"Nev!" Alice exclaimed as the portrait door swung to the side, revealing a rather beaten-up Neville Longbottom. It wasn't as though Alice even had the time to inspect the injuries on Neville's face, though, as she rushed forward to engulf her friend in a hug.
"Neville! You look-" Harry started, noticing the large gash on Neville's forehead (it was quite hard to miss). Bruises littered his cheeks as though he'd been in five fist fights in a row, making Hermione's face contort with worry.
"Like hell, I reckon." Neville replied as Alice stood back from their hug, a jovial tone in his voice despite talking about something that looked to be rather painful. "This is nothing, Seamus is worse."
"Jeez, what has Snape done to the school?" Alice murmured, a frown on her face as she thought about the suffering students. A strong arm was quickly wrapped around her waist as Draco pulled her in to his chest, kissing her cheek. He never felt like he was as good at reassuring her as she was to him, but he always wanted to try his best.
"Nothing good, I presume." He muttered back, anger buried in his words. Though he and Neville had only ever properly spoken once, way back when he saw Draco and Alice kiss, Draco still felt bad for Neville. It was almost a feeling of guilt, he bore the same tattoo as the people who were hurting innocents, but as he looked down to Alice, his guilt ebbed away. He knew that he was on the right side.
"Hey, Ab!" Neville called, causing the group to turn around to see Aberforth, looking slightly less moody at Neville's voice. Alice was silently surprised by the nickname, it didn't truly seem to her like Aberforth had given up as much as he had claimed to. "We've got a couple more coming through, I'll see you soon?" Aberforth nodded with a gruff grunt of approval, before stalking back out of the room. Neville turned to walk down the tunnel behind the portrait, before looking back to the others. "Well, are you coming or not?"
Harry went first, followed by Ron, then Hermione. Alice was just about to follow when Draco took her hand, stopping her in her tracks. When Alice looked to him, it was clear that something was wrong just from the worried look on his face.
"What's wrong?" She asked softly, looking up to him, noticing how his eyebrows were drawn together in stress, the corners of his lips turned down in to a frown.
"Well, other than the obvious, we're about to be led in to Hogwarts and most of the other students there will probably want to hex me on sight." Draco admitted, cutting Alice off when she went to protest. "Don't say they won't I know they will. Before you came back, I was horrible to everyone. Some of the younger students would literally run away from me. I was mean, vindictive and honestly? Downright cruel."
"I'm sure you weren't-" She began, but was cut off for a second time.
"No, I was. You never saw it because you're the person who made me want to- able to change it, but no other students, other than your friends, know that. They still see me as Draco Malfoy, the bully, the Death Eater." He spat, causing Alice to glare.
"Don't call yourself that." She ordered sternly, bring up a hand to place on Draco's cheek, running a thumb along his pale cheekbone. As he usually did, he subconsciously leaned in to her touch. "You are so, so many things, but a death eater will never be one of them. I understand that some of the people we're about to see might have assumptions about you, and I know that's going to be hard, but this is your time to prove them wrong. You can finally show everyone in there who Draco Malfoy really is, and I'll be by your side the whole time."
Although Draco was still nervous as all hell, Alice's words always managed to find a way of calming him down. After placing a small kiss to her lips, he took her hand and followed the others in to the tunnel, walking quickly until they caught up.
The tunnel itself was rather small, Draco having to duck in order to make his way through it without hitting his head on the stone ceiling. Neville was leading the way, the tunnel being so thin that they had to walk in a single-file line just to fit through.
"Don't remember this on the Marauder's Map." Ron spoke, his voice echoing throughout the tunnel. Draco's face twisted with confusion, not liking the feeling of being the only one to not understand.
"What's the Marauder's Map?" He asked Alice, not attempting to glance back to look at her, since he knew he'd hit his head on the ceiling if he tried to, and that wasn't all too appealing.
"Don't worry, I'll explain another time." She reassured as they made their way down the long tunnel.
"It wasn't on there because it never existed 'til now." Neville explained, holding his wand in front of him to light up the tunnel. Alice could hear a dripping noise coming from somewhere, so she made the assumption that they were walking underneath the black lake. "Several secret passages were sealed off before the start of the year, this is the only way in or out now. The grounds are crawling with death eaters and dementors."
Draco cringed slightly, glad he was wearing a long sleeved shirt that covered his mark, not wanting to even look at it.
Not that she was trying to look, but since Alice was walking behind him, what Bellatrix had done to Draco's ear was very prominent. Because of the top half of it missing, it almost looked as though he only had one ear at all from the back, making anger bubble in Alice's chest. She wasn't excited to fight, but she was damn excited to get her hands on Bellatrix after everything the sadistic witch had done to Draco.
"How bad is it with Snape as Headmaster?" Hermione asked, already being able to guess the answer from Neville's appearance, but curious none the less.
