CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY EIGHT
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-: fifth year :-
── IN WHICH THEIR CAREER
MEETINGS TAKE PLACE
. . .
Potions had been abysmal, and it only furthered Aviana's beliefs that something more had happened with Snape than Harry was letting on. He ignored Harry for majority of the lesson, not even passing by his station to drop some scathing comment about his failures, but rather saving his dismay to a singular, cruel remark of a ruined potion sample - not for his own fault, but rather Hermione's, who thought he had finished with it, went to clean it up, and dropped it.
Harry didn't talk to neither her, nor Ron, yet found Aviana in the Great Hall - she had finished her potion sample half an hour before him and was granted the ability to go and do some other studying - and ensured they were squished between Neville and Seamus, just so Hermione could stop nagging him about using Umbridge's office, and trying to get Ron involved with it too.
He was in such a foul mood that he almost missed his careers meeting with McGonagall. Aviana had had to put up with his mood and yet still, after she had ventured out to one of the quieter courtyards for a smoke, she had guided him up to McGonagall's office, him having almost taken them both to Divination.
She wished him luck and he disappeared within, finding Umbridge stood with her clipboard and he knew his mood couldn't get any better, nor could Aviana's seemingly pleasant disposition that afternoon remain - as she was inevitably going to join Aviana and Snape in there's straight after his.
And Harry would be correct. Firenze had apparently been informed of the meetings and did not bother her too much when she was excused. Her feet dragged behind her as she left the ground floor classroom and directed herself down to the dungeons once more. She herself had not had many run-ins with Snape, despite his growing dislike as she fell into the similarities she shared with her father, and the ability she had to abuse much of the information she had been trusted to know.
But nonetheless, she was acutely aware that this meeting would not take long. It wasn't as though she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life, nor was she failing any of her subjects. It was simply a formality at that point, and she intended to treat it as such.
Aviana knocked twice on the door of Snape's office before entering. "Afternoon, sir." She greeted genially, turning back to close the door behind her. When she looked back, her kindness soured. "Headmistress." Her voice was all the more serious. "You've taken time out of your busy schedule to sit in my careers meeting?" She asked.
"I believe, Miss Rosier, that it is important for a headmistress to be not so... disjointed from their student body, and be aptly aware of what goes on within it." Umbridge replied haughtily, with the manner of a woman who believed she had simply changed the world with her simple sentence.
"That's called a dictatorship, actually." Aviana replied. "And I'll believe you find that your incessant over-management of the school will only further your eventual demise. If you cannot trust the professors to teach as they have been doing for years, then you'll inevitably lose their respect. And it is a professor whom a student respects, not a headmistress, why, the school will be mayhem by the time you leave."
"I do not believe I shall be leaving." Umbridge retorted. Snape said nothing, a hand already raised despairingly to his brow. "I am headmistress, Miss Rosier. Dumbledore shall not be returning, despite your best wishes."
"You might be headmistress but you're still teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, regardless of whether or not you're headmistress... I wonder what will happen to this one. First one had Voldemort attached to the back of his head, second magicked away his own memory, third a werewolf, and four a disguised Death Eater... I wonder..." She trailed off thoughtfully, truly enjoying the expression on the woman's face.
"I do not believe this discussion is... pertinent to your meeting, Miss Rosier." Snape sneered. His tone cleared, turned smooth and almost polite as he turned to the woman with the clipboard. "Headmistress Umbridge, if you wish to observe this meeting, then I ask simply that you allow it to continue without further disruption. There are other students that need guidance plenty more that Miss Rosier."
Umbridge said nothing, but hmphed rather loud, scribbling down something. "Very well." She said. "Continue."
"Miss Rosier," Snape waved his hand at her, prompting her onwards as he selected a sheet of neatly aligned parchment from a pile.
"I want to be a Healer." Aviana replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Very well..." Snape drawled, scanning the sheet. "It appears you are achieving well beyond the grades necessary to continue the needed subjects at N.E.W.T. level."
"Yes, I know." Aviana told him. "Can I get back to Divination?"
"Yes." Snape replied, tucking the paper back onto the desk, and Aviana made a move to get up without further question. There was no need, really, she had known this would be how it went.
"Now hang on just a moment!" Umbridge interrupted with something of a shriek, which bounced off the stone walls of the office in a terrible, terrible echo. "Professor Snape, if this is how you have been conducting previous interviews, I must intervene."
"I can assure you, Headmistress, that it has not. Miss Rosier has been certain of what she needed to do to get the career that she wants for two years already. Just this summer she toured St. Mungo's alongside a trusted member of staff and it is intended that she returns for work experience this summer, provided she gets the necessary grades."
Umbridge made another sound of discontent as she continued to write. "I don't believe Miss Rosier has the correct disposition to become a Healer." She said. "Certainly, there must be some level of... kindness to the role.... one must be somewhat nurturing."
