Hi, everyone! Yes, it is the big day! Graffiti time! Also, DON'T FORGET- check my profile for a poll I really need you to answer and recommendations for some good fanfictions I absolutely love.
That night, at midnight, the three of us, who were all that now remained of Dumbledore's Army, snuck into the corridor outside the Great Hall. It was going to be hard, because teachers, ghosts, and prefects were all constantly on patrol during lights-out hours.
Neville and I met in the common room at midnight. We nodded at each other and were just leaving when we realized someone was casually following us. We jumped about a mile and turned around. When we saw who it was, we jumped about another mile. There was Luna. It wasn't surprising that she had made it in here. What had made us jump was her appearance. There she was, all dressed in black and with war paint on her cheeks. Wow.
So we left the common room (after glaring at Luna a little for good measure). We reached … two feet outside the door without incident. But right after that, there was incident, all right. Big, big incident.
McGonagall came pacing slowly up the hallway, on patrol. She looked half-asleep. "What are you doing, children?" she asked sharply, somehow making it an order. How was someone her age even able to stay awake at this hour?!
"Just doing a graffiti mission against the Carrows," replied Luna quickly and honestly.
I swear there was smoke coming out of my ears.
But McGonagall smiled again! That made, like, two or three times today. How creepy!
"Very well, carry on," she replied. My mouth literally dropped open. So did Neville's. Only Luna didn't seem surprised that she had been rewarded so well for her honesty. Guess she has some sort of karma thing going for her.
"Uh, thanks," I replied, running towards the stairs. But I was carrying the sack of spray paint cans, and I couldn't really run, unless we wanted to wake Dumbledore in his grave. Okay, now that was just gross. You didn't need that mental picture. Sorry.
We crept down the hallway, acting like spies and being overly dramatic about peeking around the corners. I could barely keep from cracking up every five seconds. We didn't meet anyone else until the stairs. Peeves the Poltergeist was cackling and giggling, playing the same old trick of unscrewing the chandelier.
When he saw us going ever so quietly down the stairs beneath him, he shrieked with glee. "OO, LITTLE CHILDREN, WHAT GAME IS THIS YOU ARE PLAYING?! EH? TRYING TO GET PAST PEEVES? NEVER, LITTLE ONES! OH, DEAR ALECCCCCCCTRO!" Instantly, I heard footsteps.
"RUN!" yelled Neville. And we did. We ran and ran and ran and ran for who-knows-how-long until we had no idea where we were and had nothing even slightly resembling time to figure it out. We ran into the kitchens, out into the Quidditch fields, near the forest, back inside, all around, once all the way into the Hufflepuff dormitories. We may even have been in a boys' bathroom at one point.
When we snuck back in a side door of the castle (with the help of a house-elf, those adorable, underpaid things) and listened for a full twenty minutes to see if anyone was still chasing us.
"I don't hear a thing," announced Luna about three minutes after we started waiting.
Neville was in a sour mood now. He snapped back when Luna annoyed him. "We just got here. They could be planning an ambush as soon as we move an inch, or-or they might be about to charge out right now-" he looked around the entire area at this part- "or they might just be listening to everything we say so that they can find out what we're gonna do in the first place. And then they'll ambush later."
"Sure!" I replied tartly. "And I'm a flying, prancing, pretty little unicorn, but that's all in my imagination, too!"
Neville grumbled something I couldn't (and didn't want to) hear. And so went the waiting and the slow walking back to the Great Hall when we finally gave up on waiting, and basically the entire rest of the night. Snap after snap after snap.
In fact, that slow walk back up to the Great Hall was so slow that it took an entire hour to get from the kitchens to the entrance hall. When we had finally reached the doors to the Great Hall, it was time to get to work.
Carefully, determinedly, and deliberately, we wrote in huge, pink spray-paint letters.
On one side of the doors, we wrote "Dumbledore's Army". On the other, we wrote "Still Recruiting". We high-fived, silently mouthing, "YEAH!" and "WE DID IT!" and "Did you know that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are the most common magical animal in the world, but no one believes they exist?" That one was Luna. No comment.
After that, Luna snuck behind a portrait to a hidden staircase that took her directly to Ravenclaw Tower, and Neville came with me on a weird, complicated path to Gryffindor Tower, to avoid Peeves. We couldn't wait to see how the Carrows reacted.