𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 156

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY SIX
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY'RE KICKED 
OUT OF THE LIBRARY

. . .

"Hermione told me you don't have Occlumency anymore." Aviana hummed, when Harry approached the table she was sat at in the library. It was a surprise she even noticed him at all, what, with the stacks of books forming a ring around the edge of the table, the four different coloured inkwells and many, many sheets of parchment.

It was late on a Sunday evening. Hermione had long since gone back to Gryffindor tower and Ron had gone to Quidditch practise, leaving Harry alone at the table at the very back of the library. He hadn't even known Aviana was there, as without his friends he had been left to his own devices and thoroughly lost within his own thoughts. For a moment or so, he had meaninglessly read a book on Occlumency and Legilimency, but it was to no avail. It did not soothe the constant stream of thoughts and instead only angered them; each sentence was littered with the repetitive tale of just how dangerous another wizards' ability to read one's mind was. That didn't help in the slightest.

"Since when have you and Hermione become so friendly?" Harry asked, and he meant it. From Aviana being the one to tell Hermione what would be a good jinx to use on the list of names (her own jinx nonetheless), to Aviana then covering for Hermione in the confrontation with Umbridge and Fudge in Dumbledore's office and now, they were apparently having conversations about him behind his back.

Aviana put down her quill. "Since when have you wanted Hermione and I to be anything other than friendly?" She asked, head tilting. "I was under the impression that Hermione and I being friendly with one another was preferable, to everyone. Is it such a bad thing?"

"I could have told you I wasn't doing Occlumency with Snape anymore." Harry replied, ruefully.

"There was no need to tell me, I already knew. Which is what I told Hermione." Aviana said. "Sit down, Harry." She added, quietly.

Harry didn't know whether or not he wanted to, the swirling minefield of anger and upset forcing him to remain upright. Aviana raised her eyebrows and eventually, he pulled over a seat from another table and sat down as she had asked. "Why didn't you ask me about it then, if you knew?" Harry asked her. His tone was a little more harsh, little more confrontational than he had imagined.

"Why on earth would I ask you if I knew you were going to ask about this?" Aviana reached for her quill again, dipping it into the ink well full of dark red ink, the same pretty colour as her hair and continued writing. "I thought I may leave it a few days and ask you then, but obviously I should have at least waited a week." 

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The very same tone had been employed on him when he had told Hermione he had stopped Occlumency, and he hated it. "Well... maybe you should have." He said, moodily. 

"Merlin, pull the stick out of your arse and calm down." Aviana looked back at her sentence, reaching for one of the textbooks Harry was sat before. "I cannot pretend to understand how awful it would have been with Snape, and for the tensions between Snape and Sirius and everyone... I can't imagine it has ended well." 

"Yeah, you'd be right about that as well." Harry frowned. "Why didn't you just ask me?" 

"Well, are you going to tell me what happened?" Aviana asked, eyebrows raised even if her gaze remained steadily on the page she had opened the textbook on.