CXXVII. GOLDEN TIME
21:79 ─❁────────── 31:80
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❝Tell me it'll all be alright
You are not alone❞
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"NEVILLE — WHAT THE — how — ?"
"Forget how, Harry — Neville!" Lucia squealed in delight, as she pushed Harry aside and jumped into Neville's arms, swaying back and forth from where they stood. She felt like she could just cry being in his arms, for the last time she had seen him... they weren't able to say goodbye. These past few months she'd feared for all of her friends in Hogwarts, but here one of them were, in her arms.
"She never hugged me like that," mumbled Ron.
"Me neither," grumbled Harry, narrowing his eyes at them.
"Because Neville's one of a kind," mused Hermione, earning her a playful glare from her best friends.
"I missed you so much!" Lucia sniffled, tears brimming her eyes.
"Oh, don't cry, Lucia! We knew you would pull through the moment we saw the headlines of you being seen with Harry!" laughed Neville.
"B-But — I'm sorry for leaving you all to fend for yourself against those bastard..."
"We ought to think that it was for the better that you did it," said Neville, smiling. "I mean, you were their sole target and it wasn't long until they were going to kill you too..."
"Still..." said Lucia, eyes downcast to the ground.
"Stop!" said Neville reassuringly, pulling away from his friend. He then spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too.
The longer Lucia looked at Neville, the worse he appeared: One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he'd been living rough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!"
"Neville, what's happened to you?"
"What? This?" Neville dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head. "This is nothing. Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going then? Oh," he turned to Aberforth, "Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way."
"Couple more?" repeated Aberforth ominously. "What d'you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There's a curfew and a Caterwauling Charm on the whole village!"
"I know, that's why they'll be Apparating directly into the bar," said Neville. "Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."
Neville held out his hands to both Lucia and Hermione and helped them to climb up onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel; Ron followed, then Neville. Harry addressed Aberforth.
"I don't know how to thank you. You've saved our lives twice."
"Look after 'em, then," said Aberforth gruffly. "I might not be able to save 'em a third time."
Harry clambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana's portrait. There were smooth stone steps on the other side: It looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.
"How long's this been here?" Ron asked as they set off. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it, Harry? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?"
"The passages were sealed off at the start of the year, weren't they?" said Lucia questionably. "Remember when you and I tried to search for them? They are clever, Carrows and Snape are,"
Neville nodded. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now, not with curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits." He started walking backward, beaming, drinking them in. "Never mind that stuff... Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it, Terry Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"
"Yeah, it's true," said Harry.
Neville laughed gleefully.
"What did you do with the dragon?"
"As much as I would love to care for it, we released them to the wild," said Lucia in melancholic manner. "It's for the better..."
Ron then said, "See what Harry and I've had to deal with? They wanted to keep it as a pet —"
"Don't exaggerate, Ron —"
"But what have you been doing? People have been saying you've just been on the run, Harry, but I don't think so. I think you've been up to something."
"You're right," said Harry, "but tell us about Hogwarts, Neville, we haven't heard anything."
"It's been... well, it's not really like Hogwarts anymore," said Neville, the smile fading from his face as he spoke. "Do you know about the Carrows?"
"Those two Death Eaters who teach here?"
"They do more than teach," said Neville. "They're in charge of all discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows."
"Like Umbridge?"
"Nah, they make her look tame. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don't, though, if they can avoid it. You can tell they all hate them as much as we do." Neville explained, "Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defence Against the Dark Arts, except now it's just the Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions —"
"What?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione's united voices echoed up and down the passage, whilst Lucia looked passively away.
"So they're still doing it? I thought he was just bluffing..." said Lucia grimly.
"Yeah," said Neville. "That's how I got this one," he pointed at a particularly deep gash in his cheek, "I refused to do it. Carrow said something about you being the only one that could do it from the lot of us, but he knew that he wouldn't get it out from you without force — said you were his favourite student and all," he added darkly, and Lucia felt uncomfortable as her friend turned to her questionably.
"Yeah, I think he has another idea of what his favourite student is to him," she said, repulsed.
Neville about to speak, when Harry suddenly sound out his and Ron and Hermione's thoughts: "Carrow — he was using his authority to his advantage on you, wasn't he? That's the thing you left out from us, isn't it? That's one of the reasons you didn't want to come here — ?" Harry blood rushed to his head as he felt anger slowly seeping into his skin.
"You didn't tell them?" said Neville, surprised.
