The events of this chapter start a few weeks after the attempt to steal the sword of Gryffindor. We are one step from Christmas and we all know what that means. Christmas holidays means one thing: Bye Bye Luna! (Shading tears)

I tried to incorporate many point of views into this chapter, in an attempt to show you the thoughts inside everyone's mind. Please let me know if the switch on and off between the character's POV bores you, confuses you or excites you.

Luna Lovegood was often described as a curious person, a person with such affinity towards no ordinary things that ordinary things seemed to not hold any interest for her. Her love for creatures that existed only in tales or creatures her father had invented and proclaimed as alive and magnificent was often misunderstood.

People used to call her various names such as lunatic or , students used to mock her, teachers used to sight and roll their eyes whenever she passionately described a creature no one else had ever seen.

However none of these mattered to Neville Longbottom who was fixated on Luna's long, blonde eyelashes and the way her eyes shined whenever she spoke about her favorite subjects.

Neville would occasionally steal glances at Luna. He would frequently accompany her, while she was gracefully strolling around the corridors and towards the classrooms. He would sit next to her and watch her eat. Neville liked Luna. Luna didn't know.

" Nev, are you day-dreaming again?"

Neville jumped up glancing wildly around for the source of the voice, which came by a young Irish guy, sitting two seats behind Neville, next to an irritated and ashamed Parvati Patil.

"Shut up, Seamus!" Neville said, rolling his eyes when the boy chuckled loudly. He shot a vicious glare towards the Irish's direction, silently telling him to stay quiet. The professor however had heard them chatting and was casually sitting on his chair, pretending to enjoy the conversation.

"Longbottom" Carrow said, completely ignoring Seamus. "Could you explain to me why you are chatting with the bubble head you are calling your friend while I am teaching you such an important lesson?"

Neville glanced towards Carrow again. The professor was sitting on his chair next to a bleeding and slightly unconscious student whose name he didn't know. Neville who had lost the entire episode daydreaming about Luna bore his eyes towards his classmates silently asking them what happened.

"Mary was daydreaming during the class, professor Carrow" Parvati said, giving special attention to the word professor. "caught her daydreaming and decided to show her what happens when we are not paying attention."

"That's right Patil" Carrow mouthed, surprised that Parvati was eager to reply to Neville's silent question.

"I tried to stop him" Parvati continued "but he wouldn't let me help her, because clearly he thinks that we are practicing dolls for the unforgivable curses"

Neville sighed loudly, wondering why would Parvati provoke her fate this way, why would she say the words he and unforgivable so loudly but then the idea stroked him, she was resisting.

"Stand up Patil" Carrow sneered, he gritted his teeth and shook his hands menacingly however Parvati was determinate to not let him cause her panic. She wouldn't be afraid. She would stand strong.

She quickly approached his office, mentioning to Mary to get up and go back to her seat, Mary struggled to move her legs but she was too weak so Parvati helped her get up. She would be punished more severely for her actions. She didn't mind.

Hesitantly, step by step, as if she was still afraid of an upcoming punishment Mary returned to her seat. That was the moment Parvati felt a shiver run down her spine, accompanied by a searing pain and eventually an agonizing cry.

Parvati repeated the same mantra over and over inside her head. "Mary was too weak, too innocent, I can stand the pain. I can do this." But the pain was searing, she felt like hundreds of knives curved and sliced and chopped her body into pieces. "Hold on Parvati! Hold on, for Hogwarts, for Padma, she could be the one being tortured wouldn't you want someone else to help her? Hold on!" She repeated her mantra inside her head. Until finally the pain went away, leaving a numbing effect on her body and mind.

Lavender heard each and every cry that left her friend's mouth, saw the way her body twitched and curled. The way her forehead was filled with creases, her shoulders curled downwards. She watched her friend getting tortured, wanting to stand up and help her out but she couldn't. She couldn't leave Mary alone. Mary was sitting next to her, hugging her legs with her long hands, shaking like a leaf. It was the first time she got tortured and she wasn't still familiar with the way your body twitched and hurt after you were inflicted with an unforgivable curse.