"Hardly ever see him, it's the Carrows you need to watch out for." Neville replied, intruging everyone.
"The Carrows?" Harry asked, clearly as confused as the rest of them were.
"Yeah, they're brother and sister, in charge of discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows." Neville explained, gesturing to his own bruised and cut face with a grim expression.
"They did that to you? Why?" Hermione asked, shock evident in her tone. A sigh escaped Neville's lips before he began his explanation.
"Today's defence against the dark arts lesson had us practising the cruciatus curse... on first years. I refused." He said, making Alice feel vaguely sick. How could anyone be so cruel? "Hogwarts has changed."
After that, the groups walk was shrouded in silence for a minute, all following Neville down the tunnel. Suddenly, Alice let out a gasp as she tripped on an upturned stone, sending her forwards. Having spun around as soon as Alice gasped, Draco was there to catch her in his strong arms, holding her against his chest.
"Watch it, Clumsy." He said quietly, a smirk playing on his lips as she looked up to him with wide eyes, embarrassed by her trip. Quickly, though, she regained her footing and gently pushed a still smirking Draco in the direction of the others.
"Shut it, stalker." She replied jokingly, causing Draco to smile despite the situation they were just about to walk in to.
After a minute or so more of going down the tunnel, they finally reached a door, causing Draco to tense. Alice reached forward and gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, hoping it would help.
"Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?" Neville asked with a grin, pushing the door open but standing in the doorway, so no one could see behind him. "Hey, listen up, you lot!" He called, getting the attention of the students who were on the other side of the door. "I brought you a surprise."
"Not more of Aberforth's cooking, I hope." Alice heard the unmistakable voice of Seamus Finnigan, causing a smile to appear on her face. "I'd be surprised if we could digest it." As soon as Neville stepped to the side, revealing Harry, Seamus's joking tone turned to one of shock and delight. "Blimey!"
Harry stepped out of the portrait first to a large round of applause from the students of Hogwarts, followed closely by everyone else. As soon as Alice could look around her heart sank, despite the cheering of her friends and classmates.
Instantly she knew it was the room of requirement that they were stood in, knowing that it would be the safest place, but it looked more like a hostel than anything. There was beds scattered around, mostly bunk-beds to fit more people, but it was not a place for young people to be living, especially the first years that she could see scattered in small groups.
Though everyone was smiling, their faces looked just as bad and beaten up as Neville's did. Alice couldn't even see a single student without a cut or a bruise, and that was only counting the places that they'd be visible. Pretty much everyone was skinnier than the last time Alice saw them, their uniforms dirty and dishevelled. They looked like they had been to war, not school.
But, then again, there was little difference anymore.
Glancing behind her, Alice saw Draco shuffling uncomfortably. Not many people were looking at him, most focusing on Harry, but Draco still refused to make eye-contact with any of the others. Offering her hand to him, she smiled when he was quick to take it.
"Well, no one's tried to curse me... yet." He said quietly, accidentally catching the attention of Neville.
"Why would anyone want to curse you?" Neville asked, drawing the attention off of Harry and on to Draco as the clapping died down, making the blonde about twenty times more uncomfortable. Everyone's eyes were now on him, and he was silently wishing that he had thought to steal Harry's invisibility cloak beforehand.
"I just thought-" Draco started, his eyes looking nervously to the large group of students who had every right not to like him.
"I wouldn't worry, if I were you." An extremely familiar voice spoke from the back of the throng of students, who parted so that she could make her way forward. "I told everyone here how it was you who saved me from being captured. Well, you and Dobby." Luna came in to view, a small smile on her face. Alice rushed forward to hug Luna as Draco stood in shock, surprised that Luna would care enough to make him sound good to the others.
"Look, mate." Seamus started, his Irish accent clear as he spoke apprehensively, having never actually talked to Draco before. "We're not saying we love ya, but we certainly don't hate you."
A smile tugged at Draco's lips as he relaxed slightly, Though it wasn't the highest praise, it was definitely better than he was expecting. Alice went back to his side, standing between Draco and Neville.
"Get the word out to Remus and the others that Harry's back." Neville ordered a young boy, who nodded before going to run off. Alice called out before the boy got far, though.
"Wait!" The boy turned around, making his way back. "Make sure to tell Remus I need to speak with him, okay?" She asked, the boy nodded again before rushing away to complete his task. It was clear that Neville was some sort of leader to the other students, they all seemed to follow him.
"Why do you need to talk to him so bad?" Neville asked, causing Alice to cringe slightly.
"My... my dad. He worked with the order but it turns out that he was undercover, he's been a death eater the whole time. I don't know if Remus knows, but I have to tell him." She explained, a familiar sick feeling rising in her stomach as she spoke about her once-beloved father. Neville placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry about that." He said genuinely as Alice blinked back tears.
