A/N: Apparently, when inspiration hits, it really hits. I hope to update very soon again as I've already started working on the next chapter.

Seventh Year. Part XVI.

As they heaved Terry over the threshold of the room, they were met with gasps. Padma barely had time to register that Ernie, Susan and Hannah had already joined the Gryffindors, which included a few younger students as well, before Neville and Seamus were there, gingerly releasing Terry from their grasp and into one of the hammocks.

"What the hell happened?" Neville questioned, turning to the other three. As Padma opened her mouth, but found that nothing came out, Neville turned to her with sympathy in his eyes. "Pad, you do whatever you can for him. The others can fill us in."

Padma was vaguely aware of Michael's and Anthony's stuttering voices saying words about Gringotts and dragons. Her focus was all on Terry. His eyes were open now, if only slightly, with a vulnerability shining out of them she knew he wouldn't have shown, had he not known that everyone in the room was listening intently to Michael and Anthony.

She sank down on her knees beside him, feeling her eyes fill up. "I'm s-so sorry," she whispered, a tear escaping down her cheek.

With an enormous effort, he spoke, in a very low voice, meant only for her ears. "You – had – to."

But she shook her head, trying to clear it. "I – I'm gonna fix your wrist. It-it might hurt a bit."

But he grimaced in a just-do-it sort of way, and she knew she had to try, even if she felt terrified she'd just make something worse by not being focused enough. But she saw the way he was fighting against actually crying out with pain every single second, and she had to make it better. Had to.

He let out a low groan in the moment that the spell worked, but then, as she felt his wrist gingerly, he only cringed slightly. It was healed, even if it would be sore for a few hours.

Taking a deep breath, she moved on to his nose, and lip, wiping the blood from his face with her own sleeve.

Then she bit her lip and let another couple of tears spill. "I – I can't fix the rest. It's not broken bones, it's just – the curse – and I – I don't even know what Pomfrey uses for that."

Terry was looking immensely better, but still very grey in the face and grimacing every time he moved. He took her hand in his uninjured one. "Hey. S'okay, you know. I'm fine now. I'll be fine. Now that you've fixed my arm and nose, it's really not that bad."

She choked on a breath as she heard the strain in his voice as he tried to make himself appear a lot better than he was, for her. She shook her head. "Stop."

To her surprise, he didn't fake a grin and ask what she was asking him to stop, because he was fine, really. Instead, he just sighed and closed his eyes, allowing her to tentatively start stroking his hair.

She suddenly noticed that the rest of the room had gone silent for a brief moment, and met Anthony's still very wide eyes. In a second, he'd turned to Michael, who'd turned to Neville and soon, no one was looking at them, and everyone was keeping any random conversation going, in an attempt to give them a bit of privacy.

After a few minutes of him just lying there with his eyes closed, letting her comfort him, he opened them and looked into her with so much sincerity that it took her breath away.

"I'm sorry." She didn't have to ask what he was referring to. "I just – had to do something. I really needed those news, and then – I went too far with it. I'm sorry. I know you tried to tell me, and I'm sorry."

She shook her head. It wasn't okay. A tear leaked from her, landing on his lip. Somehow, her lips were softly grazing his. Because even if it wasn't okay, he was Terry, and he'd been hurt, and she'd had to hurt him, but they were here now, together. Not okay, but safe, for now.

xxx

Terry was still lying down on the hammock and had not made any attempts at moving, but most of the colour had returned to his face and most of the strength to his voice. Michael and Anthony had stopped acting as though he'd break if they looked at him for too long, and the about 20 people in the room were chatting quite normally. Well, as normally as they could be, under these circumstances.

Then, in a second, Anthony's face fell and he dropped his head into his arms. Michael, Terry and Padma exchanged confused looks along with everyone else.

"What?" Michael asked bluntly.

Anthony looked up slowly, a panicked expression on his face. "I have to get out of here."

"You're joking, right?" Terry frowned at him. "You can't go back out there, man, it's suicide."

But Anthony was shaking his head frantically. "Nathalie. She's still out there."

