'I wish we were somewhere quieter.' Luna glanced around the Three Broomsticks apprehensively.
'We can't. Remember what happened last time? We were overheard by both sides.' Neville shook his head. This had been his idea, to meet like this. It was the first Hogsmeade day for the year, and while the other students were enjoying the day off, he, Luna and Ginny were attempting to have a council of war.
Attempting.
'I wish we had the Marauder's Map. Then we could have done this at school.' Ginny, who'd been staring dejectedly at the floor, began to tap her fingers on the table. She was always on edge these days.
'The mara-what?'
Ginny frowned. 'This map thing the twins stole from Filch. Apparently it shows all the passages and rooms in the castle including the secret ones, and all the people too, even if they wear invisibility cloaks all the time.'
'But that would be great to have! Why don't you write to them and ask for it?'
'Two reasons. One, they read all the mail, and second, I think they gave it to Harry years ago, and we don't know where he is.'
They sat in silence, not sure what to do. Neville would have liked to ask why on earth the twins would have given something that good to Harry, but decided mentioning him wouldn't do Ginny any good.
'Let's walk,' she said decisively. Neville and Luna wrapped their scarves a little tighter and followed her out.
They walked out of the town and up the hill to the Shrieking Shack. Ginny had assured Neville that it wasn't really haunted, it had just been Lupin while he was at school; but Neville had never quite believed her. There was something about it that still scared him.
'We have to do it, don't we,' said Luna almost sadly. 'Restart the DA, I mean. There's no-one else.'
Neville pulled out his DA Galleon and turned it over in his hand. 'These should still work, right?' -Luna nodded- 'I'll set a date for a meeting, but I think most people will have lost their coins by now, so... I guess we'll just have to talk to people, get them on our side. The more we get, the better our chances are. But if we get caught...'
There was no need to finish the sentence. They all knew what the Carrows would do to them if they were found out. Torture, at least. If they were lucky.
'It's good to stand up to them,' Luna said eventually. 'When Harry did it with Umbridge, it really helped, it made us think, gave us some courage...'
'And now we need him again. But we don't know where he is,' said Ginny sadly.
'Do you think he's still alive?' Neville had no idea why he said that, it just came out.
'Of course!' Luna gave Neville a strange look. 'They'd tell the world about it if they'd got him, it's so important to them.'
'They could be keeping it a secret to confuse-'
'Don't! Don't say that!' Ginny swung around so they couldn't see her face, but Neville could tell she was crying. She'd been so worried about Harry, about all three of them. But Harry especially. He wished he'd never mentioned it.
Luna reached out to comfort Ginny, but her hand was pushed away.
'Can we do something else? I - I don't want to think about it.'
'Come on,' said Neville, taking the lead. 'Let's see if there's anything left at Honeydukes.'
Side by side, the three of them walked down the hill.
