04. Gryffindor
The weirdest part of Harry leaving was that by September, Ginny was thinking about other people. Katie graduated after lavishing affection on everyone who helped her get caught up on her NEWTs or Quidditch, and now Ginny couldn't stop wanting to be reunited with her. She still missed Harry, but her own thoughts were distracting her from the grief.
At first, it scared her. When it came down to it, they'd only dated properly for a month. The summer had been three months. But if she was being honest, she'd been thinking about other people before they were together. For all the crap she and Dean had given each other, they'd been together and Ginny had meant it. The gossip mill dying down was the only upside of the world turning over.
Albus Dumbledore had died.
/
The fight was loud, the passive aggression and nervous fear that characterised the next several weeks of life among the Weasleys were worse. McGonagall personally tested everyone's mental defences. All the same, Ginny was a fighter and she made it onto the train at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Upon boarding, she located Luna and Neville in the backmost compartment of the train.
"I know about the Order," Neville said partway through her piecemeal account of the Weasley family's summer affairs. The Hogwarts Express was well on its way through the countryside by the time they got this far, farm fields giving way to rolling hills. Neville's toad had been successfully confined to his lap.
"Really?"
"Tonks showed up at our house a couple weeks ago," he admitted, grip loosening on Trevor the Toad. Trevor adjusted and Neville held tighter. "When Gran said we'd already been interrogated, Tonks asked if they could rely on her."
Ginny took this in with exhaustion. The Order just kept turning over. "Shit.''
"Are you talking about the Order of the Phoenix?" Luna asked in delight.
Ginny and Neville turned to the opposite seat in confusion. At their surprise, she continued. "It's just that they asked Daddy to join too."
"Oh, that's brilliant!" Ginny said in relief. "Why didn't I know that?"
"Well, it was very recently. Daddy is doing some background reading first," Luna said, becoming serious. "As a principle, he doesn't usually trust secret societies. They go against the sanctity of knowledge and the right people have to make judgments on their own terms."
Ginny had other concerns. "I hope he joins soon, the Order should really get some stronger wards up around your house. Way the Quibbler is going, he's gonna need it."
"If I ask him, he'll be more interested."
"How are you going to tell him that when they're searching our mail?" Neville asked.
Luna smiled and surveyed the door carefully. "That's what codes are for. Daddy's friends send everything encrypted in scrambled runes now. You can use a spell to unscramble messages if you know the key, but you can just write the code out normally so it doesn't set off magic detections when you send things."
"Nice," Neville hissed.
"Wish the Order let me in on their codes," Ginny said in envy, and sighed. "Good job, you guys are doing."
Luna preened. "We spent all month investigating after the horrible interruption at Bill's wedding. We weren't entirely sure what happened, but we knew the Prophet wasn't going to report every side of the story."
Ginny's closed mind found a leak and her thoughts dripped out. Today was the first day Ginny had seen Luna in ages and the first time she remembered Luna even being at the wedding. After zoning out to the tune of Ron and Hermione bickering, knowing they'd be gone soon, taking Harry and all their secrets with them, Ginny and her branch of the Weasley clan had fought off a Death Eater attack. Failing that, they'd been taken in for a very successful questioning at the new Ministry of Magic. That had taken two days on its own, with everyone kept separated and Lupin and the Weasleys being released last. The Order exposed, everything had been in frantic disarray for the rest of the month. Ginny's parents had relocated and relocated the headquarters, and their daughter, across the beds of old coworkers and distant relatives as the Burrow came under scrutiny. And yet Luna had been facing her own upheaval.
The compartment door slid open with a thud. They all snapped around to see Seamus.
"Sorry," he said, uneasy under their staring, "should I-"
"Quibbler?" Luna shot a magazine up to him. Seamus grabbed it to get it out of his eye. He wasn't down around Ginny's height anymore, but if he was hitting a growth spurt, it had only just started. "Sorry," said Luna.
"It's good, eh-can I sit?"
Seamus helped Luna move her bags from the bench, and settled by the window.
"What's up?" Neville asked. Seamus examined the Quibbler's cover, perplexed, Ginny supposed, because it was covered in a photo of Undesirable Number One and quotes from people who felt inspired by him.
"Uh, fine, just realised no one had seen you guys since the Death Eaters boarded-figured you might be hiding but you never know," Seamus said, glancing up, then back down and flipping to an article.
