𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 119

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND NINETEEN
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH AVIANA IS 
CALLED UPON BY THE 
ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

. . .

They didn't find Aviana until it was time to leave St. Mungo's. She was waiting outside for them, still just as pale, and smelt faintly of cigarettes, and there was a particularly suspicious box-shape in her coat pocket. Mrs Weasley noticed but said nothing, seeing as they had briefly mentioned what happened in the ward, but Harry was certain that some kind of... gentle talking-to would be given eventually, seeing as Mrs Weasley knew all too well that treating her as though she were, say, Harry, who knew that the woman felt some kind of responsibility over him, would not work in the slightest.

She didn't speak all the car ride back, although she had seemingly been so desperate to talk to someone before the conversation with the Longbottoms, and disappeared into her room wordlessly, not emerging until the evening of the day after. Having breezed past Sirius and his festive cheeriness on entry, he too had been told about what exactly had happened and although he seemed sullen at the idea of it, he launched into action after some time and went to speak to her.

Whether he did or not, Harry couldn't tell. He had tried to speak to her in the past and it had worked, but the sound of knocking on the door echoed down the stairs for the next ten minutes and Sirius reappeared not long after, attempts futile. There were strong suspicions, considering the hand clamped over her mouth and the green pallor, that she had been sick, but still she didn't not emerge for food nor anything else, simply staying alone in her room until wishing otherwise.

And when she wasn't in her room, her conversations were meaningless. Kreacher had been found moping around the attack, which she had made her usual comment on, and they had gotten back the developed portraits from Kingsley, which she complimented and smiled in the agreement that they improved the overall atmosphere of the grim house, but otherwise, nothing substantial was said. Harry knew he couldn't ask, because nothing but disagreement would come from it, so he simply didn't.

But whilst Aviana wasn't talking properly with anyone else, it became clear in the couple of days following the Christmas celebrations, that didn't mean she wouldn't talk to anyone else.

One night, not long after the teenagers had begun to make their way slowly upstairs, their shared bedtime enforced by Mrs Weasley settling into their routine, the two fifth year boys had barely settled in their beds when Harry suddenly heard something on the stairs.

Two sets of footsteps, slowly making their way down.

He stood up all too sudden, Ron giving him a particularly confused look, especially when he took such care to open the door. "What?" Ron asked.

The two heads of dark hair, one tied back into two plaits, the other curling unruly. "It was Sirius and Aviana." Harry whispered back to him, before deciding to step out into the hallway, peering down into the Entrance Hall. "I think there might be an Order meeting." He continued.

Ron emerged out of the bedroom, also looking over the railing to the bottom of the stairs, where certain footfall could be heard, before he darted up the stairs, Harry following. He knocked on his brothers' door and Fred, half-asleep, opened it.

"What do you want, dickface?" He asked.

"There's an Order meeting." Harry told him. "Sirius just went down with Aviana."