A/N: this is my first fic on here, so... yeah, I'm kinda nervous. but don't try to go easy on me-constructive criticism is much appreciated! please tell me what you think!
September First...
Ginny waited until Neville and Luna had deposited their trunks in the luggage rack before shoving the day's paper in their faces.
"Snape!" she shouted, waving the newspaper under Neville's nose. "Snape! How could they do this to us!? We used to be safe at Hogwarts!" she screamed, nose-to-nose with Neville.
"What are you going on about?" Neville asked, biting into a chocolate frog he had taken out of his pocket.
"SNAPE!" Ginny shouted again, so loudly that Neville almost choked on his chocolate frog.
"Oh, is he still teaching?" Luna asked, her usually serene face looking worried.
"I wish," growled Ginny, "No it's worse than that; he's Headmaster!"
This time Neville really did choke on his chocolate frog. "What!?" he spluttered, staring at Ginny as if hoping she would suddenly say the whole thing was just an April Fool's joke. She didn't.
"Read this," Ginny slapped the front page against his chest, too angry to read it herself.
Neville and Luna clustered around the newspaper, reading silently to themselves.
" 'Following the resignation of the previous Muggle Studies teacher, Alecto Carrow will take over the post while her brother, Amycus, fills the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor…' " mumbled Neville, "Hold a second, they're those two Death Eaters we saw running down the steps from the Astronomy Tower the night—last year."
"It gets worse," Ginny fumed, "Read what Snape said."
Luna took over for Neville, who was apparently too horrorstruck to say any more. " 'I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest Wizarding traditions and values — ' Oh no!" she said suddenly, "He means he's turning Hogwarts into a pureblood school!"
"Then what's with the mandatory attendance?" Neville grumbled.
Ginny had already thought of that. "To weed out Muggle-borns," she said darkly.
"So that's why the Creevey brothers looked so miserable," said Neville, looking as if the chocolate frog had left a very bitter taste in his mouth.
"And did you see Deirdre Mallory?" Luna asked, "I haven't ever seen her cry that hard."
"I can't believe it," grumbled Ginny, "How can the Ministry have gotten so out of control that Voldemort is able to land his favorite Death Eater as Headmaster of Hogwarts?"
"Well, Scrimgeor's dead," Neville said gloomily, pretending he hadn't jumped when Ginny said Voldemort's name, "And I'll bet my hat that Thicknesse is under the Imperius Curse."
"Oh yes," Luna chimed in, "Daddy has found evidence that You-Know-Who recruited Sorrel Nevaeh."
"Who?" asked Neville, bewildered.
"She's possibly the current owner of the Elder Wand," said Luna, "Her specialty is the Imperius Curse."
Ginny was too angry to laugh. "I can't believe Snape's headmaster!" she muttered.
"Yeah," whispered Neville. Suddenly he sat up, looking frightened. "Ginny," he said quickly, "I don't know if I can survive this year! I'm serious, Snape terrifies me! It was bad enough when he was Potions Master, but now he's Headmaster — " His eyes were wider than Luna's, darting around the train compartment as though expecting to see Snape peering in through the windows.
"Neville," said Ginny comfortingly, "He scares everyone out of their wits. It's going to be okay. Everyone's in the same boat, see?"
Neville, not looking impressed, mumbled something about a boggart.
"No, I'm serious Neville!" Ginny said, and she suddenly broke out in a wide grin, "Look what happened the last time the Ministry tried to make us do things we didn't want to! We could start up the D.A. again; it'll be just like last time, Neville!"
At this, both Neville and Luna raised their heads, both of them looking much more hopeful now.
"Yeah," Neville said again, though with a very different attitude, "I'll bet people still have their coins from two years ago…" Before even ending the sentence he had pulled his trunk down to the floor and was now rummaging through it with the air of someone who knew exactly where the thing he was looking for was hiding.
"We can recruit more people; it'll be bigger than ever!" Ginny cried, "And I think, if we practice hard, Luna and I could figure out the Protean Charm. We could make more message Galleons for any new people, or if someone's lost theirs."
"Oh, nobody will have lost theirs," Luna said matter-of-factly.
"Got it!" Neville shouted, reemerging from the depths of his trunk holding a small, seemingly ordinary, gold Galleon.
"Good," Ginny said in a business-like manner, "So Neville's got his, and I know where mine is. Luna, you still have yours, right?" Luna nodded. "Great! So now we just have to figure out how Hermione changed the dates on it. That shouldn't be too hard, it's just basic Transfiguration, and then we can — "
All of a sudden, the door to the compartment slammed open to reveal a frantic-looking Seamus Finnigan, a seventh year Gryffindor boy who Ginny didn't know well.
"Oh thank God, Neville, you're here!" he shouted the moment he laid eyes on Neville. "Dean's missing! I can't find Ron or Hermione anywhere, and Harry's not on the train either, but… well, you know."
He didn't say what was on everyone's minds. Only an idiot in Harry's position would have come back to school with Death Eaters swarming the place.
"Hey, Seamus," Ginny said suddenly, "You've still got your message Galleon from the D.A.?"
"Yeah," he said, "Why?"
"Well you're going need it."