"Oh. . .well, we were just talking about-"
"-how everything's been chaos, for everyone," Ginny finished for Neville, and he smiled knowingly at her. "You're no better, right?"
"Oh, y'know. My mum didn't want me coming back, then the government told her I had to." Seamus gulped, still half inspecting the magazine but toying with the page. "Yesterday, some Ministry guy showed up at our house."
Neville nodded as Ginny realised she was about to lose any ability to be surprised. "Asking about Dean and Harry?"
"Yeah, just asked a bunch of questions. Said I was lying whenever I was. Think he was doing something magic, but I couldn't even tell what."
"You did hear from Dean?" Ginny asked as politely as she could, but Seamus just let his face fall.
"Nothing. . .big. Just he was leaving his family. Said not to contact him, so I haven't been owling. At least he still has. . .you know," Seamus finished, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together.
The coins had been lighting up like little alarms, full of people asking after their friends. Ginny had even seen Lee Jordan walking out of a back room at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes some time after he'd gone to the galleons for news.
Seamus cleared his throat. "I saw the Creeveys."
Neville and Luna became curious. "Yeah, Fred and George found records saying they're our cousins," Ginny informed everyone. "We've got so many, I can never keep track."
Seamus just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Justin's been an Abbott this whole time. He's Hannah's second cousin."
This prompted a discussion about old families and Death Eaters versus new figures in the Ministry, which Ginny and Neville knew too much about to cover in a single conversation and Luna had many regular or not opinions on.
Soon enough the door slid open again.
"Hi, Parvati," said Neville and Ginny.
"Hey guys-oh, hi, Seamus!" Parvati said, gaze lingering on him. "I didn't know you were back here. Actually I was looking for Luna."
"Yes?" Luna replied in her neutral face, which still looked appropriately surprised.
"Morag said Susan said she reads the Quibbler, I was wondering if you had any copies with you?" Parvati asked quickly. Ginny tried to remember if Parvati's voice was always so sweet. She was already wearing her robes and reliable braid, clutching at her school bag.
"Of course, I was just waiting to get into school to do some Concealments after all the security-" Luna opened a magazine for Parvati to look inside. "We're doing a special offer in December, anyone who takes out a subscription gets the next month free!"
"Oh. Wow!" Parvati took it with both hands, examining the contents with interest. "I like the, um, caricatures."
"Thank you. I drew them myself."
"Wow." Parvati closed the magazine and shuffled it into her bag with precision as she and Neville asked about each other's summers.
"Did you know Lavender's a Prefect?" Parvati asked back, smiling full and pristinely.
"What?"
"Yeah, I think Hermione had her Prefect privileges revoked-not like she was coming back-Lavender's convinced she got picked because she's pureblood, I had to remind her she got three O's on her O.W.L.S. and I only got two-"
Neville was fascinated. "You got two 'Outstandings'? What did you get?"
"Divination and Defence, Lavender got Care of-"
"You got an O in Defence?" Seamus burst out. "I thought Harry was the only one in our year who did!"
Parvati's face dropped, disconcerted. "Oh, well, I guess I got a lot of practice," she said, "with Padma."
"Sorry I didn't join Dueling Club," Neville said with feeling. "I wasn't sure I should hex your first years-"
"Oh no, it's fine!" Parvati said brightly, jumping into full chatter again, "But it basically ended up being what you saw the first day, we couldn't get anyone more than fourth year to stay-" Ginny went back to reading about Death Eater sightings; Neville was a champion at chit chat. An eyewitness report detailed a Ministry official arguing with known Death Eater Yaxley about whose bloodline was purest. Ginny mumbled "Flagrate" and used her wand to deface Yaxley's mug with "signs of wrackspurts." She held it up to show Luna, who smiled across from her.
"-and Padma didn't want to put a notice on the Gryffindor common board-"
"-oh no yeah that's fair-"
"-I know but we sort of thought more-" Parvati cut her story off abruptly. "By the way, Seamus, Ernie came back from the Prefect's meeting and wanted to talk to you. I think that's him now? I'll see you later!"
She dashed off and Ginny looked over to see Seamus' face fill with consternation. The train sped on underneath them, wheels cycling forward. The clattering went uninterrupted for several rings. Maybe they were all just waiting to see who would speak first.
