"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

-Winnie the Pooh

"Neville, I have to talk to you," Ginny said one day a few weeks later. It was the end of February and there was still no news from or about Luna. I kept hoping every single day that I would hear something or that she would find a way to contact me, but every day I was let down. I had been listening to Potterwatch ever since it had started, but there was no news there either, which I suppose was good. It probably meant Luna was still alive. Either that, or Lee and the others hadn't heard anything on her at all.

"What's going on?" I asked Ginny as she grabbed my arm and dragged me to a secluded corner of the common room.

"I just spoke to Michael and-,"

"Michael?"

"Michael Corner, Neville. What other Michael would I be talking about? Honestly, you're the most out of it leader I've ever known."

I smiled faintly. I had never thought of myself as a leader, but I guess it was true. "Okay, so what's up with Michael?"

"He's in the hospital wing. He went to rescue a first year the Carrows had chained up in the dungeon. He managed to get the first year out, but then he was caught by Filch, who brought him straight to the Carrows."

"How bad?" I asked, sighing and squeezing my eyes shut.

"Bad," Ginny said quietly. "He went into the hospital wing last night and he was unconscious until about an hour ago."

"And you were up there interrogating him?"

"Well, I had to in order to figure out what he did to get tortured so badly. Besides, he didn't mind. Anyway, he almost looks worse than you. Tons of bruises and scratches, but I guess they used the Cruciatus Curse mostly. That's why he was unconscious."

I took a deep breath. "Can we really keep asking people to do this?"

"See, the thing is, I don't think we're really asking them anymore. We did originally, but Michael went to unchain that first year all on his own. It was his idea. And I don't think we can reform the D.A. and get people in on it and then tell them they can't help us and we want to do it alone. I know my brother and Hermione get sick of hearing that sort of thing from Harry all the time."

I nodded. She did have a point after all. "Okay, so what do we do?" I asked her, running a hand through my hair, wincing as my finger hit a nasty cut on my forehead.

"I don't know," she said. "Personally, I-,"

"Neville," Seamus said, coming up to me and Ginny. He had just come through the portrait hole and he looked worried. His face was bruised and puffy from his last detention, and I couldn't help but wince when he passed under the nearest light.

"You've heard about Michael?" I asked.

Seamus nodded. "I think people are getting scared. The Carrows have a general idea who does this stuff and so does Snape. Nobody wants to get tortured like Michael did. This is far worse than just using Umbridge's quills. We're up against an illegal curse now."

"I know," I whispered. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm not sure if we should keep pulling big stunts anymore. You know, rescuing first years, refusing to torture them in detentions, the graffiti…"

"You want to give up?" Seamus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't say that," I answered. "I just wish…" I trailed off and sat down in a chair, resting my chin in my hands as I thought. "There have to be plenty of other things we can do. Unnoticeable things, you know? Have you been listening to Potterwatch?"

Seamus nodded. "Every week. I keep listening to hear anything on Dean. Harry too, of course."

I nodded. "Same here, but I listen for Luna as well. Anyway, my point is that there has to be something along those lines that we can do."

"Should we just lay low then until we can come up with ideas?" Ginny asked, crossing her arms and leaning up against the wall.

I looked up at her. "Yeah, let's just do that. Try to think of ideas and come up with a plan. Use the coins to communicate." I turned to Seamus. "Want to pass the message around to everyone else?"

Seamus nodded. "I will." He turned to walk away, throwing one last glance at me over his shoulder.

"It was Luna's birthday last week," I said to Ginny. It was completely out of nowhere, but I had to say it to someone.

"I know," she whispered. "February 17th."

I nodded. "It was the hardest on that day. Dealing with her being missing, I mean."

Ginny didn't say anything. She reached over and squeezed my hand. "Why don't you try to get some sleep, Neville?"

"No news is good news, right?" I whispered. "Isn't that the saying?"

"What?" Ginny asked.

"If we haven't been hearing anything about Luna, Dean or Harry on Potterwatch, then that's good news, isn't it? No news is good news?"

"Yeah," Ginny said. "I really hope so." She gently nudged me in the direction of the boy's dormitory. "Go get some sleep. I'm going to go to bed too, actually."

I nodded before turning and trudging up the stairs to my dormitory.

A month later, Ginny had been pulled out of school. The Easter holidays had fallen at the end of March. I had gone home simply because I didn't especially like staying at school anymore. Seamus was staying and he promised to keep me updated on any news. When I got back at the end of the holidays, Seamus informed me that Ginny and the rest of her family had gone into hiding, but I didn't need to be told. Ginny had already sent me a message using her coin. She couldn't tell me anything except she was safe, in hiding, wouldn't be coming back to school and that she was sorry.

To be completely honest, I was a little panicked, but more determined than ever. If it was going to be left all up to me, then I would have to take charge and not show how much I was panicking. That night, I waited until Seamus was asleep before sneaking out of the dorm. It had been just me and Seamus in our dorm all year and we had started to become a lot closer than we had been before. Between the two of us, plus Ginny, someone each of us was close to was on the run or missing. Oddly enough, it was a great thing to bond over.

My heart was hammering in my chest as I made my way to the entrance hall and over to the oak front doors. I didn't open them, but held up my wand instead. It was time for one last act of graffiti.

