Deep in the countryside, sprawling across shallow hills and glowing fields, sat the large Potter household.

The grounds encompassed the large, redbrick central house sat underneath its dark thatched roof. Leading up to the home was an uneven stone driveway that crunches as Esme and Regulus walked over it.

"Wow." Esme let out an airy laugh of surprise as they looked up at the house.

"Yeah..." Regulus nodded slowly, "That's one word for it."

Looking up at the building, she made note of the particularly beautiful stained glass window in the centre of the second floor, which depicted a large, flowering tree.

Beside the house stood a large oak tree, sheltered under which was a small white barn filled to the brim with cardboards boxes full of years of possessions and belongings.

"You know... This house might actually be bigger than yours." Regulus pointed out as he dug his hands into his pockets and looked around at the vastly expansive grounds.

"Don't tell my parents that." She replied.

After a moment of silence, Esme nudged the boy beside her gently with her elbow and asked, "Do you think we should knock on the door rather than continue to lurk outside like creeps?"

"I suppose so." Regulus replied quietly.

"Do you want me to knock?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Esme rapped on the door a few times with the back of her hand, and then quickly stepped back beside Regulus.

"Your brother's mates better not be annoying." She muttered under her breath.

He forced out a nervous half-smile, "You remember the signal, right?"

"Yes, we pretend our dark marks burn and quickly apparate away." She nodded, "Don't worry, everything will go fine. I'm even going to play nice."

"Tha-" Regulus quickly clamped his jaw shut as the green front door swung open to reveal a familiar boy with flushed red cheeks and a mane of wild, shaggy black hair that fell down to his shoulders.

Regulus greatly resembled his older brother, though was noticeably taller and more slender in frame.

"Took you long enough!" The older boy exclaimed abruptly with a large grin as he threw his arms up in the air, "What have you been doing? Actually... Maybe I don't want to know."

Regulus and Esme glanced at each other, trying to figure out between them who should reply. Before Regulus got the chance to calmly respond, the girl beside him was already retorting, "Are you going to let us inside or what?"

Then, behind Sirius, appeared a second boy. He was quite a bit taller than his friend, though still not as tall as Regulus, and had wild, scruffy dark hair spiking up at all angles and slightly skewed glasses pushed up his nose.

"Oh! It is you two!" The older boy, James Potter, exclaimed suddenly before taking a deep breath and smiling warmly at them as he greeted, "Sorry, hi. Regulus and Esmerelda, right?"

Esme glanced over at Regulus, expecting him to speak but upon seeing that he didn't make any signal to do so, she spoke up, "Bet you can't tell who's who."

"Word is you're the new Head Girl, huh?" He asked, moving aside to let them step into the hallway.

"Oh, did it make front page of the Daily Prophet? I knew it was groundbreaking news." She replied with a smirk.

"Are you guys actually going to invite them inside?" A higher-pitched voice called from within the room at the far end of the hallway.

James' mouth hung open slightly as if having a lightbulb moment, and then stepped back as Sirius finally said, "Oh, yeah, come on in. This is Prongs' parents place. They're away for the week."

"Prongs?" Regulus questioned at last as he followed Esme into the home.

"Nickname." Sirius explained and gestured to his friend behind him, "It's James."

"Yeah. The one who's home it is." James pointed out with a smirk as he ran a hand through his hair, spiking it up more.

As the group made their way down the corridor, Sirius and James led the way and were deeply engrossed in their own conversation frequently littered with laughter. Peering in through the many doorways that veered off from the hallway, Esme noted the nearly countless rooms in the large house. Many of the rooms were rammed full of numerous armchairs and tables so that no matter the size of the room, they all felt rather small and cozy - limiting actual mobility around the furniture.

"Oh I can smell the food already!" Sirius exclaimed gleefully as he pushed open the large door at the end of the hallway, revealing a large kitchen.

"Ha!" James laughed, "Lils has made this massive cake as well. Don't tell her I told you; she told me to keep it a secret so nobody would steal it."

The kitchen was a great big room, with a deep burgundy tiled floor and the walls lined with wooden cabinets. Against one wall, tucked in an alcove, was an enormous navy aga. Lining it either side were many pictures, postcards, letters, and other scraps collected from over the years. And in the centre of the room was a vast wooden table. It was filled with countless bottles of wine and beer and whiskey and more glasses than people could possibly have fit into the entire house.

Esme was at first a little surprised by the scene. She, and Regulus for that matter, were not used to such... Homely homes.

The room, and the house for that matter, were filled with years of history and memories. But it wasn't the same kind of history Regulus was surrounded by at Grimmauld Place, where the history told you how to act and speak and be in order to preserve it.

The Potter farm was also far removed from Esme's house, which was frowned in varying shades of monotonous grey. The Avery family kept only things with a purpose or function. Nothing was kept for the sake of it. There were no cutesy tokens or aged mementos. In fact, if everyone in Esme's house simply got up and left, others would be hard to find proof that anyone had ever lived there to being with.

This house though, the Potter home, was infinitely different.

The central table was littered scratches, dents, and marks from years of burns and crayons. Each one had a distinct memory attached to it - all of them joyous. It was the kind of home where the second you stepped into it, even if you'd never been there before, you felt completely comfortable and at ease.

So after the initial surprise, Esme then felt this warm wave of homeliness. It was like this had been missing this all of her life, despite never having known it in the first place.

"Drinks?" James offered as he began pouring firewhiskey into more glasses than there were people currently in the room.

"That's Evans." Sirius pointed to the girl with light red hair, who was busy putting plates out on the counter, and then he turned to two other boys already sat at the table, "That's Mo-Remus, and that's Pete-Peter."

"Such a gracious host." Esme raised an eyebrow cheekily as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

If perhaps Sirius had had more self restraint, he would have been able to brush off the comment. But he didn't.

He slipped loudly at his drink before arguing, "You really are one of the most annoyi-"

"I'm Esmerelda, by the way." She introduced herself to everyone else in the room.

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed again, "Ignore her. That's not what's important." He brushed that aside and turned to his brother, placing a hand on Regulus' shoulder as he said, "This is Regulus. It's about time you all met each other. My brother, unsurprisingly a complete badass."

Before Esme could get the chance to retort with a witty remark, a bright smile had washed across her face.

She knew how much Regulus had been overthinking this evening, but all of that concern had vanished. For most of their childhood, he had always been trying to get his cool older brother to like him.

Now, as Sirius introduced him to his friends, Regulus felt like Sirius was actually proud to be his brother.

"He's not going to be happy I'm saying this, but Sirius really hasn't shut up about you." Remus let out a slight chuckle as Regulus sat down beside Esme, "I haven't heard him talk about anything else for actual months."

Esme laughed at this, "Awe! Does Shaggy have a crush?"

Sirius loudly pulled out a chair of his own to sit on beside Peter and clumsily poured himself a very large glass of firewhiskey before he pointed out, "He's my brother!"

"So?" She asked.

"So?" Sirius grimaced as he took a swig of his drink before continuing, "So I obviously don't have a crush on him."

Regulus leant back in his seat, "It's fine if you do. It won't make things weird. I am very easy to have a crush on."

Esme rolled her eyes.

"I don't think you saw this going so wrong so quick, did you, mate?" James laughed as he started picking crisps out of a bowl on the counter, much to Lily's annoyance.

"He just loves his brother very much." Esme giggled as Sirius' frown started growing deeper.

And that was how the night began.

It wasn't long before Lily was putting on loud music from the radio and they'd abandoned any plans of a semi-formal meal as the drinks kept getting poured and the laughter grew louder into the evening.