"Ron's got Spattergroit," Ginny said to rip the bandage off. "My parents had to withdraw him from school,"
"Oh, does that mean they already picked a new boy? I'm not a. . ." Neville trailed off, going quiet.
Ginny had already got half up and craned her neck to check the hall. Parvati was holding her Quibbler up to an extremely tall Hufflepuff with a badge. "I think Parvati is holding that Prefect guy hostage, if you wanted to make a run for it."
"Shove off," Seamus groaned, either in anger or just embarrassment. He hadn't gotten up to leave, but he sure wasn't wearing his badge. "Can't believe Macmillan even cares. Prefects are gonna be a complete farce this year."
Even under normal conditions, normal people didn't give a rat's ass about Prefects. It didn't have to be a big deal. "It's not a ton of work. You just march around telling people what to do. I mean, you could say anything you wanted to the Slytherins," Ginny hypothesised, "you know nobody's replacing you with Neville."
Seamus's expression hardened.
"Yeah, I take like three classes," Neville said, laughing at himself. "McGonagall wouldn't nominate me. You're all Gryffindor has for the spot."
Ginny had the impression they were going in the wrong direction.
"If Snape wants me as Prefect," Seamus snarled at no one in particular, "I ain't going for it. He can get someone else to lay in about his rules. Bet he'll have fifty before we get there. Greasy pus bucket-he'll turn, anyone he doesn't like over to You Know Who, first chance-"
"It's not like kids are going to stop needing someone to ask for directions and give out the passwords,'' Neville broke in meekly, and Seamus dropped his thought. ''If nothing else it'll put you closer to the third years. They deserve people looking out for them."
Seamus kept his mouth shut. He studied the empty air. Or maybe Trevor, finally asleep in Neville's lap.
The compartment door slammed open for the third time, disturbing the poor creature. The tallest student Ginny had ever seen, stout where Ron was a beanpole, held it open as if their lives depended on it. "Seamus, are you just going to ignore your responsibilities and dump the third years on Lavender?" Ernie Macmillan demanded. "The ministry-"
Seamus grimaced, turning back to Neville. "All right, I'll do it."
"-has interfered at Hogwarts before, and this ti-" Macmillan lost his tempo. "You will?"
"Sure, I'll change."
Macmillan visibly sagged at the shoulders, winding down. ". . . Ah."
Seamus grabbed his bags and dug for his robes. Macmillan's gaze wandered and settled first to the opposite seat, where Neville only half looked up from patting his toad reassuringly.
Macmillan gulped, and dropped his arms. "Very good, then." He gave them all a stiff nod and walked out. The door slammed closed on its own.
"Something wrong with him?" Ginny muttered tiredly.
"He's always weird," Seamus announced. He stepped to another compartment to change.
The door shut and there were three. "Ernie didn't ask for a Quibbler," Luna piped up, offended.
/
The carriages were a sombre affair after going through seven kinds of magic detectors. But between the train and the moment they entered the Great Hall, it became obvious that Seamus, Parvati and Macmillan were not the only people watching them. Luna especially received a lot of nervous glances on their way to the Entrance Ceremony. Ginny realised with a jolt it was the same way people had looked at Harry after the Triwizard Tournament. Luna and Neville had become symbols. They fought Death Eaters and spoke dangerous truths. Luna would probably be over the moon if she noticed, but mostly she preferred gazing at the lake, then the Great Hall's clouded ceiling.
Ginny was a redhead and already got stared at everywhere she went, but maybe she'd have less droll rumours spread about her now. She ended up sitting between Neville and Colin.
The Sorting Hat gave its default song to spite Ginny's fantasy of Hogwarts' own magic rejecting Snape. McGonagall sat very stiffly next to him, with another Death Eater next to her, and Hagrid seemed disinterested in even the children he'd lead in. No doubt a few students from the roster would be missing. Then Snape took his stand.
"Welcome," he began, "friends and newcomers, to Hogwarts School." Ginny traded gloom with Neville rather than watch. Actually, it was depressing to think whose mind Snape would try to read presiding over the whole school like this. How many people were thinking about Harry right now? "I have much to impress upon our newest students, and would like to impress yet more firmly-"
The Forbidden Forest was supposedly more forbidden than ever, as it was every year. Dark Arts(two words) would be mandatory for purebloods and Muggle Studies for everyone to take the wizarding community back to its roots in these times of peril. Hogsmeade visits were cancelled as the Ministry was fighting a dangerous enemy and it was simply too dangerous to let students leave the school grounds. In fact the grounds themselves would be protected, patrolled by the best security the Ministry had to offer. I.e. Dementors, unsaid.
