Pansy Parkinson was full of shite.
Her mother would probably find a way to wash her skull with soap if she heard her thoughts, but Ginny had stopped caring about the little infractions a long time ago. The most pressing matter was to shut Parkinson's ugly little pug face.
All the missions, besides protecting the younger students, had been called off. Nothing else than sheltering someone else from harm could justify the state Neville was in. Although, on second thoughts, making Parkinson disappear for a couple days might be worth the price... If that damn vanishing cabinet hadn't been destroyed, it would have been a great solution. In the meantime, however, they had to suffer her showing off.
"It's almost cute, isn't it, how Longbottom thought he could play Harry Potter. Do you think he has a special costume hidden in his closet somewhere?"
Biting her tongue, Ginny walked passed the girl who was talking unnecessarily loud. What was that spell Lupin used to annoy Peeves with? Langlock? Maybe it was easy enough to be nonverbal...
Neville had been in bed for three days now, still mostly incoherent, though he did seem like he was getting better. Seamus was weirdly quiet, Lavender even more weirdly silent, and Ginny was beyond pissed off. Slytherin House, in all its glory, seemed to think that Neville's punishment (the extent of which had been fodder for school gossip the last few days, despite Ginny's best efforts to keep it quiet) was their own private revenge for not getting any first years at all. They had been even more insufferable than usual, and Parkinson was without a doubt their leader in all this.
With an exasperated sigh, she sat down on her own at the Gryffindor table for lunch. Neville's injuries also meant she'd lost her favourite lunch mate. Seamus, Parvati and Lavender had taken to grabbing food from the tables and then eating in the common room, just to avoid blowing the three Death Eaters in the staff to pieces. Ginny thought it would be doing them too much of a favour to get out of their way, and made a point of showing up as much as possible. Most students, however, knew better than to associate themselves with her in public, which meant she'd gone from most popular girl in the school the previous year to the girl-that-ate-alone. She didn't mind much – everyone did what they could to stay safe, and befriending Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend publicly would be just dumb...
And dumb seemed to be exactly what Ernie and Rose were, as they sat down right next to her.
"So, what's the plan?" Ernie said without preamble, cutting to his point.
"What plan?"
"The plan to get back at the Slytherins. Don't tell me you haven't noticed Parkison is even more annoying than usual – which by the way I didn't think was even humanly possible, but there you are."
He started helping himself to roast beef and pumpkin juice, and looked expectantly at Ginny.
"There is no plan, we'll just have to let them be annoying."
The two Hufflepuffs gaped at her.
"What?" Rose exclaimed, clearly outraged.
"Listen, you two haven't seen the state Neville is in. Unless it's a matter of life and death, it's really not worth risking it. Slytherin House has been annoying since the days of the founders. Nothing we do will change that."
"I can't believe you're saying that!" Rose whispered furiously. "I saw them take Neville away, and I promised myself that no matter what happened, all his efforts wouldn't be in vain – and now you are the one stopping everything?"
"Rose, you being there and Neville being taken away is exactly why I'm stopping everything. We can't have that happening again. One day, I'm sure we're all going to need to fight to take snake-face down, and we can't do that if they beat us half to death already."
"We can't fight if everyone has lost hope either," Ernie answered angrily. "Look, I'm not saying barge in wherever snake-face hides and take him down – that's more Harry's specialty – I'm saying stand up for what's right and not let anyone forget where our loyalties are!"
"And where are your loyalties, Ernie?"
"I'm loyal to Harry and to Cedric's memory. Whenever I don't know what to do, I ask myself what either of them would have done – and standing here while the snakes are making fun of Neville is not what they would do!"
How in the world did Harry always seem to know what to do in these situations? He always knew when to barge in and when to retreat – or did he? Wasn't his talent being great at improvisation in the end? Making things up as he went along?
"Well, I don't have a plan Ernie. Do you have one?" she snapped.
The smile on Ernie's face told her that this was what her wanted her to say all along.
"Oh yes. I do. But if you don't mind, I won't tell you. The less you know, the better. I think this is a mission for Hufflepuff house."
"What is this? Helga against Salazar?"
"Exactly," Rose piped in.
"You guys really think you can take on the snakes?"
"Oh yes," Ernie repeated. "Have you ever heard of Honey Badgers? They eat snakes for bloody breakfast. They're the single most ass-kicking member of the animal kingdom, but because they look so cute, no one ever suspects them."
"I think you're right: I really don't want to know what the plan is. Whatever it is, do it if you think you can pull it off. If it's any good, I suspect I'll hear about it soon enough."
Ernie's smile grew even more, and as Heather made her way to the table, he swiftly switched the topic to Oliver Wood's promotion as main Keeper for Puddlemere United.
That same evening, she reported her lunch conversation to the four seventh year Gryffindors. Neville was finally managing to stay awake for more than five minutes, and could hold conversations that actually made sense. Ginny hope that this fact, combined with Ernie's announced new mission, would keep Lavender from killing Pansy. Amazingly enough, it did.
"I guess we could lie low like you said we should, Ginny, if Ernie's handling the revenge bit."
"I wouldn't have thought Ernie had it in him a year ago," Parvati mused, "but this year, quite a lot of guys are starting to surprise me. Anthony said that even Terry's on some mission of his own, but he wouldn't tell me what."
Ginny lied back on Harry's bed contently. These days, she lived for quiet evenings like these, just talking with friends, relaxing, almost as if the war wasn't happening.
