Chapter 47:
"Neville — what the — how — ?"
But Neville was engulfing Alicia and absolutely smuggling her before he spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too. The longer they looked at Neville, the worse he appeared: One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living rough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!"
"Neville, what's happened to you?"
"What? This?" Neville dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head. "This is nothing. Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going then? Oh," he turned to Aberforth, "Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way."
"Couple more?" repeated Aberforth ominously. "What d'you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There's a curfew and a Caterwauling Charm on the whole village!"
"I know, that's why they'll be Apparating directly into the bar," said Neville. "Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."
Neville held out his hand to Hermione and helped her to climb up onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel; Alicia climbed up after them and Ron followed, then Neville. There were smooth stone steps on the other side: It looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth.
Harry addressed Aberforth.
"I don't know how to thank you. You've saved our lives twice."
"Look after 'em, then," said Aberforth gruffly. "I might not be able to save 'em a third time."
Harry clambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana's portrait.
"How long's this been here?" Ron asked as they set off,. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it, Harry? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?" as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.
"They sealed off all of those before the start of the year," said Neville. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now, not with curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits." He started walking backward, beaming, drinking them in. "Never mind that stuff… Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it, Terry Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"
"Yeah, it's true," said Harry.
"The dragon wasn't planned, we sort of improvised." Alicia confessed smirking.
Neville laughed gleefully.
"What did you do with the dragon?"
"Released it into the wild," said Ron. "Hermione was all for keeping it as a pet —"
"Don't exaggerate, Ron —"
"But what have you been doing? People have been saying you've just been on the run, Harry, but I don't think so. I think you've been up to something."
"You're right," said Harry, "but tell us about Hogwarts, Neville, we haven't heard anything."
"Yeah, we've been cut off form the world since, what? We broke into the Ministry?" Alicia asked thinking.
"You broke into the Ministry?"
"Yeah, in September." Alicia chuckled "Was that not reported? We managed to tell George and after hearing Potterwatch I thought they'd have said something."
"Wicked! The Ministry and Gringotts!" Neville grinned
"And now Hogwarts." Alicia said "How did we not guess the three most heavily guarded places from the beginning?" she asked turning to Harry smirking.
"Shut up Alicia I wanna hear about Hogwarts." Ron said and she hit him annoyed.
"It's been… well, it's not really like Hogwarts anymore," said Neville, the smile fading from his face as he spoke. "Do you know about the Carrows?"
"Those two Death Eaters who teach here?"
"They do more than teach," said Neville. "They're in charge of all discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows."
"Like Umbridge?"
"Nah, they make her look tame. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don't, though, if they can avoid it. You can tell they all hate them as much as we do.
"Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defence Against the Dark Arts, except now it's just the Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions —"
"What?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione's united voices echoed up and down the passage.
"I wish I could say I'm surprised." Alicia grumbled angrily.
"Yeah," said Neville. "That's how I got this one," he pointed at a particularly deep gash in his cheek, "I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they've ever been top in anything, I expect.
"Alecto, Amycus's sister, teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drove wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being reestablished. I got this one," he indicated another slash to his face, "for asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."
"Blimey, Neville," said Ron, "there's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."
"You didn't hear her," said Neville. "You wouldn't have stood it either. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you did it, Harry."
"Great, it's your fault Neville's slashed up Harry." Alicia said
"Like you're better." he commented and she shrugged.
"But they've used you as a knife sharpener," said Ron, wincing slightly as they passed a lamp and Neville's injuries were thrown into even greater relief.
Neville shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. They don't want to spill too much pure blood, so they'll torture us a bit if we're mouthy but they won't actually kill us."
"You're too used to such a treatment Neville, listen to you like it's nothing." Alicia scolded.
"The only people in real danger are the ones whose friends and relatives on the outside are giving trouble. They get taken hostage. Old Xeno Lovegood was getting a bit too outspoken in The Quibbler, so they dragged Luna off the train on the way back for Christmas."
"Neville, she's all right, we've seen her —"
"Yeah, I know, she managed to get a message to me."
From his pocket he pulled a golden coin, it as one of the fake Galleons that Dumbledore's Army had used to send one another messages.
"These have been great," said Neville, beaming at Hermione. "The Carrows never rumbled how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it."
"You used to?" said Harry, noticing the past tense.
"Well, it got more difficult as time went on," said Neville. "We lost Luna at Christmas, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and the three of us were sort of the leaders. The Carrows seemed to know I was behind a lot of it, so they started coming down on me hard, and then Michael Corner went and got caught releasing a first-year they'd chained up, and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off."
"No kidding," muttered Ron, as the passage began to slope upward.
"Michael Conner?" Alicia asked surprised "I never knew he had it in him."
"Yeah, well, I couldn't ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That's when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran."
