Hiraeth | Regulus Black

Chapter Ninety One

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."