Merlin, it had been going on for hours. Aquila had half a mind to go in there and tell them to just stop, that it was pointless. Once Euryale realized Otterburn was useless, she had began to bounce other names off of her son, only for him to shoot them down with what he was particularly well known for - blackmail. He had gotten the trait from their mother, being friends with the entire school in order to pick up some dirt on them once they turned on him or his little sister - who he felt an annoying need to coddle. But it was in this moment she was grateful he was so protective over her. Because he knew better than anyone how well she took care of herself - how good she was on a broom and wand. He went to every single match she was in, even competed against her with his Hufflepuff house.

It had been him she had gone to when Cedric had first cheated on her and she found out. It had been him she had nervously explained that she lost her V card to her boyfriend and he had simply shrugged and said, "You used the spell, right, Ella?" He was the best brother she could have asked for. Didn't threaten her boyfriends because he knew she was able to get out before anything bad happened - she had seen plenty of abusive relationships in Slytherin to recognize the signs - and he knew she would do things - like sex - when she was ready. But once her heart was broken, her ex-boyfriend was broken the next day by Evan Black.

And as she cast the silencing charm around the house for the fifth time that night, after the fifth time the argument had died down, only to fire back up again three seconds later, her mother had ran out of people to list.

"Who do you suggest then?" Euryale finally said after a long moment of silence. She could hear both of their heavy breathing, both of them trying to keep their tempers in check. She heard Evan groan in frustration and checked the clock with a small peak into the living room door. Nearly three in the morning. Merlin, he must have been tired.

"No one. Let her decide who she marries. You know that she can do it - make a good choice. If she wants to marry a Muggleborn, let her. If she wants to never marry and become a Playwitch, so what? Let her," Evan insisted. Okay, well, Playwitch was definitely not happening. But she appreciated the notion of being single and just having fun being brought up. "She's sixteen."

"I was sixteen when I-"

"Things were different then," Evan insisted. "You're different than her. She's like dad. She's tough. And you loved dad when you married him. You fell in love in school before you were forced to marry... Aquila doesn't have that. The bloke just died... you can't expect her to bounce right back and fall in love with whoever you throw at her. No one knows her own taste better than Aquila herself, right? So, I think it's entirely pointless."

"I've already written back a few offers," Euryale admitted after a moment. Evan groaned and Aquila soon followed. Wonderful.

"Then I'm taking her to Sirius."

"What?" Euryale cried. "You can't-"

"She's my baby sister and I know these guys, mum," Evan insisted. "I know what they'll do to her and I'm not going to let that happen. So either you tell them you're not interested in their money and their offers, or I'll take her to Sirius and she'll stay with him until she graduates." There was a tense silence and then Euryale gave a huff. But Aquila couldn't tell if that was a bad huff... or a good huff. "You can't keep doing this to her. You promised she'd pick her own guy, and then you force her to be okay with another contract?"

"I'm not letting her marry that Muggle boy-"

"Merlin, mum, she's not even dating him, let alone marrying him!"

"How do you know?" Euryale demanded. Ah, screaming again.

"Because she told me so! And she's telling the truth. After your bloody boyfriend dies, you don't move on right away. Don't force her to move on, either. Diggory was a good guy. While in the end he was not, that doesn't mean she still didn't love him, and ... that Muggle boy - if she does move on and date him, it'll be at her own pace. Believe me, I've seen her relationships, she doesn't let anything happen-"

"He's a bad influence," Euryale insisted. "She snuck out in the middle of the night, went to a party with him, and slept over at his house-"

"So?" Evan asked and Aquila could just picture the confused expression.

"He could have taken her virginity!" Euryale cried. Oh, bloody hell. Aquila flushed and covered her face with her hands like she was in the room with them. Shit, please, Evan, don't tell her... After Quidditch. "No one-"

"If she wants to lose it, she'll lose it," Evan snapped. "What's the point of it? Purity? Bullshit. You know just as well as I that the whole virginity thing is just so that the husband gets what he paid for. And ten million galleons? No girl, not even Aquila, wants to feel like she's just a piece of meat that's to be bought. I'll have you know that every single girl in my year didn't have their V card. Rosa doesn't, but that doesn't mean we've had sex. We haven't, but we've talked about it. I know for a fact that Draco Malfoy's intended isn't a virgin, because she slept with my best friend in school. And I also know for a fact that Malfoy knows about that. It's not as big of a deal as when you were our age-"

"And has she? Aquila?"

