𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 88

CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT
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-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH SHE IS 
COMFORTED

. . .

"Aviana." Harry called after her, as soon as he ensured that the door had been closed behind him, melding back into the wall. He didn't want anyone following, knew that if Aviana was upset, like he supposed, that nobody could follow them, nor would she be able to be anything but closed off and hiding everything if someone else was there. "Aviana!"

It was an odd repetition of sequences that had happened before, and Harry could only hope that it would turn out like those times before, and that she could still somehow trust him enough to tell him why she was upset.

That is if she was upset, and she just really didn't want the coin, Harry couldn't tell for certain.

"Yes?" She asked impatiently, from somewhere behind him, and Harry came to a hasty stop in his chase, retracing his steps to find her leaning in the dark shadows of an alcove window, curled up on the stone windowsill with the backdrop of the night behind her. "You shouldn't have followed me." Aviana told him, when he saw her.

"Yeah, I know." Harry replied. "But I wanted to." He pushed, heart thrumming in his ears. "We haven't had a chance to talk, since after the first meeting and... I don't like that."

"You didn't think that was perhaps purposeful?" Aviana blinked, glowing amber under the flickering candles in the sconces. She was avoiding his gaze, making a show of it, her arms clasped tightly around herself and fingertips grazing up and down her jumper-covered forearms.

"No, I knew it was purposeful." Harry shook his head, and took a seat beside her, a substantial gap still left behind. "But... but that doesn't matter. You didn't want to talk to me, it's fine."

"Well, it's not really, is it?" Aviana's focus remained fixated on the empty stone wall before them.

"No. I hated it, really." Harry admitted, plainly. He didn't want to push, but he had to. "Why didn't you want the coin?" He asked, quietly.

Silence hung in air before them, as though she refused to reply. Biting her bottom lip, Aviana's gaze turned down to the floor and she remained quiet, Harry waiting beside her for something, anything.

But nothing came, as though an entirely different person sat before him. No defensive remarks nor snarky comments, just entire silence. He didn't push her, couldn't push her anymore than that, knew that each time she had willingly told him and that this time he was prying, perhaps where she didn't want him to.

"It doesn't matter." Aviana told him, eventually. "It's a completely absurd thing to be upset about." Harry shook his head when she looked up at him, offering something of a smile. "Really."

"Bet it won't be." He nudged her, gently, with his elbow, and in a completely absurd moment where he swore his brain shut down for a moment, he held his arm up. And in a completely absurd reaction, Aviana leant into it, his arm around her shoulder, her head resting on his. "C'mon." He added, as his cheeks turned warm.

"They... they're like the mark." Aviana said after a pause, and it took Harry far too long to figure out what she was talking about.

"Oh." He breathed out.

"It's not nearly as bad... but I... my dad's face when he would feel it burning every so often, even though the Dark Lord was gone..." Aviana bit back more words, and what she said was wavering, completely lacking in confidence. "The just... the horror that would be on his face... and how he would tell me all these things about..." She trailed off.

Harry didn't push, just held her close for a moment, allowed her to breath. It wasn't something he would ever understand, not like the inability to uphold such an uptight, rigid reputation in the face of Umbridge's consistent opposition, nor the feeling of being so unworthy to be cared for, but the daughter of a Death Eater.

"He would tell me these things, not what he had done, but these expectations, the push for me to make my family proud and join when the time came... I... I just..." Aviana shook her head gently, brushing against his jumper.

Her implications were not veiled and sat before him plainly. It would be expected of her to take the mark too, when the time came, and should William have not been sent to Azkaban she would not have been beside him, nor would the skin of her left inner arm remain unblemished and clear of forceful wrongdoing.

"You don't need the coin." He reassured her, chin balanced a top of her head. The smell of cherries, albeit faded, surrounded him. "I'll just tell you when the meetings are, like I said. You don't need the galleon. I'm sure you already have plenty."

Aviana sat up. "As do you." She replied. "Who else are we but to spend our family fortunes?" She smiled and her head tilted as she looked up at him in that same manner she always did and Harry cursed himself for it having to be something so drastic to force them to talk once more. "It was stupid. It's a galleon. And not even one I can use." Aviana sighed, disappointed. "Typical."

Harry nodded slowly in agreement, his arm still around her shoulders. She watched him for a moment, and all of a sudden she kissed his cheek and returned to leaning on his shoulder, grinning.

And Harry moved to brush his fingers through her hair. 

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