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"So, what happened?" Regulus asked, rubbing his hands together in interest as Aquila returned from her walk in the courtyard.

"What happened where?" Aquila asked, flopping down on the couch beside him.

Rowan jumped over the back of the couch in front of them. "On your date with Potter, duh."

"Date? What date?" she asked, confused.

Rowan narrowed his eyes. "You didn't go on a date with Potter right now?"

"No, of course not. We've barely become friends, Rowan," she replied, making a face.

Rowan very slowly sat up and looked Regulus in the eye. "Are you telling me," he spoke so very slowly, "that I have been misinformed of our darling Aqi's dating activities?"

"I have been misinformed, too, then!" Regulus said accusingly. Both boys whirled on Aquila who was staring at them wide-eyed, unsure how to proceed with both of them acting so dramatically.

"I, well, went to clear my head, where I ran into James." to this Rowan ooh-d and mockingly called out 'James!' paired with kissy faces. Aquila glared at him while giving a run-down of the events that took place.

Oddly, Regulus stayed quiet throughout the whole deal, only breaking his silence to snort at the part where Aquila judged her and James' dating future. When she was done, Rowan whooped and lay back, opening his mouth to say something, but found himself interrupted by Regulus.

"Andy cornered me today," he said abruptly.

"Andy Jordan? Gryffindor fifth year?" Rowan asked lazily.

Regulus swatted away the question. "No, of course not, you idiot. Andromeda, my cousin."

"The good one?" Seeing Regulus' nod, he sat up straight. "Wait, isn't she going out with Ted Tonks? That Ravenclaw seventh year? I think he's Head Boy as well."

Regulus felt a smug smile dance at the corner of his lips. "So, now that I know about this interesting development, the matter is no longer of importance. Excuse me, all." With that, Regulus left a baffled Aquila and Rowan behind to begin his search for their cousin.

- - -

The day of twenty-third of December, nineteen seventy-three marked the first time when Regulus and Aquila Black sneaked out of their dorms in the middle of the night, not midnight 12 but sometime around 3 in the morning, and went to one of the empty dungeon rooms that pervert Rookwood often took his flings to. They tried to stay clear of suspicious stains and/or spots, and cleared a good patch of space for practice.

"All right," Regulus said, clapping his hands. "Are we ready to do this?"

Taking a deep breath, Aquila nodded and took out a piece of parchment from inside her robes. "The real question is, why are we doing this at three in the morning? We could have very well done it tomorrow, what with it being Christmas Eve Eve and all."

Regulus pointed at her. "Exactly. So we have one day to work on it, and given how much we do nothing, we really need to get a head start."

"But does it really have to be at three in the morning?" Aquila groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Is ickle-Aqikinns tired already?" a pouty voice came from behind her.

She whirled around to find, you guessed it, the Marauders standing in the doorway, James and Peter with goofy smiles, Remus with a sheepish look on his face, and Sirius, well, Sirius was rubbing on some spot on the doorway. ew.

Aquila turned to Regulus. "You lied to me," she accused, then relented. "I'm impressed."

Regulus sketched a bow. "I'm here for your amusement."

"Hello, friends!" James boomed out, much too loud for three am and the dungeons.

Regulus frowned. "You never did initiate a friendship with me."

"Merlin, really?" James looked aghast. "I am extremely apologetic. How would you feel about being friends with me, Regulus?" James said, watching Regulus with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Regulus turned his nose up. "I shall consider it."

James gave an offended gasp and turned to Aquila who simply laughed in response. Grinning at her, Regulus clapped his hands once to call attention to those in the room. Everyone gathered in the centre of the space the twins had cleared, standing perfectly still.

Well, except for Sirius. He was dancing a slow waltz in his position. By himself. With no music.