"Has she what? Had sex?" Evan laughed, and Aquila prayed to whoever would listen that he wouldn't say anything. "Would that change anything?"

"Yes. Because no one will marry her if she has!" Euryale insisted. What?

"There's this thing called love," Evan stated simply. "I love Rosa, so I don't care that she has slept with someone before me. It's fine. And I guarantee that the only ones that care about it are the guys that like making women feel like shit and call her a whore because she's maybe lost it to the guy she loved. I don't think Aquila has slept with anyone, but that doesn't mean she's not allowed to. It's her body, her decisions. And, in fact, I want her to lose it, because I don't want you to sell it to the highest bidder. At least whoever she does it with will be someone she cares about, not someone she's forced to be with-"

Merlin, were they seriously talking about her sex life. "Has she lost it? Where is she?"

Aquila quickly thought of the repercussions of telling her mother now. Bad case scenario, she'd be grounded and wouldn't be allowed to go to Quidditch - but then Evan would just take her to Sirius... Best case scenario, she gets out of the marriage contracts. But she wouldn't be able to go to Quidditch, and she'd already gotten Dudley to ask his parents.

"She's in the other room, I think. But so what? If you threaten her, I'm taking her to Sirius. One single word and she's gone." Bloody hell, Evan. Okay, she had to choose now. Her mother would be furious, so furious. But maybe if she explained... she still had the engagement ring from Cedric! He never officially asked her, but he had given it to her to think over. Okay, that would do it. That would prove to her mother she wasn't just sleeping around at least.

She quickly flew up the stairs and opened her bedside drawer, finding the diamond ring with her initials engraved on the inside, Cedric's beside the heart that followed. She flew back down the stairs and nearly ran into her mother, who had been looking for her.

"Okay, living room," Aquila said simply, pulling her mother into it. She stood by Evan, glad to have at least one person by her side. She swallowed as her mother crossed her arms.

"Well? Have you ever had sex before?"

"First, let me... explain," Aquila stated, and her mother looked instantly murderous. "Last fall, Cedric was getting ready for the first task. We had just found out it was dragons and... he sort of had already proposed to me." Euryale tilted her head in acknowledgement. So he had asked her for her hand, then. Aquila presented the ring, letting her mother take it and look it over. "He gave me a ring and said that we could get married whenever I wanted. He knew I was young, and that we still had school to finish, so he said there was no pressure for a decision. I told him... I told him yes, that I'd love to get married, but after I graduate."

"And you slept with him for a ring?" Euryale asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Aquila insisted. "That was right before he was chosen as champion, the ring. It was the first week of Hogwarts. Um... well," she fidgeted nervously. "I... I wore the ring and we were engaged. I mean, we never announced anything, because we didn't want to. There was too much focus on the Tournament. We wanted to make him win and I helped him as much as I could. We found out it was dragons and... and I really thought he was going to die. He was practically terrified of going to the first task... Yes, we slept with each other. It was my first time, and that was it. We didn't have sex all the time after that. It was just that one time, and when he survived the first task, we were a lot closer. There were a lot of close times where we almost did, but ... that was it, really. We were in different houses, so it was difficult to find time together, and with the second task, him now knowing how to get the egg to tell him the clue, it was so hectic. And then he started to see Cho, and I realized that before we had even slept together, he was casually seeing her on the side... And I refused to let him near me after that... It was just the one time, and I haven't slept with anyone else."

Her mother stared at her daughter blankly before looking at Evan. She didn't seem to know what to say and glanced down at the ring in her hands, reading the engraving on the inside. "I knew he was going to propose to you... I really liked him-I could see him as a son-in-law. And then... I never even knew you were engaged - that you had said yes-"

"We wanted to wait until after the Tournament to announce it, and then all that Cho stuff happened and we were on the verge of breaking up, but he insisted that we just wait until after the tournament... and I was just stupid. It was a stupid mistake-"

"No, it wasn't," Evan insisted. "You fell in love with the guy, you wanted to sleep with him, you could. It's not a mistake if you meant it at the time. So, don't apologize for it. Mother's a grown woman. She can handle it."

"You knew she slept with him!" Euryale accused her son.

"She did tell me first," Evan replied honestly. "Absolutely scared shitless because of you." Euryale seemed surprised at that. "Thoroughly convinced that she was going to be disowned because of one night. What did I tell you, Aquila?"

"If I was disowned, I could live with him or Sirius," Aquila said quietly. "And that if I was disowned, he'd take me to a male strip club so that I could have sex with as many guys as I wanted." She couldn't help but smirk at that. He made her feel better. He was her brother - he could always cheer her up. And at least he wasn't the protective brother that her friends sometimes had.

