𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 63

CHAPTER SIXTY THREE
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY TALK 
ONCE MORE

. . .

Harry followed after her, watching as she turned down a corridor, without even a glance back to ensure he was following him, entering one of the classrooms surrounding the courtyard. He was just about to follow her in, when the door swung open again. 

"Yes, that's right, scram." Aviana snapped, and Harry watched as a group of third years hurried out, mumbling something about the crazy lady in gloves... and her equally insane father. "Yes, Potter?" She asked, when he stepped through, slowly closing the door behind him. 

"I... well..." Harry began, as she settled on the empty teacher's desk, folded her legs. "Aviana." 

"Yes, Potter?" She blinked, and crossed her arms over her chest. "What is it you would like to discuss with me? Are you unhappy with how this plan is progressing, because I find that Umbridge looks more and more upset every time we're in each other's general vicinity? Or is it, perhaps, Granger is expressing more concern for my state and is offering another ridiculous way for her to fix it?" 

"No, it's not about Hermione." Harry watched as her hands dropped to her lap, one clutching the glove of the other. "I was just... I just..." 

"Spit it out, Potter, I haven't eaten yet and I have a class to get to." She snapped. "What is it? Are you planning to further console me for the simple slip of emotion?" 

"This is the first time I've seen you at a meal in three days."

"I've been eating in the kitchen." Aviana replied. "It is a hell of a more quieter than the Great Hall and allows me to complete some of the work I have missed simultaneously." 

"Good. So you've been eating, good to know." Harry nodded. He adjusted his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose before digging his hands into his pockets. 

"Not that it's any of your business." 

"Aviana - listen, just for a minute." He said, looking up at her. She shrugged, rolling her eyes, gestured for him to continuing. "I don't want to talk about what happened, if you don't."

"I don't. In fact, I'd rather prefer it if you didn't think about that incident and instead focus on further pissing off Umbridge." Aviana said, loftily, her attention decisively elsewhere. 

Harry sighed and swallowed. Something within him thrummed horribly, because all he could think about was that evening and how she had smiled so prettily at him during the detention  just to annoy Umbridge only to end up showing her upset, showing actually true emotions as soon as she left. 

"I don't want to talk about me crying, Harry. I just said that. I don't cry, that's not what I do. It is not a useful outlet for any emotions I may feel, it renders absolutely everything I have worked for useless." Aviana pursued her lips. "Listen, Potter, if you have nothing important to say to me then I have a plenty of other things to do, and having fruitless conversations with you is not on that list."

She pushed herself off the table, spending a moment to smooth down her skirt before beginning towards the door. Harry, quite frankly, was somewhat lost for words, but somehow managed to spluttering something out in the panic of the idea that he was losing his only chance to actually talk about it all before they returned to that awkward lapse of of silence that they couldn't escape.

"Aviana-"

She stopped, turned back to him, and he realised that now, more than ever, there was no 'they'. There was a 'they' when they were in detention, when she was arguing with Umbridge, but not then.  "I told you that I didn't want to talk about it, Potter." Aviana ridiculed, because it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

"Hermione's come up with a plan-"

"What did I say about Hermione? About the fact I couldn't give less of a shit about any of her plans. Like I told you, I am completely fine, and I truly don't need that busy-body know-it-all to hover around prescribing me with only more punishments." She snapped, before turning back to the door, reaching for the handle.

Harry rolled his eyes, leant against a desk. "It's nothing to do with you, by the way." He called,  and her actions stiffened. "For a change." 

"What do you mean 'for a change'?" Aviana snapped. "I am well aware that the world does not revolve around me. If that were the case, then I would never even be close to having this conversation with you and in fact, everything in my life would actually be perfect. So yes, Harry, I am aware that not everything has got to do with me but certainly, every time Granger has been discussed it has because she has 'growing concern' for my mental state when she doesn't even dare look at me." 

"Probably because every time she has looked at you over the past few years, Malfoy's been there to try and bully her." Harry shrugged. "And he's always there, like some oddly blond guard dog."

"He's my fucking cousin, Harry, because apparently you're so concerned about that." Aviana shook her head and crossed her arms again, wand clutched between her fingers. "But fine. What is it, what is this amazing plan that Granger has thought up?"

 "She wants me to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts." Harry said. 

Aviana paused. Her head tilted, expression seemed to ease. "If you wanted me to skip History of Magic then all you had to do was ask."

 And she sat back down on the desk. 

✧