Aquila,

Pretty sure my lungs are shot. Bloody hell, I feel like an eighty year old chain smoker when I just do a light jog. But, onto some awesome news. So, Piers was in America on holiday and apparently he got that girl - the one that started to call you names at the party a bit ago - pregnant. Piers mum's furious, even brought him home from America a few days early. So my awesome news is that Piers is totally grounded - can't even leave his house except to go to school. I know you aren't fond of him, so I hope that made you laugh, at least.

Mum still worries about you. I promised her you're fine. Angelina even told us that you had a pretty nasty fracture to the leg, but you healed up all fine. I haven't seen your mother. I have a feeling that she's starting to leave for days on end, because I'll hear one of those loud cracks when you lot teleport, and then I won't hear another for a few days, and it's when she's walking towards the door. So... I don't know what you can do with that information, but thought it might be useful.

It's boring here. In fact, so boring that I'm tempted to do something exciting. I'm counting down the days. 227 left until July 16th, which is a Wednesday, by the way. I find that odd. You would be able to contact me if the days are longer, right? Just curious.

I've been listening to your Quidditch matches on the radio - which I've taken to my room because Dad thinks its a bit of background noise when it's on all day every day. You're playing great, from what they say. I reckon you'll be able to make it to the European Cup already, by the point system you explained to me.

So, good luck on that.

Dudley

She had begun to notice his lack of endearing greetings and salutations in the last few days, and it hurt her. Each letter became less frequent. Where near the beginning of the year they were every other day, now... well, now they were pretty much every five days, and they got shorter and shorter.

She suspected soon they would just stop being sent to her all together.

And it pained her.

She finished the calculation in front of her, staring at it, before she glanced up towards the fire. She had a motive - well, a subjective motive, but one that worked with the calculations.

"Aquila?"

"I need to borrow your owl," she spoke urgently, giving Luna Lovegood a small smile.

"Oh, of course. It's in the owlery," Luna said simply. "I can walk with you if you'd like-"

"That would be great."

Professor Dumbledore, after all, was so swamped that the only way to get in contact with the Order was to message them herself. Which was breaking the rules, but this was important. She hurriedly wrote a note to Remus Lupin and then followed Luna out into the crisp December night. It had been weeks since Dudley's letter telling her that there were 227 days until they next saw each other, but it felt like a bloody lifetime.

But it was less, now. Perhaps 211? She didn't keep count. Keeping count meant that she would only think about it. But it also meant a week since Dudley's last letter. And it drove her mad. Once she attached the letter to the owl, it flew off and she gave Luna a bright smile. "Thank you so much, Luna. You're a life-saver, you know that?" And if the information was correct, Luna could be.

She could save Dorcas Meadowes life.

"Oh, I hope they find her," Luna said with a dreamy smile.

Aquila didn't question how she knew about what the letter contained, because the girl simply seemed to know things from all walks of life.

But Aquila hoped so too. She wanted to meet the woman that the Dark Lord had spent so many months searching for to blow up. She was talked of as the strongest duelist in the Order. And that meant... well, she was a threat. And Dorcas Meadowes was the Order's best threat to the Dark Lord. But... Aquila couldn't imagine what had become of her. What she must be going through.

It must have been hell. More hell than her Quidditch trainings were to her.

She didn't hear back from the Order, but she prayed it made it there alright, because the last thing they needed was interception and possibly Dorcas Meadowes dying as a result.

"Should I cut it?" Aquila asked Katie Bell, the train chugging towards Kings Cross station. She eyed the hair in her hands. She hadn't had it properly cut - just trimmed - since she met Dudley. And it was getting to be very long. "I mean, not really short... but maybe back to where it was?"

"Does it get in your way?" Katie asked.

"Not... not really," Aquila admitted. "I just... feel like I need a change, but I want your opinion."

Katie eyed the hair before reaching forward, tucking the ends under so that Aquila's hair hung at a different length. "What do you think of that?" Katie asked, biting her lip.

Aquila glanced in the window carefully, seeing her reflection in the night sky. What did she think? She didn't know. It made her nervous, thinking about cutting her hair, but... but the length was good. "I kind of like it," Aquila admitted honestly. She grabbed her wand before she could chicken out, made sure the hair was level, and then cast a divindo charm, slicing the hair off at the appropriate length.

Katie sucked in a breath, in alarm.

