Luna's eyes were wide with fright. Ginny had a similar expression. Slowly, I turned around, terrified of what I knew I would see.

Severus Snape was standing in the doorway, a raised wand in his hand and an unpleasant leer on his ugly face. I let out a terrified squeak and stumbled backward into Ginny. Snape laughed softly. "I don't think so, Longbottom." He clicked his thin fingers. "Get them." He stood aside as two hulking figures burst through the door. Amycus and Alecto Carrow advanced, leering, and three more figures darted through. Draco Malfoy pinned Ginny to the wall, wand held aloft, and both Crabbe and Goyle went for me. Each took one of my arms and they smashed me into one of the cabinets. "Oof." I groaned with pain. I looked past Goyle's shoulder to see the Carrows advancing on Luna. She held up the sword defensively. Alecto flicked it out of her hand effortlessly. Luna blanched.

WHAM.

Crabbe slammed his fist into my stomach and I doubled over. "No!" I slammed my shoulder into his stomach and stood up, pulling my wand out of my pocket. "Stupefy!" I cried, pointing my wand at Goyle. It struck him square in the chest and he fell over. The same fate awaited Crabbe.

"Stupefy!"

Ginny punched Draco in the nose, hard, and then performed her legendary Bat-Bogey Hex. It hit Malfoy in the face and he stumbled backwards and landed hard on his butt. "Ow! Get 'em off! Get 'em off!" he whimpered.

"Nice one, Ginny!" I yelled, and then I looked over my shoulder wildly at the sound of a scream.

My heart nearly fell out of my body.

Luna was slumped on the floor, whimpering, while both Amycus and Alecto stood over her. Amycus, I saw, had his wand pointed at her heart. I realized with terror that he was using the Cruciatus Curse on her. My eyes widened. I was on the verge of crying out when suddenly, Luna kicked out at the
Carrows. They both stumbled back, surprised. Luna picked up the abandoned Gryffindor sword and pointed it threateningly at them. "Don't you dare come near us," she said, and all the dreamy quality was gone from her voice. She sounded nearly as hard as Professor McGonagall, and there was a dangerous glint in her eyes. The Carrows looked at each other and in that moment, I made a run for it. I grabbed Luna's hand and ran out the door. Ginny was right behind us. Severus Snape was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, but (by some unbelievably amazing luck) he had fallen asleep. We crept past him and ran, ran down the corridor as fast as we could.

We stopped behind a suit of armor. I looked at Luna concernedly. "Are you all right?" She had a bleeding cut on one cheek and a bruised lip, but other than that she seemed fine on the outside. "Oh, Neville, I feel as though I've been run over by the Hogwarts Express," she groaned.

Ginny took her hand comfortingly. "You were amazing, Neville," she beamed at me.

"Yeah, thanks, Ginny. So were you. You both were." I told them proudly.

Aching all over, we headed back to our common rooms with a promise to meet at breakfast at the Gryffindor table. It was half an hour later, safe under my covers in the dormitory and looking at Harry's and Ron's empty beds, that I realized we had left the sword in Snape's office.

I walked down to Hagrid's hut on the 21st of November. I was relieved my punishment wouldn't would be carried out by him, who had been wrongly expelled from Hogwarts at the age of thirteen, and therefore could not use magic against me (but then, he never would anyway.) Plus, he was kindhearted, even if he was a bit intimidating. However, I did have a black eye, because Alecto Carrow could pack quite a punch. Luna had a slit caused by a knife across her pretty face, and Ginny's nose had been broken. I met them at Hagrid's pumpkin patch, gave Luna a quick hug and kiss, and patted Ginny on the back.

" 'Lo there!" Hagrid said. "I'll be righ' with yeh." He put down his gloves and the dead ferret he had been feeding the hippogriff, Buckbeak--I mean Witherwings.

"We'll be goin' inter the forest today, I need some help with a couple o' things."

"Th-the forest?" I gulped. The Forbidden Forest was utterly terrifying. It was full of furry creatures and evil whatnots.

"O' course! The forest won' hurt yeh!"

"I'm not worried about the forest hurting me." I muttered under by breath. "It's what's in it I'm worried about."

Hagrid seemed not to hear. "All righ', time to go!" he said loudly. He led us into the forest behind his small hut. The minute we passed about three trees, we were in darkness.

"Neville?" came a voice. Luna's. I remembered that she had never been in the forest but once, two years ago, but it was daytime then. I took her hand and we walked on. Soon we came to a clearing. We could now see into the trees. Something moved behind us. I spun around quickly. The strangest thing I'd ever seen came waddling towards us. It had tiny purple hippo's ears, an enormous orange nose, buck teeth, (strangely white) a pink horn right between its eyes, a huge green belly that touched the ground, and fat, short legs. It looked kind of like what Slughorn would look like if you turned him into an animal.

Beside me, Luna gave an excited squeak. "It's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack!" she exclaimed.

Hagrid frowned. "What're yeh on about?" he asked, clearly confused. Luna actually giggled. "Daddy and I have been looking for one of these for years, wait until I tell him, he'll be so pleased!"

And so ended our detention.