"I can't believe he gave me detention!" Lavender fumed as she, Neville, Michael, and Terry made their way to the Charms classroom Thursday morning. Neville gently pulled her by her book bag strap before she could walk down the wrong hallway, for she was so furious that she hadn't even noticed she was about to go the wrong way.

"Well you did throw your compact at the back of Goyle's head," Michael provided unhelpfully, dodging as Lavender flicked a mound of curls over her shoulder in his direction.

"And it did end up hitting Carrow in the face," Terry chimed in. Neville snickered slightly as he replayed the event that transpired five minutes prior. Goyle, who had been standing on the other side of the hall from them, wolf-whistled when Lavender had bent over to pick up the lipgloss she had dropped. In a blind rage, she had chucked her mirror at him with such force that would've had alumni Oliver Wood begging her to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Unfortunately, it was Carrow who had received the object to the face, not Goyle. So of course Lavender had been yelled at and given detention. And once Carrow had moved on with a huff, she hit a laughing Goyle with a Conjunctivitis curse, as perfectly well-aimed as the was mirror. Which was around the time that Neville, Terry, and Michael had finally decided to intervene and drag her away.

Lavender's face contorted into a distressed expression as the frown melted off her face. "And then it fell on the floor and broke, bloody hell." She pulled the small, purple compact out of her bag and peered down at the broken mirror worriedly. "You know what this means, don't you?"

Neville, assuming that the answer she was looking for probably had something to do with Divination, looked towards the Ravenclaws for a hint in hopes that they had more knowledge in the subject than he did. Terry shrugged helplessly and Michael unhelpfully mouthed, makeup? "Um, no?"

"It means I'll have seven years of bad luck," she sighed, gazing at her reflection through the cracked mirror. "I got my hands on a book about muggle superstitions this summer and a broken mirror equals bad luck. I've avoided mirrors for three months now, you know."

"Can't you just fix it with magic?" Michael asked, squinting at the mirror nestled in the palm of her hand.

Lavender shook her head before snapping the mirror shut and shoving it into her pocket. "That's not how luck works, unfortunately. I'd better go talk to Trelawney about this later, she'll know what to do. Oh, do you think this means that Mick is going to dump me?" Her light brown cheeks began to turn red as she worriedly mulled the possibility over in her head. "I mean, we're not even dating but he could still dump me!"

"I doubt that will happen," Michael said hastily as the other boys cautiously eyed Lavender as if she were a ticking time bomb.

"Hey, Gin," Neville called out thankfully and waved at the redhead who had appeared from the mouth of a different hallway at the perfect time.

The arrival of Ginny temporarily distracted Lavender from her worries. "Ginny!" She greeted the younger girl in a chipper voice, her misery completely forgotten. Terry and Michael let out simultaneous sighs of relief.

"Talk later, mates," Ginny muttered as she breezed past, looking intently at a piece of parchment clutched in her hand. She suddenly turned around and made her way back to the group, who had stopped to look at her questioningly. "Actually, I need Terry." She looped her arm through the blonde's and pulled him along with her in the other direction.

"Um, what?" Terry asked confusedly, nearly tripping over his feet as he attempted to keep up with her quick pace.

"I'll explain on the way," Ginny promised absent-mindedly.

"But I have Charms right now," Terry protested, looking back over his shoulder in the direction of the Charms classroom.

"You can afford to miss one class, Boot. Live a little!" She exclaimed, tightening her grip on his arm. Terry gave a confused wave to his friends right before he and Ginny disappeared around a corner.

"Should I be concerned that Weasley just captured my best mate?" Michael asked the equally bewildered Gryffindors.

"No," Neville said at the same time Lavender muttered, "Maybe."

"Brilliant," Michael sighed, his brow quirked in confusion as he rubbed the back of his head.

Lavender looked back and forth between Neville and the hallway that Ginny had disappeared down, a suspicious look on her pretty face. "What are you two planning? She had that one look in her eye."

"The Weasley Glint," Michael confirmed with a nod. "I've seen it before."

"We aren't planning anything!" Neville held up his hands in defense. "At least nothing I know about." As he began to think about it, Ginny had been acting strangely after the Pottermore broadcast the previous night. One minute the two of them and Luna had been talking and then suddenly she was marching out of the Room of Requirement, declaring that she needed to visit the Library. He had barely seen her that morning either.

"Strange," Michael said with a shake of his head, gesturing for them to continue their trek to Flitwick's class. "I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough."

