"If I had known you wanted to sneak out to Hogsmead, I wouldn't have said yes." Esme complained, groaning as she pushed up the trap door that opened up into Honeydukes' cellar.

"You said you were thirsty." Shrugged Sirius, clambering up into the cellar after her before they both made their way up the stairs and into the shop. They had actually walked around the school for a good half hour before they had headed down the secret passageway behind Gunhilda's statue so he was well over his apparent allotted time limit of half an hour. She was just as willing to stay out as he was; he had known she would be in the end.

He had needed to get out of the castle, he needed to clear his head. He couldn't stop thinking about his earlier conversation with the boys, he had tried staring at Esme whenever she wasn't paying attention to try and see what they had been talking about. He agreed that yes, she was very pretty, but he just couldn't find it in him anywhere to actually be attracted to her, unlike James apparently. He was going to have to talk to him about that later. He didn't want anything going on there and ruining the friendship group forever.

But no, looking at her, all he could see was just Esme. The girl he had called Birdie since the age of 11. The sister he never had but would have been happy to have.

"Yeah...but I had meant maybe going down to the kitchens, not heading to the village in a blizzard." She threw the cloak over her shoulder and walked over to the front of the store to look out the windows. The whole of the village was dark besides the few street lamps an the only buildings that had any life in them now was the Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head and even then, she doubted many people had bothered to come out into the storm.

"Why would you have a Hot Chocolate when you could have a warm glass of Butterbeer instead." He frowned, shoving his hands into his pockets and going to stand beside her as they both looked out. "Though, maybe heading back to get a coat would've been a good idea."

"When have we ever done the sensible thing though?" She muttered, unlocking the door to the store with a flick of her wand. She took the cloak from her shoulder and threw it over the pair before they ventured out.

"Hogs Head will be quieter." He told her.

"Broomsticks it is then." Esme replied. It was a lot easier for the pair to be able to get away with stealing a glass of Butterbeer when the barmaid was busy serving others. It was also a lot easier to have a conversation under the cloak when it could be drowned out by the the hustle and bustle of the pub, even on a Tuesday night.

Their hands were numb by the time they reached the pub, despite the short journey. Sirius blasted the door open with his wand to make it look as though it had blown open from the wind and the two quickly scuttled in before a disgruntled wizard got up to shut it again.

The pair snuck behind the bar whilst the young barmaid Rosemerta had headed down into the cellar to collect something. She had just poured four glasses of Butterbeer so naturally, Sirius and Esme took two each. An opportunity that only the foolish would pass on. As the witch came back upstairs, she spun around in confusion looking for the drinks, finally believing that she must have imagined pouring them.

They both made their way to the very back of the pub, remaining hidden underneath the cloak as they both slid into a booth away from the rest of the customers. As soon as they sat down, Esme kicked off her shoes and socks that were soaked from the small trek from the shop to the pub and pulled her legs up onto the seat, prodding at Sirius' legs with her feet.

He shoved at her legs and tutted. "You're so annoying." Regardless, he moved so that she could tuck her feet under his legs to keep them warm.

They chatted about anything and everything as they drank, most of the conversation circulating back to the customers in the pub. Their favourite hobby was to Muggle-watch but seeing as that was unavailable, this came a close second. They would shush each other when the other laughed too loud, barely able to contain their own laughter as they scolded the other.

Sirius was already half way through his second glass when Esme placed her first down. She picked up her second and cupped both hands around the glass as she sipped it, watching the couple by the fire that they had just been talking about. Sirius leaned back in his seat and folded his arms as he looked at her, even though she was clearly happy about the outing, she did look exhausted. He had never seen the bags under eyes look so dark.

"How's Remus been lately, you know with the changes?" He asked.

Esme shrugged, wiping her lips clean of the cream remnants from the drink. "Not especially well...he's a lot more..." She paused, frowning as she tried to think about the best word to use.

"I want to say irritable...?" She decided, finally. "The screams are just awful, it's gotten a lot worse for him recently and I dont know if that's because he's getting older? I really dont know enough about it to say why."

"Irritable...' Sirius nodded, falling silent for a moment. He couldn't wait until the boys and him managed to become Animagi, they were so close he knew it only had to be a matter of time.