"St. Mungo's doesn't require any particular type of person to be a Healer." Snape continued, in a slow, bored voice. "If Miss Rosier manages to achieve the correct grades, as she already is, then there should be no trouble."
"And what about her record?"
"My record is perfectly fine." Aviana sniffed. She didn't look at all impressed, and was throwing daggers at the woman. "I have good grades. I assist Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing. I'm a prefect, I'm on the Quidditch team, I founded several clubs over the year, I regularly tutor students in Transfiguration and Charms. There have been no pieces of missing homework, no late marks, I'm teaching myself not one but two subjects this year, and other than the many detentions accrued from you and not attend on my behalf, there have been no detentions."
"Miss Rosier, you have achieved abysmal grades in my class."
"Not my fault your entire curriculum is an entire tale of cock-and-balls Ministry propaganda." Aviana snapped.
"Miss Rosier." Snape warned. "Headmistress, Miss Rosier has already decided on being a Healer. Should she achieve the correct grades-"
"As it's stands, its all looking very bright." Aviana hummed. "Mind you, I'm teaching myself two subjects, including Defence Against the Dark Arts and certainly that won't have any affect on my grades in the slightest-"
"Miss Rosier, you continue to get abysmal grades-"
"Yeah, but you'll be gone by the end of the year, so I'm not worried about that."
"Is that a threat, Miss Rosier?"
"No, I'm just smart and can recognise a pattern when I see one. The only reason you're here is because there was nobody else available for the position." Aviana continued. "It's quite pointless to argue otherwise, really. No Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher has lasted more than a year."
"Miss Rosier-"
"Besides, the abysmal grades alongside the stream of detentions given to me - detentions and grades that have not previously been attributed me - shows another pattern, and altogether suggests that it is not a problem with me, the students and instead the teacher." Aviana informed her.
"Miss Rosier, I must interrupt you there." Snape drawled. "There is no point in this continuing any further. If you wish to be a Healer, then you are on track to be coming one." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Send Miss Parkinson in on your way out."
"Professor Snape-" Umbridge began.
"Headmistress Umbridge, if you wish to discuss Miss Rosier's behaviour, there are more appropriate times." Snape said. "Don't you agree?"
"Well..." Umbridge glanced at the stack of parchment sheets. "I suppose so."
"Thanks. This was worth absolutely nothing to me." Aviana stood up. "I'll see you in... approximately ten minutes." She told Umbridge.
Aviana took several strides out of the office. Pansy was stood outside, glowering at Harry as he waited along the corridor for her. "I'm afraid there's no career in being a pug-faced, traitorous bitch, so you're out of luck." Pansy opened her mouth to reply. "In you go, twat." Aviana gestured towards the door, kicking it open with her heel and shoving her in."
She sniffed, adjusting her bag strap over her shoulder, and made her way down the dimly lit hallway to Harry, who raised his eyebrows. "That was... violent." He commented.
"Yes, well toad-face decided I wasn't motherly enough to be a Healer." Aviana replied, sour-faced as they began their leisurely stroll up to their next lesson. "Besides, you shouldn't be too surprised by now."
Harry nodded slowly, smiling as her hand slipped into his all too natural. She had a point. There was no way he could have been surprised. In the very same manner as her father, she had had Draco dangling by his ankles in a corridor, before attacking him with a flock of tiny birds, pecking at his skin. She had come up with a jinx to cause a word of purple blisters across a face and used it several times - and Harry was sure he had heard a rumour that she given one of those Durmstrang boys the very same treatment as Draco the year before because he had tried to simultaneously take a Beauxbaton student to the Yule Ball as well as her.
"Yeah... so Umbridge was in there for yours' too?" Harry asked. She nodded sullenly. "Yeah, she told me the Ministry would never employ me on account of my criminal record."
"That means nothing." Aviana replied. "They can't hold it against you. You haven't formerly charged with anything, and you were a minor." She shrugged. "You would be good at being an Auror and she just hates that very fact."
They fell into a similar, hatred-filled silence as they made their way through the empty corridors. The two took plenty of time to get there, knowing they had it to spare. "Perhaps I should just become the Minister of Magic." Aviana hummed. "That would show her."
"You'd be terrifying."
"At least I wouldn't be a pussy." Aviana hummed. "All she achieved with that meeting was getting more of her plates thrown out that window."
"Can't believe she hasn't blamed you for that."
"She tried... but after she tried to say I orchestrated the Azkaban breakout her accusations have all fallen rather flat." Aviana hummed. "Besides, your school record means nothing either. All it shows is that one particular teacher holds quite the grudge."
"You're very certain of that." Harry said, and pushed the bridge of his glasses further up his nose.
And as they approached Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, Aviana finally broke out into a smile. "Well, she's not going to last more than this year anyway, with the curse and all." She said, before her expression became more pointed as she barged past Draco, all but shoving him straight into the wall he was queuing beside.
Harry grinned. "You're going to push her into the lake, aren't you?" He asked, as they joined the back of the line.
Aviana didn't exactly say no.
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