𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, harry potter

˗ˋ 156

"I..." Harry trailed off. Somehow, she had called his bluff even in that. "I don't think I can." 

Aviana looked up at him, interested again. "You don't think you can?" She repeated, her quill leaning against the wooden stopper upon which her ink bottle sat. "Occlumency practise... you have to actively defend yourself without your wand... which leads to unwarranted, unintended magic. Stinging hexes... knock-backs... did you invade Snape's mind?" She asked. 

Harry nodded, slowly. His anger was easing, replaced with the sheer shock she had managed to figure it out so quickly. "Yeah." He nodded as he spoke, voice a little quieter. "About his time at Hogwarts... my dad was there, so was Sirius, and Remus and Pettigrew... my mum too." 

"Yeah?" Aviana crossed her arms, elbows leaning on the table. "Something tells me that, well, Sirius, especially, didn't particularly take well to greasy-haired gits who were turning to the Death Eaters at Hogwarts." 

"Yeah." Harry agreed, and he stopped there, following Aviana's distracted gaze as she looked up, over his shoulder. "Who- Ginny, hi." He smiled at the girl, and Aviana closed her textbook. "How come you're not at practice?" 

Ginny glanced at Aviana warily. 

"I play Quidditch for the sport, and the sheer fact that I'm good at that too." Aviana told her, matter-of-fact. "Whether or not Gryffindor is doing well or not, I couldn't care any less. We've already played you, remember?" Her head tilted. "I don't believe I'll be going to go and chat to Cho any time soon, so go ahead."

Ginny heaved out a sigh. "It's over." She told Harry. "Ron had to take Jack Sloper up to the hospital wing." 

"Why?" 

"Well, we're not sure, but we think he knocked himself out with his own bat." Ginny shook her head. "Anyway... a package just arrived, it's only just got through Umbridge's new screening process." She hoisted two boxes wrapped in brown paper onto the table. It had clearly been unwrapped and carelessly rewrapped, and there was a scribbled note across it in bright red ink, confirming it had been inspected and passed by the High Inquisitor. 

"It's Easter eggs from Mum." Ginny continued. "There's one for the both of you... there you go." Harry was handed an egg decorated with small, iced Snitches and, according to the package, contained a bag of Fizzing Whizbees. Aviana's looked to be a delicacy of some kind, almost like one of those Russian Fabergé eggs, the milk chocolate covered in white chocolate in intricate, baroque swirls and crests. 

Harry stared down at the iced Snitches. Ginny glanced over at Aviana, who was too busy shaking the egg carefully, close to her ear, to notice the expression on his face. "Are you okay, Harry?" She asked quietly. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry replied gruffly. There was a lump in his throat and it was hard to ignore. 

"You seem really down lately." Ginny persisted. "I'm sure... I'm sure if you tried to properly speak about it to someone... I'm sure Aviana would be happy to hear it." She nodded towards the girl, who met Harry's eyes, the corners of her lips turning upwards.

"It's not you... no offence, Aviana," Harry said, and she dismissed it easily. "It's not Aviana I want to talk to."

"Who, then?" Aviana asked. 

Harry paused. He glanced around to make quite sure nobody was listening. Madam Pince was too busy stamping out a pile of books for a frantic-looking Hannah Abbott. "I want to talk to Sirius." Harry admitted. "But I know that I can't." 

"I've got it on good authority that I'm not more unique than I'd like to be, and I'm practically an extension of him at this point." Aviana looked a little dismayed by the fact, but she was still smiling. Harry was almost sure it was Snape who had told her as such; he certainly did not take the time to adhere to the unspoken Slytherin rules anymore. 

"I don't think that works here." Harry unwrapped his Easter egg, breaking off a large piece and eating it. He didn't really want to; it tasted dull in his mouth, but he needed to five himself something to do." 

"Well," Ginny began, breaking off a piece of the egg too, "if you really want to talk to Sirius, I expect we could think of a way of doing it..."

"Come on," Harry said hopelessly. "With Umbridge policing the fires and reading all our mail?" 

"The thing about growing up with Fred and George," Ginny began thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."

Harry looked a little more hopefully at that, but it was short lived. 

"What do you think you are doing?" Madam Pince swooped down over them, eagle-eyed and no  longer distracted by Hannah.

"Oh, damn." Ginny whispered, jumping to her feet. "I forgot-"

Pince's face was contorted with rage. "Chocolate in the library!" She screamed. "Out - out - out!" And whipping out her wand, she caused Aviana's textbooks, bag, several ink bottles and entire sheath of parchment to chase the three of them out of the library, repeatedly whacking them over the head as they went.

"Well done, you two." Aviana sniffed, carefully packing her things back into her bag now that they had calmed down. The egg sat carefully atop of them as she pulled the strap over her shoulder. "I was doing quite fine until all this." 

"I'll let Mum know you both got your eggs." Ginny said, picking up the few eggs that remained. "Think about what I said, Harry." And she smiled and made her way off down the corridor. 

Harry turned to Aviana, who had her arms folded over her chest. "C'mon." He shook his head. "Surely you've done enough revision to make you go cross-eyed. We could..." He reached for her hand, pulling it up to glance at her watch. "There's still an hour until nine-"

"I can't, Harry." Aviana offered a smile. "I have to meet Fred and George."

"Again?" Harry blinked. "Didn't you meet them yesterday?"

"Time is of the essence, Potter." She continued, her hand remaining in his, hanging between them. "If we truly want to do a number on Umbridge, we have to make sure the plan is airtight."

"And you won't tell me anything about it?" 

"You can have your secrets, and I'll have mine." Her head tilted. "You'll find out soon enough, first day back, I reckon, Harry, I promise, but until then... I might have to borrow your cloak again." 

"I'm going to start making you pay for that." Harry shifted on his feet. There was no chance he could argue with her logic, given that he'd just refused to explain anything to her at all. "Fine... where are you meeting them, I'll walk you there." 

"Good." Aviana smiled, and let go of his hand to slip her arm into the crook of his elbow, head resting on his shoulder. "It's that corridor with that weird statue. The man with tree trunk instead of legs? The Sanctum statue." 

"Yeah, I know the one." Harry felt much calmer now, and a grin broke out onto his face. "We'll take the long way round?" 

"Well, I have to put up with Fred for Merlin-knows-how-long, so we'd better." They began off, and Aviana glanced up on him thoughtfully. "I don't suppose you'd object to accidentally on purpose wearing some of my lip gloss? It's cherry scented."

Harry didn't think he would object. 

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