"I agree," Neville muttered, a nervous feeling growing in the pit of his stomach as he briefly wondered what Ginny was up to. He shook the feeling off, for he had only just promised Ginny that he would trust her and her instincts more.

"Oh well! Come on, you lot, let's go," Lavender chirped, pulling Michael and Neville along behind her. Despite its oddness, their brief encounter with Ginny seemed to have been the perfect distraction for Lavender as she practically skipped into Flitwhick's classroom, Michael and Neville stumbling after her. Unfortunately, her jauntiness was short-lived.

"You'll pay for that, Brown." Goyle's scowling face was the first thing the trio encountered inside the sunny classroom. His eyes were red, twitching, and nearly swollen shut from Lavender's curse. Hunched over next to him at the desk, Millicent Bulstrode clumsily flipped through a textbook as she attempted to search for the countercurse.

Lavender's nostrils flared but she merely held her head high and walked past him to find her seat. Neville and Michael followed after her and shot Goyle warning looks, daring him to say anything more. The Slytherin sat back in his seat and held up his hands in surrender but his eyes never left the back of Lavender's curly head.

"Alright, then, you two are all set," Neville said with a proud smile later that night in the Gryffindor Common Room. Nigel Wolpert and Stewart Ackerly, who had just completed their Unbreakable Vow, beamed back at him as he set down his wand on the coffee table and leaned back against the crimson couch.

"I feel more…powerful," Nigel said in wonder, waving his arms around as if there was a new force surging through his muscles. He grinned down at his hands.

Stewart rolled his eyes as he ran his fingers through his short, coarse hair. "That's not a side effect of an Unbreakable Vow, dummy."

"It could be!" Nigel retorted defensively, his pale cheeks turning a light shade of pink as he quickly dropped his arms to his side.

"Go on, you two," Neville interrupted their bickering with a chuckle. "Finish that game of Gobstones you started, it sounded like an exciting one. Stewart, Terry was kind enough to stretch your curfew to ten, did you bring Anthony's invisibility cloak along with you?"

"Yessir!"

"Good. I'll walk you back when you're ready."

"Thanks, Neville!" Their little spat completely forgotten, the two fourth years waved goodbye and bounded up the stairs towards Nigel's dormitory.

Neville watched them go fondly before turning his attention towards the watch nestled on his left wrist. He frowned down at the watch, for it was a quarter past nine and he hadn't seen Ginny since their odd run-in in which she had captured Terry and disappeared without a trace. Luna had strangely also been missing throughout the day. A handful of other DA members were absent at dinner as well and Neville briefly wondered if he should pay the Room of Requirement a late-night visit.

A noise at the portrait hole suddenly interrupted his thoughts. Lavender stumbled into the Common Room, clutching her robes tightly around her body. Neville immediately knew that there was something wrong. Her eyes were darting around nervously, her clothes were crooked, and her blonde corkscrew curls were askew. Her normally warm brown skin was pale and ashy as if the life had been sucked right out of her. He briefly wondered if she had been with Mick McManus, the Hufflepuff that had recently caught her attention, which would explain the state of her clothes and hair. But then he realized that she couldn't have been with Mick, for she was in detention that night.

Detention with Carrow.

"Lavender?" Neville asked, alarmed at her state. Lavender opened and closed her mouth but nothing came out. "What's wrong?"

"Sally-Anne should be coming by, would you mind letting her in?" Lavender's voice came out raw and gravelly.

"Of course." Neville, still flabbergasted, managed to nod. She blinked away tears and scurried up the staircase. The sound of her footsteps disappeared when the door to the seventh year girls' dorm slammed shut.

Neville cursed himself for not sitting her down and forcing her to tell him what had happened, for something was very obviously wrong. He had decided not to pry; if Lavender had wanted to talk to him, she would've. But was he being a good friend for letting her slip away? He considered sending Seamus up the staircase to consult her since the two of them were as thick as thieves. But Seamus often added more chaos to a situation than harmony, so he decided against it. And Parvati was upstairs already, she would know what Lavender needed.

"I have a new objective for the DA," Ginny made presence known with her loud greeting as she swept into the Common Room and sat down beside Neville, a twinkle in her eye.

"Hello to you too." Neville said, still distracted by Lavender running off. "An objective, you say?"

Ginny took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, we need to steal the Sword of Gryffindor."

Neville tore his eyes away from the staircase and turned to gawk at her. "Say what?"