"We can't lie low," Neville said quietly from his bed. Ginny turned to him, surprised.
"Neville, we don't really have a choice, you least of all of us. If they catch us stepping one toe out of line, we're dead. Literally."
"So let them kill us. I'm not going to lie low, Ginny, and you won't either. Stop playing hot and cold. A month ago you were ready to lead a rebellion, and now you're giving up? We're already out of line, just for being on Harry's side. We can't go back to playing nice happy students just because they roughed me up. We've got to step it up instead. I'll let the Hufflepuffs keep the visible rebellion going. We've got something bigger to do."
He stopped there to cough loudly, which made Ginny wince. What in the world was getting into him?
"In Snape's office, before they took me to the dungeon, I saw it. He was so obviously trying to hide it, that I'm sure it's super important. We've got to get it."
"Get what?" Parvati whispered, completely in awe of the new Neville.
"The sword of Gryffindor."
Lavender looked confused, Seamus surprised and Parvati unsure of herself. Ginny almost lost it.
"The sword of Gryffindor? It's in Snape's office? Out in the open?"
Neville clearly had expected her to try to talk him out of his crazy idea, not to question him.
"Yes, it's in a stand behind his desk, a sort of glass case, but I'm guessing..."
"Oh Merlin," Ginny interrupted. "Oh Godric, Merlin, everyone out there. It's right here?"
"Emm, yes?"
"We've got to get it. Like, now."
"Hold on a second," Seamus interjected. "What in the world is going on here?"
"What's the sword of Gryffindor?" Lavender asked.
"And why do we want it?" Parvati added.
"It's exactly what it sounds like: it's a sword that used to belong to Godric Gryffindor. It's been at Hogwarts for a long time, I think, and it's a really powerful thing. Harry once killed a basilisk with it."
"Wicked," Seamus said, his eyes shining with excitement.
"I'm not sure whose it is exactly, but in his will, Dumbledore chose to give it to Harry. He should have received it, but Scrimgeour, idiot that he was, decided that it was property of Hogwarts and didn't pass it on."
"So, Dumbledore thought this was an important enough object that Harry should have it, but he doesn't because Scrimgeour decided to play bureaucrat?" Neville asked.
"Basically, yes. So we need to get it, and then pass it to Harry. I have no idea what he needs it for, but I'm sure he would know, so..."
"For someone who thought we should lie low just five minutes ago, you seem quite ready to go off and break in to a top Death Eater's office," Parvati remarked.
"But don't you see? This is something that is completely worth risking our necks over! No matter what it can do, this is our way to directly help Harry! Who's with me?"
She smiled broadly when all four raised their hands immediately.
"OK, we need a plan."
Ginny had just spent ten minutes filling Luna in to their insane idea. The Gryffindors had decided together that she should be included in the mission from the start – after all, Luna often had more guts and courage than many Gryffindors. She also had a unique way of approaching problems which could only be an asset.
"There are three parts to the problem, really. First is breaking in the office, second is removing all the charms and curses that are probably protecting the sword, and third is to get the sword to Harry. You need different types of talents for these. In our small group, I'm the best at removing charms and curses, but to blast our way in and out, I'm not so good – you're much better at this actually, and also much better at duelling anyone who would be in our way. And then, to actually get the sword to Harry – whoever does that will have to leave Hogwarts for good, but that will put our families in danger, and that's a risk neither of us is willing to take, I think."
Ginny thought of the Burrow, standing quietly in the countryside, and how horrible it had been to have Death Eaters storming the place after the wedding. She shuddered. That wouldn't happen again if she could help it.
"We'll need to be very careful with this, Gin. You need to think of a plan to break in, and then a back up plan, then a plan to get out, and another back up plan for this. I need to work on my spell breaking – and we need to figure out how to get the sword out of the castle. If this is as important as you said it would be, nothing at all can be left to chance."
Luna walked to the spells section and selected five heavy books.
"We need to think of everything. I suggest you go look at the section on Hogwarts. A lot of the defences of the Headmaster's office are bound to the school, so you need to know everything there is."
Studying was the thing the furthest from her mind at that moment. She wanted to simply walk up to Snape, Bat-Bogey the hell out of him, and demand the sword.
Yeah, right, that would go down well.
Following Luna's advice, she walked to the section dedicated to the school, passing a table of Hufflepuffs talking in hushed voice. Ernie winked at her knowingly. She hadn't heard anything of revenge being taken on Slytherins until then, but she suspected it would start soon. It was probably for the best – operation Honey Badger would distract the Carrows and Snape from the fact that a much more important plan was being worked on.
The books on the shelve were all very dusty. Few students, besides those taking Advanced History of Magic, ever researched anything to do with the school they studied in. Her finger passed a familiar-looking spine. She took out "Hogwarts, a History." Sure enough, in the list of past borrowers, figured the neat handwriting of a Hermione Granger. Ginny smiled sadly. Why did everything have to remind her of those three?
Since the smartest witch she knew always swore on that very book, Ginny decided it would be a good place to start. She left Luna alone at the tale – if they were together too often, it would raise suspicions – and went to Madam Pince to check the book out, in order to read it quietly in the common room.
She dearly hoped a way to get the sword out of the castle would appear in there as well, otherwise all their efforts would have been for nothing.
AN: For those of you who have never heard of Honey Badger, I recommend to go on youtube and find the video titled "The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall)". You'll understand why Ernie is excited...