Winter was setting in much earlier on Hogwarts than it had in previous years. For some reason though, Regulus thought perhaps it wasn't just winter that was making their days darker.

Most of their free time was spent holed up in the far corners of the library, huddled around mountains of books as they waded through the copious amounts of work they were being set from their lessons.

So that's what Dirk, Levi, and Regulus were up to that Wednesday afternoon. Their lessons had finished early and now seemed as good a time as any to make a start on some essays.

Though that soon came to a stop as Levi suddenly asked, "Why are Wigtown Wanderers the best quidditch team ever?"

Clearly the Gryffindor boy had grown bored of the revision and was hoping to spark some conversation.

Of course that question in particular ignited instant interest in Regulus, who slammed his book shut and looked across at the boy, "Did someone drop you on your head when you were a baby?"

"What?"

"They're clearly not the best quidditch team!"

Levi scoffed, rolling his eyes as he replied, "Of course you'd say that - a Puddlemere United fan! Of all the teams!"

"Yes, clear evidence that I have great taste!" Regulus argued.

At last, Dirk dragged his gaze up from the textbook he'd been intently reading in order to glare at the two boys, "So much for studying, yeah?" He asked.

"There's greater things at stake than our exams, Dirk. I really think Levi might have a brain injury." Regulus shook his head with fake despair.

"Oi!" Levi retorted, "You're starting your sound more like Avery with every passing day."

He nodded solemnly, "Yes, Esme really is a bad influence, isn't she?"

Dirk muttered under his breath, turning back to his book, "You can say that again."

The doors to the library pushed open and in walked Esme. She cradled a small stack of books and parchment in her arms, and appeared to be carrying even more books in the bag hanging from her shoulder. Over the past few months, her dark hair had grown so it was falling almost down to her waist. Around her face, it had been sculpted back out of her dark eyes and for once she was wearing a small smile of contentment.

Esme appeared to have gotten out of a particularly good lesson, as she continued to walk the smile on her face grew bigger. This only exacerbated her beautiful features.

"Reg, mate! Hello?" Levi waved a hand in front of the boy's face, snapping him back to reality.

"Sorry, what?" Regulus asked, blinking hard.

He laughed, "You completely just zoned out. I was talking and I thought you were listening because you were kind of looking at me but... You were just daydreaming."

Regulus gulped, becoming embarrassingly aware of the fact that he had completely tuned out of his conversation with Levi in order to stare at Esme.

He tugged at his collar as he started to grow quite warm, "I-er... Sorry." He feebly apologised.

"Sup, losers." Esme greeted with a cocky smirk, slamming her pile of books onto the table.

As she sat down at the table beside Regulus, he could finally see her face up close.

Where Esme's hair had at first been sculpted out of her eyes, Regulus could now see it had been lazily pushed back from her face and looked as though it hadn't been brushed in quite some time. And her dark eyes were darker than usual - more deep set and shadowed by heavy circles of sleep deprivation

"Would you tell your boyfriend his opinion is wrong." Levi leant back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.

"Sure." She nodded before turning to Regulus, "You're wrong."

Where moments earlier he had been transfixed by how stunning she was, now Regulus was overcome with concern for her. So much so that he couldn't even pay attention to the conversation at hand.

"Are you alright?" He asked quietly.

"What?" Esme frowned, "Of course. Are you?"

He sat back, "I-Yes. Great, thanks."

"Oh!" Esme brightened up suddenly before lifting her bag into the table and starting to rifle through it. After a few moments she pulled out a crumpled letter and asked, "Have you guys heard from Piper recently?"

The boys looked at each other then shook their heads, waiting to hear whatever news she had for them.

"Piper has a date." Esme raised an eyebrow as she slammed her letter down onto the middle of the tabletop.

"A what?" Dirk asked, finally closing his book and pushing it away. At this point, there was no hope for him to actually get any meaningful work done.

"A date. This weekend. That's what she says." She pointed to the letter.

Levi furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side, "Good for her?"

Esme, grinning now, replied, "I can't believe I actually found this out first! Aha!"

Dirk turned to the other boys, "She's lost it. Avery's gone insane."