Padma's throat closed for a moment. Shit. They hadn't thought of her. But then, as both boys were looking to her in desperation, she forced herself to become rational. "Tony, you can't go out there. Nathalie will be fine. She's not in the DA, and after the – um, incident – she's not been making any trouble. She's smart. She'll know to lay low."

"But what if they come after her because of me?" The guilt in his voice made her stomach turn.

She knew she was lying, but made her voice as convincing as possible. "They won't." She placed a hand on his thigh. "They've got bigger stuff to worry about. Plus, you didn't even do anything today. They've got no reason to go after her right now."

It took a few more minutes of talk like this to make Anthony grudgingly agree that it would be foolish to return into the school to get Nathalie, that that in itself would bring her into a much heavier risk than she was in at the moment.

As silence fell, it was Terry who spoke up. "So, what do you guys do in here?"

Neville shrugged. "Not much to do, really. Been practising defence, mostly. Or listening to the wireless. Potterwatch's already been on today, though. Oh, and we get food from there - " he indicated the passage at the back wall, "from the Hog's Head. You guys hungry? I take it you didn't make it to dinner."

Terry gave a dark chuckle at this. "No, not exactly. I'm kind of starving, actually."

Michael's stomach gave a noise of consent.

"Be right back," Neville smiled, and in just a few minutes, he had returned, bearing tons of food, plus massive amounts of Butterbeer.

"Nothing stronger, eh?" Michael said, raising his eyebrows.

Neville shook his head. "Ab figures we should be on alert. I kind of get what he's playing at. With the dragon incident – things seem to be spicing up, don't they?"

"You don't really think Potter's gonna show up tonight, though, do you?" Ernie asked, leaning back casually in his hammock.

"Why not?" Neville shrugged. "Tonight as well as any other night."

"Still think we could've had some fun in the meantime," Seamus muttered.

"You wouldn't be so happy if you'd said that and then you'd be going into a fight wasted," Lavender chided him, grinning.

"Nah, guess not. But some Firewhiskey would've tasted pretty great right about now, hadn't it?" Seamus went on with a sigh.

"Nothing to say we can't have fun without it, though," Terry smirked mysteriously.

"And what exactly do you have in mind?" Padma questioned, looking at him suspiciously.

He grinned. "Oh, I don't know, I don't know. But in my opinion, this is starting to resemble a huge slumber party, am I right?" A few younger girls giggled at the insanity of this comparison. "Well, why don't we make it one then? Who's up for some insanely exciting actions, possibly life-altering revelations? And, yes, people, I am referring to the wonderful game we all call: Truth or Dare!" he said in a mock-dramatic voice.

"Seriously. You're suggesting we play some silly game only girls aged about ten have ever enjoyed?" Seamus looked half-amused, half-disgusted.

"Why not?" Terry grinned. Padma was sure only she saw the momentary glance in Anthony's direction, the satisfaction at the fact that he was actually grinning while shaking his head. So that was why. He was trying to distract Anthony from worrying his head off.

"Y'know, it might not be such a bad idea." A Gryffindor fifth year who Padma only knew from having been on the Quidditch team spoke up. "It's not like we have anything better to do, is it?"

"Dem, you have a point," Neville chipped in, and suddenly, when he'd said it, it was decided. They were going to play Truth or Dare.

"And just for that you get to be asked first," Lavender smirked at the girl. "Neville, you wanna start this up?"

"Why the hell not. Um, Demelza, truth or dare then?" He looked slightly uncertain as Demelza gave a small giggle, before responding.

"Truth, I guess. Seems less risky."

"Okay then. Er... tell us about... your first kiss?"

For a moment, something about the air was frozen. Padma didn't know what was going on, but she saw the looks exchanged by Demelza's friends, and by other female Gryffindors. Then she examined Demelza, whose face had paled remarkably. Neville seemed to have noticed it too, because he scratched his head, waiting, and then said, "Um – did I say something wrong?"

