—— ϟ ——
"Neville!" Noel jumped up first and moved over to hug him.
"Neville — what the — how — ?" But Neville had spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too.
The longer that she stared at him the more she saw how injured and rugged he really was. 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 had 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."
He helped Noel first, then Hermione climb 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?"
"They sealed off all of those before the start of the year," said Neville. "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.
"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.
"Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defense 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.
"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. Some people are into it, though; 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 reestablished. 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 didn't hear her," said Neville. "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."
From his pocket he pulled a golden coin, and Harry 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. "We lost Luna at Christmas, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and the three of us were sort of the leaders."
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 Harry followed, he heard Neville call out to unseen people: "Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?" As Harry emerged into the room beyond the passage, there were several screams and yells: "HARRY!"
"It's Potter, it's POTTER!"
The next moment, he, 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, Harry was able to take in their surroundings.
"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."
Now that he looked around properly, he recognized many familiar faces. Both Patil twins were there, as were Lavender Brown, 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?"
"They did!" said Neville. "And the dragon's true too!" There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; Ron took a bow. Noel snorted and rolled her eyes. As if he wasn't shitting his pants while she was steering the beast.
"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 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.
"We need to get going," he said, and their expressions told him that they understood. "What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus. "What's the plan?"
"Plan?" repeated Harry. "Look," Harry began, without knowing what he was going to say, but it did not matter: The tunnel door had just opened behind him. "We got your message, Neville! Hello you three, 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, "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!" said Ron. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who —"
Noel moved to stand beside Neville. "Harry, we want to help! You don't think we want this to end either? Why do you insist on doing everything yourself?"
There was another noise behind them, and Harry turned. Ginny was now climbing through the hole in the wall, closely followed by Fred, George, and Lee Jordan.
"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."
Harry's mouth fell open. Right behind Lee Jordan came Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang. She smiled at him.
"I got the message," she said, holding up her own fake Galleon, and she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner.
"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 favorite 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.
"Okay," Harry called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who had been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, and all of them looked alert, excited.
"We need to find Ravenclaw's lost Diadem. Do any of you guys know anything, anything that could help?" He asked the group of Ravenclaws.
"The Grey Lady, Harry. But she won't talk to anyone." Noel exasperated.
"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Noel. 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 a kind of crown," said Terry Boot. "Ravenclaw's were supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."
"I already told you! Listen to me! Ravenclaws ghost is the Grey Lady, which is Helena Ravenclaw, who was the last person to be seen with it!" Noel said, looking at Harry. "You've seen it before Harry, Ravenclaw is wearing it on her statue."
"I wasn't paying attention to a statue when we were together, Noel."
Noel rolled her eyes and threw her head back. "You should go see it then, job your memory or something. Luna, do you think you can go with him? I wanna hang back and see if I can help with the injuries."
"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily.
"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.
"Over here." He led Harry and Luna 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."
Killing the time mending and cleaning injuries Noel was so focused on helping her classmates she hadn't realized how many more people had arrived. Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill Fleur, Kingsley, Remus and Theo had arrived.
"Noel!" Her dad's voice echoed through the room. She whipped around to see him, she didn't know whether to stand back or run over to him. She slowly walked over to him and the icy expression melted away in relief.
"Oh, Jellybean." He sighed, almost collapsing to his knees, faint.
"Hi, dad." Noel said sheepishly, holding onto him. "Sorry I ran away." she joked, making him crack a slight smile.
"You're going to kill me one day." He laughed, hugging her tightly, he gave her crown a kiss.
Noel felt her chest squeeze. "I'm so happy to see you."
"Hello, sissy." Theo said, popping up over Remus's shoulder.
"Teddy," Noel grinned, "Have you behaved."
"I always behave." He smirked. "So, where's the man of the hour? Dad and I got the message from the Order that we might be fighting You-Know-Who tonight."
"Yeah, uh, Harry is out with Luna looking for something." She told them. The three walked over to the rest of the Order members who were strategizing, finding ways to protect the school.
As more and more people came in, mostly Hogwarts graduates who had been in the D.A. they all turned to look at the door who showed Luna and Harry walking back in.
"Harry, what's happening?" said Lupin, meeting him at the foot of the stairs.
"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school — Snape's run for it — What are you doing here? How did you know?"
"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed."
"What first, Harry?" called George. "What's going on?"
"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."
There was a great roar and a surge toward the foot of the stairs; he was pressed back against the wall as they ran past him, the mingled members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army, and Harry's old Quidditch team, all with their wands drawn, heading up into the main castle.
"Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand; she took it and followed him back up the stairs. The crowd was thinning: Only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement, and Harry joined them. Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny.
Around them stood Noel, Theo, Remus, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur. "You're underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry approached. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"
"I won't!" Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip. "I'm in Dumbledore's Army —"
"A teenagers' gang!"
"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" said Fred.
"She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you —"
Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves.
Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."
"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and — Fine," she said, staring at the entrance to the tunnel back to the Hog's Head. "I'll say good-bye now, then, and —"
There was a scuffling and a great thump: Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen.
He pulled himself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I — I —"
Percy spluttered into silence. Evidently he had not expected to run into most of his family.
Those who weren't Weasley's looked around awkwardly, taking a step away from the family, the pulsing tension evident as they stared at each other blankly.
Noel weaved around the crowd and hugged Harry's waist. Now that everything was really happening she wanted to drink him up as much as she could before they were inevitably separated by their individual tasks. It was at this moment that Noel realized she never truly appreciated their time together.
Harry held her, maybe he was realizing the same thing.
"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly, causing Noel to jump from being startled. Harry hid his grin in her hair.
"I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a — a —"
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Fred.
Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.
Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father. "I'm sorry, Dad," Percy said. Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.
"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.
"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."
"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."
"So, you're my sister-in-law now?" said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the staircase with Bill, Fred, and George. "Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley.
Ginny had been attempting, under cover of the reconciliation, to sneak upstairs too. "Molly, how about this," said Remus. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"
"I —"
"That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"
Ginny did not seem to like the idea much, but under her father's unusually stern gaze, she nodded. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Remus and Theo in tow headed off for the stairs as well.
"Where's Ron?" asked Harry. "Where's Hermione?"
"They must have gone up to the Great Hall already," Mr. Weasley called over his shoulder.
"I didn't see them pass me," said Harry.
"They went to get rid of the thing," Noel said vaguely. She stepped away from him, decided it was time for her to go too. "I'll see you later Harry James." She smiled lightly, giving him a quick kiss because this wasn't goodbye.
Harry caught her arm before she was out of reach, "I love you, El." He said, his voice heavy with emotion.
"I love you."
Noel caught up to Theo and wrapped her arm around his. She would be with her family and if she went down, they all went down together.