Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This work is merely for leisure and not for any profit whatsoever.
Summary: London is a big city. In cities of such size, many small details pass by unnoticed by most of the crowd. Homes become invisible, shops are glanced over and ignored, strange events and people are written off as one-time occurrences, and anomalies are unknowingly brushed aside. SI/OC.
Stars in the Silence
Down the Rabbit Hole
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Six months had passed since Aquila created her Light Scripture, and summer had begun to crawl into London. During that time, she, with the help her father, had fiddled and experimented with the scripture until she could turn it on and off, control the light's intensity and even set it on a timer. Needless to say, Orion had been very pleased and Walburga all but crowing to the other Ladies when she met with them.
Aquila was more than aware of the increased scrutiny that was placed on her because of this, both by her parents and by the other pureblood Houses. She was also not blind to how the Houses with Heirs were assessing her, betrothal contracts no doubt the topic of many discussions Orion had with the other Lords. She'd be worried, but her father had shot down each and every single offer, stating that Aquila wasn't something to be bought with money or familial allegiance. She was deeply touched by the action, that Orion, despite being happy with Walburga, wouldn't do to them what his father had done to him and was happy to let her find her own match, as long as he was a respectable wizard. Aquila knew that it would have been much simpler to just agree to a contract; talented, intelligent and part of a long, pure and rich lineage? There was no doubt that she could've been just shuffled to the highest bidder. Instead, her father had probably snubbed a good dozen or so Houses with his refusal just for her sake.
Not that it stopped the other Houses from trying.
As it were, Aquila, Sirius and Regulus were in the living room 'entertaining' their guests, Rabastan Lestrange, Evan Rosier and Bartemius Crouch Jr. Or rather, Aquila was watching over Regulus and Barty while they played and Sirius glared alternatively between Lestrange and Rosier who were conversing in soft tones together.
It had been almost an hour since their parents had disappeared into Orion's study room to 'discuss certain matters' and Aquila was impressed that her twin had the control to keep the impressive glare on his face for the whole time. It was rather endearing to see Sirius trying to look intimidating to her potential betrothal candidates. And considering he was six and Lestrange and Rosier were ten and nine respectively, he wasn't having any success at all. (Aquila was of the opinion that he looked more like a sullen puppy that realised that his favourite toys was going to be taken away. Especially when he made tiny growls whenever the two older boys so much as glanced her way.)
Aquila sighed. Deciding that Sirius had enough time to make his point across, she slapped him on the head, effectively breaking the awkward tension in the air.
Ignoring her twin's indignant yelp with practiced ease, she dragged him over to where Lestrange and Rosier were watching them curiously.
She gave Sirius a nudge, to which he released a few incoherent grumbles before giving a displeased huff.
"I object to any non-platonic relationships that focus on Aquila. I'm not sharing." Sirius stated seriously. (Aquila was struck by another mental image of a tiny barking puppy.)
To the older boys' credit, the only signs of confusion they gave were a blink of the eyes and a slight shift in their standing posture.
"I'm serious," Sirius continued on (and Aquila had to fight down the urge quip a 'who else would you be?' to him). He folded his arms and puffed out his chest, "Father will turn down those betrothal contracts again, and I am not going to let you befriend my sister like your parents ordered you to just to try and tie her down with an engagement proposal. I. Am. Not. Sharing."
Aquila pinched the bridge of her nose and made a frustrated sound. Lestrange and Rosier looked flabbergasted.
After a moment, Rosier pipped up hesitantly, "We weren't told to befriend Aquila just to… propose to her." Said girl was mildly amused to see the older boy turn an interesting shade of green at the prospect of proposing to her.
Sirius gave the two a suspicious look. His eyes narrowed, "Are you sure." It wasn't so much a question as much as it was a demand.
They nodded.
After a few seconds of consideration, her twin grumbled, walked over to a nearby chair and sat down.
Aquila chose that time to explain her twin's actions to the confused pair. "He approves of you trying to be friends with me and won't actively try to sabotage this friendship as long as it remains platonic."
Lestrange gave her an odd look, "You need his approval?"
"Hardly." Aquila's reply was drier than the Sahara. "It just means that I have less whining to deal with if I decide to be friends with you as well." Here she paused, before a wry smile stretch across her lips, "Sirius doesn't like sharing, as you could probably tell."
"And the 'proposal'?" Lestrange edged, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Aquila shrugged. "Father's been getting quite a number of betrothal proposals. He's turned all of them down, but your families have been rather insistent."
The older boys looked mildly alarmed and wrong-footed. She was willing to be that their families hadn't informed them of the real reason they'd been visiting Grimmauld Place on a near weekly basis for the past few months.