"Really like it," Aquila admitted as the hair fell to the ground and she ran her fingers through the new length, which rested just above her boobage. It was perfect.

"What would Dudley say?"

The question made Aquila falter and she sank back in her chair, casting a vanishing charm on the hair that laid on the floor. "I..." she swallowed, as if pained. "I don't know. He hasn't written me in two weeks... Do you think he found someone else?"

"I've seen the way he looks at you," Katie snorted. "If he found someone else, she'd have to be a freaking God, because you are pretty much all he sees."

"The Order would tell me if they were in trouble, right?" Aquila said, worried, now. "I mean... they would if something was wrong-"

"You know they would," Katie promised. She leaned forward, taking her friend's hands. "Maybe there's nothing going on there... you know? Maybe... he has nothing to tell you at the moment."

"Maybe," Aquila muttered, but she doubted it. She bit her lip, thinking of the Muggle boy she had fallen so desperately in love with. "But... what he has found someone else? And... and he just hasn't written me yet, because he doesn't know how to tell me?"

She felt sick to her stomach. She had nearly coughed a lung out yesterday because it felt like she had something lodged in it during practice. And now... just thinking about Dudley being in love with another girl... it made her feel physically ill.

"Maybe he has," Katie agreed. "But... he's a guy, who has been single for six months. I mean, I know if Lee and I went on break like you two did, he would spend time with other girls - and I'm okay with that. Because I know Lee loves me and... if it makes him happy... then I'm happy... and maybe I'll be sad, but... I would get over it." She winced as Aquila looked particularly green. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel good, either," Aquila admitted. She pulled out of Katie's grasp and rested her head on the ice cold window. "Just thinking about him finding someone else makes me sick... not jealous, just... just so... I don't even know how to describe it-"

"Disappointed," Katie supplied.

"Yes. Like... like I wasn't good enough and it makes me sick..." She took a deep breath. "I feel sick all the time... like, something's wrong. And I don't know what it is. I went to Madame Pomfrey but she said I was healthy-"

"Well, you're not pregnant."

Aquila snorted. "Not pregnant." She pressed a hand to her forehead. "It's not like that, though. I just... feel sick. Like physically ill, but not. Like I'm not the one sick. I don't know how to explain it. I just... And thinking about Dudley - if it's good, I feel better, almost - but if it's bad, I feel worse, sicker... I've never felt like that before."

"Maybe it's like that twin thing, you know with Fred and George? How they ... feel each other's pain. Maybe you're feeling Dudley's heartache."

But that didn't make sense. "I'm not twins with Dudley. That would be a little weird, considering we've shagged on multiple occassions."

"Oh, you have, have you?" Katie grinned. "And?"

"Oh, Merlin's beard, I'm never going to hear the end of this," Aquila snorted. "This summer, and it was great, alright? That's all you get-"

"No, that's not!" Katie cried, laughing. "What else?"

Aquila shrugged, the sick feeling dissipating slightly. "I mean... it was great. I've... I've never felt greater. I mean..." She sighed quietly. "With Cedric, it was... quick, sloppy... he did what he wanted and then it was over. But with Dudley..." She sighed again, closing her eyes. "It was slow, it was... it was beautiful. I mean, it is when we want to take our time..." Images of their tangled limbs danced in her mind's eye. "I miss it, I miss him..."

"Maybe you're home sick," Katie suggested gently. "You being home because he's there-"

"That's so sappy," Aquila giggled quietly. She sighed, though, considering it. "Maybe."

"You aren't seeing him this Christmas?"

"No, conditioning says that the only socialization I have is with the team... It's bloody ridiculous, now. I've been playing with them for nearly a year and half now? I don't need to bloody train anymore. I think I focus on Quidditch more than bloody Oliver Wood." She opened her eyes to see Katie's agreeing smile. "I don't need to focus on it more than I already do."

"It's true... not even Christmas Day?"

"No," Aquila sighed. "I... I can't." Katie didn't press it.

She could see the London lights in the distance, signalling perhaps a half hour until they arrived? Maybe a little longer. The train had to take an alternate track before it reached the city, to keep Death Eaters from intercepting.

And then she was on fire. She gasped at the sudden sensation, bringing Katie's attention to her, and she clutched her sides, bending forward.

"Aquila?" Katie asked. "What's wrong?"

