off the ground."

"Just lean forward slightly."

"How slightly?"

"Just... Slightly."

"Maybe you should become a teacher, you are awfully good at it."

"Shut up."

Esme rolled her eyes and absentmindedly loosened her grip on the broom. Just as she opened her mouth to make another witty remark at Regulus' expense, the broom shot forward all of a sudden. Catching the girl off guard, she fell backwards, landing with a rather loud thud on the frozen, hard ground.

"I... I wish I could live in this moment forever." Regulus mumbled slowly, raising one hand over his mouth to mask his grin.

"I'm done with flying. This sucks." She lay flat on the ground, splaying her arms out.

He leant down, extending an arm to help her back to her feet, "You're going to be covered in mud. Maybe this time I'll hold onto your broom whilst you kick off."

Esme reached out, grabbing the boy's hand and standing back up. She dusted herself off, flattening down her hair, whilst Regulus went to go and collect her broomstick.

"Thank you." She smiled softly as he handed the broom back to her.

The sun was beginning to set by the time Esme landed back down on the ground, Regulus not far behind her. They had been flying around for hours and she was finally starting to get a grip on flying. Sweat coated the brows and it took a moment for them to catch their breaths once dismounting the brooms.

"In a bizarre 'I hate this' kind of way, I'm having a really good time."

"Really? I would have thought you'd at least be miserable." Regulus chuckled, readjusting his broom under his arm.

Esme smiled softly at him, pushing the hair out of her face, "It was nice spending the afternoon not worrying about the Dark Lord or our families secret plots. I almost felt normal."

"Don't think this was a one time thing. We're only stopping when you're good enough to actually be competition for the Slytherin team. We've had it too easy for too long." He smirked slightly,

"You know I'm up for any and all competition." Esme grinned.

He chuckled, "Provided it isn't too athletic."

"Exactly." Esme tilted her head to the side, moving closer, and tucked a strand of Regulus' hair behind his ear.

"If you-"

Esme interrupted suddenly, stepping back, "I should go shower. One of us smells and I'm not risking it being me."

"I'd bet on it being me." Regulus nodded hurriedly, moving away from her and wiping the beads of sweat off his forehead. He bit down on his lip as he watched Esme walk away.