Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Eleven

Regulus clutched his broomstick tightly, glancing up at the packed stands around him. The roar of the crowd almost drowned out the howling wind that was biting at his already reddened cheeks.
One thought hadn't left his mind the past two weeks and it had hindered his concentration during quidditch practice. Now it proved to be distracting from his actual quidditch matches.

It was getting out of hand.

Glancing over at where the Ravenclaw stands were, the boy was aware his chances of spotting Esme were hopeless - even if he was currently the best Seeker at Hogwarts.
She rarely turned up to the matches and if she did she'd often be found reading or arguing with the Gryffindor students about the relative unimportance of the sport in terms of wider injustice in the world.

She was a pain to put up with and often put a damper on other people's fun, but the poor boy couldn't get her out of his head.

Although he could barely admit it to himself, Regulus had missed the odd moments he'd spent in Esme's company. Over the past couple of weeks they would shoot witty jokes at each other when passing in the corridor. He had even leant his potions book to Esme when he saw her struggling to write an essay without it in the library.

He still hadn't got that book back and it was starting to mildly affect his potions grade.

He probably wouldn't be getting his book back anytime soon as all of a sudden Esme had decided she wanted nothing to do with him anymore. It was a weird feeling, and it made him very uneasy.
In those carefree moments spent with the girl, Regulus had felt this weight lifted from his shoulders. He looked forward to being able to make the girl smile, watching her roll her head back with laughter. It helped to suppress the guilt he had been carrying around.

It had been so long since he had truly been friends with Esme, he had gotten used to the feeling of a heavy heart and discomfort in his soul. Yet watching her cocky smirk as she criticised quidditch to him made him realise he had hurt the one person who had truly known him.

Now they were barely more than acquaintances.

"Black!" A voice snapped Regulus out of his intense thoughts. The raven-haired boy shook his shoulders, dismissing his worries before looking down at the team captain, Everett.

"You in touch with reality up there?" The boy shouted, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his glove, "Go and catch that bloody snitch, or I swear-"

"If you were a better Chaser you wouldn't need to rely on me to carry this team so much." Regulus quipped back.

"Black!" Everett grew red in the face, shooting upwards suddenly to avoid a bludger.

Regulus chuckled, "Alright, I suppose I owe you for that Ancient Runes essay you wrote for me." With that, he leant down over his broom, tightened his gloves grip on the cold wood of his broom before barrelling down and across the quidditch pitch.
The harshness of the rain felt like small stones hitting his cheeks as Regulus lifted one hand to pull his goggles down from on top of his head and over his eyes.

That's when he caught a glimpse of it, amongst the rain, the wind, and the incoming fog. A glimmer of gold shot upwards into the clouds.

Regulus took a deep breath before spinning round, nearly loosing his grip before rocketing up into the sky.

"Yeah, ignorance must be bliss." Esme retorted with an eye roll, allowing the wind to pull her hood down.

"Merlin, Avery... Don't you ever lighten up?" The Gryffindor boy folded his arms and leant against one of the wooden pillars with a smug look on his face, "No need to let the weather get you down. Or is it your lack of any actual friends to hang out with?"

"Lord, Rogers, didn't you realise? When I talk about the importance of charity, I mean the one that's raising money to locate someone who likes you. So far the mission has been futile, sorry." She huffed.

"Very funny." Levi Rogers tutted, "Probably just jealous you'll never be as rich as the quidditch players."
"You know the school players don't earn any money from these matches?" His smaller friend quietly pointed out before snapping his jaw shut when Levi raised his hand.

"Yes, obviously I know that. I was talking about the professional players."
"That wasn't clear."
"Well I'm making it clear!"

Esme grinned now, watching the two bicker happily, "If you hadn't interrupted my reading with your incessant sport chants then I wouldn't have had to point out what idiots you are. Just because you want to watch the match doesn't mean you can be oblivious to the people that are actually starving, or worse." She planted her hands firmly on her hips.

"Did it ever occur to you that some people just want to have fun and not worry about all the injustices in the world? Just for a few minutes? Avery, you need to get a grip." Levi shot back, growing increasingly angry.

The shorter Gryffindor stuck his arm in front of Levi now, feebly attempting to hold him back. "Okay, Avery, I think we get your point. The rich players in positions of power could help those in need. We understand." Levi grumbled something inaudible under his breath before turning his back to the Ravenclaw girl and clapping along with the rest of the student.

It would be fair to say Levi Rogers and Esme did not get along. With the start of their OWL studies they had found themselves in more of the same lessons, leading to an increase in their constant bickering. Just catching his gaze in the corridors was enough to ruin Esme's day.
She didn't know what it was, but it was impossible for them to agree. They fought on every topic that emerged, even who got to answer more questions in class.

Every now and again, one of them would grow too angry to put up with the other, and storm away. Yet the next day they would be back to their verbal disagreements again.

Esme frowned, moving to pull her hood up but realising it was pointless as she was already soaked. Silently, she walked away with her book still tucked tightly under one arm. Sitting back down in her seat at the back of the stands, where the view was practically nonexistent, she opened the book to discover all of the pages were soaked and the writing smudged and faded. She shook the book by the back cover and watched actual droplets of water fall out, along with a couple of tattered wet pages.

Regulus wasn't getting his potions textbook back any time soon, Esme thought with a small chuckle to herself.
Once she caught what she was doing, she immediately wiped the smile from her lips.

She had really enjoyed winding the boy up before she knew his family was entangled in Death Eater business. She almost missed watching the boy laugh at her jibes and jokes when they passed each other around the castle. But if the Black family was, that surely meant hers was too.
Esme wasn't overly surprised by the idea, but it still broke her heart to imagine that's the life her parents and brother wanted to lead.

"And Regulus Black has caught the snitch! Slytherin wins!"