aquila ▶ marauders era {EDITING}

10.

"I'LL BE RIGHT THERE, MOTHER," AQUILA SAID AS SHE SAT on the front steps of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. The Blacks (excluding Sirius) had returned home for the Christmas holidays and Aquila was just about ready to kill herself.

The girl took another drag of her cigarette (menthol, obviously) and tried to ignore her mother's calls for her. She had been sitting out here for roughly two hours, her only movements being her bringing the cigarette to her lips before lazily dropping her hand back down or the occasional relight of a new cigarette (she had smoked about four by now). The cold weather was biting her, somehow creeping its way past her multiple layers of thick clothing, but she would rather take her chances against the weather than her mother.

"AQUILA PHOENIX BLACK, GET HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Sighing, she stood up and stretched before shaking herself up, allowing some feeling to re-enter her limbs. Aquila took one final pull of the cigarette and then she dropped it to the floor, stepping on it as she made her way back into the house. She knew her absence would not have gone unnoticed (as Sirius was no longer here to take the attention off of her) but she had hoped that her parents would be preoccupied with Regulus for long enough to allow her a mental break.

"Yes, Mother?" Aquila said as she entered the parlour. Her parents were both sitting, watching her expectantly while Regulus lounged on an armchair.

"Aquila, your mother and I have been talking with the Rosiers and all of us have decided that a suitable pairing would be you and their eldest son, Evan. You know Evan, I presume?" her father asked to which she responded with a curt nod.

Evan Rosier was a Slytherin boy in Sirius' year and while he had never done Aquila anything personally, she tried to avoid the boy when she could. The boy was tall, around Remus' height, with golden blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Girls often threw themselves at him due to his physical attractiveness and because of this, he was more arrogant than most of Hogwarts' population (James Potter included) combined. Evan often hung out with Snape (one of the reasons Aquila had learnt to avoid him) and was just as much of a pureblood maniac as her parents were. 

No wonder they want to set us up, Aquila thought.

Seeing the girl's lack of response to her father's words, Walburga decided to take over, "Very well. It has been decided that you two shall be wed when you leave school in two years, so I suggest you get to know him better than you already do."

The words tumbled out of Aquila's mouth before she could stop them, "What if I don't want to marry Evan Rosier?"

"It is not about what you want, you selfish little girl. It is about what is best for this family. The Black name has already been tainted by that one good-for-nothing mistake and it will not be ruined by another!"

"Sirius was the best thing that ever happened to this family but you all are just too idiotic to realize it." 

SMACK.

Aquila's cheek began to sting before she had even registered that her mother had raised her hand. The slap hurt, it did, but she could not say that she was not used to it. Aquila had become so accustomed to such degrees of pain and torture that a slap across the face from her mother didn't even faze her anymore.

"You will go up to your room and you will not come back down until I say you can. Understand?" 

Aquila nodded and, without waiting for her mother to say anything else, left the room. She made her way up four flights of stairs, only stopping at the fourth floor landing. There, tucked in between Sirius' vacant bedroom and Regulus' room was her room. 

Her room was one of the only places she could've gotten away from everything. Aquila had tried her best to personalize the room in such a way that her parents wouldn't have a problem with anything she put up. Stuck on the walls were quotes from her favorite books (all non-Muggle, of course) and bands along with some pictures of her and her family. 

However, tucked away in the back of her closet, Aquila had a shrine dedicated to everything she loved. A small Ravenclaw banner was tacked at the top while hundreds of Muggle references that she learnt from Eliza covered the board. Pictures of all her friends, her true family, were littered all around and in the centre of it all was a picture of Sirius, herself and Regulus. 

In the picture, Sirius was in the Black Lake pouting while Aquila and Regulus were both on land; Aquila was standing up and Regulus was on the ground, the two holding their stomachs as they laughed. She smiled sadly, nostalgia flooding her system as she remembered the day it was taken. 

Aquila was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of tapping. Her head snapped to the window where an owl was perched, pecking its beak against the glass. She hurried across the room and opened the window, allowing the owl to fly in. It dropped off a bag and wasted no time in leaving, disappearing as quick as it had appeared.

After she closed the window, Aquila picked up the bag and emptied its contents onto her bed; her first genuine smile in days making its way to her lips as she did. 

Presents. 

The girl sifted through them, noting each name that she saw as she put them back into the bag.

Peter.

Remus. 

James. 

Eliza. 

Gideon and Fabian. 

While some of the names were expected, Aquila couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sight of both James' and the Prewetts' names on gifts. Yes, she often fraternized with them all (the Prewetts more than James as of recent) but this was the first year they had given her a gift. 

As she tossed each present back into the bag, she noticed one that she hadn't seen before as its petite presence was hiding underneath Eliza's bulky gift. Aquila froze, seeing that the present was wrapped in the most outrageous shade of aquamarine gift paper. Slowly, the girl picked up the present and she almost could not believe her eyes as she read whom it was from. 

Sirius.