Trouvaille - something lovely discovered by chance
A Slytherin and a Gryffindor are sworn enemies. Families, friendships, relationships, all are infected by house rivalry.
So are James Potter, proud and brave Gryffindor, and Aquila Black, cunning a...
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James was, decidedly, scared.
It took a lot of his Gryffindor pride to admit that, but now that he had, he felt lighter. And determined.
What exactly he was scared of was the million dollar question. It was a number of things. He was scared of singular twigs of his broom pricking his fingers. He was scared of a tree sprouting from his stomach because of the watermelon seeds he'd accidentally consumed last year. He was scared of very bright lights, like in a Healer's office, but he was also not a fan of pitch dark.
All in all, James Potter was scared of a lot of things, but the biggest thing he was scared of was the fear in Aquila's eyes when she looked at him.
It wasn't fear of Aquila more than it was for her, and Aquila had barely looked at him in the brief time he'd seen her, but James liked to fancy himself the idea of Aquila being as obsessed with him as he was with her.
But all that seemed selfish to wish when he was sure whatever Sirius had endured was only a fraction of what Aquila had endured after him. During the holidays, Sirius had been merry at the Potter house thinking that since he had taken the curse himself and left, surely his parents won't risk torturing their remaining children at the fear of them leaving, too.
James hadn't wanted to mention that considering the close bond of the siblings, it was likely that the twins had been punished more harshly because of their brother leaving.
Now that they were at Hogwarts again, James wanted to believe that there would be plenty of time for Sirius to get to the bottom of this issue, but whenever Sirius had tried approaching the twins, they'd only dived for cover or fled outright, with Mulciber or Avery running after one of them or both, and the other staying behind to make sure Sirius didn't follow.
Sirius had been holding up the facade of not caring and saying 'they'll come around' and 'it's alright', but the night before James had caught him full blown crying in one of the bathroom stalls in the middle of the night. James hadn't said anything, just opened the door and hugged his best mate until his sobbing died down to hiccups. They hadn't spoken about this yet, and that was only because James didn't want to push Sirius into talking about something he wasn't comfortable with, something his mother had advised him to do when James had written to her.
Aquila, on the other hand, James was heavily trying to get talking, because the fickle little thing managed to avoid him as well along with Sirius. She was never alone in the castle, and no, James certainly did not spend his free time tracking her footsteps on the Map. haha, no, he totally didn't!
And no, he was totally not getting jealous at the time Mulciber and Aquila spent alone. Totally not.
Let's pretend for a while that he was, in fact, not lying.
"Aquila!" James shouted. Oh no, she was not going to get away this time.
Wait, back up. That sounded very creepy.
"Aquila! Aquila, wait!" James ran after her.
Unfortunately for Aquila and fortunately for him, Aquila had little to no experience with fast running, and James certainly had a lot. He quickly caught up to her and grabbed her upper arm to stop her. She winced slightly, not enough for the naked eye to notice, but James' eyes were wearing glasses.
At least the glasses had some puns he could make.
"Are you okay?" James asked, immediately retreating his hand.
Aquila adjusted her beanie on her head, and gave a single, sharp nod.
Not okay, then.
"You wanna talk now?" James asked softly, not wanting to pressure her, but wanting to know all the same.
Aquila gave a single, short shake of her head, and adjusted the beanie again.
James gently grabbed her hand, then checked her face to see if she was okay with it, but her face remained blank. He guided her towards a torch hanging on the wall, and pulled a small lever down. A piece of wall slid away to reveal a secluded room. Aquila gasped softly, her free hand tracing the slab of the wall.
James transformed two goblets (why were they here?) into two great armchairs with a swish of his wand.
He hoped Aquila saw and got impressed.
Unfortunately, Aquila was busy adjusting her beanie again, tugging it here and there with one hand as the other was still tightly clasped in James'.
She slumped into one of the chairs, and James regretted making two separate chairs. He could've made one large sofa, ideal for hugging her, but no, his brain refused to give out wise advice like this when it mattered.
James shook his head to clear his brain of such thoughts. He wasn't here to flirt with her. He was here to just be here for her.
He took her hand in his again because he had noticed it was trembling again. Jokes aside, James really was concerned about her. Sirius liked to hide all the shit he faced at home under humour, and as much as Aquila excelled at keeping a mask on her face to betray hers, she couldn't hide the other signs which came into notice if you paid attention.
And James was paying attention.
"Hey, tell me what's wrong," James said softly, and the softness of his voice broke something inside Aquila. She didn't like being treated like a glass doll, but maybe, maybe, the situation called for it this time.
Because even if she didn't like being treated like a glass doll, she sure as hell felt like one right now.
Aquila still shook her head, now fighting hard to make the tears stay in her eyes and not fall. James cupped her chin. "It's okay, love," he whispered. While he was curious, he didn't want to force her into talking. Aquila kept shaking her head, with her tears now falling with full freedom, and she fiddled with her cap again, and hiccupped.
"I hate crying," Aquila sniffled.
James gave her a soft smile. "Is that why you're crying?"
Aquila gave him a glare, which you would expect to be dulled by the tracks of tears flowing down her cheeks, but it still looked as deadly as ever.
"Come on, then. Out with it," James grinned. A glare was certainly better than cold contempt.
"I-" Aquila paused, scrunched her face and bit her lip. "I don't wanna show you."
"Then don't, love," James said softly.
She shook her head. "I have to. I haven't shown this to anyone. Please don't tell Sirius," she added the last part in a whisper.
James nodded, and took her hand in his again, as if to reassure her of his presence. Or himself of her presence.
Whatever it was, James was certainly not ready for Aquila to remove her beanie.
Moreover, he was certainly not ready to witness her hair.
Or rather, lack of.
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i've been laughing evilly for a long time now
and dammnnn am i excited to write war!Aquila and Reg fighting back to back and getting dark marks and whoops-
