CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO
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-: fifth year :-
── IN WHICH THE FIRST
MEETING BEGINS
. . .
The day after Harry confirmed with Aviana that the Room of Requirement was indeed something real and not just a Hogwarts: A History myth, and something they could access was spent gathering people. Aviana remained completely uninvolved in the process, however she was determined to keep a careful eye for any flicker of pink throughout the day, and once or twice she spied her, and spent majority of the afternoon awaiting the hour that Harry, Ron and Hermione had organised.
Half-seven rolled around and Aviana was up on the seventh floor, leaning against the wall just down the corridor from the Room of Requirement as she awaited the arrival of everyone else, looking intensely bored as she carried out the singular task that she had been given; to direct everyone into the room and ensure that nobody was there that shouldn't be.
And luckily enough, there was no sign of Umbridge anywhere.
She counted off each person who came, ensuring everyone was there - because if people weren't, and they had been told, there was the potential for a bit of trouble, and the group could be over before it even started.
Aviana sat there and counted each that came, directing them what to do with quite an acquired drawl of boredom, and when it came to the last few people, Aviana had had quite enough of the nervous looks. When Zacharias Smith strolled down the corridor in the company of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie MacMillan, and shot a glare her way when he noticed her, Aviana was up on her feet on an instance.
"Something to say, Smith? Shocked I'm still here?"
"Shocked you're involved at all." Zacharias scoffed. It seemed that he hadn't quite gotten over the embarrassment of the last time they spoke.
"Not me who wasn't willing to sign their name though, was it?" Aviana's head tilted, still glaring.
Justin patted Zacharias on the shoulder. "Good luck, mate." He said, before turning to Aviana. "How do we get in? Ginny told Michael, who told us that you were supposed to be telling people how to get in."
"That was too much information that I really don't give a shit about." Aviana scoffed. "Did thingy tell thingy to tell thingy to tell you about standing in front of the tapestry and walking past three times?"
"What are you in a mood about now?" Zacharias snapped, as Justin and Ernie made the wise decision not to respond and instead take heed of her instructions to enter the Room of Requirement. "No need to be so rude."
"No need to be such a twat but nobody seems to tell you to stop."
"What the fuck?"
"Yes?" Aviana blinked once, then twice. "What is your problem with me, exactly?" She asked, arms folded. "Still upset about the sticking charm, grow up."
"Grow up?" Zacharias repeated. "Grow up?"
"You seem to have some idea that I'm going to be the downfall of this group, that I'm somehow waiting for a moment to go and run to Umbridge." Aviana glared at him. "Out of the two of us, I think the one who hesitated to sign their name."
"Yeah, well-"
"Oh." Harry had stepped out of the door in the wall, and was staring at the two. His eyes met Aviana's. "I was going to tell you that everyone but Zacharias was here, but..."
"Unfortunately, he's here. And he's being a twat again." Aviana snapped, continuing to hurl the insults despite the fact that Harry taken several steps towards her and was guiding her away from Zacharias, who followed dully behind her. "I'm telling you, if anyone finds out about the group it'll be him, the slimy git."
"Hey!" Zacharias complained, as he stepped through the door. Harry closed it behind him, and made sure to lock it, and Aviana finally got a good look of what the room had managed to come up with when considering Harry's wishes.
It was quite cosy, actually, the walls lined with wooden bookcases, and large silk cushions on the floor as opposed to chairs. On the far end off the room was a set of shelves, carrying a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass. Something on there seemed to catch Aviana's eye and she practically skipped over, ignoring the looks she got from the group.
She picked up what looked like something normally kept in a jar in Snape's potion cabinet, examining it. "Hm." She hummed, to herself, regardless of the fact it was nearing eight o'clock and many of the group wanted to get started. Harry took his place at one of the cushions near to where she was standing, prepared to address the group.
"What is it?" He asked. It was completely unfamiliar to him or Hermione, who had been trying to identify it as they waited for others to arrive.
