Okay, here is ch5. can I have some reviews, please? They make me glad! This introduces a few new characters and some old ones, but this is a long fic, so they'll get their text time. R and R, please!

Also, anything you would like to see in this fic, I take suggestions, unless they directly conflict with anything IMPORTANT that I might have planned. I do take most suggestions and use them, though, and I'll credit you. Thankies!

Chapter Five

Plans On the Hogwarts Express

The trolley woman was dressed in a lovely, black velvet dress when she came by the nearly empty compartment where Harry James Potter slumped against the crushed, crimson velvet seat. He was flipping through the numerous poems in the little book Ophelia had given him, reading one or two every few often. When the door opened, Harry looked up and saw it was the kind, gentle lady who pushed the cart.

"Do you want anything from the trolley, dear?" She smiled gently at him, and Harry felt a thrill of joy. He didn't know why at first, but then realized: here was something familiar, something safe. He was never going to see the trolley woman again. He felt a deep sense of loss when he realized that. He wasn't coming back for his seventh year. He wouldn't be seeing any of that again. He suddenly had the urge to start crying, or to hug the old woman.

What was the first thing he'd ever said to this woman?
"We'll take the lot," he said, and gave her the money. Cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties, chewing gum and jelly beans, licorice wands, sugar quills and Honeydukes chocolate, all of it was given to Harry, who set the sweets on the seat beside him and embraced the trolley woman.

"Well, what's that for, dear?"

"I'm not coming back next year," he said, "and you've been the trolley woman since I started here at Hogwarts. So I thought I'd say goodbye." When he said this, the woman's eyes filled with tears.

"I know you, Harry Potter. I know what He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wants of you. You and your lot, your friends, you're good ones, you are. You'll do what's right, but try to be careful when you do it, and don't you forget about old Bertie." With that, she left the compartment, pushing her rattling cart.

"What was that, Harry?" Harry jumped and saw that Ron and Hermione, Ginny and Luna, even Neville, were all standing outside the door to his compartment. Ginny was the one who'd asked the question. Hermione murmured, "Harry just hugged Bertie Bott, of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans."

"Bertie Bott is the trolley woman?" Ron cried. Hermione just pushed him through the door into the compartment, and everyone filed in behind him. Harry sat back and tossed each of them a cauldron cake.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, and a few others came inside. One of them was Ernie McMillan. Others were the Patil twins, and Lavender Brown, and the Creevy brothers. Susan Bones was there, and Harry recognized the hard, blazing look on her face as one that Ginny had often worn. Katie Bell was also there, clutching her Gryffindor Quidditch uniform to her chest. Hannah Abbot slipped in with four youngsters in their first year, two of whom, twins, looked disturbingly like Luna Lovegood. Another girl, the only sixth year besides Hannah, looked like Neville. The other looked disgustingly like Draco Malfoy.

"Who's she?" Ron demanded harshly, glaring at the girl who looked like a Malfoy. She threw her head back and regarded him with warm, gentle gray eyes. Ginny answered him with, "Lilith 'Echo' Malfoy. She's Malfoy's sister."

"What's she doing here?" Harry asked tonelessly. Ginny hadn't sounded angry or disturbed, but rather, very pleased. The red haired girl said, "I invited her. She's proved herself through the year. Besides, she's a Gryffindor. There's no way she could've fooled the Sorting Hat. Here, Echo, sit with me."

The girl sat on the floor beside Ginny, resting a head on the other girl's shoulder. Although Ron looked disgruntled, the others sat down and looked up at Harry. The "chosen one" blinked and said, "What's going on?"

"Dumbledore's Army is ready for war, Harry," the girl who looked like Neville said. She was seated below Neville on the floor, with an arm around his knees. She held out a hand to him. "Alice Longbottom the second, of Ravenclaw, at your service. Neville's my twin brother."

"She got all the brains," Neville muttered, glaring at his sister, but his mouth was quirking into a smile. Alice slapped Neville's knees and said, "Oh, shut up. I'm only good at making things."

"What are you lot expecting to happen? I'm not coming back next year, I won't be able to help you-"

"Exactly," Echo said. "You won't be here. Hermione and Ron, neither, I'm guessing. We need to be prepared to defend Hogwarts without you. The DA is needed now more than ever, Harry. We have the summer to become an organized force. We need to take advantage of that. You think Voldemorte is going to leave Hogwarts alone now that Dumbledore… now that…."