"You promote her behavior?" Euryale cried, waving her hand at her daughter.

"I've slept with seven girls in my life," Evan shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with it. She didn't do anything she didn't want to do."

Aquila bit her lip nervously, glancing at her brother as their mother seemed to take too long to respond. But she didn't want to speak. Speaking could potentially cause the volcano to erupt... for the sixth time tonight. She held her breath as her mother opened her mouth and then shut it again.

"That Muggle boy is a bad influence on you, Aquila."

"Dudley has influenced me in no way I would have acted before," Aquila insisted. "I've told you time and again that he's a good person-"

"You slept in his bed!"

"He was on the couch!" Aquila cried. She sighed and forced her temper away. "I swear nothing happened for the eighteenth time."

"Merlin, Aquila. I can't get you to marry any respectable man now-"

"Good," Aquila insisted, a smirk touching her lips. "I don't want to marry anyone. I've been telling you that since I was five. Now you're finally listening."

"The Dark Lord-"

"Isn't our lord," Evan snapped. He grabbed Aquila's arm. "We're leaving."

"No," Aquila insisted. "I can't- I have Quidditch trials to attend, the match- I can't just leave overnight-"

"I'm only in England until tomorrow," he insisted. "I have a portkey to catch by three tomorrow."

She pulled him from the room to the upstairs. "Sleep here. It's already three in the morning. You can sleep in my room with me. I miss you-"

"How touching," he sniffed. "Ravenclaws."

"Hufflepuffs," she returned bitterly. She heard their mother protest behind them, but paid no mind as she shut the door and transfigured her bed so that it was large enough for her and her brother. She sank down on her favored side and shrugged towards her brother. "You know, I was going to wait until after Quidditch to tell her about Cedric and I."

"Yeah, well, she needed to know before she finalized anything."

"True." Aquila paused as he brother sank down beside her. She suddenly felt like a child again, when she had her nightmares and her brother would always be there to wake her up and tell her they weren't real. They had shared a room up until he had gotten his letter, and then he had insisted that she needed to sleep in her own room. Nine years old, terrified of her nightmares, she had obeyed. She didn't even know if he knew she had never gotten rid of them. But then she thought of the time she had slept in Dudley's bed... Not a single nightmare. And none for a few days following. But she had a feeling about tonight - about her staying up so late that she was beyond tired, so her defenses were down.

"I worry about you all the time, you know," Aquila told her brother carefully. "About if you're safe, if you're happy-"

"I'm in the safest place in Spain. I live in a Muggle community. It's very remote, and Rosa lives with me. It's quite safe. We don't use magic at all, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves." He brushed his hair away. "What about you?"

"We're as safe as we can get for living down the road from Harry Potter. A dementor attack a week ago." Evan glanced at her sharply. "Potter used a patronus charm before we could get any serious damage. That's how I met him and his cousin, Dudley. Nasty bit of damage to Dudley, though. And I was instantly friends with his mother after I helped cure the loopiness from the dementor... And then, well, that's pretty much all the danger... But I am happy here. The people are nice, but I haven't met any of the other neighbors. They don't have any other children my age... But there are some people in the neighborhood over."

"Mum is a bit mental, isn't she? Bloody hell, I've never noticed it before."

"She's just worried about us," Aquila muttered. "You shouldn't have yelled with her for so long... You could have lost your voice."

"It was worth it."

"Thank you," Aquila said sincerely. "I really mean it. Thank you."

"If you still want to go to Sirius in the morning, I'll take you," Evan promised. "If you ever want to go, all you have to do is apparate there-"

"I don't have my apparation license yet," she sighed. "But I'll probably Floo or something... I just don't want to leave just yet. If she starts talking about it again, I'll escape for a few days and see what happens... I just don't want to leave her. We're all she has, Ev."

"Yeah, but she's past listening."

Aquila couldn't help but agree. "So, how did you meet Rosa? What does she look like?"

They talked for a while more and Aquila settled under the covers as she listened to her brother talk to her, as if telling her a story of some prince and princess in some far off land. It made her feel younger, and she knew she'd miss him just as much as she did when he first disappeared to Spain when she woke up in the morning. She drifted off to speak as he spoke about where their wedding was taking place - Barcelona in a beautiful cathedral - and he detailed every facet of Rosa for her, so well that Aquila could almost picture her sister in law.

And then the nightmares took over, ruining her good feeling about the night.