"Loitering"(left helpfully undefined) would be punishable, students were encouraged to report suspicious activities to their Heads of Security(introduced, met with applause from half the Slytherins), finally clubs and activities cancelled blah blah.
"To my deepest regret, this must include the great tradition of Quidditch. All broom activity will be considered-" Snape's full sentence went unheard. .
Only because Ginny said "what?!" loud enough to distract the Gryffindor table. She half waited for someone to accuse her of channelling Oliver Wood, before realising no one was left to make that joke.
Ginny's head sank back down and remained firmly in her hands as the speeches ended and the meal began.
"They can't do this," she rasped, as if she could command reality. "They can't take Quidditch now."
"Who would play, the Dementors?" Seamus demanded across from her. "We've barely got anyone flyable in the house,"
"I would," said Colin, who would need serious training to be flyable.
"You planning to play three positions each?" Seamus asked drily.
"I've damn near done that in the past," Ginny muttered. "Besides, this is the worst time to take away clubs. Everyone needs something to take their mind off things. Otherwise all we've got left is the Ministry crap."
"That might be the point," Neville put in. He was still dismally serious about these things. Ginny wished he'd be angier now.
"I don't see how gobstones is a threat to pureblood society," Lavender Brown muttered loudly from down the table. Parvati dolefully stabbed at her pile of corn with a fork.
"You can do that in the tower anyway. They're trying to limit our movement," Ginny pointed out, sitting up.
"Bet they're worried about students resisting again," said Neville. Ginny kicked his foot and glared, being in the Great Hall and all, but it did nothing to quell the other rabble.
"Mate, I'm a Prefect," Seamus scoffed, "Don't tell me."
"Oh," Lavender interjected lightly. "Are you?"
"We need Prefects on our side," Ginny warned Seamus, who narrowed his eyes at her. "So they don't rat people out."
Colin practically vibrated leaning toward them, but held his tongue. Parvati whispered, "Ginny's right. Hermione did that, talked them all into the-" but halted, left the "The" they all knew hanging like those two letters were as sacred as Tom Riddle's name.
"You just want clubs back. Is this a game?" Seamus whispered at her. Snape wasn't even supposedly on their side anymore. If he looked in their minds. . .
"It's important," Neville whispered firmly. "If they're taking out the 'Defence' part that Alecto's probably not got good teaching-"
"Amycus."
Neville stared at Ginny for a beat and caught on. "Oh. Really?"
"Amycus is the guy. I fought him at the Astronomy Tower."
A series of whispers demanded some sort of teaching evaluation. Ginny sank her cheek into one hand again. "He tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on me. For fun, like we weren't in the middle of a bloody duel. . ."
Fear encircled her, except for Neville, who went stone-faced in anger.
/
Muggle Studies took the school by storm. Students ambushed their Heads of House at seemingly every office hour with complaints or just questions; never had Muggle society been the most heated topic at Hogwarts.
Rather than lecture like Binns, Alecto handed out worksheets that asked students leading questions to form conclusions based on the provided information. You could argue the details of events she covered, but once the class finished agreeing that genocide was bad, she would move on to the next war. Most of the debates were contained to common rooms, as disruptive behaviour got your knuckles rapped and eventually extra homework for everyone; the school rapidly became more annoyed with Alecto than even Umbridge. And for some reason every textbook from previous years was burned the moment she saw it.
Snape sometimes found variously concealed students trying to reform their clubs and delegated them to the Carrows. Neville managed to get their attention even faster. He missed lunch within the first week and arrived at dinner with a bandage stuck up his jaw where Alecto had struck him in anger.
"Madam Pomfrey says it's cursed. It's closing, it's just gonna scar," Neville explained to several people at once as he sat down.
Ginny already had a rundown from the seventh years and bumped his elbow for attention. "What'd you think she'd be teaching, Muggle innovations on the teddy bear? Save it for dinner."
Neville had to chew and talk very carefully on account of his face, so at the time he didn't bother arguing with her.
