The Room of Requirement kept the walls thick and sealed. Neville knew there were a few that didn't make it into the room, but for the most part the fear that the Carrows had inspired had made most of the vulnerable students hide most of the time, so there was a very large percentage of those students in the Room when it sealed. Neville just hoped the other ones found a bolt hole as well.

It only took a few hours for the biggest problem to become apparent in the Room, and that was that they were out of food. They had a few loaves of bread and some fruit that they divided up scrupulously, but they knew that after that they had nothing.

Though Neville knew that they would survive being hungry for a while, he knew that people being bored and hungry was an explosive combination.

"Snape said to try asking the room to get us somewhere else, like with a tunnel," Neville told Seamus.

"Will that work?" Seamus asked, dubiously.

"Worth a try," Neville shrugged. "What else are we going to do?"

Seamus shrugged back, and said, "Go to it then. Nobody else gets this room like you do."

"Okay," Neville nodded. "Let's try. Room, we really need to be able to get somewhere safe where we can get food. Hogwarts is no longer safe, so it has to be somewhere else; probably in Hogsmeade. Can you tunnel us to somewhere in Hogsmeade that would be friendly to us and be able to supply us?"

"Mate," Seamus shook his head. "We're on the seventh floor. How exactly are we going to tunnel?"

Neville, shaking his head with chagrin, tried again. "We need a passage to Hogsmeade, somewhere safe that we can get food."

The room seemed to shiver, and then against one wall they heard the unmistakable sound of hammering or digging.

"Deranged Dwarves?" Seamus asked, his voice trepidatious.

"I think more likely magic," Neville replied with a grin.

"Do you think it will really go all the way to Hogsmeade?" one of the first years asked, looking at the wall in fascination.

"I think it might," Neville smiled. "It's the closest place other than Hogwarts."

"Where in Hogsmeade?" another girl asked. "Honeydukes?"

"I think we're going to have to wait and see," Neville told her. "But hopefully it will be help."

It took nearly an hour before the tunnel was complete. The digging sounds tapered off, and then a large, empty portrait appeared on the wall. They waited, expecting something more to happen.

"Um, hello?" Neville asked, wondering about the portrait.

"I'm coming," they heard the voice of a young girl. "Be patient."

Seamus and Neville looked at each other, and then at the portrait. They saw a girl in an old-fashioned dress very small in the portrait, and then she came closer and closer. Neville looked at the girl, who appeared wan and delicate, though determined.

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I am Neville Longbottom," Neville told her, unsure. "And this is Seamus Finnigan. And Michael Corner, Padma and Parvati Patil, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, Ernie Macmillan and I don't know, a lot of others. We're Dumbledore's Army, though some of us are just here to be safe."

"I am Ariana Dumbledore," she told them, and then smirked a little bit at their looks of shock. Then, looking sternly between the two boys, she asked, "What do you want?"

"Are you related to the Headmaster?" Seamus asked, dumbfounded.

"I was his sister," she answered without emotion. "Now do you need something or not?"

"We need food," Neville told her, shaking himself. "We cannot go into Hogwarts anymore, it's not safe. We are holed up in the Room of Requirement, waiting for when we'll be needed."

"Come through, then," she told them. "You need to talk to my brother."

Neville and Seamus looked at each other, and Neville grimaced. Taking a breath, Seamus said in as polite of a voice as he could muster, "Miss, um, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but he's dead, Albus Dumbledore died last year."

"I have another brother," she told him, looking back over her shoulder as she walked away. "Aberforth."

"Seamus, come with me," Neville nodded. "Michael, you're in charge while we're gone."

"Okay," Michael responded, barely not saying "yes sir" to Neville's order. Neville nodded, and the portrait swung open to reveal a long, dark passageway to which they could see no end.

"What if it's a trap?" Seamus asked, eyeing the passageway, unsure. "I mean, all we know is this portrait of a girl shows up spouting the name of Dumbledore . . ."

"We'll find out," Neville shrugged. "I don't think the room would do anything to hurt us. Let's go."

Neville hopped up into the passageway, dusting off his hands and standing up. "Looks safe enough."

Seamus, rolling his eyes, hopped up behind them as they made their way down the passageway. "How are we in a passageway like this?" Seamus asked, looking around. "That nobody else can see?"