Two hours later, I lowered my wand and admired my work. Dumbledore's Army: Still Here it said. We had carried out what we had agreed on a month ago and laid low, but I didn't want anyone, especially the Carrows to think we had given up and that they had won.

Just before I turned to go, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I turned to see both Carrows standing behind me, Amycus with his hand on my shoulder and a smirk on his face. "We figured it was you all along," he said, "putting this graffiti on the wall. And now we've finally caught you red handed. Come on, boy, let's go." He roughly began dragging me up the stairs, Alecto cackling quietly behind us.

"Have you been working alone the whole time on this graffiti?" she asked.

"Yes," I lied, even though there was no point in lying. Luna and Ginny were both gone. Either way, I was going to protect them, no matter what.

"Well, then, you're going to be in for a real punishment," Amycus said. "We've been trying to catch the real culprit for months. Of course, we figured you were the leader, so we always blamed you, but now it turns out it really was you the entire time!" He actually sounded gleeful, which made me sick.

I didn't answer, but I winced as he roughly twisted my arm as we walked. "Where are we going?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Back to my office," Amycus said coolly.

I was silent the rest of the way there. Amycus kept twisting my arm every now and then, but I managed to keep quiet. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he was hurting me.

"Alecto," Amycus began as we reached his office. He tossed me to the ground and moved to stand in front of me as Alecto shut the door and joined him.

"Yes?" she asked with a gleeful cackle. I couldn't believe how much they actually enjoyed this stuff.

"What do you think we should do for a punishment? The quill? Cruciatus Curse? Give him a few more cuts and bruises?"

"Maybe we could do all three," she suggested, tapping her wand against her palm.

"We could…" Amycus said as if he were thinking it all over. Finally he smirked. "On second thought, those punishments don't seem to work, do they? We've been using them on him all year, and he hasn't learned at all. I think we should go for a different approach." They shared a look and Alecto broke into a grin, almost identical to Amycus's.

"I know what you're thinking," she said, "but maybe we should torture him first anyway. Just for a little fun."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Don't worry, we're not going to kill you," Amycus said. "We don't really want to spill too much pure blood, but you'll find out soon enough. First, though…"

He trailed off and the torture that came after was the worst I'd experienced all year. It was the worst I'd experienced ever for that matter.

"I wonder if this is what his parents looked like before they went wacky," Alecto cackled. "Pathetic and worthless."

"They weren't worthless or pathetic!" I yelled. "They were worth a million of you people!"

"From what I've heard it sure didn't look that way after Bellatrix tortured them!" Amycus laughed. "I heard they're so loopy now that it's almost funny."

"Shut up!" I yelled.

"Crucio!"

The only thing I could think of as the torture continued was that I probably did look pathetic. The torture was coming so frequently and so strong that there was no way I could fight back. There was no open window for me to reach my wand. It wasn't like I'd be able to use it anyway. The spell had me curled up in a ball, writing on the ground.

I could hear Luna's voice in my head, telling me to stay positive. How? I thought. How can I stay positive when, from the looks of it, I'm going the same way as my parents?

I had no idea what Luna would say to that, but then I realized she'd probably tell me I was stronger than I thought I was. She'd tell me I needed to fight the curse the best I could and focus on something that made me happy. So that's what I did. I thought of her and my other friends; I thought of my parents and my Gran; I thought of the thestrals, the greenhouses, and being at Hogwarts before it turned into what it did; I thought of the D.A and the day I finally mastered the disarming spell. I figured if I was going to go insane, the last things I thought of might as well be happy memories.

But then the spell lifted and I managed to drag my eyelids open. I was okay. Worn out, hurting, and weakened, sure, but I hadn't gone insane from what I could tell. Amycus knelt down next to me and I could hear his wheezy breathing. "If you're not going to comply with our rules, Neville Longbottom, then you leave us no choice. We're going to have to go after your Gran."

"No!" I meant to yell it, but it came out in a raspy whisper. It was hardly intimidating.

Amycus looked up to address Alecto. "Send Dawlish," he said.

"Dawlish? Are you sure? He's not the most powerful…"

"You really think this boy's grandmother is going to require someone powerful?" Amycus laughed. "Send Dawlish."

"Now?" Alecto asked.

"No, next week," Amycus snapped. "Of course now! We don't have time to throw away. Now, go!" Alecto hurried out of the room and Amycus dragged me to my feet. "As for you, you're going to get chained in the dungeons so you won't be able to even try to warn your grandmother."

"She's not as weak as you think," I said confidently.

"Right, I'm sure she's not," Amycus laughed. As soon as we reached the dungeons, he attached chains to my wrists. These were padlocked to the wall and I was grateful it wasn't the ceiling, although there were chains attached to the ceiling in here as well.

"When am I going to be let out?" I chanced asking Amycus.

The man shrugged. "Tomorrow sometime." He paused. "If you're lucky." With that, he laughed and slammed the door, leaving me alone and in silence except for the echo of his laugh around the dingy room.

I sighed and my thoughts drifted to Luna as they always did. We were probably in very similar settings right now, but I just wished we could have at least been together. It would have made being locked up a whole less lonely.

A/N: Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review! And to answer Akela's question, yes I do read every single one of them. I really do appreciate it when people take the time to review. :)