"When the road looks rough ahead and you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed, you just remember what your old pal said. You've got a friend in me."

–Randy Newman (You've Got a Friend In Me)

"Dobby?" Harry squeaked out. He looked up at Ron. "Do you know if Hermione has any more of that dittany? Give it to me, quickly, please."

Ron didn't move. Instead, he just shook his head. "Harry, I don't-,"

"Help me!" Harry begged desperately.

Fighting the lump in my throat, I knelt down beside Harry and Dobby.

"Dobby, no, don't die, don't die," Harry said quietly.

"Such a lovely place to be with friends," Dobby whispered. "Dobby is happy to be with his friends…"

With that the elf gave a little shudder and grew still. I took a shaky breath and reached over Harry's arm. "We should close his eyes," I whispered, sliding Dobby's eyes closed as I spoke. "There, now he could be sleeping."

I hadn't noticed, but Bill and Fleur had apparently heard us outside and had joined us. They were silent for a few minutes before Fleur whispered for Ron to bring Hermione inside and for Dean to bring Griphook. They nodded before obeying her orders in silence. Fleur squeezed Bill's arm and gave him a sad look before heading back to the cottage after the others, throwing one last look over her shoulder as she went.

"Will Hermione be okay?" Harry asked, not looking up from Dobby's limp body.

"Yeah, she should be," Bill answered, nodding. "Harry, if you want, Fleur and I have no problem with Dobby being buried here."

"Oh, yes," I agreed instantly. "Dobby deserves a proper burial." I brushed a few stray tears from my face as I stood up.

"I want to do it properly," Harry said, looking up for the first time. "Without magic."

Bill nodded. "I have a shovel in the shed out back. I can get it for you while you pick a spot to bury him."

Harry nodded before taking off his jacket and wrapping Dobby in it. Then, he stood and began making his way through the dunes and hills surrounding the cottage.

"Luna, you should get inside," Bill said, reaching out a hand.

I nodded and headed back to the house. Bill put his hand on my shoulder and guided me back inside where I was almost immediately pounced on by Fleur. Apparently, she had already gotten everyone else situated.

"You weel be sharing a room weeth Hermione," she told me as she led me up the stairs and down a hallway. "I hope you don't mind."

"No, of course not," I answered. "How is she?"

"Sleeping. She eez steel a little weak, but she weel be okay."

"Good," I nodded.

Fleur stopped at the end of the hallway. "This eez your room. You want to get cleaned up, though, yes?"

"Yes, please," I answered, "but after I go to Dobby's funeral." I looked down at my purple shirt. "I don't think I'm wearing the appropriate color."

Fleur smiled softly. "It'll do, but if eet helps," she opened a door to her right, which turned out to be a closet, and pulled out a black coat, "you can wear this coat. It's cold out there."

"Thank you," I said, slipping the coat on and heading out the door, Fleur, as well as Dean, right behind me. When I reached the spot where Harry was burying Dobby, I saw that Ron and Bill were already there. Ron had pulled off his socks and slipped them onto Dobby's feet. "Dobby would have loved those," I said.

"They're just plain socks," Ron muttered, "and they're dirty and smelly."

"He still would have loved them," I answered as Harry lowered Dobby into the hand-dug grave. "I think we ought to say something. I'll go first, shall I?"

"Go ahead," Bill said.

I paused as I thought of what to say. It didn't require much thinking. "Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It's so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and brave. I'll always remember what you did for us. I hope you're happy now." I looked at Ron. "Your turn."

Ron looked surprised, as if he hasn't expected to have to say something. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, thanks, Dobby."

"Thanks," Dean echoed.

"Good-bye, Dobby," Harry whispered.

Bill raised his wand and the pile of dirt next to the grave fell neatly back into the hole, covering Dobby up forever. I chewed on my lip for a few seconds before turning to head back to the house. If I stayed there any longer, I knew I would cry and I didn't want to do that.

Fleur caught up with me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll show you to the bathroom so you can get cleaned up," she said quietly.

"Thank you very much," I answered gratefully.

"Dobby seemed like a very special elf," Fleur added.

"He was," I sighed. "When I was at school, I used to feed the animals. I'd get the food from the kitchens, where the house elves worked. Dobby was my friend. And he rescued me from that cellar. He rescued all of us."

