𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 74

CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY 
CONVERSE IN THE 
COURTYARD

. . .

"Draco's a complete arsehole, by the way." Harry said as he approached Aviana less than an hour later, twenty minutes before Divination began during lunch. She was sat in the Courtyard, alone, lunch half eaten and discarded beside her as she hastily wrote down something in the dream journal Trelawney had given to them.

"That's not news to me." Aviana hummed, looking up. "I've been telling everyone he's piss-annoying for weeks now, and you wonder why I'm trying to irritate him as much as possible? Do you think I could put that in my journal?"

"Suppose so." Harry sat down beside her, resting against the stone archway. "Do you think she'll look at them?"

"I'm not taking any chances." Aviana shrugged. "Despite majority of the subject being something of a farce, I've managed to obtain a good grade and quite frankly I won't allow myself to have a report card by the end of summer that says I've failed something."

"Of course you won't." Harry hummed, smiling despite it all.

"What did he do, then?"

Harry sighed. "Talking about how his dad always goes by the Ministry so it was easy for him to get the Slytherin Quidditch team back-"

"Oh, that's what that paper was." Aviana hummed, dipping the nib of her quill into the ink well balancing on the stone beside her. "And his dad goes by the Ministry all the time because claimed he was all Imperius-ed into being a Death Eater the first time around. It's damage control. My dad did the same thing." 

The Potter boy didn't say anything for a moment, staring unblinkingly at the casualness of it all. He began to think that perhaps, if he just asked, then she would instantly spill any and all Death-Eater secrets that she kept up there. But he didn't, completely refused to. Besides, it wasn't just her father he had recognised behind the ornate masks on the night of the third task. 

"Yeah, and then he talked about sacking Mr Weasley... and something about the Ministry sending him to St. Mungo's because apparently they have a 'special ward for people whose brains have been addled with magic'." 

"They do, he's not making that up." Aviana looked up. Harry looked confused. "Listen, I agree that it was another one of the very distasteful things that he's said, because Mr Weasley is a lovely man and his brain definitely isn't addled with magic, but what am I supposed to do about it?" 

Harry hesitated for a moment, and decided he simply couldn't justify telling Aviana the reason behind his anger; it was not his story to tell, and he couldn't just start spurting out Neville's secret to everyone. "I don't know." He shrugged. "Just thought you might add it to your list of reasons to piss it off."

"It's already on there." Aviana returned her focus to her journal. "Harry, you don't have to worry about me being in a secret allegiance with Draco or something. The list of his indiscretions and things he's done that has pissed me off is already a mile long. And to make it quite clear, I really don't think it's funny for him to joke about that ward. You know, Gilderoy Lockhart really did a number on himself." 

"He's in there?" Harry's eyebrows shot up. "You mean, they couldn't... fix him?" 

"There's ways to make things easier, but he obliviated himself." Aviana told him. "Obliviate isn't a spell that you can cast on yourself, because you have no choice in what it erases. When casting it on someone else, you're supposed to specify what they forget. Trust me, the Janus Thickey ward is no joke to me. It's serious magical injury, can't be fixed." 

"You know a lot about it." 

"Before my summer totally went to shit, my dad arranged a tour for me to look around St. Mungo's." Aviana hummed, the corner of her lips turned up slightly as she wrote. "By the director of course... I want to be a Healer, you know. Hm... I should put that somewhere in here." 

"I didn't know, actually." Harry replied, as some of the last autumn song burst out onto the courtyard and she almost glowed before him. "I don't know... I don't know a lot about you at all, really." He admitted, as a frown was growing on his face.

"That, like much else, can be remedied." Aviana scanned the page before her, before dotting the last couple of 'i's and tapping it twice with her wand, to dry the ink instantly, and closed it. "I, on the other hand, know far too much about you." 

"You do?" 

"I know that Hedwig was injured this morning." Aviana sat up, after tucking her book into her bag. Harry's confusion only grew. "One of my house-elves has taken up residence in the staff room. I've had enough of not being aware of absolutely everything, so I decided to change that. She's a wonder, really, but don't tell Hermione because Zolly is my favourite and quite frankly, I don't want her touching one of those silly knitted socks." 

"Yeah... Yeah I won't." He shook his head. "I got a letter from Snuffles." 

Aviana's expression was unreadable. Despite her letter writing the day before, she hadn't exactly been keeping up correspondence with her father, too concerned with everything else to actually realise that there was true reason to establish some kind of relation with him. It was through no fault of his own that he hadn't been able to actually be a father to her the past few years. "What did he say?" She asked. 

"Last year, during the tournament, Sirius used to communicate with me through the Floo system." 

"He stuck his head in a fireplace?" Aviana's nose wrinkled. "Merlin, that's awful, why anyone would want to do that I don't know. I tell you - you step out and you smell of burning for the next three days straight." 

"It's easier than writing letters, I suppose." Harry shrugged. "He wants to do the same, tonight." 

"Right." Aviana pursed her lips. "Why are you telling me this?" She asked, eyebrows raised. 

"I think you should be there."

"I assume this takes place in Gryffindor Common Room." She said. He nodded, opened his mouth to explain that they could get her in there with ease. "Well, it's easy enough to get in there. What time? I have Quidditch practise but I assume it will be much later on, to avoid any unwanted guests." 

"Yeah... yeah." Harry nodded, almost in disbelief that she had agreed to it so easily. The bell rung and he stood, waiting for her to collect her things so they could make their way to Divination together. "...Wait, how do you know how to get into Gryffindor Common Room?" 

"It's easy enough." Aviana replied, shrugging the strap of her bag over her shoulders. "You're not the only one who can do things like that, you know. And Polyjuice was really the most difficult way to go about it." 

Harry froze, dumbfounded. Aviana continued, and he scrambled to catch up and question her. 

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