"Alright, so. We'll do the Homonculous step-by-step, as every book suggests. Remus, do you have the -?" Regulus gestured a vague shape with his fingers, and Remus, who very well looked like he had fallen asleep standing up, jerked awake and reached into his robes. He took out a grand piece of parchment, folded many times over with faint lines drawn over it. James reached out to flick Sirius over his head, making Sirius abruptly stop his waltz and dig into his bag for the parchment he was making changes to.

"Okay, lay the map down there, Lupin," Regulus instructed. Remus heaved a great sigh and started standing up when Peter took over the parchment, laying a comforting hand on Remus' shoulder and bent to place the parchment on the ground in the centre of their little circle.

"The spell required a lot of energy, a lot of magical power draining," Aquila said, chewing the bottom of her lip.

"Hey, if you feel strained in the middle, just leave it. The map isn't going to be worth your sickness," James said softly, only loud enough for her to hear. Aquila, still nervous, gave what was supposed to be a reassuring nod but turned out to be more like a weak one.

She turned to Regulus, who held out his hand with a small prick on his finger. It seemed that Sirius had been paying attention all along and he hurried in between the twins and grabbed Regulus' hand, preventing the twins from channeling through one another. Aquila gaped at him, and he shrugged in response.

"I'm not seeing you both summon the devil again," he simply said.

Aquila, of course, started protesting. "It was the first time we did that anyway, Sirius, and getting a memory is far more taxing than performing a charm. Anyway, why are we taking this so seriously? Isn't this supposed to be a practice session?" she directed the last question towards the rest of the Marauders.

Remus shot them all a look. "It is a practice session, but we have to take practices as seriously as the final, yes?" he asked.

Regulus blew a hair out of his face. "Well, then. Let's begin, yes?"

They all nodded. James suddenly made a startled sound. "Wait, what's the spell?"

"You needn't worry about that. It's very long, and very complicated, so we all just need you as conductors to ensure Aquila and I don't overload," Regulus said. The Marauders seemed satisfied with this response, which was odd considering they were practically at the twins' throats to make them a part of this.

Slowly, they went around the circle, joining hands, Remus to Peter, Peter to Regulus, Regulus to Sirius, Sirius to James and James to Aquila. He reached out his hand and instead of feeling anything on his palm, he met empty air. Aquila had hunched over one of the desks within the short discussion they had not included her in and had fallen asleep. James let out a huff of a laugh and gently prodded her awake.

She looked at him through bleary eyes, then started. "Merlin, did you guys start without me?"

"No!" Regulus said hurriedly. "No, no, of course not. We were waiting for you. It was very intense with the hand-holding and all, but we were waiting."

Aquila slowly got up and went to the assembled people, taking her place next to Remus. James followed behind her, strutting over with his hands in his pockets, grabbed her outstretched hand and twirled her between himself and Sirius.

Goddamn this boy and his smooth moves, Aquila breathed in her mind.

Regulus cringed. I do not want to hear you fangirl over Potter.

I listen to you fangirl over him all the time, Aquila quipped back.

Before Regulus could respond, James snapped his fingers in front of Aquila's face. Aquila frowned, remembering that her and Regulus lost concentration in the outside world when they conversed mind-to-mind. Shaking off her thoughts, she connected her hand to Sirius and on the other side of her James joined hands with Remus.

"Okay, you can start your supernatural chanting now," Sirius said, letting a nervous breath loose.

Regulus and Aquila nodded to each other, took a deep breath, and began.

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so i have recently been told that people want to bash james and aquila in the heads because they act like stupid teenagers.

hem selevesyaa hem

well, then, BEWARE KIDS, shit about to get real stupid teenager-y

also, if you wanna get to, ehm, idk, um, know me, or something, you can check out my misc book, 'grace and misc'

if there's one thing im sure of is that i am NOT a boring person and you will have fun with me

OR, you can add me on discord! my username is hy !#7508

also, how'd you guys like the new cover? thanks to TRUETONORTH  for helping me with it and also making one for me!! you should check out her books, she's amazing

༻hy༺