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So, I'd become accustomed to finding out news and not hearing anymore for days, weeks, months, at a time.
Imagine my surprise when Harry, Ron and Hermione came through the portrait hole.
"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?" I rolled my eyes at the person who had said it. They had lost hope months ago.
"HARRY!" several people shouted once they'd come through the passage.
"Ron!" another shouted.
"Hermione!" I shouted, along with a few others. Everyone surged forward, somehow I'd gotten to the front. I beamed at Hermione, who beamed straight back. I gave her a hug.
"Hey, Hermione. Are you okay?" I asked, still worried about them.
"Better than you lot, by the looks of it," she whispered. I rolled my eyes, sniggering slightly.
"We're fine, happy you're all right."
"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville shouted over the crowd. I released, backing off with the rest of the crowd.
"Where are we?" Harry asked.
"Room of Requirements, of course! 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 more and more of the DA have arrived."
"And the Carrows can't get in?" Harry asked, looking around.
"No," said a boy, who I'd learns name to be Seamus Finnigan. "It's a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can't get in. It's all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You've got to ask 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 got to make sure you close all the loopholes. Neville's the man!"
Neville blushed. "It's quite straightforward, really," he said, modestly. "I'd been 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 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," Ron said to general astonishment.
“So we’ve been hiding out here for a while,” said Seamus, “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.
Tell us what you've been up to," Ernie Macmillian said. "There've been so many rumors, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." He pointed at the wireless sitting in the corner. "You didn't break into Gringotts?
"They did!" piped in Neville. "And the dragons true too!" Some people began to applaud, Ron took a bow.
"What were you after?" Seamus asked. Before anyone could answer, a flash of pain went across Harry's face. He quickly turned around.
"Are you alright, Harry? Want to sit down? I expect you're tire, aren't-"
"No," Harry cut Neville off, exchanging a look with Hermione and Ron. "We need to get going."
"What are we going to do ,then, Harry? What's the plan?" Seamus asked.
"Plan?" Harry repeated. "Well, there's something we- Ron, Hermione and I- need to do and then we'll get out of here."
All the laughing and whooping had stopped.
“What d’you mean, ‘get out of here’?”
"We haven't come back to stay. There's something important we need to do-"
"What is it?"
"I-I can't tell you." A ripple of muttering spread through the crowd.
"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with defeating You-Know-Who, right?"
"Well, yeah-"
"Then we'll help you." We nodded, some enthusiastically, some solemnly. People stood from their chairs, showing their willingness to show action.
"You don't understand. We-We can't tell you. We've got to do it- alone."
"Why?" Neville asked. "Because..." Harry paused, looking for the right words. "Dumble dore left the three of us a job and we weren't supposed to tell-I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the three of us," he said, trying to choose his words carefully.
"We're his army. Dumbledore's army. We were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you three have been off on your own-"
"It hasn't exactly been a picnic, mate," Ron said.
"Never said it had been, but I don't see why you can't trust us. Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven here because the Carrow's have been hunting them down. Everyone in here's proven they're loyal to Dumbledore- loyal to you."
"Look-"
The tunnel door swung open behind him, revealing Luna and another boy, Dean.
"We got your message, Neville! Hello, you three, I thought you must be here!"
Seamus roared and gave his friend a hug.
"Hi, everyone! It's great to be back!" Luna said, directing her attention to everyone else.
"Luna. Wha are you doing here? How're you-?"
"I sent for her," Neville said, holding up one of the fake Galleons. "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," Luna said in her normal, bright tone. "Isn't it, Harry? We're going to fight them from 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?” a boy named Micheal Corner asked.
“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— ”
“Then let us help!” said Neville angrily. “We want to be a part of it!”
Everyone paused, after seing the tunnel door open. Ginny, Fred, George and another boy and girl I'd never seen before.
“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.”
"I got the message," the girl said, smiling at Harry.
So what’s the plan, Harry?” said George.
“There isn’t one,” said Harry, still off from watching all those people coming in through the tunnel.
“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.
Ron turned to Harry, and they began to whisper.
"Okay!" Harry said out loud, addressing everyone after a minute. Silence fell over the room.
“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?”
Harry looked over at the small group of Ravenclaws.
“Well, that’s her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy’s trying to duplicate it,” Luna said. “Yeah, 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 a kind of crown,” said Terry Boot. “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, Ron and Hermione exchanged mirrored looks of disappiontment.
“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 said rather fiercely, “No, Luna will take Harry, won’t you, Luna?”
“Oooh, yes, I’d like to,” said Luna happily, and Cho sat down
again, looking disappointed.
“How do we get out?” Harry asked Neville.
“Over here.”
He lead Harry and Luna into a corner, where a small cupboard opened onto a staircase.
“It comes out somewhere different every day, so they’ve neverbeen 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.”