"Now that Dumbledore is dead," Susan Bones said, her fist clenched so tight her knuckles were mottled, "Voldemorte won't hesitate to attack the school. That's why they need us now. We are… we are…."

"The school's Patronus," said one of the girls that looked like Luna. "The word patronus is Latin, it means protector. The Order of the Phoenix people are being picked off one by one. Auntie Emmaline, Susan's auntie, Amelia. But Voldemorte wouldn't expect a defense of us." At Harry's look, she said, "Lucinda Lovegood, of Ravenclaw. Screw-Lucy, they call me."

"Even better, once confronted with us, he and his will underestimate us unto the end," Echo added onto Lucinda's original thought. "We're small, we're kids, we're inexperienced. They won't think we're a threat. But each Witch and Wizard has a particular talent, something they're good at. Harry, you're good at Defense. Hermione, you're a researcher. Neville, you're good at Herbology, right? Alice told me. Alice, you're good at making things. Every one of us has something. We can all be of use. We just have to figure out how. We have two months-"

"Invisibility cloaks," Hermione said suddenly. She looked at Alice. "You're good at making things. What kinds of things?"

"Clothes. Capes, cloaks, jackets, shirts-"

"Cloaks? How many?"

"It depends. I'm a stitch witch. Thread and cloth is my specialty. If it's pure ambient magic you want, I can make… thirty in a week. Why?"

"We need three things," Harry said suddenly, and they all set to planning. Night had begun to fall, and many of the DA had fallen asleep when Echo crawled between Susan and Parvati to join Harry and his four closest friends.

"Harry? I have a specialty." Her voice was very soft, so soft that Harry had to lean in to hear her. "I'm good at Dark Magic." Her face was chalk white as she told him, and she trembled as if she were cold. "I'm good at creating offensive spells. I don't mean innocent things, like Jelly Legs or the Body Bind. I mean, things like… like… like sectumsempra. I can come up with… something like that. If you want me to."

Harry stared at the youngest Malfoy, the fairest girl he had ever seen. She was only eleven years old, yet she had a talent he could use. It was also something that might make Harry not trust her. Ginny spoke for her, Hannah Abbot and Luna spoke for her, but still… could he trust her? Would it be too much of a temptation for a Malfoy?

"Can I trust you?" Harry asked. There were tears in Echo's eyes, but she nodded, crying, "I want to help. I… Dumbledore was nice to me, even when no one else was 'cause I was a Malfoy. And Voldemorte… Voldemorte made my Mummy cry, and Draco. I love Draco, Harry, and Voldemorte hurt him. He gave my brother the Dark Mark and made him cry. He's gotta pay for that. He's ruined my family, and he had Dumbledore killed. I wanna help make him pay." Harry nodded. Good enough.

"Then I trust you with this," and he told her what he wanted of her. She nodded once and pulled a spiral notebook and a ballpoint pen from her pocket, and set to writing.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Harry?" Ron was watching Echo with intense dislike. "She's a Malfoy-"

"And that's why I trust her. She thinks Voldemorte has destroyed the happiness she's had with her family. Her father's in Azkaban, her mother's obviously upset about it all, and now her brother's a Death Eater, apparently against his will. Wouldn't you be a little pissed off? Ginny, I need to talk to you." Leaving Ron eyeing Echo, who was nodding off over her work, Ginny and Harry walked out into the walkway.

"Wotcher, Harry?"

"Remember I said I couldn't be with you anymore?" Ginny nodded, and Harry was distracted by the way the moon filtered through the windows and touched on Ginny's soft, pale skin. She looked like… like a goddess. "Well, I… I've been informed that I was wrong. Ophelia-"

"Who's Ophelia?"

"Someone who knows Dumbledore, someone who worked for him. She came to see me after the funeral and told me I was being an idiot. She made me realize that it would be easier to protect you- for us to protect each other- if we're together. So… so-"

"So you take it back?" She asked, slipping her arms around his neck, smiling up at him. He grinned.

"Yeah, I take it back," and he kissed her, losing himself in her for the first time in days. When they came up for air, he said, "I sincerely take it back."