"I didn't think it was important —"
"Neville," Harry called in a serious voice, "aside from torture, what else did he do to Lucia?" he demanded.
Neville swallowed a hard lump as he looked at Lucia, who looked down.
"Neville — What. Did. He Do?"
"He just made me uncomfortable," cut in Lucia before Neville could give in, and she pled, "Just... just forget about it. I was about to handle him anyway if it weren't for that darn bell..."
"Lucia —"
"I'm guessing some people were into it? Using the Curse, I mean," said Lucia, changing the topic at hand, causing Harry to clench his jaw as he and Ron and Hermione shared a gaze.
Neville obliged with her silent pleas, nodding. "Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they've ever been top in anything, I expect."
"Alecto, Amycus's sister, teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drove wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being re-established. I got this one," he indicated another slash to his face, "for asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."
"Blimey, Neville," said Ron, "there's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."
"You've no idea what they said about them, Ron," Lucia's eyes darkened, shaking her head. "It was horrible having to sit through that class without putting in a couple of remarks,"
"And I reckon that you wouldn't have stood it either. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you did it, Harry." Neville explained.
"But Neville," said Lucia, gnawing her bottom lip as they passed a lamp and Neville's injuries were thrown into even greater relief. "You have to be more careful. At this rate, you'll be used as a knife sharpener by them..."
Neville shrugged.
"Says you," he joked. "You were tortured every single class in more ways than one by them. Plus, I don't think it matters much; they don't want to spill too much pureblood, so they'll torture us a bit if we're mouthy but they won't actually kill us."
She didn't know what was worse: Neville's injuries, or the fact Neville had said those words so nonchalantly with an a matter-of-fact tone. Either way, she didn't like it. Hogwarts had really become such a dull place.
"The only people in real danger are the ones whose friends and relatives on the outside are giving trouble. They get taken hostage. Old Xeno Lovegood was getting a bit too outspoken in The Quibbler, so they dragged Luna off the train on the way back for Christmas."
"Neville, she's all right, we've seen her —"
"Yeah, I know, she managed to get a message to me."
From his pocket he pulled a golden coin, and Lucia recognized it as one of the fake Galleons that Dumbledore's Army had used to send one another messages.
"These have been great," said Neville, beaming at Hermione. "The Carrows never rumbled how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it."
"You used to?" said Harry, who had noticed the past tense.
"Well, it got more difficult as time went on," said Neville. "Lucia had to run away during the start of the holidays, and then we lost Luna at Christmas, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and we were sort of the leaders."
"I told you, I'll help you three," stated Lucia, frowning. "But you guys are the leaders,"
"You still helped a lot though, and the Carrows were the one that made you as an example at the start of the year," said Neville. "But after you three were gone, the Carrows seemed to know I was behind a lot of it, so they started coming down on me hard, and then Michael Corner went and got caught releasing a first-year they'd chained up, and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off."
"No kidding," muttered Ron, as the passage began to slope upward.
"Yeah, well, I couldn't ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That's when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran."
"They what?" said Harry, Ron, and Hermione together.
"Mrs. Longbottom? They went after the old gal?" gasped Lucia in disbelief.
"Yeah," said Neville, panting a little now, because the passage was climbing so steeply, "well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave, I s'pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was," he faced them, and Lucia was astonished to see that he was grinning, "they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway," Neville laughed, "Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run. She sent me a letter," he clapped a hand to the breast pocket of his robes, "telling me she was proud of me, that I'm my parents' son, and to keep it up."
Lucia lips twitched a smile at this.
"Cool," said Ron.
"Yeah," said Neville happily. "Only thing was, once they realized they had no hold over me, they decided Hogwarts could do without me after all. I don't know whether they were planning to kill me or send me to Azkaban; either way, I knew it was time to disappear."
"But," said Ron, looking thoroughly confused, "aren't — aren't we heading straight back into Hogwarts?"
"'Course," said Neville. "You'll see. We're here."
They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. As Lucia followed, she heard Neville call out to unseen people:
"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"
As the four emerged into the room beyond the passage, there were several screams and yells: "HARRY!" "It's Potter, it's POTTER!" "Lucia's back!" "Ron!" "Hermione!"
There were confused impression of coloured hangings, of lamps and many faces. The next moment, she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, their hair ruffled, their hands shaken, by what seemed to be more than twenty people: They might just have won a Quidditch final.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville called, and as the crowd backed away, Lucia was able to take in their surroundings.
