[A/N: 10 Chapters… If that many. *sigh*]
"Neville!" I shouted tackle hugging him. Surprisingly, he stayed on his feet. He let out a laugh as he hugged me back.
"Hey, there, Hannah. You're looking well," he said.
"Wish I could say the same about you," I said.
"Oh, maybe you haven't heard but he's a total badass now—tells teachers to fuck off, makes out with a Slytherin girl—nobody messes with Neville Longbottom now," Kassia said.
"Good to see you, Kassia. You seem to be doing well," he replied as we climbed in through the portrait hole. "Can't say the same for your Slytherin buddies—Pansy, Blaise, and Kristen are on really thin ice with you and Draco gone. Everyone's suspicious of them being traitors now."
"I expected as much," Kassia said.
"But they keep up appearances pretty well. Especially Pansy, I've never seen someone so completely a death eater one minute and then a brilliant asset to the rebellion the next," Neville said.
"Did you just use 'Pansy' and 'brilliant' in the same sentence?" I asked.
Neville nodded. "Draco and Ginny used to the run the show before they left, now Pansy and I have to keep the school from falling into more anarchy. We usually pass information to each other while she pummels me in detention."
"This is weird. It's almost like she's my friend by proxy," I said.
Neville shook his head. "No, definitely still a bitch and a pain in the ass - she's just very helpful."
"So what else has been going on at Hogwarts?" Ron asked.
"In a word—chaos," Neville said.
"And where did this passage come from?" Harry asked.
"You'll see. We're here," Neville said.
He pushed open another portrait hole and we stepped out into a room filled with people.
"Look who I found," Neville said to them.
Everyone went shouting out our names in excitement.
"Calm down you lot," Neville said.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Room of Requirement. Gotten bigger since I was here last. You must be causing more trouble," Kassia said.
Neville shrugged.
"So, the Carrows can't get in?" I asked.
"Nope. You just have to tell the room exactly what you need. Like, 'I don't want any Carrows supporters in here' and voila," Seamus said, appearing just a battered and bruised as Neville. "How's your little munchkin?"
"Wonderful, and I'm sure I have most of you to thank for that," I said.
"Yeah. Draco may've provided her the DNA, but I mostly took care of her," Seamus said.
"Oh, stop with your lies. Honestly, he watched Mire exactly one time and was in a right state when Draco got back because he'd vomited on her," Parvati said.
"And you're no better," Seamus said. "This lady here didn't lift a finger to help."
"I'm sorry, but I wanted nothing to do with Draco and Ginny at all. I thought they were fucking and that was completely not okay," Parvati said hugging me. "They weren't by the way. Ginny is a total brilliant schemer."
"And what's all this rubbish about you breaking out of Gringotts on a dragon?" Neville asked.
"True. All of it is totally true," Ron replied confidently.
"Dunno why we expected you lot to get less cocky since this morning."
Behind us, the portrait hole had opened again and Ginny was climbing through followed by Luna, Fred, George, Lee, Dean, Cho, Marius, Natalia, Pansy, Kristen, and Blaise.
"Aberforth is getting really irritated with all the traffic by the way," Dean said.
"He'll get over it. He always does," Pansy said approaching me. "Lost weight have you?"
"Starving in the forest for five months and having a baby will do that to a person," I said. "You, on the other hand, look as healthy as ever, hardly like a pug anymore."
"God, I hate you," Pansy said.
"I hate you too," I replied.
"While this has been lovely, we'd better get down to business," Harry said.
"Might want to stop staring at Ginny first," Hermione whispered. Harry shushed her.
"What do you need?" Seamus asked.
"We're looking for something really important to Senor Crazy Pants," I said.
"What is it?" Seamus asked.
"Don't know," Harry replied.
"Well where is it?" Seamus asked.
"Don't know that either," I said.
"We know that's not much to go on," Harry said.
"That's nothing to go on," Pansy and Seamus said in unison.
"'Every party needs a pooper, that's why we invited you—party pooper'," I sang.
"Relax, Hannah," Harry said. "Whatever this thing is, we think it might be something that once belonged to Ravenclaw. Does anyone know of anything like that?"
Dead silence. Man we were screwed.
"Well, there Rowena Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem," Luna said.
"Yeah, but, Luna, it's been lost for ages," Cho said.
"Hence the title of 'Lost' diadem," Marius chimed in.
"Yeah, there's not a person alive today who knows where it is," Natalia said.
"Well, that's pretty much all we've got to go on at this point," Harry said. "It's worth looking into."
The scar on the back of my neck singed. Harry was right. This was the only lead we were going to have.
"There's a bust of Ravenclaw in the common room wearing it. I could show it to you," Cho said.
"Or Luna could take him to the Ravenclaw Common Room and show him, can't you Luna?" Ginny said.
"Sure!" Luna said. "Let's go Harry Potter."
Harry followed Luna out of the Room of Requirement. Cho was glaring at Ginny.
"What are you looking at me like that for?" Ginny asked. "I asked Luna to go with Harry for exactly the reason you're thinking."
Cho rolled her eyes and walked away.
"Defensive much?" I asked.
"Says the girl who was ready to kill me when she saw with Draco at Malfoy Manor," Ginny replied.
"Touché," I said.
Ron and Hermione walked over to me.
"We've just had a brilliant idea," Hermione said.
"We'll be back," Ron said.
"Where are you going?" I asked as they raced towards the exit.
"Bathroom!" they both shouted and then left.
"Guess I'm holding down the fort then," I said.
"What are you going to do that's useful?" Pansy asked.
"Tell you how close your buddy the Dark Lord is getting by informing you every five minutes how much my scar hurts." I said smartly.
"As cheeky as ever. Honestly," Pansy said.
Just then I was hit with a spiraling pain from my scar, which caused me to fall to my knees. He was coming and getting ever closer by the second.
"Not . . . Much time . . ." I managed out.
As the pain subsided, I stayed on my knees trying to regain my composure, waiting for everything to focus again.
"Are you alright?" Pansy asked.
"Yeah, I'm alright. But he's on his way and he's very close," I said.
Just then the portrait hole swung open and who should appear but Remus, Sirius, Veronica, Dana, Lydia, Danielle, Kingsley, Bill, Fleur, Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Oliver Wood.
"Gee, are you all right?" Sirius asked coming over to me.
"I'm fine. My scar is just on serious Dark Lord watch," I said.
"What exactly is going on?" Kingsley asked.
"All right—the short version is that Harry went with Luna hopefully to find something. Hermione and Ron disappeared a few minutes ago saying something about the bathroom, and I'm staying here keeping track of how long it will be until Death Eaters get here because You-Know-Loser knows we're here, and has probably informed," I said.
"Looks like someone has been productive in getting a war going since they left this morning," Bill said.
"Yeah—about the dragon," Lydia started.
But the door to the Room of Requirement opened a Harry and Luna entered looking rather frazzled.
"What happened?" I Asked.
"Snape jumped out a window!" Harry shouted.
"What?" I asked.
"He was running from McGonagall. He's not in the school anymore," Luna said. "Voldemort is almost here."
"Yes. McGonagall is gathering everyone in the Great Hall to fight and sending all of the underage students to the dungeons. There are Death Eaters closing in right now," Harry said.
"We'd better get going then," Ginny said.
"You most certainly are not going," Mrs. Weasley said.
"But mum-."
"Ginny. . ." Harry started. He didn't say anything, he just shook his head.
Ginny let out a sigh. "I'll wait here then."
[Chapter Title Credit to The Party Pooper Song.]