𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 123

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND TWENTY THREE
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH HARRY HAS
A SURPRISE VISITOR

. . .

All seemed almost well after that. Aviana still had not told him of what she had discussed in the meeting, but the initial upset, and Harry supposed, jealousy, after hearing she was asking to join the Order and that wish being granted for some supposedly ever-worldly knowledge about the Death Eaters that she couldn't tell him.

But truly, it made sense. He didn't even know how to comprehend the feeling of utmost betrayal that would manifest should he sit in on an Order meeting only for that information to be taken from him because Voldemort was using Legilimency to read his mind... or possessing him. No matter how sure Aviana was, or how Ginny's experience comforted him, Harry was still so highly aware of it, and afraid that it might just somehow be true.

But nonetheless, despite Harry's constant anxieties, that looming pit deep down in his stomach, that twinging thought always at the forefront of his mind, he fell with the others into the comforting lull of the holidays, warm inside Grimmauld Place as  beyond the bottled glass panes winter raged outside.

Homework was completed in a hurry, or set aside until it came for them to get the train back, and was replaced through conversations in the living room, hovering over Mrs Weasley as she baked, visiting Mr Weasley every now and then. Feeding Buckbeak with Sirius, chess with Ron, watching Muggle TV with Remus as he narrated what was going on to confused wizarding minds, sneaking up to Aviana's room in the evenings because somehow conversations with her, despite Harry's few days of upset, were more entertaining than anything else and they always led to soft touches and shared smiles.

And that comforting nature was what remained when Mrs Weasley interrupted a particularly intense game of wizard chess that he and Ron were playing, as Aviana sat over his shoulder whispering moves in his ear as her hands rested on his shoulder as Ginny and Hermione watched.

Harry had vaguely heard what Mrs Weasley had said when she first entered the room, but didn't particularly compute the words, only just registering the feeling of Aviana's hands slipping from his shoulder, and instead watched one of his castles violently fighting with one of Ron's pawns. Glancing away, and noticing the somewhat disgusted look on Aviana's face, he looked back to Mrs Weasley in the door.

"Sorry, Mrs Weasley," he said, with a half-glance back to the board, "what did you say?"

"Professor Snape, dear. In the kitchen. He'd like a word." Mrs Weasley repeated.

His jaw dropped in horror, a feeling shared by the rest in the room, excluding Crookshank, who had been sat purring on Aviana's lap with several threats again him interrupting the game, and took the chance of distraction to pounce gleefully upon the board and set the pieces running for cover, squealing at the top of their voices.

"Snape?" Harry repeated, blankly.

"Professor Snape, dear." Mrs Weasley corrected reprovingly. "Now come on, quickly, he says he can't stay long."

"What's he want with you?" Ron looked unnerved as his mother left them behind, gesturing for Harry to follow expectantly. "You haven't done anything, have you?" He asked.

Aviana stood the same time as Harry did. "Of course, he hasn't." She replied, shaking her head. The girl still looked entirely horrified, but there seemed to be some kind of dawning understanding on her face. "And-" She added, shooing Crookshanks off the board and waiting for a moment as the pieces returned to their places. "Queen to F7. Checkmate."