Neville

I looked meekly up at the bartender.

"What are you doing in my bar?" he repeated.

"Er..." was my genius response.

He looked up at the portrait of the girl. Hastily, I scrambled to my feet.

"Ariana!" he scolded the girl. "What have I told you about bringing random nutcases through your portrait?"

"Hey!" I protested. He ignored me.

Ariana blushed faintly and looked at her feet. The bartender's eyes softened. He turned back to me and spoke more gently.

"You'll have to forgive her. She gets excited easily. What's your name, lad?"

"Neville," I said.

"Neville, is it? Just Neville?"

"No--no...sir," I stammered. "Neville Longbottom."

The bartender grinned maniacally. "I'm Aberforth Dumbledore," he said, pumping my hand so hard my whole body shook. My jaw actually dropped. I thought that only happened in movies. "Aberforth...Dumbledore?" I repeated, astonished.

He frowned at me through his grizzly eyebrows. "Are you deaf? That's what I said, isn't it?" I noticed he had bright blue eyes, just like his brother.

I smiled at him tentatively. He's nuts, I thought.

Aberforth jerked his thumb towards the portrait of the girl--Ariana, I reminded myself. "This here's my sister, Ariana. She died when she was young. You don't need to know the details," he said gruffly. I nodded.

"Right...nice to meet you, Aberforth. Nice to meet you Ariana." Aberforth grunted, and Ariana smiled and blushed and looked at her toes again. "I really must be getting back," I ventured. I looked at Ariana. "Can you take me back to the Room of Requirement?" She smiled and nodded. I turned back to Aberforth. "Good-bye." With that, I followed Ariana back through to my new home.

Luna

"There, I said. "All finished." I leaned back and admired my handiwork. The flowers were all planted and my spells had made them bloom beautifully. Fleur would be pleased that I had done such a good job on the garden. I stood up and went into the house to wash up.

Later, I helped Dean collect driftwood. When we were done, we carried it into the house. While we walked, I told him all about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. I wonder why he didn't seem too interested.

The next day, Uncle Ollivander left. He was still weak, but on the mend. We were all very sad to see him go, especially me. I have no idea whether I'll ever see him again.

That night, I sat up in my bedroom, thinking about Neville. I missed him more than anything. I wished he was here with me at that moment. I wished to see him again, to feel his arms around me, and to hear him laugh.

Neville

Seamus rounded on me angrily. "Where were you?" he asked. "We've all been worried sick!"

I brushed him aside. "Sorry, Mum," I said, for I couldn't help noticing that he was talking just like I'd heard Mrs. Weasley talk to Fred and George. "It's sort of a long story, Seamus." I sat down and told the room all about how Ariana had brought me through her portrait and I had found myself in the Hog's head, and who the bartender was.

"…and then Ariana brought me back here," I finished. Everyone was looking at me wide-eyed, with the exception of Lavender Brown, who was examining her fingernails. Seamus's mouth was slightly open, and Colin Creevey's dropped all the way to his knees. They all think I'm mad, I realized. Then Seamus spoke.

"That's brilliant!" he said excitedly!

"You believe me?'

"Well, yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "Neville, do you know what this means?" I shook my head. "It means that we can escape from the castle! We won't have to live in here anymore, we can just go home on the knight Bus or something and—"

But I cut him off. "We can't, Seamus. We can't desert Hogwarts."

He looked at me. "What?"

"Seamus, what about the teachers—the good ones, like McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout? We can't leave them. What if the Death Eaters come here? Snape might be working for them, and we know Amycus and Alecto are, and the other teachers will need our help." I said sadly.

He frowned.

"Neville's right," chipped in Lavender Brown. "We can't let that happen to the teachers! I mean, yes, they're teachers, but most of them are against You-Know-Who, and if Hogwarts is invaded they're going to need an army!" she said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Lavender," I said.

He glared at us. "Fine," he said. "You're right, of course, Lavender!"

I frowned at him.

Luna

Life was very boring at Shell Cottage. I spent most of my time looking for Plimpies and removing Nargles from Fleur's bushes.

One day, I was passing Griphook's room. Ron came out of it looking very annoyed about something. Harry and Hermione followed.

"We're sneaking into Gringotts," Ron told me. "We need to get something for…someone," he said shiftily. I frowned. "All right, you don't have to tell me what you're up to, but when are you going?"

"Tomorrow," said Harry. "Don't tell anyone, Luna. We don't want then worrying."

"Oh, and we're taking Griphook with us," said Hermione. "There's a good chance what we're getting is a fake and we need him to tell us."

I nodded. "I'm not going to tell anyone," I assured them. I then went on my way, leaving them to discuss what I knew I couldn't hear.

The next morning, when I woke up, they were already gone. I hoped they'd be all right.