-1Chapter 10
The evening had been extremely uneventful, much to Neville's disappointment. Luna, Ginny and Terry had been so exhausted from getting chained up that they had fallen asleep almost instantaneously. Seamus and Neville had taken it upon themselves to stand guard at the door in case the Carrows returned to inspect their captives. Seamus had fallen asleep first, his head lolling lazily against the dungeon wall, wand in his lap. At six in the morning, Neville woke the others up, and unwillingly chained his friends back up to the dungeon walls. He and Seamus snuck out quietly, and made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower.
"You do realise there was probably a better way to do that than have a sleepover on the dungeon floor?" Seamus said in hushed tone.
"Yeah, probably," he said quietly.
"So what were you trying to achieve by sleeping in the same room as people such as Luna Lovegood?" he asked, with a smile and a raised eyebrow. Neville looked at him long and hard.
"I dunno, why were you mumbling about Lavender in your sleep? Got yourself a gardening hobby?" he countered. Seamus blushed a deep red and stopped talking. They walked past the third years that were all gathering around the notice board, before seeing a large, officious looking notice. They backtracked and Neville scanned over it.
"It says that the Carrows now have authority to search students rooms," he said, rolling his eyes.
"That bluntly?"
"Pretty much word for word," Neville mumbled, before running upstairs to the seventh year dorm room. Neville hadn't been happy with inheriting it from the previous seventh year - there were a number of dubious stains on the plush carpet. Seamus followed him up warily, and locked the door behind him.
"Have you finally lost it?" he asked coolly.
"Nope," Neville said "There have been hundreds of students in these dorms. At some point or another, someone must have had a hiding place right?"
Seamus stared at him.
"I can't tell whether that's brilliant or so unlikely that you actually have lost it,"
"Portum revelio," he declared, waving his wand around in a circle. There was a brief flash and small blue square appeared on the floor. Neville grinned at Seamus.
"That was about as likely as Ron getting together with Hermione," his Irish friend muttered. Neville dropped to the floor and opened the hatch up.
"We can just dump stuff in here whenever the Carrows come round," he grinned. He put his hand down into the blackness that was the hole, feeling around to see if there was anything left in there. His hand clasped around a book and he pulled it out. Neville looked at the title written across the cover.
"Property of James Potter apparently," Neville said, raising an eyebrow.
"As in Harry's dad?" Seamus enquired.
"I don't think there are many other James Potters," he said.
"What do we do with it?"
"We keep it," Neville said, shrugging.
After putting the book back in it's place, Neville and Seamus returned to the common room, where Ginny was entered, surprisingly followed by Luna. Neville gave her an enquiring look.
"Ginny decided it was okay for me to come to your common room," she said brightly "It's very small isn't it,"
"We prefer to think of it as…homely," Seamus said quietly. Neville beamed at the shorter blonde girl.
"So what did the Carrows say when they let you go?" he said.
"Nothing. Filch was the one that let us out. And he was just laughing and muttering to himself. I think he's losing it actually," Ginny said, smiling slightly. It seemed that the brief argument they had had was now forgiven.
"What lessons have we got today?" Neville asked Seamus, who gave him a strange look.
"It's a Sunday," he stated bluntly.
"Ah….right," he mumbled, blushing slightly. Luna was still watching him.
"Well I don't think we should do any more Dumbledore's Army stuff for a bit. Let the heat die down," Neville said, taking a seat in the armchair by the fire. Ginny glared at him.
"Harry wouldn't stop fighting them," she said, eyebrows up in her hair.
"He would if it meant not being able to fight them again…think of a way for that to make sense," he mumbled, gesticulating wildly.
"He wou-" she started.
"Oh shut up," Seamus said, resting his head on the chair. She scowled at him, then stormed out in a flurry of red hair,
"This is ridiculous," Neville hissed between his teeth.
"I agree," Seamus muttered, then noticed a brown haired girl making her way out of the portrait hole. He stood up, knocking the seat back slightly.
"Hey, Lavender, wait up!" he called, running after her. Neville smiled nervously at Luna, who beamed back at him.
"So, what are you doing today?" Neville asked quietly.
"Nothing. Can I go with you?" she asked quickly.
"Go with me where?" he asked, slightly bemused.
"For a walk?" she asked brightly.
"Erm…yeah, sure," Neville said, standing up and extending his arm. She dodged his arm and slipped her hand around his waist. His heart fluttered slightly, and he sighed. This was going to be a long day.