As the weeks rolled by, it was occurring to everyone involved that being cramped together in a small house for a prolonged period of time was no good for any of them.

Well, one of them was doing a lot better than the others.

"You should read this after me, Esme." Regulus suggested, "It's really good." He continued to read from the book in his lap, where he sat between Esme and Sirius.

"I think I'd rather perform my own lobotomy, but thanks." She replied.

Sirius sighed and sunk down in his seat, "You know, Prongs said having roommates would be good company. I think he might have been delusional at the time."

"If I wasn't mad before, I definitely am now." Esme nodded in agreement.

Regulus chuckled to himself, "I'm glad I'm in such good company here. This is really delightful."

"Well I'd be in a much better mood if you two hadn't played such a sick joke on me." Sirius grumbled to himself.

"I don't know..." Esme mused, "We found it very funny. In fact, even Piper found it very funny."

He continued to complain, "How was I meant to know she's gay? She went on a date with me once."

"I wonder how many lesbians you've dated." Regulus thought aloud as he continued to read.

"Only the one!" His brother argued back, clumsily clambering to his feet as he wandered across to the other side of the room to pick up the bowl of biscuits on the table.

Regulus shook his head and mumbled, "I'd rather think of that than the idea of you and Esme together."

Esme, in turn, pretending to gag.

"I told you already!" Sirius exclaimed, "Nothing happened, and technically I never actually asked her out. I was just planning on it."

"When was this?" Esme asked, "You being madly in love with me?"

He clenched his jaw and replied through gritted teeth, "I was not in love with you. I didn't really remember much about you from our childhood and all I knew was you'd been sorted into Ravenclaw and weren't friends with any of the Slytherins anymore. I thought you were like me. So in my fifth year, I was going to ask you out but I never got around to it; stuff got in the way."

"Because you were intimidated by my good looks." Esme nodded along happily.

Regulus chuckled.

"I'm glad I didn't now, obviously. Now I know how infuriating you are." He muttered, munching on a biscuit.

Regulus' attention had wandered back to the book he was reading as he lifted his feet up to rest on the foot stool and mused aloud, "Don't you find Emeric the Evil and the other wizards from the middle ages utterly fascinating?"

"I got bored just listening to that sentence." Esme responded.

"I mean... All of these wizards, mostly, fighting over the elder wand. It's mad." He continued.

Sirius blurted out through the crumbs in his mouth, "Do you believe in that? The elder wand and the stone and that stuff?"

"Well... It makes sense for the elder wand to be real. Otherwise there would be no point in Egbert killing Emeric, Hereward killing Godelot or any of the other duels. We know those duels happened so it only makes sense for the wand to be real. And if the wand is real then the other Hallows must be real too." Regulus explained.

"Do you believe in the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Esme asked Sirius. Before he could reply, she'd lifted her wand out of her pocket and given it a flick - sending a couple of biscuits floating through the air and into her hand.

He sighed, thought, and then replied, "No. It's all a fairy tale. A children's story.

"Oh yeah, for all those kids that like their bedtime stories full of death and murder." Esme muttered with a smirk.

"My mother used to read the story to me when I was young." Sirius pointed out.

"And look how you turned out." Esme remarked.

He nodded, "Yeah... That's a fair point actually."

Time, in that small little house the three of them were cramped into, seemed to pass at an impossibly slow rate. After what had felt like an eternity, it was drawing nearer dinner time and they had moved into the kitchen, where Regulus was cooking for them.

Esme had gathered all of the Daily Prophets available in the house and was slowly working her way through all of the fiendishly difficult crosswords in the hope that this world occupy her mind and help her pass the time.

Though it wasn't helped by Sirius peering over her shoulder and pointing out all of the ones he couldn't answer.

"Is that really the answer?" He asked, for what must have been verging on the twentieth time that evening. "Because I never would have known that." He admitted.

Esme put down her quill and stared directly down at the table as she calmly replied, "I could fill a library with all the stuff you 'never would have known'. Oh, wait, that would just be a normal library."

This remark was met by a snicker from Regulus, who poorly masked it with a delayed cough.

"Reg, remind me again why you put up with her?" Sirius grumbled as he finally sat down at the table opposite Esme.

The younger boy turned around to face him and replied, "Well there's a fair few reasons. I find it funny. Esme is nice to me, and I'm not sure you want to hear about the other reasons."

"Ugh." He complained, "You know, I think you deliberately bring up things like that more when I'm around."

Regulus caught sight of Esme flashing her lopsided smirk and he knew she was about to say something that would further wind up the situation.

She blurted out, "Things like what? Like sex? Like your brother having sex? Like me having sex with your brother?"

"Oh Merlin!" Sirius jumped up to his feet and clapped his hands over his ears, "If you don't shut up, I'll jinx you!"

Regulus snorted loudly and had to hold a hand over his mouth to stop from bursting out with laughter.

"Alright!" Esme held up her hands in fake surrender and giggled lightly before turning back to her crosswords.

Regulus turned back to his cooking again as Sirius took a moment to calm down before he sat back down at the table again.

"Don't think I can't get payback. I can use my animagus form to wreck havoc on you." He warned bitterly, though clearly not serious about it.

"I'll play nice." Esme stated, "I'll try, at least."

Sirius cleared his throat before turning to his brother and asking, "What are you doing at the wedding? Will you come?"

Regulus shrugged, "I assumed Esme and I were only invited to be polite and that we weren't actually wanted there."

"What?" He frowned, "They wouldn't ask you if they didn't actually want you there."

"In that case, it might be good to get out of the house for a while." The younger brother suggested.

"Perhaps." Esme nodded.

"You can just come for the reception." Sirius offered, "If that's better."

Regulus leant back against the counter and asked, "You don't think people will have complaints that we're there?"

"Why? It's not like they'll know you're Death Eaters."

"Really? You think they won't guess?" Regulus raised an eyebrow, "Given the families we're from and such."

"Well..." Sirius thought for a moment, "I'll set people straight then. Don't worry about it; I've got your back."

Sirius had been trying his best to make proper reparations with his brother, despite Regulus insisting that it really wasn't necessary.

He wanted to make up for leaving his brother behind all those years ago, and would do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen again. Sirius really wanted Regulus in his life, and he didn't want anything to push the brothers apart again.

"You know, I'm not opposed to the idea of you shouting at people in the middle of a wedding." Esme pointed out as she set down her quill and closed the ink pot. "I'll go if you promise to do that." She smiled.

Sirius chuckled, "I tell you what we can do to liven up the wedding if it gets too dull. You and I can get Wormtail dizzily drunk and then get him dancing."

"Well that-"

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed, "Let's make it even more interesting!"

She raised an eyebrow, "What are you thinking?"

"Who can get him to embarrass himself the most?" He suggested, "Deal?"

Snickering, Esme extended her hand to shake on it as she confirmed, "Oh, you're on."

-

a/n

i'm very tempted to write another angsty flashback chapter about esme's sorting ceremony and when her family finds out

idk if you guys would be interested in that? or if you'd rather a different flashback point?

let me know