Lavender was all too familiar with that pain, as was Parvati, as was Seamus, as was Neville who had now a few long scratches and cuts on his face and hands, whose body had been tortured so many times that she imagined that the pain didn't seem that terrible anymore.

She remembered the last time she was tortured, by the hands of Alecto Carrow, and later Goyle and Crabbe. Alecto was the most vicious one of the Carrow brothers, the one who enjoyed causing pain more, and the most talented with the curses. Her brother wasn't that talented when it came to curses and spells. He was relentless though and that made him terrifying.

She knew exactly how terrifying it could be for a girl like Mary to be tortured so she didn't leave her spot. She sat next to her for the entire class, until Parvati finally joined them, sitting next to Seamus who patted her arm and gave her a sympathetic smile.

Neville who watched the entire episode happening in front of his eyes, felt disgusted with himself for not taking Parvati's place. He interfered and gained a fresh, bleeding cut on his cheek but he didn't do anything else to stop the punishment and it made him sick to his stomach.

As the months passed and especially after the whole "stealing Gryffindor's sword" episode, students seemed to lean on to him more than ever! They had somehow unofficially elected him as their leader, with Ginny and Luna simply helping and standing next to him. Dumbledore's Army grew every single day, more and more students joining in. Students who relied to his advices, his words, his leadership!

Seamus went straight to him after the long punishment he got from Alecto asking him for a way to show her that she couldn't simply punish anyone she wished and get away with it. Terry Boot and Michael Corner asked him about the effects of a Vietnamese plant on fresh cuts, cuts on twelve year old student's faces inflicted by none other Alecto Carrow herself.

Parvati and Lavender seemed to notice him more now that they considered him as a leading figure. People that never talked to him, or noticed him before praised him at the end of their DA meetings. Ginny backed off and trusted his words and actions (although a part of him was convinced that this wasn't due to his leading skills but due to her own desperation of not coming up with new ideas). And last but not least Luna admired him and praised him on daily basis.

He felt the shame creep inside him though. For not standing up to Carrow and taking Parvati's place! Yes, his friends would reassure him that it wasn't his job to do so, that he couldn't use himself as a practicing doll every time someone else got punished. But he felt the weight of his leadership on his shoulders. And that weight indicated that if he wanted to call himself the leader of their resistance group he had to act.

Ginny left her classroom and headed towards the dining room where she would meet with her two best friends, Neville and Luna, accompanied by Seamus, Parvati and Lavender who seemed to join them more often as time passed and the group bonded. They would quietly discuss about their classes and assignments and even more quietly, almost mystically chat about their upcoming resisting plans.

Ginny was still an active resistant member, one that helped her fellow students to write resisting phrases on walls and save the younger students from their punishments. One that helped Neville and Padma heal the bleeding ones, applying the healing cream Madam Pomphrey silently passed to them.

She didn't feel proud of her achievements though, deep down inside the abyss of her soul she felt desperate and lost. She had no news of her family or Harry. She was left in the dark for a couple weeks and it didn't help her nerves calm down.

Ginny struggled to come up with new, exciting and highly promising plans but since the disaster her latest plan to steal the sword caused, her mind went blank as a paper.

She knew that if Harry saw her act that way he would be disappointed, he never seized to come up with ideas. Nor did Hermione! She wasn't them though.

So she let Neville, Luna and the others lead not knowing what else to do.

December came quicker than he thought possible, leaving Draco confused and practically lost. He was eager to leave the hell he called school for a couple of weeks and go back to his home and family; but at the same time the upcoming meeting with Lord Voldemort wasn't one he was longing for.

Christmas didn't mean numerous presents, dinners and exclusive and highly prestigious parties. Nor did it mean magical golf tournaments with his father. Bullying the younger children of his neighbors with his friends and flirting that tall blonde witch who always slipped out of his fingers.

Christmas meant a period full of agonizing over and predicting Voldemort's mood swings. A period where each word and move has to be carefully organized in order to not provoke the hatred of his Lord; a period he came to hate.