She took a look around the room and did not recognise it one bit. It was enormous, and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multi-coloured hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-panelled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings: Lucia saw the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wooden-cased wireless.
"Where are we?"
"Room of Requirement, of course!" said Neville. "Surpassed itself, hasn't it? The Carrows were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn't exactly like this when I arrived, it was a load smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings. But it's expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived."
"And the Carrows can't get in?" asked Harry, looking around for the door.
"No," said Seamus Finnigan, whom Lucia hadn't recognized until he spoke: Seamus's face was bruised and puffy. "It's a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can't get at us, the door won't open. It's all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You've got to ask it for exactly what you need — like, 'I don't want any Carrow supporters to be able to get in' — and it'll do it for you! You've just got to make sure you close the loopholes! Neville's the man!"
"It's quite straightforward, really," said Neville modestly. "I'd been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that's when the passage to the Hog's Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He's been providing us with food, because for some reason, that's the one thing the room doesn't really do."
"Yeah, well, food's one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," said Ron to general astonishment.
"So we've been hiding out here for nearly two weeks," said Seamus, "and it just makes more hammocks every time we need them, and it even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up —"
"— and thought they'd quite like to wash, yes," supplied Lavender Brown, whom Lucia hadn't noticed until that point. Now that he looked around properly, he recognized many familiar faces. Both Patil twins were there, as were Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner.
"Tell us what you've been up to, though," said Ernie. "There've been so many rumors, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." He pointed at the wireless. "You didn't break into Gringotts?"
"Oh, we did," nodded Lucia, gleaming; she was the cheeriest she had ever been than the time they last saw her. "Even the dragon part — that was exciting."
There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; Ron took a bow.
"What were you after?" asked Seamus eagerly.
Before any of them could parry the question with one of their own, Harry felt a terrible, scorching pain in the lightning scar. As he turned his back hastily on the curious and delighted faces, the Room of Requirement vanished, and he was standing inside a ruined stone shack, and the rotting floorboards were ripped apart at his feet, a disinterred golden box lay open and empty beside the hole, and Voldemort's scream of fury vibrated inside his head
With an enormous effort he pulled out of Voldemort's mind again, back to where he stood, swaying, in the Room of Requirement, sweat pouring from his face and Ron holding him up.
"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville was saying. "Want to sit down? I expect you're tired, aren't — ?"
"No," said Harry. He looked at Lucia, Ron, and Hermione, trying to tell them without words that Voldemort had just discovered the loss of one of the other Horcruxes. Time was running out fast: If Voldemort chose to visit Hogwarts next, they would miss their chance.
"Oh, um, we really like to stay and chat more, but we need to get going," said Lucia reluctantly, squeezing Seamus' hand, and their expressions told them enough that they understood.
"What are we going to do, then?" asked Seamus. "What's the plan?"
"Plan?" repeated Harry. He was exercising all his willpower to prevent himself succumbing again to Voldemort's rage: His scar was still burning. "Well, there's something we — Ron, Hermione, Luce, and I — need to do, and then we'll get out of here."
Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore. Neville looked confused.
"What d'you mean, 'get out of here'?"
"We haven't come back to stay," said Harry, rubbing his scar, trying to soothe the pain. "There's something important we need to do —"
"What is it?"
"I — I can't tell you."
There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville's brows contracted.
"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"
"Well, yeah —"
"Then we'll help you."
The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from their chairs to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action.
"You don't understand." Harry seemed to have said that a lot in the last few hours. "We — we can't tell you. We've got to do it — alone."
"Because..." In his desperation to start looking for the missing Horcrux, or at least to have a private discussion with the other three about where they might commence their search, Harry found it difficult to gather his thoughts. His scar was still searing. "Dumbledore left the four of us a job," he said carefully, "and we weren't supposed to tell — I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the four of us."
"We're his army," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army. We were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you lot have been off on your own —"
"It hasn't exactly been a picnic, mate," said Ron.
"He never said it was, but it is a wonder why we can't have them help us, Harry..." Lucia questioned nervously. "We kind of need all the help we can get, especially around here,"
Neville clenched his hand around his wand, "Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here's proven they're loyal to Dumbledore — loyal to you."
"Look," Harry began, without knowing what he was going to say, but it did not matter: The tunnel door had just opened behind him.
"Look who I've found!"
