In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*And so it begins

"Harry!"

"Is he okay?"

Harry seemed to snap out of whatever was happening and he gasped suddenly, straightening up again

"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville was saying. "Want to sit down?I expect you're tired, aren't — ?" 

"No," said Harry. "We need to get going,"

"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus. "What'sthe plan?" 

"Plan?" repeated Harry. "Well, there's something we — Ron, Hermione, andI — need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

Briar scoffed angrily and folded her arms "Excuse me? What the hell do you mean?" she snapped

"We haven't come back to stay," said Harry, "There's something important we needto do —"

"I know, Harry, I was with you all year" she replied coldly "And now you can't tell me what this part is?"

"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You Know-Who, right?" Ginny asked

"Well, yeah —" 

"Then we'll help you." The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, someenthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from theirchairs to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action. 

"You don't understand." Harry said "We — we can't tell you. We've got to doit — alone." 

"Why?" asked Neville. 

"Because . . .Dumbledore left the three of us a job," he said carefully, "andwe weren't supposed to tell — I mean, he wanted us to do it, justthe three of us."

"What about Briar?" Ginny asked

"She was never meant to come with us"

"But I did" Briar snapped "I did so you can't turn your back on me or anyone else now. We're Dumbledore's army. They've been keeping going while we abandoned them-"

"It wasn't exactly been a picnic, mate," said Ron. 

"I don't see why you can't trust us. Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven in herebecause the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here'sproven they're loyal to Dumbledore — loyal to you." 

"Look," Harry began, but the tunnel door had just opened behindhim so he fell silent. 

"We got your message, Neville! Hello you three, I thought youmust be here!" It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a great roar of delight andran to hug his best friend. "Hi, everyone!" said Luna happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!" 

"Luna," said Harry "what are you doing here? Howdid you — ?" 

"I sent for her," said Neville, holding up the fake Galleon. "Ipromised her and Ginny that if you turned up I'd let them know.We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution.That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows." 

"Of course that's what it means," said Luna brightly. "Isn't it,Harry? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?" 

"Listen," said Harry "I'm sorry, butthat's not what we came back for. There's something we've got todo, and then —" 

"You're going to leave us in this mess?" demanded MichaelCorner. 

"No!" said Ron. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in theend, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who —"

"Then let us help!" said Neville angrily. "We want to be a partof it!" 

There was another noise behind them, and Harry turned. Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were climbing through the tunnel.