"They what?" said Harry, Ron, and Hermione together.
"Yeah," said Neville, panting a little now, because the passage was climbing so steeply.
"I can't see your Gran as the frail type." Alicia said, remembering the women from their visit to St Mungo's two years previously.
"Well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave, I s'pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was," he faced them, and Harry was astonished to see that he was grinning, "they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway," Neville laughed, "Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run. She sent me a letter," he clapped a hand to the breast pocket of his robes, "telling me she was proud of me, that I'm my parents' son, and to keep it up."
"Cool," said Ron.
"Yeah," said Neville happily. "Only thing was, once they realised they had no hold over me, they decided Hogwarts could do without me after all. I don't know whether they were planning to kill me or send me to Azkaban; either way, I knew it was time to disappear."
"But," said Ron, looking thoroughly confused, "aren't — aren't we heading straight back into Hogwarts?"
" 'Course," said Neville. "You'll see. We're here."
"You've been hiding in the school?" Alicia asked thinking and Neville grinned at her. "Room of Requirement?" she offered and Neville chuckled
"It's good to have you back Alicia." she grinned
They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. Alicia looked around and grinned in awe.
There were coloured hangings, lamps and many faces. The room was enormous, and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multicoloured hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-panelled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings: There was the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wooden-cased wireless. The room was packed with people as Neville call out to them all: "Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"
People turned and looked and the room was filled with several screams and yells: "HARRY!" "It's Potter, it's POTTER!" "Alicia!" "The Twins!" "Potter!" "Ron!" "Hermione!"
Alicia looked around grinning.
"We're back!" she couldn't help but shout and several people laughed as she did.
The next moment, she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, their hair ruffled, their hands shaken, by what seemed to be more than twenty people: They might just have won a Quidditch final.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville called, and as the crowd backed away.
"Where are we?" Harry asked once he had a chance to look around.
"Room of Requirement, of course!" said Neville. "Surpassed itself, hasn't it? The Carrows were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn't exactly like this when I arrived, it was a load smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings. But it's expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived."
"And the Carrows can't get in?" asked Harry, looking around for the door.
"No," said Seamus Finnigan,. Alicia turned to him and was surprised. Seamus's face was bruised and puffy. "It's a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can't get at us, the door won't open. It's all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You've got to ask it for exactly what you need — like, 'I don't want any Carrow supporters to be able to get in' — and it'll do it for you! You've just got to make sure you close the loopholes! Neville's the man!"
"It's quite straightforward, really," said Neville modestly. "I'd been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that's when the passage to the Hog's Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He's been providing us with food, because for some reason, that's the one thing the room doesn't really do."
"Yeah, well, food's one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," said Ron to general astonishment.
"Hermione told him that months ago." Alicia said and many people laughed.
"So we've been hiding out here for nearly two weeks," said Seamus, "and it just makes more hammocks every time we need them, and it even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up —"
"— and thought they'd quite like to wash, yes," supplied Lavender Brown. There were many other faces familiar in the room as well. Both Patil twins were there, as were Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner.
"Tell us what you've been up to, though," said Ernie. "There've been so many rumours, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch." He pointed at the wireless. "You didn't break into Gringotts?"
"They did!" said Neville. "And the dragon's true too!"
There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops; Ron took a bow.
"Gosh were do we start?" Alicia asked thinking "We broke into the Ministry in September, Harry, Hermione and I went to Godric's Hollow at Christmas and got attacked by You-Know-Who's snake. Harry got bitten. We went to Luna's dad in like February and he sold us out for Death Eaters to have Luna back. We got kidnapped by Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor sometime in, I think April. We lost track of time. And then we broke into Gringotts yesterday. And now, we're breaking into Hogwarts." Alicia grinned as she listed the incidents on her fingers.
"What were you after?" asked Seamus eagerly.
"Oh you know, Bellatrix Lestrange decided to torture me while we were at Malfoy Manor so we decided to piss her off by breaking into her vault and robbing her." Alicia shrugged simply.
A few people laughed but at that point the usual pain shot through Alicia's scar and she clapped her hand to it. She turned to Harry who had turned his back on the crowd of grinning faces. He staggered and Ron grabbed him as Alicia did and within a moment he opened his eyes again.
"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville was saying. "Want to sit down? I expect you're tired, aren't — ?"
"No," said Harry. He looked at Alicia, Ron and Hermione. Alicia nodded and turned to everyone else, they had a job to do, reunions were over.
"He got to the shack?" she asked and he nodded back to her as she pursed her lips.
"We need to get going," he said.
"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" asked Seamus. "What's the plan?"
"Plan?" repeated Harry.
Alicia laughed. "Sorry but our plans go sideways, we're winging this one. There is no plan." she said
"Then why are you here?" Lavender asked
"Well, there's something we — Ron, Hermione, and I — need to do, and then we'll get out of here."
Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore. Neville looked confused.
"What d'you mean, 'get out of here'?"
"We haven't come back to stay," said Harry, rubbing his scar, trying to soothe the pain. "There's something important we need to do —"
"What is it?"
"I — I can't tell you."
There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville's brows contracted.
"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"
"Well, yeah —"
"Then we'll help you."
The other members of Dumbledore's Army were nodding, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. A couple of them rose from their chairs to demonstrate their willingness for immediate action.
"You don't understand." Harry seemed to have said that a lot in the last few hours. "We — we can't tell you. We've got to do it — alone."
"Why?" asked Neville.
Alicia stopped to think. They kept it a secret so Voldemort wouldn't find out what they were doing, but he knew now…
"Because…" Harry began "Dumbledore left the three of us a job," he said carefully, "and we weren't supposed to tell — I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the three of us."
"We're his army," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army. We were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you three have been off on your own —"
"Hey we didn't ask you to, don't bring that on us." Alicia said, an eyebrow raised.
"It hasn't exactly been a picnic, mate," said Ron.
"I never said it had, but I don't see why you can't trust us. Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here's proven they're loyal to Dumbledore — loyal to you."
"Look," Harry began but he was cut off, the tunnel door had just opened behind him.
"We got your message, Neville! Hello you three, I thought you must be here!"
It was Luna and Dean. Seamus gave a great roar of delight and ran to hug his best friend.
"Hi, everyone!" said Luna happily. "Oh, it's great to be back!"
"Luna," said Harry distractedly, "what are you doing here? How did you — ?"
"I sent for her," said Neville, holding up the fake Galleon. "I promised her and Ginny that if you turned up I'd let them know. We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution. That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows."
"Of course that's what it means," said Luna brightly. "Isn't it, Harry? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?"
"We were thinking of being stealthy, not bring out a war." Alicia said but then she turned to Harry. "But it he's coming it'll come to that anyway." she whispered
"Listen," said Harry with a rising sense of panic, "I'm sorry, but that's not what we came back for. There's something we've got to do, and then —"
"You're going to leave us in this mess?" demanded Michael Corner.
"No!" said Ron. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who —"
"Then let us help!" said Neville angrily. "We want to be a part of it!"
There was another noise behind them, and the four turned. Ginny was now climbing through the hole in the wall, closely followed by Fred, George, and Lee Jordan.
Alicia felt her face heat up and her anger swelled. But below that were the desires that she'd had to fight against back at The Burrow, the last time she saw him.
"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said Fred, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station."
He seemed to notice Alicia then and stopped as Cho Chang suddenly began to climb through the tunnel too.
"I got the message," she said, holding up her own fake Galleon, and she walked over to sit beside Michael Corner.
"Well." Alicia said and everyone stopped as they saw her glaring at Fred like she wanted to hex him.
"I'm sorry Alicia." he said
"Sorry!?" she fumed and now everyone was silent. "You're sorry!? You're sorry you broke my mirror, stopped contacting me, ignored me for I don't even know how long, and then decided it'd be funny to send me a public messages through a radio station!?" she shouted. "Do you have any idea how worried I was!? You never answered me, you never called for me, you weren't even there the last time I spoke to George!? And all you can say is sorry!"
"Am I missing something?" Neville asked Harry.
"It wasn't intentional, I didn't smash it because I wanted to." Fred said
"What happened then!?" she demanded
"Well, we were helping Lee with his broadcasts and we had to move around a lot and during one of the moves—"
"There was a protection charm on it Fred Weasley it didn't just smash!?"
"I thought she'd have forgotten it when she saw you again." George mumbled to his twin. "You know, happy reunion?"
"She might have if she hadn't gotten the message on Potterwatch." Ron added
"My only contact to you, to know you were alright, and safe, and you disregarded it enough to break it!" Alicia shouted.
Fred didn't respond and she fumed, releasing a breath and turning away from him.
"For gods sake. Can't trust you with anything." she grumbled.
"If you really felt that you wouldn't still be wearing my ring." Fred said.
Alicia huffed and said nothing as a few people muttered, she had managed to protect her gifts through all their ordeals.
"So what's the plan, Harry?" said George, changing the topic.
"There isn't one," said Harry.
"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favourite kind," said Fred as he decided to be brave and moved over to Alicia to hug her from behind.
"Get off." she snapped annoyed but he didn't and she decided to just ignore his presence instead.
"You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane —"
"We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though —"
"You haven't got a wand — ?" began Seamus.
Ron turned suddenly to Harry.
"Why can't they help?"
"What?"
"They can help." He dropped his voice and said, so that none of them could hear but Hermione, who stood between them, "We don't know where it is. We've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."