Lavender hit him on the arm, but Demelza, now seemingly more gathered, shook her head slowly. "No, Nev, it's fine. Just that my first kiss was with Colin. We've been together for about two years now, so Lavender probably thinks you should've noticed. But it's fine, you're a guy, I know you don't pick up on that kind of stuff. It took Colin ages to realize I was into him. Finally, I just grabbed him and kissed him. I mean, we'd been flirting for ages, but he never did anything about it, so I took matters into my own hands. Wasn't the best kiss ever. He was so surprised, he kind of slobbered a lot." She grinned fondly at the memory, allowing the others to smile with her. "Anyway. It's fine. I haven't seen him in forever, but I know he's okay. He's in some safe house with his brother and a bunch of other Muggleborns."

"I'm sorry, Demelza, I really didn't know," Neville began, but she interrupted him.

"Nev, really, it's okay. Now shush, it's my turn to do this." She looked around the room, from face to face. Irrationally, Padma found her stomach actually flutter as Demelza surveyed her face, and herself breathe out in relief as Demezla finally settled on Michael, next to her. When he too had chosen "truth", she smirked.

"So, Michael, the whole school's been dying to know for ages. You and Ginny – did you do it?"

For a moment, he gaped at her. Then he chuckled in disbelief. "The whole school's been dying to know, have they?" And from the way every girl in the room were holding their breaths, so they had. Padma was actually a bit curious herself. Even if she knew a lot about Michael, they'd never discussed this particular branch of personal stuff. "Well, sorry to disappoint, but no, we never did it." As Demelza's face fell, Michael grinned. "She probably would have killed me for telling you even that, y'know."

"Why'd'you think we've never asked her?" Demelza's friend said darkly.

"But if you didn't with Ginny – that doesn't mean you haven't done it, right? I mean, you and Cho did, didn't you?" asked a blonde girl at Demelza's other side eagerly.

Michael flushed for a moment. Padma took pity on him, turning to the girl and starting to explain that the rule was one question only. But Michael interrupted her. "A gentleman never shags and tells, ladies, sorry. My turn now. Susan, truth right? Then, who was your first crush? Since you got to school, I mean. No bullshit about some neighbour you had when you were five."

Immediately, Susan's cheeks turned pink. She looked shocked at the attention, and her gaze flickered quickly over to Ernie, who was meeting her gaze with a particular interest. Padma glanced at Hannah, her heart speeding up. What if it was just about to come into the open? But from the calm expression on Hannah's face, she either wasn't bothered by Ernie and Susan anymore, or she knew something Padma didn't.

It took Susan a while to open her mouth, and even when she did whisper something, it was quiet enough that no one heard it. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I didn't quite catch - " Michael asked, and then Susan opened her mouth again. "Anthony." As they were all straining their ears, they heard her this time. And in seconds, Anthony's face matched Susan's. Neither of them looked at each other.

"Well, would you look at that, Tony? A secret admirer, eh?" Michael smirked, but then turned back to Susan. "Your turn, Suse."

"Oh. Right." She struggled to compose herself. "Parvati, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Parvati answered, a little too quickly. Padma saw her tense up, and knew she hadn't wanted to risk having to kiss some random guy. She'd already wasted her first kiss, and second. She wasn't about to waste her third. Even if that meant having to answer awkward questions.

"So, how was it to be Harry's date at the Yule Ball?"

Parvati looked highly relieved that the question hadn't been harder. "Sorry to disappoint, girls," she said, turning to the younger Gryffindors who looked very eager, "but he was a lousy date. Just pined over Chang the whole night. Barely danced with me. Wouldn't've if he hadn't been forced to, to start the dance, as a Champion. I gave up on him later, though. Found a guy from Beauxbatons who would dance instead. Harry barely even noticed. So, I wouldn't make him my Prince Charming if I were you. Especially since he's totally hooked on Ginny." Demelza's friends exchanged looks that told Padma they hadn't quite given up just yet. "Now, speaking of that night - Shay, why the hell didn't you and Lav get together afterwards? We've been wondering this for ages. I mean, you asked her, you kissed her – you must've been into her, right?"

"First of all, thanks a lot for not letting me choose. What if I'd wanted a dare?" he muttered, obviously stalling.

"Then I dare you to answer the question. Speak up. You're not getting out of this."

