CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND NINETEEN
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-: fifth year :-
── IN WHICH AVIANA IS
CALLED UPON BY THE
ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
. . .
They didn't find Aviana until it was time to leave St. Mungo's. She was waiting outside for them, still just as pale, and smelt faintly of cigarettes, and there was a particularly suspicious box-shape in her coat pocket. Mrs Weasley noticed but said nothing, seeing as they had briefly mentioned what happened in the ward, but Harry was certain that some kind of... gentle talking-to would be given eventually, seeing as Mrs Weasley knew all too well that treating her as though she were, say, Harry, who knew that the woman felt some kind of responsibility over him, would not work in the slightest.
She didn't speak all the car ride back, although she had seemingly been so desperate to talk to someone before the conversation with the Longbottoms, and disappeared into her room wordlessly, not emerging until the evening of the day after. Having breezed past Sirius and his festive cheeriness on entry, he too had been told about what exactly had happened and although he seemed sullen at the idea of it, he launched into action after some time and went to speak to her.
Whether he did or not, Harry couldn't tell. He had tried to speak to her in the past and it had worked, but the sound of knocking on the door echoed down the stairs for the next ten minutes and Sirius reappeared not long after, attempts futile. There were strong suspicions, considering the hand clamped over her mouth and the green pallor, that she had been sick, but still she didn't not emerge for food nor anything else, simply staying alone in her room until wishing otherwise.
And when she wasn't in her room, her conversations were meaningless. Kreacher had been found moping around the attack, which she had made her usual comment on, and they had gotten back the developed portraits from Kingsley, which she complimented and smiled in the agreement that they improved the overall atmosphere of the grim house, but otherwise, nothing substantial was said. Harry knew he couldn't ask, because nothing but disagreement would come from it, so he simply didn't.
But whilst Aviana wasn't talking properly with anyone else, it became clear in the couple of days following the Christmas celebrations, that didn't mean she wouldn't talk to anyone else.
One night, not long after the teenagers had begun to make their way slowly upstairs, their shared bedtime enforced by Mrs Weasley settling into their routine, the two fifth year boys had barely settled in their beds when Harry suddenly heard something on the stairs.
Two sets of footsteps, slowly making their way down.
He stood up all too sudden, Ron giving him a particularly confused look, especially when he took such care to open the door. "What?" Ron asked.
The two heads of dark hair, one tied back into two plaits, the other curling unruly. "It was Sirius and Aviana." Harry whispered back to him, before deciding to step out into the hallway, peering down into the Entrance Hall. "I think there might be an Order meeting." He continued.
Ron emerged out of the bedroom, also looking over the railing to the bottom of the stairs, where certain footfall could be heard, before he darted up the stairs, Harry following. He knocked on his brothers' door and Fred, half-asleep, opened it.
"What do you want, dickface?" He asked.
"There's an Order meeting." Harry told him. "Sirius just went down with Aviana."
"She gets to go and we don't?" George could be heard from within, and in no time at all the twins were up and out of their room, trying to untangle four sets of Extendable Ears. "Go." George muttered, and the fleshy string jumped from their hands and shot down the stairs, creeping their way under the kitchen door.
Aviana seated herself at the head of the table, crossing her legs. "Isn't this interesting." She hummed, eyes passing over the group in front of her. Dumbledore sat to her right, Snape stood somewhere behind him and Mad-Eye to his right, as Sirius hovered over her shoulder like a mother hen and Remus remained to her left, with Mrs Weasley and Tonks clutching cup of teas. "Very, very interesting." She smiled, looking between them all.
"Aviana-" Remus said.
"Professor." The girl smiled, folding her arms. "Well, I suppose this is about what I know. I must say, I'm most surprised that you didn't take advantage of a Death Eater's adoptive daughter sooner. There were just so many chances you could've take, and you just didn't."
"I did not deem it a necessity to involve you, Miss Rosier." Dumbledore replied gently, hands folded before him on the table. "When you arrived here, your father had been sent to Azkaban and your mother had left for France."
"She abandoned me, you mean." Aviana corrected, eyebrow raised.
"You were hardly in the place to-"
"I still knew the information, did I not?"
"You would not have told us even if we tried."
"Hm." Aviana tilted her head. "Correct. Then I suppose now you would like me to tell you what I know."
Sirius let out a sigh. She was, and she would admit this, that she was being difficult. "That is how I agreed for them to call this meeting." He said, and she nodded.
"Fine. What do I get in return?"
"Why would you get anything in return, Miss Rosier?" Snape drawled.
"Why wouldn't I?" Aviana said. "How do I know that this information will be any use to you? How do I know that this information won't reach the Dark Lord's ears and my life will be in danger, and I will end up like Sturgis Podmore?" She asked. "First of all, I would like Professor Snape to leave. I would rather not have my Head of House present in this meeting."
"Severus." Dumbledore said. Snape stood up in a swish of his robes and left the room without question. Aviana smiled. "What are your wishes, Miss Rosier?"
She leant back in her chair, pondering, before she came to a conclusion she always she knew reach. "I would like to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix." Aviana said.
"Aviana, you can't be." Mrs Weasley said, quite softly.
"Why ever not?"
"You're just too young. You're still in school and-"
"By giving you this information I'm providing the Order with something you did not have before." Aviana said. "I am reporting on Death Eater activities, some, perhaps, that members that are Aurors, such as Moody and Tonks, would be unable to tell you. I have grown up in a house of a Death Eater who is a part of the Dark Lord's inner circle, who was there on the night of his rebirth, who has remained loyal to him even though he took on no physical presence. I am providing valuable information to the Order, and I would like that to be reflected in a position of said Order."
She watched them carefully. Moody didn't say anything, his magical eye fixated entirely on her as his other gauged the opinion of others. Molly was looking anxiously at Dumbledore, who remained steadily watching Aviana. Sirius's hand fell on her shoulder.
Remus let out a sigh. "Aviana, you have not told us anything yet." He said, and heaved in a deep breath. "And forgive me, but how are we to trust that you have not told anyone else, anyone of significance of this information?"
Aviana smiled again, more confident than ever before. "I think Professor Dumbledore may be able to comment on the severity and importance of the some of the information I am already aware of. And my ability to not say anything." She continued, eyes flickering over to the Headmaster.
Dumbledore met her gaze, and she remained assured. He knew that she knew, and Dumbledore looked up at Sirius behind her. "And you are happy for her to join, should her information provide useful?" He asked, diplomatically.
She looked up at him, saw as he nodded blindly.
"I suppose I'll tell you then." Aviana hummed, sitting up in her chair. "But first..." And she reached for her wand and directed it at the door. "Impertubia." She said.
And the Extendable Ears went quiet.
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