Draco dragged his belongings inside the train accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle and Pansy who was somehow always around him. Pansy was rambling as always, chatting about the presents her mother had bought her and would show her during Christmas, about the jealousy and hurt her parents had to endure for not hosting the death eaters meetings. About the privilege Draco's family had gained over other death eaters families, simply by hosting their Lord.

Draco cursed under his breath and pushed Pansy in front of him, in order to distance himself from her. He didn't want anyone to hear about the meetings, although everyone knew who he was and who his parents were, he didn't want to cause any attention to fly towards him. His mission was to stay undetected, quite, almost invisible.

He managed to do so for the last couple months, quietly staying in the shadows, planning and scheming. He had an excellent plan, one that would soon come true. When Potter would return to the castle he would hold him hostage and present him to Lord Voldemort, instantly gaining his appreciation for his and his family's sake. No one would doubt his power then, no one would underestimate him or mock him. They would fear of him and respect him.

Maybe then the girl he was interested in would show him some love, give him the attention he deserved and maybe just maybe he would be able to get rid of Pansy. Pansy, who would of course want to marry him but with his new found power he would be able to send her away, maybe move her to another country, away from him.

The plan was simple, stay inside the castle as long as Potter isn't there and the moment he would come find him and capture him.

"What are you thinking about Draco?" Pansy asked, flattering her eyelashes in an attempt to flirt with him. Draco ignored her, staring outside the window of the train he was travelling with. Watching trees and lakes and rivers pass his windows and the sky getting darker and darker. The train was unusually busy and lost as he was inside his thoughts he didn't notice a high scream that pierced through the entire train.

Luna passed outside Draco Malfoy's compartment with Neville, Ginny and Seamus. Malfoy was distracted by something, he didn't notice Seamus staring inside the compartment nor did he notice the spell Ginny threw towards his direction.

Draco Malfoy was a very strange boy according to Luna, she never got to fully understand his behavior, she knew that he wasn't a killer, a death eater or a vicious boy. But his behavior and his love for the dark arts didn't help him gain anyone's respect or appreciation. And even though Luna was always able to see right through everyone's soul he troubled her a lot.

So lost was Luna inside her thoughts of Malfoy and those new Criwalter creatures her father talked to her about that she didn't notice two large men standing in their way. The men did notice them though, with the larger one of them pushing them around and asking them questions that didn't matter to Luna.

She saw Seamus hesitantly replying, Ginny nodding her head and Neville turning into a sick green color. Ginny suddenly lunched forward, throwing herself at one of the death eaters, with Neville following suit and Seamus trying to stop them both from getting in trouble. The death eater easily deflected their attempts, pushing them around and cursing loudly, using curses Luna never heard of before.

He was a tall man, muscular and quite terrifying, with a face that showed that the curses he used were of frequent use. He seemed uncivilized and vicious. His teeth were gritting, his fists curling into tight balls. He was clearly fuming with anger, for what reason she didn't know.

That was when she heard her name, name and surname, spilled out with anger from the death eater's mouth. She also heard her father's name and felt a large hand gripping her shoulders and turning her around. The death eater was examining her face while clutching a picture that looked nothing like her.

He quickly discarded the picture into a large bag he was carrying and gripped her hands tighter, he pushed her face forward and whispered something with the other death eaters silently nodding.

Luna felt her insides turning out when she saw the death eater who was clutching her hands taking a wand out of his pocket and turning it towards her.

She felt a numbing effect spreading on her body and mind, she desperately tried to fight off the numbing effect that didn't leave her take control of her body but nothing could break the spell.

She was forced to watch herself getting dragged out of the train by the death eaters. With the last image she saw before heading off, being a bloody mess of bodies and cries of agony.

So basically we have Neville becoming the leader of Dumbledore's Army with people relying on him, the effects of the war on Parvati and Lavender (who I always thought that participated actively at the resistance) and a little bit of Ginny, Draco and of course Luna!

LUNA! Luna isn't forever gone, her story will be evolved at the same time we'll see Neville's and Ginny's story.