Lavender looked both tentative and highly curious as she stared at her boyfriend, whose eyes were etched to the floor. "Well, y'know, I was a guy. I was fourteen. Hell yeah, I fancied her, obviously." Here he looked up, looking earnestly into Lavender's eyes. "'Course I was. But I chickened out. I didn't know what to do about it, and then it was kind of too late, wasn't it? I was a git, but Dean was even more of a git about you, not even asking you to the bloody ball in the first place."

Now, the whole room was staring between the shocked expressions of both Seamus' and Parvati's faces.

"He – he wanted to – ?" she stuttered, gaping at Seamus.

"I – I shouldn't've said that. Don't, don't tell him I said that," Seamus said hurriedly, and then he realized what he'd just said and for a second, pain shone from his eyes as he realized that Dean would probably never get a chance to be mad at him for telling Parvati that.

"Maybe we should stop this," Neville said, after obviously seeing Seamus's mind work just as well as Padma had.

But Seamus shook himself, forcing a grin. "Nah, don't be so boring, Nev. This is fun. I pick Hannah. Now, what'd'you say, wanna be the first crazy one to choose Dare?"

Hannah hesitated, but with a glance around the room (straying particularly long over Neville), she seemed to decide there was nothing too dangerous that could come from this. "Fine. Dare me."

Seamus looked very pleased with himself. "I dare you to kiss Anthony."

Padma almost groaned audibly. From the look on Seamus's face, he meant well. He'd obviously noticed Anthony's fancying Hannah at some point, and now wanted to give them a push in the right direction. However, he had obviously not noticed that his feelings had never been returned by her, and that this was very likely to do more damage than good.

Still, there wasn't much Padma could do about it as Hannah gave a shrug and then got up and moved across the room. Anthony's expression was unreadable. Carefully empty of emotion. Padma almost couldn't watch as Hannah leaned forward, quickly pressed her lips against his, and then moved away, giving him a gentle smile.

As Padma sought Anthony's eyes afterwards, he wouldn't look at her. Her heartache on his behalf was interrupted, however, as Hannah turned to her. From the look they exchanged, Hannah had some idea what she had caused, and was in a hurry to switch the focus away from Anthony. Padma gave a short nod.

"Padma, then. What's it gonna be?"

And for a moment, Padma's brain was racing. What could Hannah ask her? What secrets could she not share with this room? Her stomach twirled as she thought about her and Terry at Christmas. But then, Dare, on the other hand was hardly less risky, was it?

But while she sat there, panicking, they were all interrupted by Seamus's shout: "Hey! Ariana's here!"

Padma, Michael, Terry and Anthony were the only ones with complete befuddlement in their expressions. Parvati caught it, and hurriedly filled them in. "It's our way in to the Hog's Head. Through that portrait. She must be here to bring someone there. That – that's never happened before!" she finished breathlessly.

"Harry's never been here before either," Neville mumbled, looking awestruck.

Seamus had turned pale. "Man, I guess you were right about the Firewhiskey."

"You – you really think it's him?" One of Demelza's friend was looking terrified, her voice trembling.

"Yeah, I do," Neville said, now sounding more confident, almost excited. "Now, who's gonna go see for themselves?"

"You, Nev," Lavender said, smiling softly. A murmur of agreement came from throughout the room.

As he opened his mouth, Seamus spoke up. "Just get over there, don't stand 'round here."

Neville took a deep breath and followed Ariana. As he was gone, silence fell over the room for about a minute.

"If it is him," Ernie said slowly. "We'd better prepare to – to fight."

But Susan put her hand on his arm. "Wait until you're sure."

Padma was sure they were referring to calling Justin there or not. With a jolt, she thought about Lisa. Automatically, her hand found Terry's good one. And in the second it took for her to realize that he had a good hand, and that that hand wasn't his wand hand, she had a lump in her throat. This couldn't be happening. There could not be a fight tonight, when Terry was already banged up to begin with, when they were all exhausted and -

Neville was back, beaming. "Look who it is!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you?"

And Padma's heart sank all the way down to her toes.

A/N: So, we're finally here. The battle is starting. I'm kind of excited and kind of terrified about that. As always, if you're still reading, please let me know what you thought!