/
With every polite 'how are you' she couldn't answer and every homework problem her classmates finished before Ginny started, she could feel herself losing the ground she had regained fifth year. The loudest girl in Gryffindor had nothing to say to her. Some had opinions about Harry Potter's history with muggles and violence that Ginny was too tired to entertain. Any mention of politics crushed the mood inside of a minute.
Ginny threw her energy at Luna and Neville instead and risked explaining the sword dilemma to them, at an early morning in the library.
"If Dumbledore left it to Harry, you think the Order could get the sword to him?" Neville asked. Uncovered, anyone could now see the flesh gouged out on the side of his face. He was as good as committed.
"Right. They don't think it's worth it," Ginny said bitterly over their table in the corner, "not enough to go against Snape. But it has to be. Dumbledore wouldn't leave an artefact like that to a student without a reason. And if we dump it in their laps, who are they to say no?"
"What can the sword do?" Luna asked. "It sounds lovely, but I don't think Harry wants jewels."
Ginny repeated herself firmly. "It's the Sword of Gryffindor." The weapon of Godric Gryffindor versus his rival's heir. It made sense to Ginny, but for once Luna looked more confused than Neville. "Dumbledore always had a plan. He had the sword up in his office for years, if he left it to Harry instead of a museum it's because the sword matters. Besides, who's going to use it if not the Order?"
"Snape," Neville suggested as if this was just crashing down on him now. "I'd rather he died first, though."
"Yes. So, y'know what got us caught last time we tried to sneak into a headmaster's office?"
Neville and Luna looked at her expectantly. It occurred to Ginny she may never have shared this information with them.
"Well," Ginny said impatiently, "Hermione said the hitch with Umbridge was that she installed a bunch of security enchantments we couldn't detect that warned her the second someone walked in. So unless we know how to identify and remove Snape's fancy dark magic, I think the best move is to have a distraction and play for time so the infiltration team can get in and get out."
"Can I be on the 'infiltration team?'" asked Luna, bright and curious to examine the headmaster's office already.
"My hopes exactly. Neville, you should go with Luna as backup. She probably has the best odds of thinking the sword out of the case."
"You're doing the distraction alone?" Neville asked. Ginny was more worried about bringing him up against Death Eaters again than working alone, really. Somehow he always ended up covered in blood and doing something stupid.
"It's better this way, less chance of Snape, uh. Figuring it out. Before or during. Just trust me on this?" She asked tentatively. "And, try not to look him in the eye. He's studied magic most wizards never do."
Neville gave a firm nod, loyalty personified. Luna nodded more slowly. At least if they stayed invisible, Ginny told herself, she'd be the only one facing Snape. Luna began research on curse-breaking while Ginny and Neville brushed up on their offence.
Nonverbal casting had already been Ginny's priority. Moving silently would require it. If she could pull it off, Legilimency could become an alluring new option. Absently playing with her wand, Ginny poked at passing students' minds. For now, she got nothing.
/
Mission day arrived.
Lavender perched forward on the table at breakfast, hands clasped under her chin. "Are you and Neville dating?"
Ginny raised one eyebrow at her mockingly. It was amazing people could still gossip when Amycus Carrow was hinting he had special lessons planned for the Cruciatus Curse. "No. We're friends."
Lavender pursed her lips. "Ron and Hermione were just friends. Until they admitted they weren't."
"Never compare my personal life to Ronald's again," Ginny warned. "I don't dance around it when I want someone."
Lavender sighed and relaxed from her interrogation pose. "Alright, well, I didn't think so.''
"You really do get along well," Parvati added as if this were helpful, eyeing them so curiously that Ginny instantly became wary.
"You've been glued to each other since we got here. Sitting next to each other, hiding what you talk about," Lavender sang accusingly. Hopefully this wasn't a deeper probe than Lavender let on.
"We talk to Luna," Neville pointed out. He seemed stunned by the whole conversation, and it suddenly made Ginny hate the entire school.
"When she's around. But you know how people get."
"Big deal. I'm not adjusting my social life to account for peoples' biases," Ginny retorted.
Lavender smirked. "Michael's worried you're dating."
She was exaggerating. Hopefully. "Michael doesn't know who I kiss,'' Ginny said as she ate. ''He wasn't there for what half the house of Gryffindor witnessed."
