Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Forty Two

"I just can't believe it! I cannot believe it! How unfair!"

"Shut up, Ignatius."

Ignatius slumped down in his seat, his arms folded and a frown playing across his features. Over the summer, the boy had let his hair grow out and he now resembled, as Esme put it, an off-brand Regulus. This had ensured the was bombarded with an unusually high amount of mockery, and the boy had since vowed to cut his hair the second the arrived at Hogwarts.

"For my birthday, every year, I've asked for an owl. Did I ever get one? No." Ignatius continued to grumble, blowing some of the hair out of his eyes.
Rosier hit him upside the head, "Nobody asked. Merlin, you're a pain."

"I care!" The older boy complained.
Esme laughed lightly, "Guess this is just proof that I'm the favourite, isn't it?"

She looked down at the small black kitten that was currently curled up in her lap. It was tiny, a ball of fluff just bigger than her hand, and writhed around as it tried to get comfortable. Just before returning to Hogwarts, Lucas Avery had given the cat to his daughter as a gift. Esme parting suspected this was just an attempt to absolve him of any guilt he may have been feeling about ruining her future.
The cat was surely not going to solve that.

"Do you have a name for it yet?" Mulciber asked as he leant across to stroke the cat, "Ow!" He yelped as the kitten suddenly snapped its eyes opened and scratched at him.

"Guess she wards off evil." Esme smirked as Mulciber rubbed his bleeding hand, "And no, I don't have a name for her yet."

"You should name her Rosier. Cool name. I won't take credit." Rosier shrugged nonchalantly.
"You see..." Esme smirked, "When I hear 'Rosier' I think of someone stupid. Whereas this cat seems very intelligent to me."

"I don't know how Regulus puts up with you." Rosier grumbled.
Ignatius added, "She's a nightmare."

Regulus was at the front of the train, in the prefect's carriage. That meant Esme was left alone with the knuckleheads, which she wasn't too pleased about. She had, for some time, been toying with a precarious idea. Looking down at the kitten in her lap, it turned up and looked at her with its pitch black eyes, dauntingly reflecting Esme's face back up at her. Gently, she ran a hand through its silky black fur and finally, Esme decided to be a little more reckless.
The Death Eaters could take away her freedom and her independence, but she was never one to give up without a fight. Esme wasn't going to let the Dark Lord ruin her life anymore.

"I've-I've got to go and sort something out." She stated suddenly.
Ignatius, Mulciber, and Rosier all looked up at her with confusion. But they didn't think too much of it as Esme commonly acted so bizarrely around them.
"Here." She held the cat out to Ignatius, dropping it in his lap as she swiftly left the compartment.

"Oh no." Ignatius mumbled, awkwardly picking the kitten up and holding it out at arms length, "Someone take it away. I don't like cats."

Esme adjusted her robes around her shoulders and dusted off the cat hair as she marched down the train, peering through each of the compartment windows in search of a very specific group of people.
Then, just as she was nearing the back of the train, she spotted them.
Without pausing for a moment, slightly wary that this might cause her to back out, Esme swung open the compartment door.

Piper gasped, caught off guard at the sudden sound. She, Dirk, and Levi turned to see Esme hovering awkwardly in the doorway. None of them had quite been expecting that.

"Hello." The Ravenclaw girl greeted with a half-wave. She truly had no clue how to broach a calm conversation with the group.

"Esmerelda." Piper grinned warmly up at the girl she'd so dearly missed.
"What-what are you doing?" Levi asked, offering a small smile to show he didn't mean any harm by the question.