"It's because you made that rune light, isn't it?" Rosier asked.
Aquila nodded.
The two older boys shared a glance. "Can we see it?" Lestrange asked.
.
"… when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing soveryremarkable in that; nor did Alice think it soverymuch out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actuallytook a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge."
Shadows flickered across the wall as Sirius read from the book. Behind the audience, Aquila shifted the shadow-puppets she had in her hands, casting shadows that matched her twin's voice.
They had done this several times since she managed to create the Light Scripture, and the motions were now rather familiar to Aquila. It was an idea Aquila had when Regulus complained to the both of them how Kreacher had read all the bedtime stories to him already, and he wanted something different. And just the next day, Walburga brought the twins to Diagon Alley to shop for a few items. When they were there, the twins had wandered into Flourish and Blotts and managed to find a magically enchanted book of non-magical stories. They bought it and smuggled it back to their home to a delighted Regulus.
The shadow-puppets were a spur of the moment idea Aquila had, and when she shared it with Sirius, they decided to try it. They spent weeks creating the puppets and learning how to use them, and they surprised their baby brother with a shadow-puppet rendition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on his birthday. Needless to say, Regulus loved it, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland became his favourite.
"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well."
Regulus and Barty gave appropriate reactions of surprise as Alice fell down the rabbit hole, and while the older pair of boys didn't voice their reactions, they were looking very intently at the shadows flickering on the wall. Aquila grinned; Sirius was a great story teller and she a good puppeteer it seemed. Their audience was entranced.
Just as Sirius was about to continue on, Kreacher popped into the room with an announcement that the adults had finished their discussions and the guests were to leave soon.
There was much disappointment that the story had been cut short, but the boys helped to keep the puppets and the books while Aquila deactivated the Light Scripture. She accepted the box that contained the puppets from Lestrange with a nod of thanks. The group then proceeded to walk down the hallway towards the foyer where the adults were waiting for them.
On the way Aquila asked, "Lestrange, where's your brother? I find it a bit odd that he's not here, even if he's already betrothed to cousin Bella."
The boy shrugged, "He's having lessons with an old classmate of Father's. Bellatrix is with him as well."
Aquila raised an eyebrow. "Oh, what is he covering?"
Lestrange hesitated for a brief moment, before he replied, "Dark Arts."
Further conversation stopped as they had arrived at the foyer. The children proceeded to their respective parents and it was Rosier who broke the brief silence.
"Sirius, Aquila, thank you for showing us the Light Scripture. It was most enlightening," he paused, "I… would not be averse to being allies with the both of you."
"I as well," Lestrange spoke up.
"Me too!" Barty Jr. pipped up from his perch in his mother's arms, "The story was great!"
The adults eyed the situation with interest. The twins brushed against each other and chorused, "Of course."
.
The Lestranges left last, with Rabastan giving the twins a parting nod before he disappeared in a whirl of green flames. Once the flames died down, Walburga gave a sideways glance towards the twins, her lips pursed in a disapproving manner.
"I had hoped that you two would have improved and be able to showcase your little performance in a more magical way but I doubt so." She turned around to face them, barking, "Aquila. I expect you to improve on your runes if you wish to continue your little hobby. Sirius. Work on your studies. Kreacher can read those stories. It is beneath an Heir to do a servant's job."
With that, she spun around and strode off. Orion followed her, disagreement evident, but he said nothing in reply to Walburga.
Aquila stared at the back of her parents, especially Walburga, with a blank face. The only hint of annoyance and anger was the tenseness of her back and a mild twitch of her finger. Beside her, Sirius was clenching his fist and glaring darkly at the floor while Regulus looked on anxiously.
She was under such scrutiny that she shouldn't have been surprised.
(She was; and frustrated that all Walburga seemed to care about was her magical prowess. And a little hurt too.)
A/N: Thanks for the favs, follows and reviews! You guys rock. Siriusly (haha), I feel the love TwT
Early chapter cause I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow (today? I guess, since it's past midnight over here) for a long holiday. I'll be back on 1st Jan so don't expect a chapter until a couple of days after that. (Sorry orz) Then the updates would be back to normal! (Hopefully, cause school's starting and… school ._. Yeah…)
Sorry for any mistakes, I haven't the time to check as thoroughly as I normally do and my dear friend who's acting as a beta is currently unavailable. (Seriously though give some love to her, my chapters don't flow at all without her input. This chapter wouldn't have happened without her help.)
Yep the italic speech is copied from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So I don't own that as well.
Anyways, again, any thoughts, questions, theories, anything; please share them with me! I love reading your reviews, and they really make my day.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :D