The table laughed amiably. "You are not discreet," Lavender agreed, content to be out reasoned.
/
The plan went into motion as students filed off for first period. Ginny gave Neville and Luna a headstart to reach the corridor outside the office, which would be mostly deserted. She took a different route to reach the nearest corridor to it with classrooms in use. The distraction wouldn't work if Snape couldn't hear her.
Not that she was an expert on the subject, but Ginny knew the basic procedure of fireworks. The experts assured her the basic, mostly muggle materials they'd gifted her in bottles labelled "baby powder" and "makeup remover" would not be of note in the luggage of a wizarding student. At least it hadn't set off any Dark Magic detectors or she'd have taken a visit to Snape's office the fast way. The magickier bits were beyond her, but the nice thing about Disillusionment Charms was they stopped working when something started exploding.
She picked a phoenix style blend of gold and oranges first. Had to respect the classics. And Hogwarts' high, arching ceilings.
The burst painted the air with a crack that left her audience gasping. On the dot of first period, students were either just entering or dutifully waiting outside their classrooms. Little kids shocked out of morning tedium, questioning each other without a teacher to tell them what to do, and an older kid leaving the back of their class line to come back out and look. Ginny made a point of darting to the other end of the hall while everyone was distracted.
A kid with cropped hair turned their head about as Ginny came a little too close a little too fast, but missed her hiding behind the next corner. Ginny's arms were most visible in the wrong light, but not so much in shadow. Had to watch for a Carrow, but throw another firework, take the next corner, and with luck she'd get a crowd or a dramatic arrival to take note when she made the adjacent hall her venue. She checked her intended destination quickly.
Ravenclaw Patil marched over from Ginny's intended destination and called to the hall at large, "What was that?"
It was jarringly Percy-like, but also bit, because now people were all facing Ginny's direction again. She settled for slipping behind Padma ahead of making an escape. Indeed, students from the next hall were getting interested. "Fireworks!" A child yelled out to Padma.
Ginny seized her opportunity, threw and fled for position three as Padma tilted her head back to see the flying firework silently ignite.
It started off small, some sparks fizzing out quickly before the tightly-held, main burst was let out in an explosion of reds, purples and blue. Random pick, but a special one. Padma spun around and missed the spectacle, but there was no one behind her except new spectators and much more excitement ahead.
Today's special guest glided out in the same black robes as ever, boring twit, stopping dead centre before the floor length window at the end of the hall. "MS. PATIL," Snape boomed, vitriol soaring to unusual volume and the crowd cowering, "DID YOU THROW THAT FIREWORK?"
"N-no!"
That was fast. Also, not Ginny's problem. Padma was innocent and Snape would know that, approximately, now? He didn't extend much time on the task.
Head swivelling to whence he came, Snape turned to leave. Ginny cursed in the privacy of her mind. While expected he might ignore her, totally still annoying. With a good wind up, she hurled the next firework over the back of his head.
The blast sent Snape forward. He startled and swung back onto his footing in one turn. Ginny had gone high, but his hair still cracked with satisfying white and blue sparks that he tried to flick out of his face, drawing his wand. Ginny retreated before Snape spied anyone who spied her and hissed to hover another firework behind her.
Armed and aware, he would proceed down the hall. Noise erupted from the ceiling and the crowd with each firework Ginny managed on her voyage as far away as absolutely possible, so not even to the end of her second corridor before Snape made it there. One by one he met the eyes of the students, who murmured and tittered between volleys.
Around the backs of taller students' heads she saw him talking to someone and couldn't have that . She pointed to the ceiling just beyond him and breathed out. Bombarda.
Cinder flutes of little debris flew from the ceiling, louder if less colourful than the fireworks. It did the job, Snape turning long enough for Ginny to consider another firework, or maybe a hex?
"Whoa-!"
Someone bounced off Ginny's back. Snape, already surveying the crowd again, locked right onto them. Ginny ran.
Her first step landed in a pool of thick, black tar. "Evanesco," she hissed, yanking her foot up as screams and shouted complaints filled the hall, but even saying the spell out loud only vanished the tar immediately under her. She couldn't just cast wildly and hit someone.
Plan ceased to matter when her Disillusionment melted off. She crouched down and the guy behind her took a Body-Bind Curse. He planked into the muck with a girl shrieking about it and Ginny shoved her way over him and vanished whatever stuck her down too hard, knowing she had to delay, delay with everything she had, even being caught red handed.
