After the night Neville shouted at her, Hannah started to find things easier again. She was still torn up with grief and pity for her father, who- without the love of his life- now barely even found it in him to speak, let alone send letters. But just knowing there was someone who understood well….everything just helped her get through the days that little bit easier. She also found that, at least most of the time, she was no longer angry; the hour or so of hysterical sobs after her conversation with Neville seemed to have released everything that had been building up inside her since that day and turned her human again, or as much of one as could be expected of a girl who's mum – she veered away from the train of thought. She had to get on.

A big problem now was Neville: now that she'd climbed out of the pit of despair she'd found herself in, she's started thinking about him, about them again. Before she had left school she was certain that they were just on the edge of becoming a proper couple. Something, she now realised, they had been skirting round for years. But now – now she wanted to be with him more than ever and she thought that she'd finally found the part of herself that would be ready for the kind of relationship that she'd have with someone like him (i.e. – a real one.)

But? But she was completely exhausted and she wasn't sure her fragile state would cope well with the ups and downs of a relationship and also, although she was ashamed to admit it: Neville was at the centre of a rebellion against the most evil wizard of all time, right under the nose of some of his most loyal and violent followers and …she was scared. A year ago she wouldn't have seen this as a problem – she had, after all, joined the DA- even under the threat of expulsion. But she wasn't the person she had been a year ago ; she knew what these people are capable of and what that does to a family. She shuddered to think of what would happen to her father if she, too, never returned home.

She just didn't know what to do.

She really made her decision a few weeks later. She was just heading back from the library when she suddenly heard panicked voices and running footsteps coming from around the corner ; she knew instinctively who it was , but her suspicions were confirmed when , moments later , the disheveled figures of Neville , Ginny , Luna and Seamus came skidding around the corner, pulling a frightened looking first year in their wake.

"Neville wha-?"

"Hannah!" he grabbed both her wrists, nearly slipping on the stone floor as he struggled to stop in front of her and gazed entreatingly into her eyes. "Hannah – you don't – you don't happen to know if there's anywhere – if there's anywhere to hide down here?"

She hesitated for a split second – and he seemed to read the indecision on her face because a kind of desperate ferocity now came into his eyes and he whispered:

" Look , you know I'd never normally ask- but we need to get the kid safe and as it's near your common room I thought you might know somewhere and-" he gave her a little shake "-and you know I'd never tell or let them hurt you – never! Just…please!"

She allowed herself a quick look at the small boy standing with the others a little way down the corridor ;He looked desperately thin and had a long slash down one side of his face that she was almost sure had been cut with a knife. She felt suddenly sick and looked back up at Neville, now meeting his eyes with a little more fear, but an intensity equal to his own.

"Ok, you've got two options:there's a niche behind a tapestry a bit along the corridor and up the swiveling staircase, but I'm really not sure it's big enough for all of you- or you can make for the kitchens and hope the house elves are still faithful to Dumbledore, that's downstairs behind that painting of the fruit bowl – you need to tickle the pear."

She stopped for breath to see him looking at her in a way she'd never seen him look at her before. He seemed on the edge of saying something, when the sound of more footsteps and angry voices came to them from down the corridor and instead he simply squeezed her hand for a moment, before running off with the others (who'd been making desperate motioning gestures for some time.)

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to work out what had just happened, before starting to make her own slow way back to her common room, still aware of the sound of footsteps and shouting which seemed to be growing closer.

She took a deep breath and turned around in one fluid motion, just as the noisy rabble spilled into the corridor.

She noticed it was the female Carrow who lead it. Her stupid doughy face-so like her brothers -alive with a type of glee she normally reserved only for when she was demonizing muggleborns. Hannah's fist clenched around her wand in her pocket , remembering the old toad's tiny black eyes fixed on hers as she had insulted people like her grandparents – a kind of laugh in her thin – wheezy voice all the while, and she felt a surge of hate run through her veins.

Behind the woman were several of the slytherin favorites, Pansy Parkinson's gloating face among them. And behind them, looking more flustered and older than she'd ever seen her, was professor McGonagall. Hannah felt a stab of pity –the old Hogwarts teachers had been doing everything they could so that the minimum amount of students got hurt. She couldn't help wondering sometimes whether they knew they were fighting a losing battle; it was scary to see her teachers like that.

"Oi! Girl!" She jumped slightly, and her gaze swung back to the enemy.

"Yes…professor?" she replied, her voice much colder than usual. The rage that had filled her moments before seemed to have cleared her of fear.

The woman seemed not to have heard her – but she saw, out of the corner of her eye, that Professor McGonagall's eyes had widened slightly in surprise.

"You haven't seen a bunch of stinkin' kids running through here have you?" She could tell the anger was starting to get the better of the woman now and she said nothing, trying to figure out what to do. The woman took a step closer and she could smell the stench of her breath.

"I asked you – you little mud blood – whether you'd seen anyone?" Hannah took the last of her courage and looked the death eater right in the face.

"n-no."

A kind of satisfaction came over the woman's face and she said softly:

"Detention." Before leading the others further down the corridor, the slytherins all taking care to step on her toes or cast her malevolent looks.

McGonagall hesitated for a moment, before letting the corner of her mouth twitch into a reluctant smile of approval and following.

Hannah put one hand against the wall, feeling faint and terrified of what might await her in a few nights time – but also a kind of satisfaction; she knew she could do it. She had made her decision.

The next day she went to her first DA meeting in two years.