"No I haven't! You'll understand when you hear this!" She was almost giddy now, "Piper is going on a secret date with Astra Minchum!"

"Minchum..." Regulus frowned, "I've heard-oh! You don't mean?"

"The Minister of Magic's daughter!" Esme clapped her hands together.

"Oh my Merlin... Harold Minchum's daughter..." Dirk's jaw dropped open in amazement.

Levi shook his head in disbelief, "Wow... I mean... Wow..."

"Better hope that doesn't end badly." Regulus thought.

Esme was now less excited, and actually somewhat disappointed as clearly none of the boys understood what had initially gotten her so worked up. "You guys!" She snapped the attention of the group back on herself, "You're still missing something."

"What can that possibly be?" Dirk asked, still awestruck at the fact he was like two steps away from the Minister of Magic. He had wanted to work for the Ministry for years and had dreamt of one day being in charge of an office or a department.

"We're going to get all of the insider stories on the Minister of Magic, of course!" She let out a laugh, but quickly shut her mouth so as not to draw Madam Pince towards them.

As times were getting darker, and the threat of a wizarding war loomed over their heads at all moments of the day, everyone was looking to the Ministry and the Minister of Magic in particular for some guidance.

Many people had grown sceptical of those in positions of leadership and power - including Esme - and wanted to know what the plan of action was to take down the dark wizards threatening peace.

Not that Esme really had any political ambitions, but having a foot in the door to the room containing the Minister of Magic could provide valuable information. Esme could keep tabs on how the war was progressing and if the Ministry was hunting down particular Death Eaters - such as her family, herself, and Regulus. Though perhaps that was being too ambitious.

"I bet all that'll prove is that he's utterly useless. Look at all he's done to stop the Death Eaters so far! Fat lot of nothing." Dirk grumbled, now thoroughly displeased at the thought of the Minister.

Levi pursed his lips together and nodded, "Piper does love to gossip. Though I don't suppose Astra Minchum will go around spilling her father's secrets to people."

Esme scoffed, "As if that matters. The girl could pry secrets out of an oyster."

"You make a fair point." Regulus grimaced slightly, "She has pried some very embarrassing stories out of me."

Esme held up her hand to cover her mouth and nose as she snickered.

"What?" Regulus asked, already sensing perhaps it was something he didn't exactly want to know.

She bit down on her tongue, a mischievous smile playing on her lips before she explained, "I may have also told her a couple of stories about you."

"You're joking? Like what?"

"Do you really want me to tell it in front of everyone?" Esme looked over at Levi and Dirk, the latter whose attention had drifted back to his book.

Levi nodded desperately, "Yes, yes! He does!"

Regulus narrowed his eyes, pausing for a moment as he took a deep breath before replying, "Alright, just tell me, what is it?"

"Okay, but you're not allowed to get mad at me." Esme tried, and failed, to suppress her large grin as she shared the story, "I think we were perhaps about seven years old. I remember it was my mother's birthday and all of the children were out in the garden. Ignatius dropped one of his toys in our pond and you, Regulus, knelt down to try and reach across the water to reach it... I don't..."

Regulus immediately held his hands up, "You can stop there! I know the story! No need to continue."

"There actually kind of is... I mean, there's something you don't quite know." She admitted, uncomfortably rubbing the back of her neck.

"Oh this is brilliant." Levi chuckled, cupping his hands over his mouth to mask the sound.

"Okay... So Ignatius then, when you were busy trying to reach the toy, pushed you into the pond. It turned out that the pond was much deeper than we thought and you couldn't touch the ground so Andromeda and Narcissa had to fish you out. Then Bellatrix made up a horror story about there being a piranha in the pond and you started to cry because you thought it might have bitten you but really you'd scraped your leg coming out of the pond." Esme explained under a hushed voice.

Regulus, at this point with his face buried in his hands, mumbled, "I'm so glad I got to relive that. I cried and had nightmares about that bloody piranha."

"But wait..." Levi frowned, "What was it that Regulus didn't know?"

The Slytherin lifted his face out of his hands, "Oh... What can possibly make that worse?"

Esme took a deep breath, knowing this would possibly cause him to fall out with her, and confessed, "It was actually me who pushed you into the pond, Reg."