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Weeks later, James was still reeling from the sudden abundance of news he had got from Aquila. He wanted to go up to her and ask something, anything, but he was still in a state of shock.

Aquila did not find herself surprised when James Potter still looked, for lack of a better word, boggled when she saw him in the duration of the next few weeks.

In her experience, Gryffindors were a little slow.

For the first time in her life, their lives, Regulus felt that his twin sister had not made a wrong choice. Regulus was very supportive when it came to her decisions, and always willing to be a partner-in-crime, but he never exactly approved of her choices. Same was with their friend, Adrian Avery, who never directly approved of her methods, but went along with it anyway, except if the situation called for an immediate 'abort mission'. Rowan Mulciber, however, was quite like Aquila in this regard. He was willing to go to any lengths and measures to get what he wanted, if only to fuel his own pride more than anything else, and to prove to others that 'I can, you little shit, who told me I couldn't'.

This time, Aquila, having Regulus' approval and support behind her, stood a little taller as snow approached them. Rather quickly, Aquila thought. It felt just yesterday when the session had started.

The Black twins were going down the corridor to their Charms class, with Adrian and Rowan bickering about something, and Aquila kept thinking up jokes in her head which made Regulus laugh as well. He was trying his hardest to not laugh, but was failing miserably even as he pushed her into a painting. And no, Regulus still did not trust this 'ability' of theirs one bit.

A commotion in front caught their attention, making Adrian put down the hand he was about to whack Rowan on the head with. In front of them, stood a group of five, with Minerva McGonagall staring down the self-proclaimed 'Marauders'.

"A what?" Sirius said, tilting his head, as if he could not believe what McGonagall was saying.

"An apology, Mister Black. Surely that is simple enough for you to comprehend?" McGonagall said, peering at them from above her glasses.

Rowan pulled at the sleeves of his robes and snorted. "Man, you gotta love McGonagall's sass."

In front of them, James was having a difficult time suppressing his laughter, as Peter kept elbowing him in the stomach and Remus was kneeling on the ground, tying his shoelaces.

Sirius folded his arms. "I'm not apologising to that git! Don't lie, Minnie, you know he deserved it."

Aquila leaned back to whisper into Adrian's ear. "Any idea who this is about?"

Adrian shook his head. "No, but I reckon it's gonna be Snape. The guy can't get a good defense spell in his greasy head but doesn't know how to shut his mouth either."

"Yeah, he's a git alright, but what did he do?" Rowan joined the conversation.

As Regulus turned to answer, McGonagall started the countdown as an indication for the amount of time Sirius would get to think up a good apology. What would happen after that countdown, they didn't want to know.

As the Transfiguration professor neared one, Remus shot up from the ground from his rather intense and long shoe-tying session, and grinned at James and Peter. James shuffled on his spot a bit and lightly hit the back of Sirius' shoe. He nodded with an imperceptible nod of his head.

Aquila tilted her head at this series of movements as McGonagall finished her countdown, and on cue, a big explosion went off in the next corridor, which made McGonagall forget all about Sirius and his never to arrive apology, as Sirius turned around and high-fived Lupin.

"Good one, mate. Would've loved it more if it made the slime stuff as well, but awesome anyway," James said, toeing the area where Aquila could now see that Remus was twiddling wires instead of tying his shoes.

- - -

Regulus and Aquila sent a letter to their parents where they were informed that they would, most unfortunately, not be coming home for their Christmas holidays as Professor Slughorn had given them 'extra-curricular work'. Sirius was most certainly very pleased seeing his younger siblings lie, and Walburga was most certainly not, judging by the letter that had their names written in an elegant scroll on the outside. Aquila knew the elegance of the envelope was just for the fact if they received the letter in the Great Hall, whereas inside was a jumble of in-written shouting, that is, all capital letters.

"Wonder how much time she wasted in writing all this in capital," Regulus snorted, going through another letter they had received from Walburga, and another letter they were not going to respond to.

A midnight black owl with green eyes dropped another letter in Aquila's lap, to which she groaned.

"She told Aunt Druella? Really? I wonder if her brain's full of cotton sometimes," Aquila grimaced.

Regulus peered at the green envelope in her hands, which had 'my dearest niece' written on it in slanted script. "She doesn't really think Aunt Druella can convince you, does she?"

His sister shrugged in response. "She thinks just because i have her middle name, i'd be more inclined to listen to her," she huffed. "As if I'd ever look at her after the stunt her stupid daughter pulled in the summer."

Regulus looked around carefully. "You know why she's doing this, though? The Lord I told you about, he's rallying supporters. And the Sacred Twenty Eight is not far behind. They say Blacks and Malfoys are carrying the name of purebloods through generations, and they're not going to let Sirius spoil that. Merlin knows what they're going to do if he continues with his antics."

She snorted. "Stop being such a mother, Reg. Sirius knows what he's doing, he also knows the consequences. Put a little faith in our brother. The two of us can't have all the brains in the family, can we?" she winked.

"What are you going to tell Adrian and Rowan about this?" Regulus questioned.

She hummed. "Nothing, I guess. We'll tell them the same thing we told Mother and Father. Extra-curricular, Slughorn, etc. , etc. They'll fall for it pretty easy, don't worry."

Regulus paused. "Wait, we aren't telling them about the map?"

She shook her head. "It's not ours to tell. We may be doing the helping part, but it was still their idea, and therefore, their secret."

"You're acting oddly fair. Have you caught a fever, Aqua?" Regulus said, putting the back of hand on her forehead.

"Don't be a rag, Reg. I may be a git, but I play fair," Aquila said, swatting his hand away.

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "Who are you and what have you done to Aquila Black?" he smirked.

"Oh, hush. Now help me get ready for the Howler that's going to come next," she said.

As they sat sorting through the letters, the door of the Slytherin common room opened and Adrian and Rowan ran in, looking horrified.

"Who peed in your apple juice?" Aquila said jokingly, but everyone could detect the underlying seriousness in her voice.

Rowan took a deep breath and slammed the day's edition of the Daily Prophet on top of all the letters.

"There's been an attack by the Dark Lord person," he said. "He killed Jennifer Felling's family last night." 

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HiS dArK lOrD pErSoN

Puh lease guys you're purebloods ofc you know who he is

Anyway, don't have much to say, ik this update's late but ily all

Hope you liked it, love y'all!

༻hy༺