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That night, Aquila could do nothing but listen as her brother ranted on and on.

He told her he should have listened to her, they should've gone to Dumbledore, should've been more careful with their temper, more careful with their magic, shouldn't have done fucking mindspeak of all things, Aquila Druella Black!

In a nutshell, it was just a bunch of 'I told you so's'.

Rowan and Adrian were down in the common room where Rowan was interrogating Maria Rosier over her brother's suspicious activities, and Adrian was attempting to find a reason to get away from Severus Snape. Aquila laid down on Regulus' bed, while he paced the room back and forth in front of her.

"Are you asleep?! How dare you fall asleep?! I'm talking about a potential threat to our lives here, Aqi! D'you have any idea what mother and father would do if they found out about this stupid witchy mojo? They'll feed us to Bellatrix and then be known as 'the mightiest Blacks who gave the magical twin duo over to that Dark Lord fellow'." Regulus said, frantic.

Aquila removed her arm from her eyes. "That's an incredibly long title they're striving for," she said dryly.

Regulus flushed red in anger. "You think this is a joke? Come on, Aquila. This is our lives we're talking about," he said.

"Listen to me," Aquila said, sitting up. "You are freaking out over nothing. We're talking about James Potter here. The maximum the boy can tell this shit to is his band of idiots. We're in no threat from the Marauders. All we need for them to keep a secret is drop a little hint about a full moon and then watch them freak out."

Regulus looked at her. "You'll use Lupin's condition over them? That's really cruel, Aquila," he said with furrowed eyebrows.

She got up and patted Regulus on his shoulder. "Self preservation, brother. You gotta do what you gotta do, sometimes."

"I don't think, for what it's worth, that Potter would tell anyone. Even if he did, Sirius will back us up. He knows about our wandless and that weird red magic-ish thing. I'm more concerned at the fact, that if he got to know about this, how many other people might through our silly mistakes," he said slowly.

Aquila scoffed. "We did that red magic-y thing when we were seven, Reg. I don't think Siri will be much happy to know that we can channel our fucking magic through each other," she said, ignoring his last statement.

"Can you stop with the snark for one second? You're talking to me, Aqua. You don't need to hold up a shield all the time," he shook his head.

She laughed. "Chill out, Reg. I'm just saying you're freaking out over nothing. I'll hand Potter his balls if he tells someone about this."

"He won't, and you can take my word for it," Regulus called out behind her as she left the dorm.

- - -

"Potter!" Aquila called out from across the courtyard, where James and Peter were playing Wizard's Chess.

Both of them let out a "Shh!"

"Oi, Potter," she said, poking him on his shoulder with a sharp nail. "Potter, Potter, Potter. Potter. Listen to me."

"What do you want, Blackie? I'm busy," James said, commanding some piece on the board to go to some box, swatting her hand.

What? Aquila didn't play chess. Sue her.

"I've gotta talk to you. Now," she said.

James furrowed his eyebrows as Peter moved some piece of his. "I'm busy right now, just go away. We'll talk in the library."

Aquila opened her hand and the chess board burst into flames. James and Peter jumped back.

"I just told the pawn to move? Not to set it on fire!" Peter said, startled.

"Oh no, don't worry Pete, it was me," Aquila said, wiggling her fingers up in the air as the flames rose higher.

"Whoa! What is wrong with you?! Lost it, have you?" James shouted. Peter looked equally outraged, but didn't say anything.

Aquila put her hands on her hips. "Now will you listen to me?" she asked.

He scoffed. "Fat chance. You gotta buy Peter a new set."

It was her turn to scoff now. "As if," she said. "I'll restore the set if you come talk to me for a moment," she added as an afterthought.

James narrowed his eyes at her. "You burned the set. There's no way you can bring it back."

Aquila grinned. "Watch, and learn, Potter."

She flicked her hand and the fire died down, leaving the set completely intact, with no damage whatsoever. James widened his eyes as Peter let out a strangled cry, thankful that his set was alright.

"Happy, now, are we?" she said impatiently. And then flicked her hand again and lit the thing on fire. "I need to talk to you, Potter. So come with me."

Peter turned to James. "Just go, mate. A chess game isn't worth it. You were losing anyway."

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Not."

"Too."

"No-"

"Alright, we get it. Pack it up and let's go," Aquila said, shoving the robes that James had discarded on the stone platform into his arms.

"Alright, impatient. Let's go discuss the fate of the Wizarding World," James said, waved a goodbye to Peter and followed Aquila.

They reached the gates of the castle, from where Aquila led them to the dungeons. James held out a hand to stop her.

"Okay, first of all, are you going to kill me at your snake nest? Because I have to say, I am largely opposed to it," James said, looking to the steps that led into the dark dungeons.

Aquila rolled her eyes. "If I were to kill you, you really think I would do that after about fifty people saw me and you going to the dungeons, not to mention, I practically traumatised poor Peter and his chess set? Give me a bit more credit, Potter."

James rolled his eyes as he mocked her, and followed her to the dungeon. "About that, how did you do it? Sirius told me you were good at wandless magic, but even an Incendio would have charred the set to ashes," he said, putting his hands in his pockets.

Aquila looked around as they reached a dark corridor lit with green lanterns. "Keep it down, Potter. Stones carry voices incredibly well," she whispered.

James looked around. "Do you always speak at such a volume around here?" he whispered back.

"Mostly. You get used to it after a while. Our Common Room is on the other side though, this corridor is mostly unused except for a snogging couple here and there. You know the stuck-up Head Girl last year, Molly Prewett?" seeing James' affirmative nod, she continued, "Rowan and I saw her making out with her boyfriend in these corridors one day."

James smirked. "And what were you and Rowan doing around here, ickle twelve year oldies?"

Aquila stared at him, bored. "We got lost, and we just created a lot of explosions until someone came to check out all the noise." she said blankly, but grew excited again. "But, as it would be, Ro and I got so curious about this, we just explored these corridors everyday, and now we've both got it mapped in our heads" she finished, looking proud.

James looked sideways at her as they walked down the hall. "I thought you and Regulus were partners in crime?"

She scoffed. "Reg can't tell his left hand from right, much less navigate a bunch of complicated tunnels."

James stopped. "Wait, tunnels?" he said incredulously.

"Yeah, we're under the Black Lake," Aquila said.

James looked around. "Wicked," he said in awe.

They walked, walked, walked and walked and walked, until Aquila took a final turn and stopped in front of a door. It was withered with age and the inscription, which read, 'DOOM'S ALCHEMIC ACADEMY,' was barely visible.

"Ready for the surprise of a lifetime, Potter?"

Aquila turned to grin at him, and pushed open the door. 

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me - iLl bE gOiNg oN a hIaTuS

also me - updates the next day

what? sue me, i'm excited to get to the good stuff

and i've deleted the wattpad app from my phone which means no reading on casual basis, and i only use my laptop in the evenings when there's hardly much time to read anything

anyway, that was my life story, hope you liked it! also, can you guys tell me if you get the replies i give on comments?

much love :*

༻hy༺