aquila ▶ marauders era {EDITING}

02.

published: nov. 28, 2016

edited: feb. 26, 2017

"AQUILA, I SWEAR TO MERLIN IF YOU MAKE US LATE to breakfast, I will never speak to you again for the rest of my mortal life and anything after that," Eliza huffed as she tried for the umpteenth time that morning to get her best friend out of bed.

Eliza Canning was definitely a specimen to behold. With her practically perfect figure and amazing athleticism (she was a Beater on Ravenclaw's Quidditch team), one would never guess that the blonde girl ate thrice her weight in food at breakfast, lunch and dinner. She even ate snacks in between meals. God blessed her with a fast metabolism and boy, oh boy, did she take advantage of that.

"Quill, come on. You really don't want me to get upset, especially when I'm starving."

Aquila groaned, her bed proving to be too comfortable for the dark-haired girl to dare leave it. Eliza's stomach rumbled and with little to no patience left, she grumbled, "Well, fine. But don't say that I didn't warn you."

Before Aquila could question what she meant by that, Eliza had muttered Aguamenti under her breath and a jet of cold water had spritzed the Black awake. She flew up and cursed, her feet tangling up in her blanket before she fell off of her bed and onto the floor, making her swear again.

Aquila semi-collected herself and sat up, narrowing her eyes to glare at Eliza. The blue-eyed girl held her wand in her hand while an astonished look graced her features. "Honestly, I did not expect that to work. I really didn't."

Huffing and puffing, Aquila begrudgingly got herself ready and in fifteen minutes (with an excessive amount of complaints from Eliza who was acting as if the food would grow legs and walk out of the Great Hall if they didn't hurry), the two girls were leaving the Tower. Entering the Great Hall, the smell of food hit them instantly and Eliza's mouth began to water. The girl barreled off to the Ravenclaw table, leaving her friend at the entrance.

The gray-eyed girl chuckled at her friend's antics and had started to fall into her usual routine of walking to the Gryffindor table before she stopped herself. She froze in between the tables and spun around on her heel, making her way to the bench across from Eliza and plopping herself down.

This action drew the attention of few and Eliza, who was currently burying her face into a bowl of cereal, looked up. She dropped the spoon back into the ceramic and queried, "Not that I don't love your company, trust me I do, but how come you're sitting over here? You usually sit with Sirius for breakfast, Regulus for lunch and me for dinner."

The hardening of Aquila's features did not go unnoticed by Eliza and suddenly, something clicked inside Eliza's brain.

"Did you and Sirius have a spat?"

Aquila lowered her gaze to the table and mumbled something incoherently. Her friend leaned closer to her, "What?"

Sighing, Aquila looked up and Eliza could see the pain and betrayal that was swimming in her friend's watery eyes.

"Sirius left over the summer, and he did it without me."

Eliza's eyes widened like saucers the size of the moon. The two girls had been best friends ever since their first year, when Aquila stopped Eliza from nearly drowning in the Black Lake ('Just because they dare you doesn't mean that you have to do it. You aren't a bloody Gryffindor'). 

Over the years, there were times when Eliza would offer to come over to Aquila's house and Aquila would turn her down. After the fourth or so time, Eliza had snapped and told Aquila if she was too ashamed to let her parents meet her, maybe they shouldn't be friends. Aquila panicked and had gushed about how it wasn't Eliza's fault; which led to her explaining about her terrible parents. 

So obviously Eliza knew all the stories.

"That insensitive dick, he left you there?"

Aquila nodded and she could feel the tears stinging in the back of her eyes.

"Oh shit, Quill. You should have Owled me so I could've come get you or something. Was it bad?"

Blinking back tears, the Black shrugged. Without Sirius there, all of the attention was now on Aquila (because Regulus was already perfect and they made it a point to remind her that) and she despised every second of it. Her torture had started the next morning when Walburga had awoken and blasted Sirius' name off of the family tree while screeching like a banshee. Aquila stepped in and tried to stop her but that resulted in her collecting a backhand from her mother.

It had only gotten worse from that point onward because any time Walburga, Orion or Regulus had anything bad to say about Sirius, she was there to defend her brother.

Why? Simple, because Sirius was family and that's what family did for each other.

"You wanna stop by Madam Pomfrey for anything?"

Aquila shook her head, "Nah, it's alright." She flashed her friend a grin, "Think of it this way, now you have me for two meals instead of one!"

Eliza groaned, "What joy."

The two girls laughed and it was such a melodious and captivating sound, it drew the attention of many. Even those at the Gryffindor table.

"What do you think is so funny?" Sirius asked his friends, looking at the back of his sister's head.

The boy knew that when he left without her, she would be hurt but he had hoped that the month before school reopened would've given her time to sit down and understand where he was coming from. The entire way to James', he had convinced himself that leaving her behind was the better option because their parents didn't really hate her the way they hated him. He was already a disgrace to them but she wasn't. If she had left with him, she would've been disowned and he was sure that she wouldn't want that.

Peter shrugged, stabbing at his eggs. For some reason, the boy didn't have much of an appetite that morning. Without looking up from his plate, he offered, "Why don't you go apologize for being a dick and find out? Or is it too hard for Sirius Orion Black, the egotistical arse, to swallow his pride?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes at the boy but said nothing in response. After Aquila had left the compartment yesterday, they had all inquired about her behavior. Under the gaze of his three best friends, Sirius cracked and told them everything.

This had caused quite a tension in between the Marauders as Peter (who was usually the quietest and most supportive) had exploded on Sirius. Remus put a silencing charm on the compartment and just in time too, for a screaming match had ensued between the two.

"Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, Potter; your schedules," Professor McGonagall said as she handed each boy their piece of paper respectively. The boys murmured their thanks and she nodded, mentally noting as she walked away that something was not right with the group of troublesome boys as none of them had made any of their usual comments.

The first thing Sirius noticed was that he had a free, first thing on a Monday morning.

It's a good thing Peter and I dropped Divination.

Despite their argument, the eldest Black was about to ask his friend what they should do but when he looked up, Peter was no longer sitting across from him.

"Where'd he go?" asked Sirius to an equally confused James (who had been too preoccupied with his Lily-Flower to notice anything else).

They both looked to Remus who simply shrugged while taking a sip of his coffee.

"He said he needed some air."