A/N - I had Seamus this time. This was a fun one to do. Hope you like it!

20 April 1998

Seamus glanced over his shoulder again as he continued to run. His breath was coming in short gasps now, hampered by the swelling in his face and nose and the stitch in his side had grown to near debilitating proportions. But he did not stop running. Luckily the Carrows had split up a few minutes back, Amycus intending on circling round and cutting him off Seamus supposed. Alecto wasn't near as fast as her brother and had fallen back quite a bit in the last few moments.

Seamus ran around another corner and ducked into an alcove behind a large tapestry. He held his breath so as not to be discovered as Alecto ran past, then slipped out and turned back the other way. If he could get to the hidden staircase, it would bring him out only a corridor away from the Room of Requirement.

Seamus was positive that Neville was there. He hadn't seen his fellow Gryffindor in two days and he was sure that had the Carrows captured him, Neville would have been put on display for the entire school to see. Given the fact that Neville wouldn't have been able to get out of the school without setting off about a hundred alarms, there was nowhere else he could have gone.

Seamus ran up the stairs as quickly and as silently as he could. Even after spending nearly a year chasing students around the castle, there were still some passageways that the Carrows were unfamiliar with and this was one of them. Reaching the top, Seamus pressed himself against the wall and peeked around the corner. He swore as he saw Mrs. Norris stalking up and down the corridor. While Filch no longer had much to do with the students' punishments, Seamus was unsure of his loyalty. And regardless, it was after curfew, so chances were Filch would take him to McGonagall at the very least. Seamus normally wouldn't worry about this. His Head of House had made it known to all her lions that she would do everything in her power to protect them from the Carrows and Snape, but Seamus had no doubt that if he did not escape tonight, he'd be dead by morning.

Seamus waited, but there was no sign of Filch and walking about undetected had never been the caretaker's forte. Seamus stood weighing his options when he heard a noise from the bottom of the stairs. It appeared one of the Carrows had found the hidden staircase after all.

Decision made, Seamus burst from the top of the stairway, running towards the next corridor, Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. She was yowling and meowing and soon Seamus heard the gravelly voice Filch behind him. Not daring to turn around and see how close they were, Seamus pelted down the hall and around the corridor. He reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, his mind nearly screaming to find the room where Neville was hiding. The door appeared before he had even completed his third pass and as he dove through it, he heard the unmistakable voice of Filch telling Amycus Carrow that Seamus had disappeared somewhere a floor below.

"Seamus!" he heard as he slid into the room on his belly.

"Nev," Seamus panted, looking up and squinting at his friend through the one eye that had not swollen completely shut. "Made it," Seamus whispered and then proceeded to pass out.

When he awoke, Seamus groaned at the pounding in his head. He tried to open his eyes, but only one cooperated and it only opened a mere slit. Seamus groaned again.

"Hey Seamus," Neville said, coming to stand in front of him. Seamus realized he was lying in some type of hammock. "You look like shite." Neville grinned and Seamus began to laugh, but stopped when it made his face hurt worse.

"Feel like it too," Seamus managed, grimacing at the pain.

"I've got some ice, but that's all I'm afraid," Neville said apologetically, placing the bag of ice of the worse of Seamus' eyes. "Ab said he'd try to get some pain potions or bruise paste to us."

"Ab?" Seamus asked, shifting the bag of ice. He saw Neville nod.

"Owns the Hog's Head," Neville explained. "A passage opened up to the pub yesterday when I was wishing for some food."

"He won't rat us out?" Seamus asked.

"Nah," Neville replied shaking his head. "Ab's on our side." Seamus sighed and gingerly moved his bruised and battered body. He thought he might have cracked some ribs too, but he wasn't sure.

"So what happened?" Neville asked.

"Crabbe and Goyle," Seamus said. "Cruciatus practice. Guess Amycus didn't like it when I asked them if that was all they had. Threw me up against the wall a few times. Probably would have been the end of it if I hadn't jumped in front of the second year Crabbe was going to curse next. Good old Alecto didn't like that at all. She did my face."

"She punched you?" Neville asked incredulously. Seamus snorted.

"You think she would dirty her hands on a half-blood like me?" he asked. "No this was all punching and slashing hexes. Kept it up for quite some time too. Probably would have killed me altogether if I hadn't got out."

"How?" Neville asked.

"Snape funnily enough," Seamus admitted. "He came in and pulled the two of them out in the hall to talk to them about something. I slipped out through Amycus' office." He shrugged his shoulders. "So what now?" It was Neville's turn to shrug.

"We wait," he said. "I'm sure Michael will be here before long. The Carrows are still pissed about him letting that first year go, just biding their time until he does something else they can punish him for. But you should sleep. I'll wake you when I've gotten food from Ab." Seamus nodded, his eye closing already.

Over the next few days, there were joined by more of their fellow DA members and the room expanded and added hammocks each time, the banner of Ravenclaw and then Hufflepuff joining the Gryffindor lion. When Lavender and Parvati showed up, the rudimentary loo transformed itself into a bathroom to rival that of the prefects and a long curtain separated a small section of the room with hammocks for the girls.

Seamus slowly healed, Ab only managing to get them a few vials of pain potion, which Seamus waved off, insisting that Neville save it for someone hurt worse than he was. The arrival of Padma Patil gave them someone who knew a few basic healing spells and Seamus could finally fully open his eyes again. His face remained bruised and puffy, Padma informing him that he had a cracked cheekbone as well as the ribs, but Seamus didn't much care.

Life in the Room was actually enjoyable. They had food and drinks, plenty of books, chess sets and exploding snap cards. The wireless had appeared the day after Seamus arrived, so they had Potterwatch to listen to again. After musing about missing flying one day, brooms appeared in the corner and the Room expanded further, the ceiling rising to allow for short flights. Lavender often joined him in his hammock at night, the nightmares she had keeping her from sleeping peacefully unless he had his arms around her. Nothing untoward happened between them, it would have been rather difficult anyway, given the proximity of the rest of their roommates, but it helped both of them sleep through the night and that was all that mattered to Seamus.

The day that Harry, Hermione and Ron showed up was the day that Seamus had been waiting for. But when Dean came through the passageway from the Hog's Head, Seamus whooped like a little boy. Looking around the room, he saw that the Gryffindor's were all together again, and that, Seamus realized, was the way it should have been from the beginning. Bruised, scarred and battered, it didn't matter. They were together and they would fight. And, Seamus knew, they would win.