Harry looked from Ron to Hermione, who murmured, "I think Ron's right. We don't even know what we're looking for, we need them." And when Harry looked unconvinced, "You don't have to do everything alone, Harry."
"All right," he said quietly to the other two. "Okay," he called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: George, who had been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, Fred who'd been whispering to Alicia while she batted at him with her hand, turned to Harry, and all of them looked alert, excited.
"There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something — something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"
He looked hopefully toward the little group of Ravenclaws, to Padma, Michael, Terry, and Cho, but it was Luna who answered, perched on the arm of Ginny's chair.
"Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."
"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."
"When was it lost?" asked Harry.
"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but," she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws, "nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"
They all shook their heads.
"Well that makes it the most perfect object." Alicia said and everyone looked at her. "What more perfect to use than an item everyone thinks is gone forever. And if anyone's got the determination to get it," she turned to Harry "it'd be You-Know-Who."
"But how could he have found it?" Harry asked her
"He's him, remember, he's persuasive and can follow things. That's how he found everything else." she said "He'd have found a resource."
"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron.
"It's a kind of crown," said Terry Boot. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."
"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons —"
But Harry cut across Luna.
"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"
They all shook their heads again. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and his own disappointment was mirrored back at him while Alicia was thoughtful. The three turned to her.
"You still think it's the diadem?" Harry asked her.
"I think it's possible, lost or not. You just need to think as to how You know who could have traced it. He'd have had to talk to someone likely, or find books, but it Professor Flitwick doesn't know than it's likely not a recorded source."
"Will you think faster?" Ron said and she scowled at him.
"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry? Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue." Cho spoke up.
Alicia's neck scorched again and she looked at Harry.
"He's on the move," he said quietly to Ron and Hermione. He glanced at Cho and then back at them. "Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know — the other one — safe." Alicia nodded as she was still thinking.
Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"
"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, and Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.
"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.
"Over here."
He led Harry and Luna to a corner, where a small cupboard opened onto a steep staircase.
"It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've never been able to find it," he said. "Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they're always patrolling the corridors at night."
"No problem," said Harry.
"Oh, Harry!" Alicia moved over to him, rummaging in her bag, surprising people as her arm vanished into it before she pulled out the old piece of parchment. "This might help."
"Awesome." he nodded "See you in a bit."
"And be careful, remember, he was going to tip Snape off." she said as the two hurried down the staircase.
"This seems pointless." Ron said to Alicia as she came back over. "If it was lost?"
"Like I said, I don't think that's a problem."
"Well we can't just wait here, we don't have time." Hermione said
"We can't move forwards with our search right now…" Alicia thought before she remembered "But there is something else we need." she said to them. "The Chamber." a few people were listening to them as they spoke lowly but Alicia wasn't worried about that.
"Chamber?"
"Through the bathroom." Alicia reminded them "We need a fang." the two looked at one another.
There was another noise and suddenly more people were climbing through the hole from the Hog's Head.
"Neville, how many people did you contact?" she asked surprised. Kingsley and Lupin climbed through and soon so did Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
"Ron!" they ran at their son and Mrs Weasley absolutely covered him in kisses.
"Alicia, we've been so worried!" and she smuggled the girl too. "Where's Harry?"
"He's here, he's doing something."
"We are too." Ron said taking Hermione's hand. "Come on Alicia, we've got to go to the bathroom." he'd understood what Alicia had been getting at.
"You go, I'll see you later." they looked confused
"But we need a parselmouth to get down there?" Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Actually, I think I've got it." Ron said and Hermione looked bewildered.
"Go." Alicia said. They didn't argue, but followed Luna and Harry down the staircase.
"What's going on?" Lupin asked Alicia.
"We're looking for something in the castle, but it's difficult, will be well hidden and we only have one idea of what it is which was lost centuries ago, so we're not doing well." Alicia said "I have something I need to go and do to, while I can." she said thinking "Harry should be back soon, stay here and wait for us." and she turned
"Alicia!" Lupin said
"Later." she called back as she went down the stairs and to the wall at the bottom. There was a solid wall at the bottom and Alicia touched it to have it melt away. She glanced out of the corridor before she began to move. A few turns and she knew where she was before she hurried along the corridors, keeping quiet.
She luckily came across no one as she moved, keeping to the shadows and trying to make her hurried footsteps make no noise.
Eventually she stood before the gargoyle and she looked up at it worried, taking a breath. She hope this went well.
"Password…" Alicia said thinking. "Well, if it was me in Snape's spot I'd make it Dumbledore." and the gargoyle leapt aside. Alicia instantly moved and began to run up the spiralling staircase.
She stopped at the door at the top and took a deep breath, her hand on her wand in her pocket just in case.
With a final breath she pushed the door open.