"But you're safe?" He somehow couldn't imagine Remus being irritable ever, he always seemed so calm and subdued. He suddenly didnt like the idea of Esme being out of her depth, if it meant she had to stop going, he wanted to know.

She just shrugged, taking another sip. "At the minute, how hard he seems to be taking it lately, if I turned up out of nowhere without him knowing me, I'd say definitely not. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing left of Remus when he changes, Sirius. If he wanted to kill me, he could. I've been with him every change here for the past couple of years. He knows I'm not a threat so its a case of him allowing me to be there. I'll be fine."

Sirius just nodded, he supposed she was right. She had been with Remus for the majority of his changes at school. He guessed she knew better than anyone how to judge his behaviour as a werewolf.

"Besides, that'll be your job soon and I'll get to avoid Lily's questions every month."

Sirius pulled a face immediately. "Don't talk about Evans. I hear enough about her from James all day."

Esme laughed, wiggling her toes underneath his legs in an attempt to annoy him. "You sound jealous of her, Sirius. I wouldn't worry, there's no danger of losing James to her any time soon. She still very much hates you both."

He shifted his weight to the side her feet were under so she couldn't move them and he leaned back into his seat, folding his arms.

"Big deal, the feelings mutual on my end. Anyone who's willingly friends with that greasy git isn't right in the head. She doesn't laugh at a single prank, she won't even crack a smile at my jokes..." He ran his fingers through his hair to push it out of his eyes.

"Well, that's because you're not funny." Esme interjected, smirking at him slightly.

"Well we both know that's not true, Birdie. I've nearly made you wet yourself several times with laughter." He pointed out.

"Do you know, there's a fine line between love and hate? You want to be careful Sirius, anyone might think that you secretly love Lily." She laughed as she batted away an incoming blow.

"If the line is that thin I wish James would fall on the other side and gain some sense." He scowled.

"Oh Sirius, grow up. It's a crush, he'll get over it." She told him. "Just because you've never had a girlfriend that lasted more than a week."

"Only because you scare them off."

"That was one time!" She groaned, rolling her eyes.

"You made her bald."

"Only for a day! Do you know, everyone gave me such a hard time for that and she was asking for it." She rolled her eyes before going to down the rest of her drink.

"All she said was that you were a little bit vain. I'm inclined to agree." Sirius told her, hiding his smirk behind his fingers as he propped his chin up with his hand.

Upon hearing his words, Esme choked on her mouthful of Butterbeer and sent it flying back into the mug, splashing both herself in the face and Sirius.

He grimaced and wiped his face with his sleeve. "Smooth." He told her.

"I'm sorry..." She began, coughing as she tried to clear her lungs of the liquid. "But did you just call me vain? Sirius Black calling me vain? Sirius, we can't even go near the Black Lake without you checking your reflection out." She laughed.

"I never said I wasn't, with my outstanding good looks, it's no wonder I'm vain. We're talking about you here. Not me. I'd have thought that was your favourite hobby?"

She rolled her eyes, setting her mug back down onto the table. She waited until she was sure no one was looking before pushing them out from under the cover of the cloak. Not long after, Rosmerta collected them when she was walking past.

Was she going mad? She could have sworn nobody had been sat back here earlier when she walked past.

"Come on. Let's go back, I'm knackered. I gave you half an hour and we've been out for at least two hours..." She pulled her feet out from underneath him and bent down underneath the table to put her shoes and socks back on.

Just as she was about to sit back up, she yelped as Sirius shoved her back under the table, clambering underneath it with her.

"What are you-" She was cut off as Sirius covered her mouth with his hand and jerked his head for her to look out from beneath the table. As she did so, her eyes widened as four pairs of feet were making their way towards the booth. "Oh crap." She mumbled against Sirius' hand.

They both moved awkwardly in an attempt to avoid being hit by any of the legs as they sat down at the booth and as Sirius made an attempt to crawl out of from underneath the table, one of the men stretched his legs out ahead of him and blocked off their path. As a result, the pair were trapped under the table with no way to escape.

"This is your fault!" Esme hissed, glaring at Sirius as he fell down onto his backside. There was barely any room for either of them to sit down comfortably. Esme remained crouching with Sirius' legs either side of her.

"My fault?" He whispered. "How is it my fault?"

