The next day, Neville Longbottom had gotten lost, again. Hogwarts was a perpetual maze of shifting corridors, and the ghosts and portraits seemed just as likely to send you into a dead end as anything else.
So, by the time he'd gotten back to Hufflepuff, it was almost time for dinner. That explained why none of the upperclassmen were there - they undoubtedly had done the smart thing and gone there in the first place.
Neville looked at Hopkins, Finchley, Potter and Megan (Neville immediately felt bad that he couldn't use her last name, but she'd never given it. Not even to the teachers), all huddled together on the floor whispering about something. He felt a pang in his heart at that - he hadn't been here two days and already people were excluding him.
Walking over to the group, he barely noticed Bones and Abbott entering. Neville squatted down (careful, as he'd learned at breakfast, not to startle the Hufflepuff-with-a-knife, and an extremely sharp one at that), and touched Hopkins and Finchley on the shoulders.
Both of them jumped, and Neville laughed along with the whole group. "Look at you, thick as thieves."
Megan suddenly drew herself up, looking as haughty as Narcissa Malfoy. "I'll have you know that I'm no thief."
Hopkins grinned, "But it just makes sense that we'd be together, doesn't it, sistermine?"
Megan grinned, but it was Fitchley that said, "Of course, brother mine," adeptly imitating Hopkins underhill accent.
Neville rocked back on his heels, and grinned, in a gesture that clearly said that he was humoring everyone. "Sounds like fun! How do I join?" His questions sounded painfully earnest even to his own ears. But he was in Hufflepuff, so surely they wouldn't take advantage.
"We'd have to increase the circle," Harry Potter said.
"The... circle?" Neville Longbottom, Heir of House Longbottom said very very carefully, as he didn't want to make assumptions about his housemates. Harry's eyes had flicked up, so Neville sent a glance back, seeing Bones and Abbott standing behind him.
Bones started to speak, even without being properly part of the conversation. "That sounds like ritual magic..." Her eyes were wider than Neville's. Then again, when her aunt runs the law enforcement...
Harry nodded somberly, and then started to slowly grin. It looked almost creepy spreading across his face, but by the end he was grinning with the best of them. "You want in?"
Abbott hadn't said a word, but now she put her hand to her lips, "Ritual magic. ritual magic, what kind of ritual magic? Oh there's all sorts of kinds!" She sounded completely flustered, and Neville wanted to reassure her, but he couldn't, because he knew, just as well as she did, that most Ritual Magic was Dark, and even most that wasn't was banned by the Ministry as Probably Cheating.
With a sweet smile, Megan looked at Abbot, saying, "We just pricked our fingers, and said a few words."
Neville tried, he really did, to put on his Adult Face, to look like his Gran, who could - and did- face down evil Dark Wizards like Lucius Malfoy. "Harry, that's blood magic."
Harry's mouth quirked on one side, and he raised an eyebrow a bit.
"Life imprisonment if they find against you." Bones said.
Harry didn't look at all surprised, which was suspicious. "My mum taught me how, even though she's dead."
"A ghost?" Hopkins asked, and Neville froze, hoping it wasn't some sort of grim spectre that had tainted Harry Potter Boy-Who-Lived.
Harry snorted, "Just her journal."
Everyone nodded around the circle.
"We could really get in buckets of trouble for this?" Megan said. "I just did it because everyone else did it."
"Yeah," Bones said slowly.
"So, you in?" Harry Potter asked.
Neville, his hands in fists, "I can't believe you tricked these Muggleborns into a Blood Ritual! You should know better than that, Harry James Potter!"
Harry's mouth quirked, though he otherwise didn't physically respond to Neville's anger. "Good. I didn't trick them. I just told them the truth."
Abbott asked, "What's the oath?"
Hopkins looked proud to know it, and said, "Not brothers born, but brothers made, free in choice that will not fade."
Neville knew he shouldn't want to draw such notice to himself, that he shouldn't get Mixed UP With the Law, but... on the other hand, he'd seen how close they looked. He wanted that. "I'll do it."
Abbott nodded, suddenly determined, "Hufflepuffs forever!"
Bones said, crossly, "Someone needs to keep you blinded fools out of trouble."
Zach, who'd been lurking behind a couch, popped his head over, "You're going to get in so much trouble."
Harry directed innocent eyes up at Zach, saying, "Even with lucky number seven?"
[a/n: The three wizarding kids REALLY ought to have known better. What do you suppose will happen to them? Leave a review?]