Ginny's wand jumped from her hand and landed in the tar. If she'd been successfully hexed in this crowd, then-
Feet stuck fast, she looked up into Snape's face.
"Do not," he snarled, "retrieve that." And with a flick of his free hand, he summoned Ginny's wand to himself.
/
Ginny allowed herself to be hauled away; preferred it to the humiliation of getting knocked out and hovered, really. The student body gave them too wide a berth for her to even think about claiming a new wand. The corridor outside the Headmaster's office wasn't far, but their turn was obstructed by a class-taking shelter? Ginny saw the second of Michael's sidekicks backpedal into him at the sight of Snape, and the strikingly distinctive face of Pansy Parkinson, and speaking to her, shit.
Alecto Carrow emerged in front of her students. Ginny had hoped she would stay in the class hall for the distraction, but she'd made a beeline here. "Snape, what was-" she found Ginny and glowed with delight, "that commotion? So disturbing-"
"Professor," Snape addressed her, straightening up and failing to mask his dishevelment, "I do not-"
Whatever absurdly long takedown he had in mind, it stopped dead when they heard a crash. A very banging crash, muffled as if from inside-
Ginny closed her eyes. If her friends were still up there. . .
/
Their Disillusionment Charms melted off at the landing before the Headmaster's Office. Neville and Luna entered fully visible.
Neville cracked the door open, then waved Luna through after him. He walked ahead of her until he saw it; a glass case banded with thick iron, a jewel-encrusted hilt visible from afar.
"What is the meaning of this?" someone bellowed.
"Oh, hello!" Luna said back. Neville checked to confirm his eyes hadn't lied.
"Luna, get the sword," he whispered, facing the door to keep watch. He wasn't worried about paintings stopping them.
Luna apparently was.
"And what do you think you're doing in here?" whined the portrait of an angry man with a sharp goatee, amid other voices muttering. "Who do you think you are?"
"Don't worry. We have a very good reason for this. We just need one thing," she said apologetically and then continued, "it doesn't belong to Severus Snape. He stole it! We're just doing what Dumbledore would have wanted. In fact, we're carrying out his final will!"
"Luna, what are you doing?" Neville finally whispered as nicely as he could.
She raised her voice. "So if you could just not tell him we were in here-"
"Luna, we don't have a lot of time," Neville said over loudly, regretting the volume as soon as he felt it.
"Why are you giving away our identities?" she spun around and demanded of him. "The portraits are-"
Neville wrinkled his forehead. "If they give Snape any description of me, he'll know it was me right away. And then he'll use a truth potion." Neville had been getting opinions from generations of Longbottom, painted or otherwise, his whole life. Sometimes the key was not to engage. "We're not getting another chance. If they tell him, they tell him."
Everyone went silent. Luna, pensive, nodded.
Only the snide mutterings coming from the angry portrait resumed, ignored. Luna found the case and took a breath in admiration before she began; Neville didn't blame her, aching to see the thing up close. She circled the case back and forth, whispering and twirling her wand as if writing in the air. Waiting, Neville faced front once more. A cabinet embedded in a shelf stood to his left, and at the very top over three neat lines of books sat the Sorting Hat.
The memory of his own sorting stung in Neville's mind. The hat had been so confident he couldn't go anywhere but Gryffindor and Neville had spent nearly five minutes begging to just get into Hufflepuff instead. What kind of Gryffindor would do that? Bravery and honour were all well and good, but Neville had always struggled fitting in with the rest of his house.
What if he could ask the hat again? Had he done enough the last few years to make up for what a coward he still was?
Either way, the hat didn't belong in here with a Death Eater. No symbol of Hogwarts should be tarnished like that. If Neville could just reach that high-
"I've finished checking the case," Luna called thoughtfully.
Neville swerved to attention, short arms swinging back to his side. "What's he put on it?"
"Nothing."
Neville stared at Luna staring at the glass case. "Ginny said there'd be defences we couldn't spot on the office itself," he suggested, going closer.
The snide portrait made an indignant noise. "So this is Ms. Weasley's plot? I would expect better from her-"
Luna picked up some ornament from the headmaster's desk, eyes glittering. The old crystal thing had gone dull. "There's a simple way to test," she explained, launching it. Neville watched in horror.