"To be honest, I've not even properly thought about it. Everything from when I found out onwards has been so damn hectic I haven't even had time to process it." She grimaced, hurt flashing across her features. "I think I'm in denial." She admitted softly. Draco, who had been listening to the conversation, wrapped an arm around her waist, hoping to bring her some form of comfort.
"I know it's not the same, but I felt the same with my parents for a long time." Neville spoke quietly, squeezing her shoulder gently. "Sometimes we don't like that the people we love change, but you're strong enough to get through it, yeah?" He said with an encouraging smile.
"Thanks, Nev." Alice replied, reflecting Neville's smile with her own.
"So, what's the plan, Harry?" Neville asked, louder than when he was talking to Alice so that others could hear. It was more than obvious to Alice that Harry didn't have a plan, and that he was rather uncomfortable being put on the spot. He began shuffling his feet as everyone's eyes fell on to him.
"...Okay..." He began, pausing to think before speaking. "There's something we need to find... something hidden here in the caste... and it may help us defeat You-know-who." All of the students were looking at Harry, expecting him to say more, and looking rather underwhelmed.
"Y'know," Draco whispered, bending down slightly to speak only to Alice, his lips brushing against her ear. "There's still something about Potter being embarrassed that I find immensely enjoyable." He admitted with a low chuckle.
"Right, what is it?" Neville asked, causing Harry's discomfort to grow.
"We... don't know." He admitted, attempting to sound optimistic despite the grim expression on his face. Both Ron and Hermione were keeping their mouths shut, neither of them knowing what to say either.
"Where is it?" Dean Thomas asked from the crowd of students. It was almost like it was an attempt to throw Harry a lifeline and give him a question that he knew the answer to, but since Harry didn't know the answer, it didn't exactly work.
"We don't know that either." Harry replied.
"How...inspirational." Draco whispered sarcastically, causing Alice to glare at him, but the smile on her lips and the amusement in her eyes told Draco that she wasn't mad. It pleased him to see a smile from her, he didn't want what had happened with her dad to get her down too much until she actually had to face him.
"I realise that its not much to go on..." Harry trailed off, feeling the pressure of all eyes being on him while Draco revelled in his discomfort.
"That's nothing to go on." Seamus pointed out, shaking his head in dissapiontment.
"I think it has something to do with Ravenclaw." Harry paused to push his glasses up, still stuttering over his words. "It'll be something small, easily concealed. Anyone have any ideas?"
"Potter should take up motivational speaking." Draco's sarcastic running commentary continued, causing Alice to desperately try to hold in her giggles.
"What about Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem?" Luna asked, her airy voice reminding Alice of windchimes.
"Bloody hell, here we go." Ron muttered, earning glares from both Alice and Hermione.
"The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Hasn't anyone heard of it? It's quite famous." She carried on, causing a girl Alice didn't recognise to reply.
"Yes, but Luna, it was lost centuries ago. There isn't a person alive today who's seen it." She spoke with a soft Scottish accent, causing Alice to realise who she was. Harry had mentioned he used to fancy a Ravenclaw with a Scottish accent called Cho, so Alice figured out that was who the girl was.
"Sorry, can someone explain to be what a bloody diadem is?" Ron asked, sounding fed up.
"I'm beginning to think he left his intelligence at Bill's house." Draco's whispers continued, Alice couldn't hold back a soft laugh at that comment. Luckily, it was quiet enough that no one noticed, but Draco was still happy that he made her laugh.
"It's like a crown? You know, like a tiara?" Cho explained, but the attention was drawn off of her by footsteps approaching from the other side of the students that were gathered around Harry. They parted to reveal Ginny Weasley, who Alice smiled at seeing, having not had seen her since the wedding all that time ago.
"Harry." She greeted, clearly unsure of what else to say to the man she so clearly had a crush on after they had been apart for so long.
"Hi there." Harry replied, equally as painfully awkward.
"Wow, what a ladies man." Yet another comment from Draco, causing Alice to shake her head at him, amusement in her eyes.
"Six months she hasn't seen me, not since Christmas, and it's like I'm not even here. I'm only her brother." Ron complained with a scoff as Harry and Ginny looked at each other as though they'd never seen another person before.
"She has lots of those, though, there's only one Harry." Seamus spoke with a cheeky grin.
"Shut up, Seamus." Ron grumbled, glaring at Seamus.
"What is it, Ginny?" Neville asked, his concern clear at her rushing in.
"Snape knows." She announced, causing everyone to internally panic. "He knows that Harry was spotted in Hogsmeade."
"Well, I guess it's time we pay the Headmaster a visit."
(Hi everyone! I just wanted to say a quick thank you for 1 MILLION reads! That's insane, and i'm so grateful that you've all taken the time to continue to read and show this book your support, more coming soon <3)