And Lucia's heart leapt in relief as the familiar brunette emerged from the door. Astoria Greengrass looked nothing like the others in appearance, no injury or any sort, but what made her a part of the rebellion was the glint in her eyes. Sat on her shoulder was a champagne ferret.
Her dark eyes scanned around the familiar group before stopping and immediately recognising the familiar ebony hair. Her eyes glazed with tear and before she knew it, she ran into her arms. "Lucia!"
"Astoria," Lucia engulfed the younger girl in her arms. The fear she had from the aftermath of fleeing Hogwarts were slowly lifted, as she took in the scent of chocolate. Bao Bao climbed her body and snuggled himself into the crook of her neck. "I'm so sorry for having to leave you so fast... I've missed you..."
"Us too," sniffled Astoria, pulling away. "We did our best around here after you left. The Carrows don't dare to touch us Slytherins, so it was rather easy to help Neville and the others out."
"She's very good at fooling them," stated Parvati earnestly. "Helped us with escaping a lot,"
As Bao Bao scrambled to climb around Harry's body, he immediately sat himself on Harry's shoulder. The small animal snuggling into Harry's familiar warmth, indicating he had missed him despite their many fights in the past. Harry pet his head, hoisting it off his shoulder and into his arms. "How've you been doing, little guy?"
Bao Bao let out squeaked rumbustiously.
Ron and Hermione went to greet the small ferret.
Lucia wiped Astoria's tears endearingly. "I'm so glad you're okay,"
"Shouldn't I be saying that to you four?"
She laughed.
"Who did you found, Astoria?" Neville asked, bringing everyone back to reality, away from the sweet reunion. Everything was now serious.
Astoria, who had just been crying, immediately recoil and smirked.
"It was a bit hard, but Bao Bao did well in distracting those bloody Carrows. I was able to sneak them in," she said, urging them in. "Hurry, hurry!"
"We got your message, Neville! Hello you four, I thought you must be here!"
It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a great roar of delight and ran to hug his best friend.
"Hi, everyone!" said Luna happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!"
"Luna," said Harry distractedly, "what are you doing here? How did you — ?"
"I sent for her," said Neville, holding up the fake Galleon. "I promised 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 with a rising sense of panic, handing Bao Bao back to Lucia. "I'm sorry, but that's not what we came back for. There's something we've got to do, and then —"
"You're going to leave us in this mess?" demanded Michael Corner.
"No, of course not!" said Lucia desperately. "We would never do that!"
"What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end," said Ron, "it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who —"
"Then let us help!" said Neville angrily. "We want to be a part of it!"
There was another noise behind them, and Lucia turned. Her smile seem to widened: Ginny was now climbing through the hole in the wall, closely followed by Fred, George, Erin, and Lee Jordan. Ginny immediately ran into Luna's arms, and the two shared a chaste and desperate kiss that made Lucia's heart melt.
"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said Fred, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station."
Lucia gasped in delight. Right behind Lee Jordan came Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang. She smiled at them.
"Cho," Lucia hugged the girl, which shocked Harry, further dropping his jaw. "What are you doing here?"
"I got the message, of course," she giggled, holding up her own fake Galleon, "You've made quite a name for yourself," Cho said with a chuckle before she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner.
"Nice place you got here," said Erin, looking around with a meek smile. "So much more colour than the —" she stopped mid-sentence and the smile immediately vanished. Fred pulled his wife into his comforting embrace, and Lucia had a slight urge to tell her and even Astoria what had happened in Malfoy Manor, but refrained herself. For now.
"So what's the plan, Harry?" said George.
"There isn't one," said Harry, still disoriented by the sudden appearance of all these people, unable to take everything in while his scar was still burning so fiercely.
"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favourite kind," said Fred.
"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane —"
"We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though —"
"You haven't got a wand — ?" began Seamus.
Ron turned suddenly to Harry.
"Why can't they help?"
"What?"
"They can help." He dropped his voice and said, so that none of them could hear but Hermione and Lucia, who stood between them, "We don't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."
"Honestly, I agree, Harry!" said Lucia. "The more people that knows this, the more easier we can find this bloody thing. It'll do our jobs easier. Just this once."
Harry looked from Lucia to Ron and to Hermione, who murmured, "I think Ron got the right idea... We don't even know what we're looking for, we need them." And when Harry looked unconvinced, "You don't have to do everything alone, Harry."
"All right," he said quietly to the other three, causing them to smile. "Okay," he called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who'd been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, and all of them looked alert, excited.
