Erm, yes I'm still alive and writing this

Erm, yes I'm still alive and writing this. Enjoy! And keep reviewing it!!

Chapter Ten

The mystery of the missing DA students was solved by breakfast of that morning. Following his awakening by Travis, Daniel had dressed quickly and stumbled down the Great Hall, his mind still feeling like mush. He sincerely hoped that no one would ask him how the mission went. It was all he could do to remember his name at this time of day. He randomly threw food onto a plate and began to slowly eat. Midway through a bite of sausage, Daniel was poked by Travis. He tried to ignore it and continued to eat. Travis poked him harder and – when that didn't work – jabbed him in the ribs with his fork.

"What was that for?" asked Daniel furiously, rubbing his side.

Travis said nothing, but only pointed. Daniel followed his finger and gasped. Ginny and Neville were seated side by side, looking somewhat shaken and very exhausted. Daniel quickly turned and began to scan the Ravenclaw table. Yes, there was Luna. She looked a bit less shaken, but also very tired.

Daniel felt as if clouds had moved from the sun. They were alright! "Ginny! Neville!" he shouted, starting to stand up. The pair turned, saw him, and then to his amazement frowned and began to motion for him to sit down and stop shouting. Daniel was stunned, but closed his mouth. Travis grabbed him by his belt and yanked him back onto the bench.

"I just saw them now," Travis whispered to Daniel. "I know they weren't in the Common Room this morning."

"Where do you reckon they were all night then?" Daniel whispered back. "They look more tired than me! And where did they stash the sword of Gryffin – "

"Shut up!" Travis suddenly hissed, clapping his hand over Daniel's mouth and turning both of them towards their plates. He dropped his hand and resumed eating, his hands shaking.

"What's the matter with – "

"Shhh!!"

A second later, Daniel caught sight of a couple of lumbering Slytherins slump by. They seemed to be looking curiously at him. Now Daniel understood Travis's behavior. He knew the Slytherin boys mainly by sight, but he did know that their names were Crabb and Goyle and that their fathers were both Death Eaters. According to Travis, neither was extraordinarily bright. They probably had no idea what he and Travis were talking about. Even so, Daniel didn't like the way they began to whisper with their other Slytherin friends at their table, or the way the pair continued to stare disturbingly towards him.

Following breakfast, Daniel and Travis returned to the Common Room. Daniel had an Herbology essay to finish and Travis was complaining about the obscene amount of Transfiguration work Professor McGonagall assigned them, but the main reason Daniel hurried was because he was eager to intercept Ginny and Neville for news of their adventure the previous night. He needn't have hurried. An hour later, they still hadn't shown and the excitement to interrogate them had diminished somewhat and was replaced by irritability as Daniel scanned his Herbology textbook for how to start growing Mandrakes.

"I'm sure it's got something to do with hanging," he muttered, scanning the pages. "Wasn't that it? When a man is hung, underneath him is where they grow."

"That's a Muggle superstition," said Travis, irritably (he was still attempting to Transfigure his white mice into cotton balls. Thus far, they were definitely fluffier but still had tails and were running around the table).

"No, I'm pretty sure that's it…" insisted Daniel.

"Daniel, do you honestly believe that they hung a bunch of men to grow the Mandrakes in our greenhouse?"

"Well…no, but they could have imported them from somewhere…"

"Like where? Spain? OY! Get back here!"

That last comment was aimed at one of the cotton ball-mice that managed to elude his fingers, work up a good bit of speed, and leap fantastically off of the table. Travis jumped up to catch it, but was a split second too late. As the former rodent sprang from the table, it was caught mid-air in Neville's outstretched palm.

"Nice catch," said Travis.

"No problem," said Neville dully. "I'm used to escaping animals."

Daniel looked at Neville and at Ginny, who stood behind him and his initial thrill at seeing them alive and well began to melt away. Both looked exhausted and disappointed. "What happened last night?" he asked.

Ginny collapsed into an armchair and began her tale. "Your ruse worked perfectly," she said. "Snape left the office wide open and the three of us got in fine. We were really quiet and didn't even wake up the portraits. But then, things got a bit more complicated. The sword was in a glass container, with no doors or hinges or latches or anything."