"You were the one who wanted to come here. I was quite happy to go have a hot chocolate in the kitchens where I could have been back in half an hour and have a good nights sleep. I should have just went for a run with James." She leaned to the side as one of the women crossed one leg over the other and narrowly avoided kicking Esme.

"Well, nothing we can do about it now." He grinned at her. All she could do was glare back at him. Maybe she would have found it funny if she hadn't been so tired.

The two of them sat in silence for the next ten minutes, with only the conversation of the double date taking place above them to keep them entertained. Esme's legs were aching from the crouching position she was in but there wasn't any room on her side of the table to sit down. Sirius was lucky, the two men on his side of the table were sat further apart from each other so he at least had the comfort of the space between them to lean back against.

Sirius had to clasp his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter as Esme stared in horror when one of the women slipped off her shoes and crossed one leg over the other, putting her foot dangerously close to Esme's face.

"No, absolutely not. I'm sorry. Not today." She whispered, clambering over to Sirius' side.

'Move." She told him.

"Where?" He demanded in a hushed tone, grabbing her by the shoulders in an attempt to stop her from coming over into his space. "Stay there!"

"No! Swap with me!" She argued, trying to keep her voice down as the two wrestled beneath the table in an attempt to stay away from the bare feet.

"No way!" He tried his best not to laugh but as the second woman shifted in her seat, stretching out her legs in the space that Esme was currently in, Sirius quickly grabbed Esme and pulled her to sit in between his legs.

Esme blinked in a dazed fashion but was happy to be further away from the feet, even if it was only by a few inches. She folded her arms huffily and leaned back into Sirius, staring ahead of her. "I should've just went with James." She hissed.

Sirius just grinned, pulling his legs up so she was practically caged in between them. "No way, this was way more fun." He mumbled. "Who wants to go for a run in the snow?"

The two fell silent again, waiting for an opportunity to escape from beneath the table. They had hoped that someone would have gotten up to get more drinks but unfortunately Rosmerta had been coming over to take their orders.

Sirius snorted in amusement as he noticed the woman with no shoes on begin to rub her foot up and down the man's leg who was sat opposite her.

It wouldn't have been so amusing if it were not for the fact it was clearly not the man she was supposed to be on the date with.

He nudged Esme's arm to show her but she didn't respond. When she paid no attention to him, he shoved her again. "Birdie?" He hissed.

They had been under the table without saying a word to each other for so long that Esme had been unable to keep her eyes open for a second longer.

"Mm?" She mumbled tiredly, her head dropping back onto his shoulder as she shifted herself in her sleep to get more comfortable.

He rolled his eyes, moving his head to get a better look at her. "Of all the times to fall asleep...wake up you lazy cow." He muttered, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he attempted to shake her awake.

He huffed when he realised she had properly passed out. He couldn't really blame her, she'd been up for a good 19 hours now. Without anything else to do, he took the opportunity to study her face close up, trying to figure out what it was that made all the boys bang on about her.

He just didn't get it. Most of the Gryffindor boys found it somewhat easy to talk to her because they lived in the dorm with her, but Sirius would watch boys from other houses sit and jumble their words to her if she even smiled at them.

Alex and Dean were in the same year and even they could only talk to her for a few minutes without getting tongue tied.

As he watched her, he couldn't help but laugh quietly when he imagined how she would've reacted to hearing about the answers the other boys had given in the game. She would have absolutely died at Peter's. Actually, maybe James' would've been worse.

At the sound of Sirius' laughter, a small smile pulled at Esme's lips subconsciously and as Sirius watched it, he suddenly felt his stomach twist awkwardly. He supposed she did have a nice smile, if he thought about it long enough.

His eyes widened and he stiffened considerably the moment he realised what had just happened. Had he actually just gotten butterflies over Esme? There was no way. It was just because he had been trying to put himself in someone else's shoes.

He gulped and looked back down at her to confirm he was right. He relaxed when he didn't get the feeling again. He knew he could never fancy Esme. It was too weird.

His eyes widened as the man to the left of him excused himself to go to the toilet and left the space free for the pair to escape. He looked down at Esme and shook her shoulders vigorously to wake her. Her eyes shot open and she glanced around her in a dazed fashion, trying to work out where she was.

"Sirius?" She mumbled, squinting up at him. Sirius looked back down at her and his stomach twisted again the moment he locked his eyes with hers.

Fuck.

He was going to kill Alex and Dean.