𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 57

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH AVIANA 
IS STRESSED

. . .

Harry had been reprimanded for getting yet another set of detentions by McGonagall, before the entirety of the Great Hall, and Aviana had to somehow look concerned whilst simultaneously complaining to her friends of there being all this disturbance so early in the morning.

They had laughed so openly about it, teasing as they left breakfast behind for yet another History of Magic lesson for her to snooze through, the prefect badge pressing uncomfortable against the bare skin beneath her loosely buttoned blouse. As each lesson before, she hardly learned nothing, and it only added to her growing stack of to-dos that came from that year; the hours-long detentions, the shoddy teachers, it all culminating in a long, long list of things she needed to do.

With Umbridge's decision to not only not teach them actual spells, but assign them a textbook that did the exact same thing and feed them handfuls of Ministry propaganda that wouldn't allow them protection when in a time of necessity, it meant that Aviana had to find old copies of last year's fifth year textbooks to teach herself all the content. She had been teaching herself History of Magic for years now, but to add a whole other subject to that during her O.W.L.s year was a nightmare.

Let alone all the homework she had to do too. It was a nightmare, quite frankly, and as she left History of Magic behind, all that was on her mind was just the amount of work that had piled up behind her. And, just to add on to the pile, she hadn't been able to go to a Quidditch practise for weeks, and had to force Montague to put a practise on the weekends - which he claimed was a huge imposition because apparently that was the day when he had a strict workout regime to go through. 

Not that she cared in the slightest, all it took was a little flirting, then a reminder that he had a girlfriend and suddenly he was more than happy to host practises then. Nevertheless, Aviana had far too much to do, far much to do in very little time and certainly, this whole thing with Potter was only adding to it. Perhaps she should have considered how to manage her workload before this, but in reflection, the whole practising thing was creating a new sense of ease.

"C'mon, Avi, crack a smile." Pansy slipped her arm into the crook of Aviana's. "I know you have all these awful detentions with that bitch of a professor but you have to cheer up at some point."

"I will, next week, when I stop going to her detentions."

"You can't stop, you'll just get into more trouble for it." Pansy shook her head slowly, as they made their way down the lawn, behind numerous other groups of students not so unlike their own, should the penchant for snootiness and upset over stupid pureblood matters suddenly go down the drain. They did tend to dress better than anyone else, so even so, they had that. "You know how you hate to lose house points, Avi."

"In any other situation, yes." Aviana sniffed, just the mention of it bringing a discomfort to her stomach. "And I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you don't know what it's like, Pansy. I'd much rather see the squid in the Black Lake swallow her whole and I'm not going to get that if I stand there and behave."

"But Avi..." Pansy trailed off, not exactly knowing how to reply to that. She swallowed. "But surely," she began again, "it's easier to get Umbridge standing at the edge of the Black Lake when she actually likes you, right?"