Fleur nodded. "You're welcome to come back any time," she said. "If you want to veesit him."

I smiled at her. "I'd like that."

"You're more than welcome to veesit me and Bill as well," she said with a slight smile.

"Of course. I wouldn't come to visit Dobby without visiting you and Bill."

We had reached the house now and Fleur led me up the stairs, stopping halfway down the hallway and opening a door to her right. "Here is the bathroom. Everything you need is in here. I can get you a change of clothes. If you need anything, let me know."

I nodded once more before going into the bathroom and shutting the door behind me. I leaned against it and sank down to the ground. Even though I was inside now, I still felt slightly cold. I felt like I had to cry, but no tears were coming out. I wished I had my own coin so that I could send a message to Neville, telling him about Dobby. I didn't want to keep borrowing somebody else's.

Standing up and crossing to the window, I looked out at the ocean. I watched the waves crashing forward one after one for a few minutes before scanning the sand and the dunes. I could see Dobby's grave from where I was. Harry was still out there. He was alone now and I could see that he appeared to be etching something into a makeshift gravestone. I made a mental note to go read it later.

As I was watching Harry, I remembered something that I had told him nearly two years ago after his godfather died. It was something my mother had always told me. The things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. Thinking of this made me smile to myself. While I was still upset over losing Dobby, remembering my mother's words made me feel a little bit better. It made me feel like Dobby wasn't completely gone after all.

I returned through the portrait in the Room of Requirement to find more people inside than before. It looked as if all of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had shown up by now and they were all staring at me.

"Neville, that painting is—well, I don't know what it is," Seamus said, "but when you went through it earlier, we could see you."

"What do you mean you could see me?" I asked, moving to the middle of the room and depositing the food on the floor. Everyone crowded around at once, climbing down from hammocks and hurrying across the room to sit in a circle around the food.

"You were in the painting. We watched you walk down the path until you weren't visible anymore. Then, we saw you walking back just now. Where did you end up, anyway?" Seamus sat down and began rifling through some of the food packages,

"Hold on," I muttered before turning to the group. "Excuse me," I said. Nobody listened. Everyone was too busy looking at the food. I sighed and took a deep breath. "Listen up!" That got everyone to freeze and look up at me. "This food is meant to last us about a week. We have access to more, but nonetheless, I don't want to run out of food before we're scheduled to. That means we're going to figure out how we should divide it before we dig in."

"Yeah," Seamus said accusingly, staring around the circle as he bit off a huge bite of bread. I sighed and had to fight the urge to laugh at least a little bit.

"Secondly," I continued, "as you can see there are hammocks. There should be enough for everyone. There is a bathroom." I pointed and everyone glanced in that direction before returning their gaze to me.

"A decent one thanks to me," Lavender added.

"We have a wireless," I continued, pointing to the wireless in the corner. "Someone's going to have to adjust that to the Pottermore station and being in charge of tuning us in every time there's a broadcast."

"I can do that," Nigel, a boy from Gryffindor volunteered.

"Okay, good," I answered, with a nod. "Are there any questions?"

Seamus instantly shot his hand into the air. "Yeah, you never answered my question from earlier. Where did you end up when you went through the painting?"

"It leads to the Hog's Head pub," I announced. "That's where we'll be getting our food from. I talked to Aberforth-,"

"Who?"

"The owner. He has no problem providing us with food. I also sent out another message to the people who graduated already telling them to ignore Seamus's last message because there's no way for them to get back here. There's a Caterwauling Charm on the entire village. It'll go off if anyone Apparates out in the street."

"Are we allowed to leave the room?" a Ravenclaw girl asked.

"You can," I said slowly, "but I wouldn't suggest leaving all that often. If you want to go to classes, then that's fine, but other than that there isn't much reason to leave. We have everything else we need right here."

"What are we hiding out in here for?" someone asked.

"We can't really pull any more stunts like we were pulling. The punishments are getting to be too much." I glanced over at Michael Corner, who was thankfully getting healthier and healthier every day.

"So what exactly are we going to be doing in here?" Padma Patil asked.