"I'm on bloody fire," Aquila murmured. "Oh, my God... it's burning-" She released one of her sides, pressing her hand to her mouth and exhaling sharply, as if keeping back a scream. Bloody Merlin. Her stomach was on fire, but it was spreading to her other organs, to her heart, to her limbs, and her legs and her head... It all burned, like she was burning at the stake, or... Oh, Merlin...

"I don't know what to do," Katie said, kneeling beside Aquila. She had fallen out of her seat? Apparently because she was kneeling on the ground, her forehead pressed against the carpet, praying and breathing deeply, like she had run a marathon and was insanely out of shape for it.

"I don't know!" Aquila snapped between breaths. "Something's wrong..."

"What does it feel like? Poison? Um... um... what is it Slughorn's been telling us about... that potion, or any spells?"

"No, I'm... I'm burning on the inside, and..." She cried out, her voice muffled by the way she was sitting, and she tighted the grip she had on her side, as well as the hand over her mouth went between her teeth. A sound left her, like a whimper and a groan, and she sobbed at the pain. "Like Cruciatus or something..."

"No one's here to cast it on you..." Aquila knew that. She was alone with Katie and Katie had been reading. "Are you sure it's not poison?"

"I haven't eaten anything all day-"

"Cramps?"

"No!" Aquila snapped. She groaned again as the fire picked up in intensity and Katie's hands were shaking as they felt alone Aquila's neck.

"You're burning up. You're skin's on fire - not literally, but-"

"Get... McGonagall, or something," Aquila whimpered. She removed the hand from her teeth, digging her fingernails into the carpet, sucking in a sharp breath as she felt literal flames in her stomach. It had to have been. And her heart... her heart was smoldering, like a molten metal.

"Just stay there," Katie said urgently before the door opened and Aquila heard hurried footsteps leave. She didn't know where else she would have gone? Maybe Aquila would have walked off to the Slytherin compartments? But Katie was back, and Professor McGonagall was telling her to move.

"Miss Black?"

"She says she's burning," Katie supplied. "I don't know what it is. She says it feels like the Cruciatus-"

"Let's get you seated, and then we'll figure out what's wrong," Professor McGonagall suggested. Aquila sobbed in pain as Professor McGonagall grabbed her arm, hauling her to her feet and gently easing her back onto the compartment seats. She then eased Aquila onto her side, where her legs tucked in on her, and bloody Merlin, the heat kept getting more intense.

"Where did the pain start?"

"Stomach," Aquila choked out. She gripped the seat tightly, sucking in a sharp breath for air before releasing it in a panicked whimper. What was happening?

"My spells are finding nothing. No toxins, no spell damage... Miss Black when did it start?"

"Five minutes, maybe?" Aquila gasped. "I don't know-"

"Maybe ten minutes?" Katie supplied. "She was fine, one minute, and the next she's sobbing and crying out in pain... And ... she says she's on fire. And her skin's hot... burning hot-"

McGonagall pressed her hand to Aquila's forehead. "I don't know what it is. Just hang tight until we get to London. I'll contact Andromeda, get her to meet us at the platform. And Katie... send a patronus to Mister Jordan, if you can... I'd like to notify the Ireland team of the interception so that they don't make this news public-"

"Is this like what happened to me a few weeks ago?" Katie questioned. "With that necklace-"

"It doesn't appear so," Professor McGonagall said simply. "Hurry up." Aquila moaned, pressing her head into the seat, and clutching it much tighter, like she was trying to tear it apart. She heard McGonagall conjure her patronus, a small feline, and a message was relayed, but Aquila was hardly paying attention at that point. She was more worried about not screaming.

"There's a silencing charm," Katie told her after she, too, had contacted Lee. "You... you don't think it has anything to do with that marriage contract, do you?"

Oh, she prayed not. That's why she was apparating directly to Lynch's house as soon as the train docked. She wasn't even going to step outside of it.

"Marriage contract?" Professor McGonagall questioned. "Is it signed?"

"Not by me," Aquila murmured. "I never read it fully. It was charmed to sign if I did... It's to Simon Otterburn, and... and they're Dark, but Mum made it anyway and... we're supposed to get married this break, but... technically she hasn't told me and... so it's not a valid contract yet..."

"Then, I'll bring it up when Andromeda meets us." Her cousin. She trusted her cousin. And since Andromeda was a healer... well, it made the information much more reliable. "In the mean time, just keep breathing, Miss Black, and hopefully it'll be over soon." Hope. It was something that was scarce in the war. But Aquila tried her best.