The door opens. Daphne bursts into the room, as Pansy bolts upright.
"You're never gonna believe it," says Daphne, sounding out-of-breath. She walks towards Pansy, the door closing behind her. "Holly — they've spotted her and the other three in Hogsmeade..."
"Holly's back?"
"Apparently!"
Pansy can feel her stomach tying into knots. She frowns at Daphne. "But... If Holly's back then surely that means that they're here for a reason," she says. "If they're spotted here, what if he comes? What if... What if..." She doesn't want to finish the sentence. Instead, she looks at Daphne in pure panic. "Are we safe?"
"I don't know," says Daphne.
Pansy nods. Her heart's hammering.
You will not die for nothing, she tells herself. If things go wrong, you get yourself to safety, no matter what... Fuck anyone else, it's not like they're going to look out for you anyway...
✧
SO. TURNS OUT DUMBLEDORE has a brother, and that brother is a dick.
Holly stands, arms crossed, in the Hog's Head, looking across at Aberforth Dumbledore, a grumpy old man that she already dislikes. Earlier they had managed to make Vivien land on the ground, Holly mostly trying to communicate to the dragon to stop flying. Now, she's lying on Holly's shoulder, miniature again. Her tail curls around herself, as she sleeps. Holly missed her.
"We need to get into Hogwarts," says Harry to Aberforth, after a good couple minutes of them arguing over the fact that Aberforth's lost hope, and thinks there's no use fighting, but also he hasn't given up hope. Holly doesn't know. She just hopes Aberforth isn't tagging along. "If you can't help us, we'll wait till daybreak, leave you in peace, and try to find a way in ourselves. If you can help us — well, now would be a great time to mention it."
Aberforth doesn't move for a minute. Holly gives him a nasty look, raising her eyebrows and thinking, you are literally the worst person I've spoken to today and I was talking to a Death Eater earlier. She exchanges a look with Harry, who looks far more hopeful than she feels. By this point, they have a dragon, they could just fly straight into Hogwarts, or something. And besides... Isn't there a secret passageway into Hogwarts, inside Honeydukes?
Finally, Aberforth turns to the portrait of his late sister. "You know what to do."
Ron frowns. "Er — what—?"
"There's only one way in now," says Aberforth. Holly steps forwards, intrigued, and Vivien wakes up, hovering over Holly's shoulder. "You must know they've got all the old secret passageways covered at both ends, dementors all around the boundary walls, regular patrols inside the school from what my sources tell me. The place has never been so heavily guarded. How you expect to do anything once you get inside it, with Snape in charge and the Carrows as his deputies..." Holly recognises the surname, and she winces. Her mother didn't like them. "Well, that's your lookout, isn't it? You say you're prepared to die."
Hermione begins, "But what...?"
The portrait of Aberforth's dead sister, Ariana Dumbledore, begins to appear again in the frame, walking closer towards them. Someone is walking with her, though, and the four of them frown, watching the painting with confusion.
xx. Holliday Lippincott
Start from the beginning