"We couldn't figure out how to open it," said Neville, taking up on the story. "We had no idea what spell to use. After a few minutes up there, we started to hear some really loud crashes downstairs ("That must have been Peeves," muttered Travis) and decided to throw caution to the winds. Ginny performed a great Reducto spell on the case and we hoped that the noise outside would cover us up. Unfortunately, a lot of the paintings woke up also."

"They made a lot of noise in the confusion of figuring out what was going on," said Ginny. "When they figured out what we were doing, most of them shut up so that we could sneak out. I don't think that they liked Snape any more than we did. But that one, Phineas Black, the old Slytherin Headmaster, he raised the cry immediately. We were caught on our way down the stairs."

"I swear, my heart froze," said Neville. "I thought for sure he'd kill us where we stood. He took one look at us – even though we had the Disillusionment Charm on us still – raised his wand, and lifted the Charm. Then he just stared at us, standing there holding Gryffindor's sword. Without a word, he leaned in and grabbed the sword from us."

"Oh my god…" muttered Travis.

"What happened to you after that?" whispered Daniel.

"He herded us upstairs into his office. That git Phineas began jabbering to Snape about how we were dirty thieves who should have an example made out of them. Snape demanded to know why we came for the sword, what we intended on doing with the it, and who else was involved in the plot."
"You didn't tell him anything though?" asked Travis hopefully.

"We didn't tell him anything ourselves," said Ginny. "But…he just kept staring at us…he was looking into our minds, I know he was. We tried to keep ourselves as emotionless and calm as possible, but I have no idea what he got."

"Oh," said Daniel. He looked at Travis. "Looking into their minds?"

"It's an ability Snape has," explained Ginny.

"Oh, that's terrific," sighed Travis. "Not only do we have to worry about his catching us doing stuff, but now we have to worry about him reading our minds to find out stuff!"

"What happened after that?" asked Daniel.

"Actually, the punishment itself wasn't too bad," said Ginny. "We were all sent into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid to gather some larvae to feed the Bowtrees for his next Care of Magical Creatures class."

"You don't call that 'too bad'?" asked Travis.

"Well nothing bothered us."

"Anyway," said Neville, "The upshot is that it was a long night with virtually no results."

"It could have gone worse," pointed out Daniel. "And there's always next time."

"No there won't," said Ginny miserably. "I heard Snape saying as we left that he was sending the sword to a vault in Gringotts.

There was a long silence, as the four of them took in all of this information. Finally, Neville spoke. "Everyone's got to lie low for a bit. If Snape figured out who's in the DA, then we're all in danger. When we feel it's safe, we'll contact you for another meeting."

He and Ginny stood up and left for their Dormitories. Daniel looked back at his Mandrake essay, but was unable to concentrate. It had seemed so easy to join the DA. But the resistance was looking more and more like a tangled web and less like the easy path forward he had thought. Next to him, Travis heaved a huge sigh. "If Snape has me chained up tomorrow, d'ya think McGonagall will let me off of this assignment?" he asked hopelessly.

Despite Travis and Daniel's terror and anxiety in the days that followed, there seemed to be no sign of retribution for their roles in the attempted sword theft. Alecto and Amycus continued to force their terrible "teachings" onto the classes and butted heads with various DA members who stood up to them. Filch still muttered direly and chased students for idiotic offenses, but showed no more attention than usual to Daniel or Travis. Snape was still mysteriously absent from all life in Hogwarts and if he knew the identities of all of the DA members, he appeared to give no indication of it. Selene and Warren, who were updated on the results of the sword-stealing mission, also assured Daniel that they seemed no more persecuted than usual. The only strange thing Daniel noticed was the occasional creepy feeling that someone was always standing behind him or following him. But after checking behind him and even throwing things behind him (in case the "follower" was invisible), he dismissed these feelings to nerves and paranoia. Sure enough, after a week or so passed Daniel no longer felt followed or in danger, though he was careful to keep his eyes open and avoid traveling places alone, lest he be attacked or dragged off.

"What, do you think the Carrows are going to kidnap you while you're going to the toilet?" asked Travis impatiently as he was forced to follow Daniel into the fourth-floor bathroom and wait for him between classes.

"I don't want to take a chance!" said Daniel irritably. "The Carrows are idiots, but the Death Eaters are cunning and dangerous."

"Like their going to kidnap a group of rebellious teenagers," scoffed Travis. "I think they've got more on their minds than that, Daniel."