I'm in a bit of a hurry, so just ... here it is!
I walked down to lunch in a daze. I looked around for Neville and Luna again and saw them at the other end of the table. It looked like Neville was yelling at Luna, for some reason- of course, she didn't look fazed at all. Weird, those two never fought- like me, Neville knew it was like fighting with a five-year-old. Absolutely pointless.
So I was confused as I started coming towards them from the entrance of the Great Hall, but as soon as I heard what Neville was saying, it was clear. Neville was on a rant about the new teachers, and what I had taken for an absent, unfazed face on Luna was actually her most descriptive and emotional face. AKA a normal person's idea of an absent and unfazed face. Sigh.
Anyway, I was pretty quick to join in on the rant once I caught on. By the time we had established just how evil the Carrows were, lunch was over, and we had never eaten. So we grabbed plates, loaded them with food, and continued our rant the whole way up to the common room. Luna was still there, though no one would know it, and I suppose she was listening attentively. Or thinking about Crumple-Horned Snorcacks. One or the other.
It was so loud in the common room, with everyone discussing the Carrows and the other classes they'd had so far, that we could talk full voice about the Carrows and no one could begin to hear what we were saying. Unfortunately, neither could we.
"WHAT?!" I was shouting, after five minutes of completely unsuccessful attempts at normal conversation and maybe another rant.
"Nothing," muttered Neville, shaking his head.
"Neville, what was it?" asked Luna in her quiet, breathy way.
"HUH?!" we both shouted at her, cupping our hands around our ears. Quiet and breathy was not gonna work here. Once she had finally made herself heard, Neville shouted, "I SAID, WE SHOULD MAKE A BIG PLAN TO SABOTAGE THE CARROWS"
What he didn't know was that a split second before he started talking, McGonagall had walked in and the room had gone dead quiet.
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor McGonagall enunciated, tight-lipped. "You will come with me. Now. Misses Weasley and Lovegood, likewise." She began turning toward the door to leave, then she whirled back around and cried, "LOVEGOOD?! Miss Lovegood! What are you- this has never- never mind, child, just get to your next class before I call your Head of House!" Luna, not bothered at all, just replied, "Of course, Professor; I hope you have a good evening. See you in class!" And with that, the weirdest girl I have ever met left the Gryffindor common room. McGonagall, shaking her head, seemed to agree with me.
"Everyone get to class," she commanded primly, and climbed gracefully out the portrait hole, forgetting entirely about Neville's little announcement.
Luna, Neville, and I all had off this hour. We snuck out to the library, communicating with the old Dumbledore's Army coins that Neville had rigged during the summer. Now they told whole messages- though it was much more obvious they weren't real coins, Luna and I weren't about to tell him that.
When we all got to the library, there were lots of stories to be told, but turns out there wasn't much new to hear- their first days had been almost exactly like mine. We finished talking about our first classes and decided that we definitely need to take action. But how? That we didn't know. We decided to wait a while, until we'd had a few more Muggle Studies and DA classes- scope out the competition a little. Wouldn't want to be hasty and end up dead without taking either of the Carrows with us! What a waste.
By the hour's end, we still only had vague plans as we reluctantly left the library to go back to class.
Over the next few weeks, we began to realize that the Carrows were more dangerous than we ever could've guessed. It wasn't nearly enough to discourage us, though. We'd just have to be sneaky instead of just going for being outright troublemakers. Woulda been fun for a change, but what can ya do? If some all-powerful wizard with hundreds of extremely dangerous followers and a criminal longer than the American Constitution wants to take over the world, sometimes you have to humor him a little, you know?
But that's beside the point. In the end, we decided on nighttime graffiti missions. They couldn't prove who the culprits were, and it would clearly convey a message that would be hard to ignore and hard to cover up. Perfect! We got pretty proud of ourselves. It took a while to come up with slogans for the graffiti. The first mission would eventually end up being around the Great Hall, and the message would be "Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting". Now, all that was left to do was wait for the right time.
One night, after several of the Muggle-borns in my DA class had been tortured so badly that they were, according to a disapproving Madame Pomfrey, sure to be out for at least a week, I hunted Luna and Neville down again during dinner and told them, "It's time. We have to do something. Now. Before it's too late." They both looked hesitant to actually follow through with our plans, so I reminded them, "Remember Hermione? Our friend? Who probably couldn't be here even if she weren't," I looked around and saw that I had apparently been talking pretty loudly. "Traveling with her parents," I finished lamely.
Neville nodded. Hermione used to help him sometimes, and without her he had struggled at the beginning of the year, though by now he had stepped it up and filled the place she had left behind as the smartest wizard in the year. Luna nodded, too- Hermione was one of the few people who tolerated her.
"Okay, so, are you with me?!" I asked them, making the answer obvious with my growling tone.
"Uh-sure- for Hermione," replied Neville weakly.
"Yes, of course. Hermione is one of my only friends," announced Luna honestly and embarrassingly. Right," I replied awkwardly. "Sure. So, for Hermione?" I asked. "For Hermione," they answered together. We ate as fast as possible and ran up to the common room to set the date for our first mission. Dumbledore's Army would rise again.