"Do you even remember that night? When we were thirteen? When I told you that if I could spend the rest of my life with anybody, it'd be you?"
***
Aquila Malfoy knew, through and through, that she was a Malfoy. She had the pale skin, shiny blonde...
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The night of the sorting had since flown by— days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and before she knew it, Aquila found herself in the crisp air of a November morning being scolded by Percy Weasley.
"You lot are going to get expelled soon if you don't clean up your act!" he exclaimed, waving a disappointed finger at Aquila, Lee, Fred, and George. "Three of you are Quidditch reserves and one of you is our announcer; you've got titles and responsibilities to uphold! You can't go out pulling foolish stunts left and right!"
"Get your knickers out of a twist, Mum," said Fred, rolling his eyes greatly. "We didn't pull any foolish stunts. We simply..... spiritedly contributed to the festivities last night."
"Yeah," chimed George, grinning. "Gryffindor won the first match of the season. We had to go out with a bang."
"Literally," added Lee, smirking, making Aquila giggle.
Percy narrowed his eyes at them. "Making a pun out of your childishness does not make it any better." He scoffed. "Where did you even get those fireworks?"
Aquila, Lee, Fred, and George all looked at each other and grinned knowingly. The four friends had managed to pull off one of the most wicked pranks a group of first years had ever pulled— sending red and gold fireworks into the Slytherin common room after Gryffindor's first win of the Quidditch season. They'd managed to sneak out to Hogsmeade, Hogwarts' neighbouring village, via a secret passage back on Aquila's twelfth birthday in September, where they purchased said fireworks from Zonko's Joke shop (along with a plethora of other gadgets that would help them wreak havoc). It was a risky move leaving the school through passages that could've led anywhere, but there wasn't any fear in the kids' minds. In fact, Aquila had insisted they make it an annual thing.
"New tradition: on each of our birthdays, we'll sneak out," she had said excitedly, as they trekked back to Hogwarts, concealed by the stone walls of the underground passages.
"I'm down," said George brightly, nodding along enthusiastically with Fred and Lee. "But we'll need to do it twice on mine and Fred's birthday. You know, to keep it fair."
"Fine by me," said Lee. "Just means double the fun."
"We can double the fun every birthday by pulling a prank, too," suggested Fred. "A sneak out and a prank, how's that sound?"
"Perfect," said Aquila, beaming. "Mark your calendars boys— for the next six years, September twenty third, February second, and April first are going to be momentous pranking occasions."
The 'momentous pranking occasions' were not as few and far between as Aquila had put; little did she know the day she'd met them, the boys were quite the troublemakers. Of course, though, she wasn't complaining. She was having the most fun she'd had in forever.
"Where and when we were able to get ahold of the fireworks is classified information, Perce," said Fred.
"We can't go around telling you all our secrets," added George.
