𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 76

CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH SIRIUS APPEARS 
IN THE COMMON ROOM

. . .

Harry let out a sigh as Fred and George finally finished their presentation of their latest products, the former rattling a box of Galleons ostentatiously in Hermione's direction, laughing at her scowl. It had taken far too long, and he had seen one too many people purchasing one of their 'Skiving Snack boxes' and vomiting immediately after, all whilst Hermione grumbled away about being a prefect and not being able to do anything to stop them in his ear. With the excitement and anticipation of Sirius's visit, it had been difficult to focus on homework at all.

"I'll go get Aviana." Harry frowned, looking mildly concerned as he glanced at his watch. "We don't have long until Sirius appears."

"Yes, two minutes is cutting it particularly fine." A voice added, and the three remaining in the common room jumped out of their skin, turning to the usual pretentiously lording tones of Aviana, curled in the corner of the common room, snapping her book shut. "I told you it was easy. You shouldn't doubt me, you know."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to see that." Harry replied, fighting the urge to smile as she stood up, making her way over.

"How did you-" Hermione began.

"Get in?" Aviana finished and Hermione's scowl only deepened. She wasn't particularly fond of being interrupted, and both Ron and Harry got the impression that Aviana was more than happy to disobey that, as a smirk appeared on the corner of her lips. "It's easy, really. You might have noticed... or not, you all seem particularly self-righteous," Hermione scoffed, "that I'm quite skilled at Transfiguration." She gestured at her uniform, which she was actually wearing this time. The tie and crest embroidered on her jumper was shining scarlet and gold. "All it took was one little charm, and scaring a first year into holding the portrait open for me."

"Come and sit down." Harry gestured, once more playing mediator as he addressed Aviana and Hermione, whose eyebrows were furrowed in a blunt, hardly concealed glare.

"Is there not a chair?"

"It's a bit of soot, you'll survive." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I just watched Lee Jordan magic away several piles of pastille-induced vomit." Aviana glanced about, taking in the alarmingly – although much faded – red common room. Her gaze landed on the couch before her, seizing one of the deflated cushions, fashioned into such by overuse, and tucked it below her, crossing her legs before the fire, face lit up in amber from the flickering flames.

"Sirius!" Ron exclaimed, and the other three – too distracted by the behaviour of the Slytherin – quickly reverted their gaze back to their visitor. Crookshanks purred particularly loudly, and despite the heat tried to, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's, the coals twisting into the tangled mess of his hair. Eventually, the half-Kneazle cat gave up, and he padded around the group before eventually deciding Aviana was the closest to Sirius as he could get and curled up on her lap.

"Hi." Sirius said, grinning.

"Hi," chorused Harry, Ron, and Hermione,

"Aviana." He added.

"Dad." She said pointedly, somehow looking particularly cross despite the cat sat on her legs and the hand stroking over it's ginger fur. Sirius stared at her for a moment, blinking, before nodding and moving on.

"How're things?" Sirius asked.

"Not that good," said Harry. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams-"

"Speak for yourself." Aviana hummed.

"- or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius asked pointedly. There was a short pause.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius continued to grin, all the more broadly, despite the topic at hand. "The Hog's Head, I ask you..."

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione said defensively. "That's always packed with people —"

"- which means you'd have been harder to overhear," said Sirius. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"I wouldn't have been able to go if it was in the Three Broomsticks." Aviana replied loftily, leaving Crookshanks be as she folded her arms over her chest. "And as my father do you want me to be excluded from something as important and vital to my education as this? Do you want me to fail my O.W.L.s? Do you want me to entirely disappoint you, someone who would have jumped at the chance to do this sort of thing with Professor Lupin and that idiot's dad when you were eat school?" Her eyebrows raised, threatening some kind of pushback from him.

"Well, I'm sure you would certainly have figured something out, considering that you're currently in Gryffindor common room and you're pretending to date that idiot to piss off your cousin."

"Hey!" Harry said, defensive.

"Please, James would have done the same thing if Lily was just as pissed off at Snape as he was. He's holding all that shit you guys did to him against me, you know, he's started giving me behaviour points!" Aviana replied. "He's never given me a behaviour point before, no matter what I've done – he caught me sneaking into the staff room before, and he just told me that I shouldn't!"

"Well that's not fair." Ron spoke up. "You know how many points he's taken off us for things that shouldn't."

"Shouldn't have been Sorted into Gryffindor then." Aviana replied loftily, directing her gaze back to her father. "Who overheard us, then?"

"Don't take that tone, from what I've heard you of all people should've thought this through." Sirius said. "Speaking of that, we need to have a conversation before you go."

"Fine by me." Aviana replied.

"Who overheard us?" Harry repeated.

"Mundungus, of course," Sirius replied, and when they all looked puzzled he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil." 

"That was Mundungus?" Harry asked, stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"I knew it smelt worse than usual in there." Aviana's nose wrinkled. 

 "What do you think he was doing?" Sirius rolled his eyes impatiently, in a manner so similar to Aviana that it stunned the three Gryffindors into silence. He continued in their silence. "Keeping an eye on you, of course." 

"I'm still being followed?" Harry asked angrily. 

"Yeah, you bet you are," Sirius nodded. "And just as well, isn't it, if the first thing - the first bloody thing - you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defence group." 

But instead of looking disappointed or angry, he was looking at Harry and Aviana with a distinct pride.

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