Rushing around the small cottage, Eliza quickly threw everything she thought might be needed into her bag, "FRED! GEORGE! LEE!" She screamed, "IT'S TIME!"
Two heads appeared at the top of the staircase, "What do you mean it's time?" Fred yelled back at her.
"It's time to return to Hogwarts." She told him simply. "It's time we fight back."
George's mouth fell agape, "Finally."
Nodding her head, Eliza replied, "Now get ready, tell Lee to as well." She then went into the living room, where Ginny was sat quietly, staring at the fireplace. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah." Ginny said before smiling sadly, "Everything will be okay, won't it?"
Eliza sighed before sitting beside her, "I can't promise you anything - but fingers crossed everything will be good."
Soon enough, the the three boys were stood in the doorway, "Have you got everything?"
"Yeah, where are we going then?" Lee asked her, "We can't go straight to Hogwarts!"
Eliza shook her head, "No, we are going to Hog's Head Inn." The group all held each other's hands and disapparated out of the cottage and into the pub.
An old man with a grumpy expression, stood in front of the group, "Who is he?" Fred whispered to Eliza.
"Aberforth Dumbledore." She replied as she stepped forward, "I'm so very sorry for us arriving like this. We got a message that we had to be here. Can you help us get into Hogwarts?"
Before he could say anything, someone else apparated into the Inn, "Oh, not another person."
Cho Chang appeared, "Hello."
"You six better come this way." The man said after a few moments silence and they all followed him to a portrait. He glanced over his shoulder before opening it, "You must go through there and at the end you shall reach another door."
"Thank you." Eliza told him while he just nodded curtly.
The six of them traveled through the tunnel, staying quiet so no one would be able to hear them and know what was going to happen. "I think this is the door he was talking about." George said in a hushed tone.
"Open it then." Ginny told him impatiently.
"Alright, alright." George told her as he gently tugged it open.
It revealed the Room of Requirements where it seemed many people had taken refuge.
"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed." Fred said as they all began to greet him. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station."
"I got the message." Cho siad as she held up her fake galleon before going over to sit by one of the pupils.
"So what's the plan, Harry?" George asked him.
"There isn't one," Harry said quietly.
"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind." Fred said while smiling.
"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville harshly. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane!"
"We're fighting, aren't we?" Dean asked him as he too held 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?" Seamus turned to him, flabbergasted.
The twins began to tell the scared pupils jokes, trying to ease the tension in the room. Eliza zoned out from what they were saying and stared at Harry, Hermione and Ron, who were all discussing something important between themselves.
"Okay!" Harry called out to the room, "There's something we need to find 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 come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?" Harry looked hopefully at the Ravenclaw students.
"Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."
"Yeah, but the lost diadem," A boy said while rolling his eyes, "Is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."
"When was it lost?"
"Centuries ago, they say," Cho said. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but, nobody's ever found a trace of it, have them?"
"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" Ron asked.
"It's a kind of crown. Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."
"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons it."
"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?" They all shook their heads.
"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." Cho offered to him.
He whispered something to Ron and Hermione before turning back to the crowd, "Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know, the other ones all safe."
Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny stopped her, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"
"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," Luna sang happily as Cho sat down disappointment evident across her features.
"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.
"Over here."
Eliza watched as Harry and Luna ran quickly out into the corridor, she then turned over to look at Ginny who was glaring at Cho, "Geez Gin, I never thought you would be the jealous type."
Ginny laughed, "I'm not, it's just obvious she still likes him and don't you remember how in love he used to be with her."
"Yeah, but the thing to remember is that he is now in love with you. And the only girl he stared at when we all entered was a Miss Ginevra Weasley."
Ginny smiled, "I'm afraid."
"I know." Eliza told her quietly, "We all are." She looked over to the twins who were telling everyone the story about when death-eaters were going round houses and they narrowly escaped, "Even those two are, they are just hiding it very well."
"Look around us El, they are all children."
"In times of war, everyone loses their innocence, no one is left untouched." Eliza stared sadly at the young students, "They will be sent away, back to their homes, back to safety."
"Are you sure?" Ginny asked her, "What if there's not enough time?"
"There will be."