Cracking boomed through the office like thunder. The heavy crystal stayed intact, but the glass from the case fell in thick shards over the sword. Luna poked them away with her wand, frowning. "Fascinating."
"That was loud," Neville warned her, panic rising in his voice.
"Yes, it was," Luna said conversationally, fingering the hilt. "But I've never heard of a spell that muffles object noise. And it's strange-"
"We need to leave, now," Neville hissed as he made for the door. "Grab the sword and let's-"
Stone groaned against stone, the gargoyle sliding away from the entrance to the staircase. Luna grabbed the sword and beckoned Neville behind the desk, the only thing large enough to hide them both. "He'll know someone-let me and then-" Neville rushed straight to the left side of the door.
The door opened while he was three feet away and he brought his wand up to point at Snape's face.
Snape deemed the gesture as useless as it felt. He pushed forward after only a moment's shock, bringing his own wand up while Neville backed away. Ginny's hair was visible behind him, but she had no wand to point.
"Still taking orders from others, I see," he gloated. Neville was hit with a wave of loathing ten times what he'd felt when Snape had run past him that night at the Astronomy Tower. He hadn't faced Snape like this since finding out who he was; another Death Eater run amok at the school, obsessing over blood purity and using discipline like a game.
"To what end would Weasley send you sneaking into the most heavily guarded room in this school, I wonder." Snape advanced. They both knew Neville couldn't duel him. Neville would go down so fast Ginny might as well have fought Snape alone. "She knew better than to trust you'd get in undetected, surely she didn't think you'd accomplish anything worth my concern before I returned. . ."
All the time Neville backed away as slowly as he had the courage to. He couldn't search for Luna and give away her position so he willed himself to stare at only Snape while he talked, think only of hatred. Snape had run almost over him with Malfoy in tow as they escaped the tower. Neville had grabbed Malfoys's leg and tried to curse him, in rage at what swarmed Hogwarts that night. Ron and Ginny had said it was him who was in the Room of Requirement and the invasion made clear what use the room served him. He'd wanted Malfoy to die, but Snape had cursed him back-
Neville's back hit the wall just as a tall blonde head bobbed past Snape's neck. Snape spun to the door and saw two girls, not one.
It worked before, Neville thought bracingly. He grabbed Snape's shoulder with his free hand, shifting the grip on his wand, and leapt swinging for Snape's face.
"GO!" Neville roared.
His wand sank in an eye socket, and the yell of pain encouraged him. Neville angled his wand around a defending arm and pried his hand into Snape's mouth. Snape, hunching forward in pain, cast something that only fizzed out behind them. Neville battered his eye again, calls of trouble and spells growing from the corridor. Snape was trying to turn while Neville held fast about his neck.
A shock of force from the ground pushed Neville back. His back hit a shelf and he regained his footing while Snape stumbled. Snape hadn't quite faced him when Neville aimed a kick inside his knee and the not-headmaster cast blindly.
The Shield hit Neville like a wall. A burst of red light faded out as he lost consciousness.
/
Resisting the urge to pummel Snape herself, Ginny focused on the sword, on Luna. If there was even the slimmest chance of getting the sword to its rightful owner, they had to keep moving.
The ascension of three separate Slytherins met Ginny and Luna on the stairs. Ginny ran at them in desperation; she could have cried, even if Luna could Stun one-
"Reducto!" Luna squeaked.
Theodore Nott moaned sharply and crumpled at the knee; Draco Malfoy and an unknown girl turned to him while Ginny dragged Luna right through them, shoving them to a wall as they leapt three stairs at a time. Luna pushed the sword to Ginny, crying to take it.
So it was they burst into the hall, Ginny clutching the sword of Godric Gryffindor in her wandless hand. She skidded down sideways between Alecto Carrow and Professor McGonagall; knees bent, pushing off her landing. Luna tried to disarm Alecto, but Ginny was barely aware, sprinting into the terrified crowd.
Someone tried to grab her; the growing crowd was too dense to hex anyone. Ginny tried to shove aside a confused younger student. Then three people grabbed her and she stumbled forward, struggling. She kicked at the nearest and lodged her ankle in Parkinson's stomach.
"Someone Stun her!" and the triumphant laugh of Alecto Carrow were the last things she heard.