"Well, we're going to listen to Potterwatch first of all," I answered. "Secondly, we're going to need to somehow get in contact with your parents. I think it's school regulations to notify parents if their child goes missing-,"

"The Carrows won't do that," Hannah Abbott snorted.

"No, but maybe McGonagall will. I'm not really sure. Either way, I think it's a good idea to let your parents know that you're all safe."

"How are we going to do that?" Lavender asked. "All forms of communication are being watched."

I frowned and thought for a few seconds. "Seamus," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Send a message to Lee Jordan. Tell him to make a report on Potterwatch. If he needs names, send them to him."

"What if there are people who don't listen to Potterwatch?" Ernie Macmillan asked. "I mean, my parents do, but-,"

"Everyone listens to Potterwatch, Ernie" Hannah told him with a roll of her eyes. "And anyway, even if they don't the news will spread."

I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes as I thought. "Okay, well, I think that's it for now."

"Can we eat now?" Seamus asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "But make sure you divide the food. This has to last a week!" I sighed and sat down next to Seamus. He started to pass me a plate full of food, but pulled it back a little right before I went to take it.

"If I give this to you, you aren't going to wonder out loud if Luna's eating enough where she is, are you? Because I still don't know the answer."

I grinned. "No, I won't ask."

"Why's that?" Seamus asked, passing me the food.

"She's all right," I replied, glancing up at him and grinning.

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"She sent me a message using Dean's coin. He's okay as well. She didn't tell me where they were, but they're together and they're okay."

"You're just telling me this now?" Seamus yelped, looking thrilled at the news.

"I had other stuff to deal with first, like making sure the ravenous pack of bears occupying the Room of Requirement didn't eat all the food."

"When're they coming back here?" Seamus asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Luna didn't say."

"Did you send her a reply message?"

"No," I answered.

"Why?" Seamus asked in disbelief. "I'd have thought you would have been eager to talk to her."

"I am," I answered, "but she was using Dean's coin and I-,"

Seamus pulled out his own coin and started typing out a message.

"What are you-?"

"I'm sending a message to Dean telling him I just heard he was okay. I'm also telling him that if he ever manages to find a way to get back here to Apparate straight into the Hog's Head. The Caterwauling Charm won't affect anyone who Apparates straight into the bar. It's only people who go out into the street."

"I never thought of that," I said, looking at Seamus in awe.

"Good thing you have me to help you, then." Seamus answered. "I'm like you're wingman. Secondary to Ginny and Luna, though. They were your first wingmen. Or wingladies, rather."

"You're just as good as they are," I smiled. "I'm really glad you ended up coming around and joining the D.A. back in fifth year."

"Yeah, me too, or else I wouldn't have landed the role of wingman," Seamus joked.

I laughed and started eating my food. I wasn't sure if it had been my imagination or not, but I had been feeling that the Hogwarts food wasn't as good as it used to be. This, the fact that I had been in frequent detentions, and the fact that I was worried about Luna, the D.A. and multiple other things led me to not eat as well as I used to. I hadn't been sleeping well either between the restless nights worrying about everything and sneaking out to pull stunts for the D.A. Catching my reflection in the mirror across the room, I realized how truly awful I looked.

"You know," Seamus said, interrupting my thoughts, "I've always just assumed that Hog's Head food was to be avoided at all costs. The place was never made out to look all that welcoming and the food never seemed all that appetizing, but right now it's the most delicious food I've ever eaten."

"I have to agree with you," I said, watching Seamus type out another message on his coin. "Dean?" I guessed.

Seamus nodded. "He said he's going to tell Luna what I told him about Apparating straight into the bar."

I nodded before pausing. "Could you also tell him to tell her that I got her message and that I love her?"

Seamus nodded, but shot me a glance. "I'll do this now out of the goodness of my heart, but don't expect me to be your messenger from now until the next time you see Luna."

"Come on, I thought you were my wingman," I begged.

"Yeah, for D.A. matters," Seamus said. "Not matters of your love life. It's a constant reminder of my non-existent one."

"Just send the message to Dean," I persisted.

"Okay, okay, it's done."

"Good. Thank you, wingman."

Seamus punched me in the arm. I laughed and helped myself to some pudding, wishing Luna was here to eat it with me.