"But what if . . ." Ginny trailed off as she looked at someone behind Eliza.
The door had opened and more people had entered, "Wood? Oliver Wood?" Fred's voice rang throughout the room, the name echoing in Eliza's head. "It's good to see you again, mate."
It had been two whole years since she had last heard his voice clearly, he had always been quite a distance away and now he was less than two metres away from her, "Fred! George! How are you both?" And her brain forbid her from turning around and looking at the boy who had broken her heart.
"Eliza?" This time, it was a quieter female voice and Eliza spun around quickly and saw Katie Bell. The two girls ran towards each other and embraced immediately, "Oh, I've missed you so much."
"How have you been? Kept safe? Recovered fully?" Eliza asked her quickly.
"Yes, I am much better now! I've been in hiding, with my family but I decided I have to do my bit and help with the war effort." Katie told her.
Two more people entered the room and Eliza felt like crying when she caught sight of Angelina and Alicia, the four friends were all together again. It was over a year since they last were. "Oh, it's so good to see you again." The four stood in a huddle and began to talk quickly, so quickly that no one else could understand a single word they said.
"Terence Higgs?" Katie yelled, "A Slytherin? Well I never thought that would happen."
"Not all Slytherin's are bad!" Eliza defended her friend, "He's a lovely person."
It was not long before even more people arrived - Kingsley, Lupin, Bill, Fleur, Mr and Mrs Weasley all came together, "Aberforth is getting rather angry with the number of people apparating into his pub." Bill told the twins and Eliza, "He said that he's not running a train station."
"Grumpy old sod." Fred replied.
After around half an hour, Harry walked into the room, "Harry, what's happening?" Lupin asked as he made his way down the stairs.
"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading he 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 to the young boy. "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?" George asked him. "What's going on?"
"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry informed them all. "We're fighting."
There was a sudden loud roar as everyone in the room ran towards the stairs, their wands drawn, as they headed up into the main castle.
Eliza stayed, stood in between the twins. They alongside with Mrs Weasley, Ginny, Lupin, Bill and Fleur were the only ones remaining, "You're underage!" Mrs Weasley shouted at her daughter, "I won't permit it! The boys and Eliza, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"
"I won't!" Ginny said as she peeled her mother's hands off her, "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!" Fred defended.
"She's sixteen!" Mrs Weasley shouted. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking bringing her with you?"
Eliza looked away, feeling ashamed, as she too had let her come.
"Mum's right, Ginny," Bill told her 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 not being able to do anything." Ginny stared at Harry, who was approaching the group, she then turned away bitterly, "Fine. I'll say goodbye now, then, and then I'll leave."
There was then scuffling and a great thump. Someone else had come along the tunnel and fallen out. He pulled himself up and sat down on the nearest chair and looked around at them all, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I came as quickly as I could." Percy told them all, he definitely had not expected to run into the majority of his family.
No one said anything before Fleur turned to Lupin and tried to break or at least weaken the tension, "So, 'ow eez little Teddy?"
Lupin stared at her, "I, uh, oh yes! He's fine." He said very loudly, "Yes, Tonks is with me, at her mother's house."
Percy and the Weasley's stared at each other, neither making the first move.
"Here, I've got a picture?" Lupin shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur, Eliza and Harry.
"I was a fool!" Percy yelled, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a . . ."
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," Fred told him coldly.
Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," Fred held his hand out to Percy.
Mrs Weasley burst into tears, as she ran forward, pushing Fred aside and pulled Percy into a tight hug.
From over her shoulder, Percy caught eyes with his father, "I'm sorry, Dad." Then too, Mr Weasley rushed forward to hug his son.
"What made you see sense, Perce?" George asked him curiously.
"It's been coming on for a while, 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," George said as he made a good impression of Percy's 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?" Percy said as he shook Fleur's hand.
"Ginny!" Mrs Weasley shouted, the girl had been trying to go upstairs without her mother noticing.
"Molly, how about this," Lupin offered. "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?"
"That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly, "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?" She didn't seem to like it, but Ginny nodded her head.
Eliza hurried up the stairs with the twins as they raced to the Great Hall, ready to fight for their cause.