"Remnants of a pixie." She said simply. "Supposed to bring luck in battle. And this is... oh." Her surprise was evident. "An old bell jar of time." She murmured, as others around murmured, Cho and several others pulling faces at the pixie artefact. "Decommissioned, of course." She added, placing it down warily and turning to the group. Her eyes landed on Ron, who was on the cushion next to Harry.
Wordlessly, Ron shifted up one, and Aviana took his place.
"Well," Harry began, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've - er - obviously found it okay -"
"It's fantastic!" Cho was the first to agree, and several people murmured their agreement. Harry didn't need to look at Aviana to confirm that a glare had settled on her face again; he could see the way her expression formed in his peripherals.
"It's bizarre," Fred said, frowning around at it all. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then..."
"Hey, Harry, what's the rest of that stuff?" Dean pointed out the shelves. "You know, other than the dead fairy."
"Ashes and skeleton of a pixie, actually." Aviana corrected. "And there should be a small vial of it's blood in there as well. Salazar, you're all wimps." She added, as more faces of disgust were made.
Harry nudged her with his knee. "Dark Detectors," He replied, reaching behind him to pick them up. He carefully avoided the decommissioned bell jar of time - whatever the hell it was. It had seemingly spooked even Aviana, and that was enough to turn his attention away. "They all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..."He gazed for a moment into the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognizable.
Aviana leaned over his shoulder, and grimaced.
Harry would ask her about it later, and turned his back on it. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and... er..." He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to elect a leader," Hermione said.
"Harry's leader," Cho replied at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad to even suggest it.
The glare upon Aviana's seemed to melt away into something harder, lips pursed.
"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," Hermione told her, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority."
"Democracy is how Fudge gets to be Minister of Magic." Aviana added, looking quite frankly annoyed. "It's obvious that Harry's going to be leader, because he's the one whose supposed to teach us. He's the best at Defence."
Hermione's narrowed eyes, and she looked momentarily uncomfortable, shifting upon her cushion. "With that argument, you could also be considered leader, given your talents." She replied
Aviana almost squirmed under the compliment. "Democracy is how Umbridge landed here." The Rosier cleared her throat, pointedly.
Hermione turned back to the rest of the group. "So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?" Everybody but Aviana, who was defensively keeping her hands on her lap, put up their hands, even Zacharias , though he did it very half-heartedly. "So that's everyone... and Aviana." She replied, turning on Harry expectantly.
"Er - right, thanks," Harry said distractedly. He had been watching Aviana's protest carefully, seeing as there had already been several outbursts already, and she had just winked at him, who could feel his face burning.
"Harry."
Harry's face burned. "What, Hermione?" He asked.
"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly.
Aviana's eyes widened. "Give me strength." She murmured, and to both Ron and Harry's credit, neither of them uttered a sound resembling laughter; Hermione wasn't particularly known for her ability to come up with anything but tricky acronyms.
"It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?" Hermione decisively ignored the comments.
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina asked, quite hopefully.
Aviana was despairing more and more by the minute.
"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, although several people were nodding along with his idea "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
"Another acronym?" Harry nudged Aviana again. The girl lowered her voice, turning to him, leaning just close enough that nobody else could hear. "S.P.E.W. is bad enough, Harry, you're leader, you have to intervene."
"You can't keep convincing me to do things for your benefit." He replied in a similarly low tone, leaning back against his palms.
"I've had no trouble in it before." Aviana tilted her head, smile slowly blooming. Across the room, Cho was steadily watching them, frowning. She cleared her throat and in an instant, Aviana was glaring at her again.
"The Defence Association?" The Ravenclaw suggested. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
Yeah, the D.A.'s good," Ginny agreed, from beside Michael, who Ron had decided to glare at. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.
"All in favour of the D.A.?" Hermione asked bossily, kneeling upon her cushion to count. "That's a majority - everyone except Aviana - motion passed!"
"For fuck's sake." Aviana muttered under her breath. "I fucking hate acronyms."
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