"There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something — something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"
He looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws, to Padma, Michael, Terry, and Cho, but it was Luna who answered, perched on the arm of Ginny's chair.
"Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."
Lucia's heart pounded as she perked. "Wait, wait, what, is the diadem them only thing of Ravenclaw that was important to her?"
"Yeah, practically the only thing she cherished. Every Ravenclaws knows that, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."
"When was it lost?" asked Harry.
"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho, and Harry's heart sank. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but," she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws, "nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"
They all shook their heads.
"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron.
"It's like a crown, only Ravenclaw's one is special," explained Lucia distractedly, the gears in her mind beginning to move at its own pace.
Terry Boot nodded. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."
"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons —"
But Harry cut across Luna.
"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"
They all shook their heads again. Harry looked at Lucia, Ron, and Hermione and his own disappointment was mirrored back at him. An object that had been lost this long, and apparently without trace, did not seem like a good candidate for the Horcrux hidden in the castle... Before he could formulate a new question, however, Cho spoke again.
"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry? Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."
Harry's scar scorched again: For a moment the Room of Requirement swam before him, and he saw instead the dark earth soaring beneath him and felt the great snake wrapped around his shoulders. Voldemort was flying again, whether to the underground lake or here, to the castle, he did not know: Either way, there was hardly any time left.
"He's on the move," he said quietly. He glanced at Cho and then back at them. "Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know — the other one — safe."
Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny furrowed her eyes at Lucia, Cho, and Harry, before she turned to Luna.
"No," she said, earning her weird stares.
"What, why not?" Yet, Ginny's intervention made Lucia's heart lighter.
"Luna can take him, Harry. Won't you, Luna?"
Luna looked down to Ginny, who smiled up to her before saying happily, "Oooh, yes, I'd like to,"
Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.
"Neville, where's the way out of here?" Lucia asked, unfolding the Invisibility Cloak that had just been draped around her arm.
"Over here,"
He led them to a corner, where a small cupboard opened onto a steep staircase.
"It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've never been able to find it," he said. "Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they're always patrolling the corridors at night."
"No problem," said Harry. "See you in a bit."
"Take Bao Bao with you," Astoria came up to them, handing Luna Bao Bao. "He's the master when it comes to distracting the Carrows. They hate him because of that, but he always gets a way."
Harry nodded.
"Harry, be careful," said Lucia, still holding onto the cloak. She was reluctant to let him leave, but she knew she could not keep him safe anymore. Not anymore. "Promise me, you'll be careful?"
"I will," said Harry earnestly. "You don't have to worry about me, worry about yourself."
"How can I not worry about you?" Lucia managed to get those words to rolls off of her tongue. "It's a wonder how I haven't gotten any grey hairs from the many times you've worried me throughout the years,"
"Luna and I have each other, you don't worry. Trust me. Please," he grabbed her hand and pressed a soft kiss on her knuckles, sealing the promise. She took a sharp inhale and could not do anything but nod, forcing herself to be convince that he would be okay. Harry pressed a tender kiss on her forehead as she closed her eyes. "I'll be fine okay? I'll see you later, stick together with Ron and Hermione."
Lucia nodded. "Make sure not to out yourself and don't cause too much trouble."
"'Course," Harry winked at her. "When have I ever caused trouble?"
She deadpanned.
"Hey, I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble —"
"Usually finds you, I know. You've said that a little too many times now," she giggled.
"I'm not wrong though," he said, pleased of himself that he was able to make her giggle, the sound was like music to his ears. "Look, if you're so worried, how about you come with us?"
"I don't know —"
"We don't get much time, Luce," And before she could deny this request, she was already pulled into the cupboard by Harry along with Luna and up the staircase, which was long, lit by torches, and turned corners in unexpected places. At last they reached what appeared to be solid wall.
"Get under here," Harry told Luna, as Lucia hesitantly threw the Invisibility Cloak over them. This was not how she was expecting this night to be. He gave the wall a little push.
It melted away at his touch and they slipped outside: Harry glanced back and saw that it had resealed itself at once. They were standing in a dark corridor: Harry pulled Luna back into the shadows, fumbled in the pouch around his neck, and took out the Marauder's Map. Holding it close to his nose he searched, and located his, Lucia's, and Luna's dots at last.
"We're up on the fifth floor," he whispered, watching Filch moving away from them, a corridor ahead. "Come on, this way."