Stars and Silver

chapter 14

------------------------------------------------> THE NEXT DAY, AT BREAKFAST, the letters came. There were no letters for Aquila, however, the Daily Prophet came. Aquila was one of the few who had the Daily Prophet subscription, but she couldn't care less. She looked at the front page.

"Hmmm... Strange." she muttered, before turning to Lucius, who was on her right. "Does it seem strange that every day, there are at least three mysterious muggle deaths?" she asked. Lucius shrugged.

"It's about as ordinary as me staying rich and keeping up my family's. Muggles, accidents, and overrated ways of committing suicide. That's all there is to it"

Aquila gave a vague nod, turning back to the newspaper, before snapping her head back up. Smirking, she flipped the Daily Prophet to the tenth page, and showed it to Lucius.

"What?" he asked.

"Writing with Rita, of course!"

And there it was, 'glowing' on the page, was the Writing with Rita column. 

"'Heir Lucius Malfoy II, son of the Quidditch sensation in his year, Lord Abraxas Malfoy and the Lady Anastasia Malfoy nee Greengrass, to weak to carry Potions ingredients?'" Aquila read out. Lucius gaped like a fish.

"Lucius! Is that you? The one in the magazine full of trash, called Witch Weekly, depicted as a weakling?" Elisabetta called out.

"Oh my! He's also in Transfiguration Today!" Dolores said. Elisabetta walked over.

"Oh Lucy, you're so famous. You deserve more than the useless trash Witch Weekly is" Elisabetta sighed, practically sitting on his lap and patting his head. Lucius' face flushed, embarrassed.

"Pardon? Do you even know who is the head of Witch Weekly?" Aquila asked. Elisabetta turned redder than the Weasley's hair.

"Who?" Dolores asked nonchalantly. 

"Charis Crouch nee Black! How dare you insult my family like that? How dare you?"

                                                           **************

That night, which was very rainy, since there wasn't a prefect patrol, Aquila wandered  around Hogwarts, deciding to explore, as if there was something about the school she did not know. She bumped into James and Rosie on the way and threatened detention if they did not go to bed 'right this very instant'. Sirius, as she found out, was either asleep or in the Room of Requirement, which was where she went. He wasn't there, so Aquila concluded that he was asleep. She then started plotting against Dolores and Elisabetta. She plotted that she could make their skin change from green to pink to brown. The visual in her mind was so ridiculous and hilarious that she almost laughed out loud, but switched to giggling softly, shaking her head, making black ringlets of her hair bounce around her. Later she found herself in the Astronomy Tower instead of her dorm. She knew she wasn't alone. She looked around.

"Narcissa, is that you? Must I tell you again that there is no reason to be wandering in school corridors at night?"  

"Says the cousin of mine who is roaming school corridors when it is not her prefect patrol day"

"You got me" Aquila laughed. "But why are you wandering around?"

"Bored" she shrugged. "You? You usually follow rules" Narcissa leaned in, eager to know why.

"Same" she said, smiling slyly. "But I read the rules before I break them." Narcissa merely nodded, raising and eyebrow skeptically. Like her cousin had ever broken rules before. "Since we're both here, lets chat" she said casually.

"About what?" 

"The future? We ask each other questions. I go first"

"Fine" Aquila sighed.

"What will you name your children?" Narcissa asked.

"I honestly don't know. There's a muggle book I'm absolutely in love with, A Court of Thorns and Roses, so I would name my child after someone in that. Maybe something like Emerie or Morrigan" she said. 

 "Draco for a boy, and Lyra for a girl! And if I be your matchmaker, you have to call your first children Narcissa II and Narcissus!" Narcissa squealed, clearly hoping that her wish would come true. Narcissa dreamed of getting name rights of Aquila's children, as well as claiming half of the latter's fortune if she was the matchmaker. Narcissa had wild dreams. But while she was 'dreaming', she had completely forgot Aquila was a Leglimens and could hear everything she thought.

"Big dreams you have. There is no way I am giving you half my fortune. And if you try stealing, you'll be a pile of ashes in the fireplace before you know it"

"Hey!" Narcissa said, offended. Then a plan began to form in her head. "It's getting rainy now. We'll get soaked. How about we go to my dorm?" she asked. Aquila, who didn't know what was Narcissa's idea, said that she would come along, since she hated her prefect dorm and Narcissa knew shortcuts around the school. When they reached Narcissa's dorm, the latter hopped onto the bed and threw a pillow at Aquila. She shrieked, before conjuring a few pillows for herself and starting pelting Narcissa with pillows. In retaliation Narcissa threw her own pillows at her.

The pillow fight was going on until Aquila cast a spell on her pillow to repeatedly hit Narcissa. Narcissa squealed 'Bloody Merlin! Make that thing stop!' and ran around the room, the pillow on her heels. At last, when they got tired, Aquila stopped the charm and the pillow lay still. Aquila couldn't believe the time was already two o'clock. She left for her own dorm, the Slytherin dorm she had to herself, and not long after, she fell asleep.

It was the most fun Aquila had in a long time.