"Magic," Neville shrugged. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth."

Though the passage was magic it apparently was still the same length as a walk to Hogsmeade, and the boys had to walk a long way downhill before suddenly they came upon the back of a portrait. Neville carefully opened the portrait, looking around the warmly-lit room.

"You may as well come in," he heard a large man boom. "We've been waiting for you."

"You have?" Neville asked, confused.

"I have," the man said with no further explanation. "My name is Aberforth Dumbledore, owner and barman of the Hogs Head Tavern. And you are Neville Longbottom?"

"I am," he said, surprised. "And this is Seamus Finnigan. We're from Hogwarts."

"Obviously," the man answered, rolling his eyes. "You're now in the only way in and out of Hogwarts from what I can tell. They've been adding death eaters and dementors all day."

"Should we flee?" Seamus asked, brushing himself off. "Should we get the kids out?"

"That room is the safest place for 'em," Aberforth answered. "Out here they'd be taken by Snatchers or something. No, leave them there for now."

"We need food," Neville told the man boldly. "The Room cannot conjure it."

"Of course it can't," Aberforth shook his head. "What do they teach you at that school?"

"So could you help us?" Seamus asked. "The Room seemed to think that you could."

"I'll help you," Aberforth nodded. "It will be plain food though, nothing fancy. It's hard enough getting food in here these days, let alone treacle tarts or french bread."

"Whatever you have is fine," Neville assured him. "We're not picky."

"I have a kettle of stew you can take," Aberforth told them. "How many people have you got in there?"

"Sixty or so?" Neville told him, trying to add it up in his head.

"This will be a meager supper," Aberforth told them. "But I'll make a big pot of oatmeal for breakfast. Just send a few through to pick up your meals and then bring me back the cauldron it's cooked in."

"Thank you, sir," Neville nodded.

"It can't last for much longer," Aberforth told them. "I know more than you lads do, so trust me. It's not going to last much longer. You call yourself Dumbledore's Army?"

"It started as kind of a joke in our fifth year," Neville explained.

"Now is not the time for joking," Aberforth told them. "Now is the time for preparation. Whatever practice you are doing, double it. Triple it. The survival of those kids in that room depends on how well you train them in the next few weeks, because I don't think it will be much longer than that."

Neville nodded, understanding. "Thank you, sir. We shall."

At Snape's urging he had been training the older ones, and they had been doing some practice. But Aberforth was right, now was the time for buckling down, and he felt the weight of that responsibility."

Seamus and Neville lugged the cauldron filled with hot stew back to the Room of Requirement, smelling the savory broth the entire way and having their mouths water. When they returned, they found a stack of bowls and spoons waiting for them. Dishing out the stew carefully at first, Neville saw that it easily filled the bowls once and even left enough for most people to have a second bowl.

"This stew is good," Seamus told Neville, scraping his bowl. "It's warm and perfect."

"Well, it's not a feast at Hogwarts," Neville agreed. "But it's good. Fills the stomach."

"We're going to buckle down on the training then? For the older kids?"

"No," Neville replied, taking the last spoon of his stew. "For all of them. We're not just hiding from Umbridge now, we're a real army."

. . .

Two weeks later, Ariana called for Neville. He had just finished a grueling session with some first years, but they could now do some decent shields.

"Come, Neville," he heard the girl's soft voice. "It's time."

"Time for what?" Neville asked, though he was already pulling on his cloak.

"Time to see Harry. He's here."

Neville, bounding up, looked back at the others. "Stay here," he told them. "Get ready. Harry is going to need our help. This is what we've trained for, so listen to me now. I'm going to go, and bring him back with me."

"Do you want me to come?" Seamus asked.

"No, you're needed here," he told his friend. "Get them ready."

Neville almost ran down the passage this time, eager to see his friend and the one that would finally win the war. He also looked himself over - he actually was kind of a mess. Living in the Room had made some things much more difficult, and he still had healing marks from curses on his cheek given to him by the Carrows. The two weeks had healed other bruises and marks, including those from the cane, but curse marks always took longer. Shrugging off his rough appearance, he opened the portrait into the Hogs Head Tavern.