Chapter Fifty
Neville laughed at Ginny's audacity, appreciating what she had done to Professor Carrow and wishing he could have seen the Confunded teacher barge into McGonagall's office expecting pots of tea and cream cakes. Still, it had been a stroke of luck that Carrow had found Ginny rather than one of the other DA, and there were other staff out there who would punish any students found too far from their common rooms. He said this, then winced at Ginny's reply.
"Should we call the meeting off and get out of here?" Neville asked? "Or go looking for everyone else and escort them in?"
"No," Ginny said. "They'll either be seen or they won't. We can't hope to find the whole DA. I wish we could put the Carrows out of it permanently."
"We'd have the Ministry here if we did that," Neville said, deciding not to mention that he too shared this ideal. If Ginny knew he agreed, she would be more likely to do something drastic that the Ministry would not ignore.
There was no chance for Ginny to reply to this; the door opened again to admit almost the entirety of the seventh year Hufflepuffs. These students, despite being unlike in looks and personalities, were all wearing the same slightly guilty grin.
"What did you do?" Neville asked. He was unsurprised to find Ginny speaking exactly the same words, given that there could only be that one reaction to the Hufflepuffs' expressions.
It was Ernie MacMillan who answered. "We left our common room together," he said. "When we got to a few corridors away from here, we met Professor Carrow. Her. She asked us what we were doing so far away from anywhere. So Susan used a memory charm, you know, Obliviate. And she, Carrow, she just wandered off down the corridor asking for her Daddy. She seemed to think she was just a child."
At this this Hufflepuffs, evidently remembering this moment, broke out into giggles that took several minutes to bring under control. Neville joined in, a little disappointed that he hadn't seen this himself but mostly pleased that neither Carrow would be causing trouble for the remainder of the evening.
"It's true," Susan Bones said. She rarely spoke during meetings, or at all as far as Neville could tell; now she appeared more animated than she had any time during the previous term.
"It was brilliant," Hannah Abbot agreed.
"And I thought I'd done well," Ginny said, but she was smiling.
"What did you do?" Ernie asked.
Neville listened as Ginny once again told the story of Amycus Carrow, Professor McGonagall, the tea and cream cakes. It was nearly as good the second time around, and he realised then that he had not laughed properly for several months. It was this, maybe, that meant Ginny told her story, and encouraged Ernie to tell his, every time a new group of people entered. Usually she wouldn't have allowed this waste of time; Neville suspected that she wanted to maintain a sense of enjoyment whilst this was still possible.
The meeting established that everyone in the DA had returned to school, that they were all safe and all had passed fairly quiet holidays. Neville was pleased when business moved on and they began to discuss the current situation.
"It seems people are willing to use stronger spells," Neville said. "I mean, they were Cruciating us the last few weeks before Christmas, now we've Confunded one Carrow and wiped the other's memory."
"They'll be back to normal once Madam Pomfrey gets her wand on them," Ginny said, "But still, they won't hold back so we shouldn't either. Be careful if they're both together, of course, or if Snape or any Slytherins are around."
"You're saying we should curse them, or jinx or whatever?" one of the fourth year Gryffindor boys asked.
"Only if you feel safe," Ginny told him, and Neville nodded.
"Try to make sure they don't know who's doing it, too," he said. "Lots of people around, or make it something like today so they don't remember properly."
"And remember Snape is more powerful than either of them," Ginny said. "He can read minds if you let him, so don't let him look you in the eye. It's best to avoid him. Leave him to me and Neville."
Neville wasn't sure if he was pleased by this last comment or not. He recognised it for the compliment that it was, but still he didn't feel up to facing Snape in a duel, even with Ginny by his side. Now, if Luna had been there as well… He stopped this train of thought, only to find that the group was now discussing what he was trying to avoid.
"No, we've still had no contact," Ginny was saying to a Ravenclaw girl who shared Luna's dormitory. "I'm sure she's alright, the Prophet would have reported it if anything bad had happened to her."
"If anyone can keep sane locked up by Death Eaters, it's Luna," he said. "Well, not sane, but if anyone can stay herself, it's her." He paused, and the Ravenclaw girl began speaking again.
"Are we going to try to rescue her?"
"No," Ginny said firmly, before Neville could answer. "We don't know where she is, and if we did we would only end up captured ourselves, or killed. If we knew what was going on, I'd be more than willing to help, I'd curse anyone who tried to stop me, but right now we can be more use here."
"Well said," Ernie broke in. "As much as we all like Luna – "
"Some more than others," Hannah Abbot muttered, but Ernie ignored her. Neville felt his cheeks heating.
"We all like Luna," Ernie insisted, "But there's more people here we can help."
Neville felt his cheeks start to cool when the Ravenclaw girl interrupted Ernie. "But isn't it illegal not to come to school? What do we say if they ask what we know?"
"The truth," Ginny said immediately. "You last saw her at the end of last term. She never mentioned leaving. You got back today and heard rumours that she'd been abducted off the train, but you saw nothing."
The Ravenclaw girl turned to speak to the other sixth year girls from her house. "And what do we say, if they ask us?" Neville said quietly.
"They won't," Ginny told him.
