CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
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-: fifth year :-
── IN WHICH AVIANA
IS STRESSED
. . .
Harry had been reprimanded for getting yet another set of detentions by McGonagall, before the entirety of the Great Hall, and Aviana had to somehow look concerned whilst simultaneously complaining to her friends of there being all this disturbance so early in the morning.
They had laughed so openly about it, teasing as they left breakfast behind for yet another History of Magic lesson for her to snooze through, the prefect badge pressing uncomfortable against the bare skin beneath her loosely buttoned blouse. As each lesson before, she hardly learned nothing, and it only added to her growing stack of to-dos that came from that year; the hours-long detentions, the shoddy teachers, it all culminating in a long, long list of things she needed to do.
With Umbridge's decision to not only not teach them actual spells, but assign them a textbook that did the exact same thing and feed them handfuls of Ministry propaganda that wouldn't allow them protection when in a time of necessity, it meant that Aviana had to find old copies of last year's fifth year textbooks to teach herself all the content. She had been teaching herself History of Magic for years now, but to add a whole other subject to that during her O.W.L.s year was a nightmare.
Let alone all the homework she had to do too. It was a nightmare, quite frankly, and as she left History of Magic behind, all that was on her mind was just the amount of work that had piled up behind her. And, just to add on to the pile, she hadn't been able to go to a Quidditch practise for weeks, and had to force Montague to put a practise on the weekends - which he claimed was a huge imposition because apparently that was the day when he had a strict workout regime to go through.
Not that she cared in the slightest, all it took was a little flirting, then a reminder that he had a girlfriend and suddenly he was more than happy to host practises then. Nevertheless, Aviana had far too much to do, far much to do in very little time and certainly, this whole thing with Potter was only adding to it. Perhaps she should have considered how to manage her workload before this, but in reflection, the whole practising thing was creating a new sense of ease.
"C'mon, Avi, crack a smile." Pansy slipped her arm into the crook of Aviana's. "I know you have all these awful detentions with that bitch of a professor but you have to cheer up at some point."
"I will, next week, when I stop going to her detentions."
"You can't stop, you'll just get into more trouble for it." Pansy shook her head slowly, as they made their way down the lawn, behind numerous other groups of students not so unlike their own, should the penchant for snootiness and upset over stupid pureblood matters suddenly go down the drain. They did tend to dress better than anyone else, so even so, they had that. "You know how you hate to lose house points, Avi."
"In any other situation, yes." Aviana sniffed, just the mention of it bringing a discomfort to her stomach. "And I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you don't know what it's like, Pansy. I'd much rather see the squid in the Black Lake swallow her whole and I'm not going to get that if I stand there and behave."
"But Avi..." Pansy trailed off, not exactly knowing how to reply to that. She swallowed. "But surely," she began again, "it's easier to get Umbridge standing at the edge of the Black Lake when she actually likes you, right?"
"And then she wouldn't be expecting it..." Aviana trailed off, face full of thought. "That's actually one of the most useful things you've said, Panse, I'll consider it."
"No problem." Pansy hummed, smiling to herself. They walked along in silent for a moment, following the groups down. "Do you know what's wrong with Draco these days? He's more sullen than usual."
"I told him I was going to shag Harry Potter."
Pansy gaped. "You're not, are you."
"No, of course not." Aviana scoffed, rolling her eyes. When her gaze settled, it landed on a slowly growing dot of pink. "Actually, I might. I'm considering it."
"Avi, I know you hate her, and Draco can be annoying but..."
"I'm not actually going to do it, Pansy, Merlin." Aviana's arm slipped out of her friend's grasp, as she took the last couple of moments of walking down to where her Care of Magical Creatures class awaited, as well as Professor Umbridge with her annoyingly pink clipboard and floating quill.
She came to a stop besides Draco, eyes flittering over the group for the one person who she actually thought might able to help her, but it seemed as though he was currently missing from array of people around the trestle table, upon which the group of captive bowtruckles were slowly emerging from their camouflage and beginning to scrabble around for woodlice.
"You received my note informing you of this inspection?" Umbridge asked, looking up from her clipboard.
"I did, indeed." Professor Grubbly-Plank replied, offering the woman a polite smile as she observed the rest of her class making her way to join them. Hagrid's hut stood behind them, the pumpkins on the lawn before it almost fully orange.
"And... you do not usually take this class, is that correct?" Umbridge continued, after a glance at her clipboard, which no doubt already had that information written then in that god-awful swirled handwriting. Other students joined the group then, and when Aviana searched the group she found Harry. He smiled a little, when he saw her, but there was unease on his face as he eyed Umbridge.
"Quite correct," Professor Grubbly-Plank replied, her hands behind her back as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "I am a substitute teacher standing in for Professor Hagrid."
"I wonder - the headmaster seems strangely reluctant to give me any information on the matter - can you tell me what is causing Professor Hagrid's very extended leave of absence?" Umbridge continued, in that sickly-sweet voice she so-often used in all matters of pretence politeness. Aviana could see it, the twitch in the woman's set jaw, that she was simply itching to get her hands on that bit of information. Beside her, Draco's head shot up, interested, before falling again and returning to his incessant whispering to Crabbe and Goyle, still smirking.
"What are you on about now?" She asked. "You have that weird look that you get when you're planning something."
"I don't have a weird look." Draco shook his head, rolling his eyes. "But if you must know, this is a chance for some retribution for that wretched bird being let out before it was killed."
"Oh for fuck's sake, again?" Aviana turned to face him. "It scratched you, Draco, because you refused to listen to instructions."
"I can't believe you're taking his side, again."
"Because heaven forbid you actually take responsibility for something." Aviana shook her head. "I'm not taking anyone's side, I'm just fed up of hearing you bitch about getting scratched by a bird."
"You're being really piss annoying lately, you know that, right? All this shit with Umbridge and your detentions.
"You know, I am going to shag Potter, how about that, then?" She hissed.
"You wouldn't. You have better standards." Draco scoffed.
"Please, this isn't about my standards-"
"Hem, hem." The sound of that cough and Aviana froze, glaring as she faced the trestle table once again.
"Yes?" She asked pointedly, gaze on Umbridge.
"Ten points from Slytherin for that attitude." The woman replied, hardly phased, and she gestured to Grubbly-Plank. "You may begin."
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