"Well- it's just that you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to- what is the phrase- 'Come quietly'. I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all…"
"Shhh!" someone hissed. Neville spun and glared at the small group behind him.
"All of you 'shh' unless you have a deep desire to be strung up in the dungeons like Amber Ligsby!" he whispered as fiercely as he could. They all silenced at the mention of Amber, who had been tortured by the Carrows for complaining about the lack of food. Now she was permanently disfigured and only eleven. A first year. Of course, the Slytherins had plenty of food, but the other three, and Gryffindor especially, were on rations. Neville had hated that- a bit of bread, a scoop of pudding, and some chicken was all they'd get. Fortunately the house-elves still made decent food. But that was neither here nor there in the current situation, he realized, so he snapped back to the present.
"Two more floors down, right?" Ginny whispered. She'd escaped notice so far but they had heard through the grapevine that they were taking her away around Christmas. Neville nodded in response and hurried to the next stairwell, making it to the fourth floor in record time. They were getting better and better at their reconnaissance. Finally they reached the correct spot, near the Muggle Studies classroom. He'd been anxious to do this one since they started and his group had finally worked up enough nerve to try.
Luna started painting and Seamus Finnigan helped her while the other two cast several curses on the door. Ginny set up a Bat-Bogey hex in trap form, to attack the first person to enter the room. Then all four put the finishing touches on their painted-on message.
"Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting. Contact Our Headquarters to Join." Their headquarters, of course, was the Room of Requirement. Only certain people knew about it and gradually they were telling trustworthy friends, spreading the word. People trickled in every day, but not any that Neville trusted with missions like these. For this, he'd only been assisted by the three currently with him. Seamus had been reluctant at first but he'd finally gotten himself together.
"Good," Neville whispered. "Let's go." And so they hurried back to the seventh floor and stepped quietly into the Room of Requirement. As soon as the door shut, the room was lit up with torches and magic and a round of applause echoed against the stone walls, almost making the banners for each house shiver. Neville nodded his thanks to the fifty or so assembled but headed to his hammock, dead tired. He'd tell them all about it tomorrow and he knew his friends would follow his lead.
When they emerged from the darkness the next day, crowding into little sitting areas clustered around the artificial windows, Neville assigned a few people to retrieve food from the Hog's Head then left with Luna and Ginny to check out the results of their little message. Seamus was still sleeping and Neville had no desire to wake up the grumpy Irishman. They reached the fourth floor quickly enough and hid behind a tapestry he'd discovered. Soon enough they heard Amycus tromping up to the room in his hobnail boots, grumping about something to his sister.
"That little twerp just sat there! Wouldn't even try to cast the curse! Traitorous little Mudbloods," he wailed. Neville snickered behind his hand at the stupidly high pitch of Amycus' voice.
"There ain't no Mudbloods here," Alecto pointed out. She had slightly more brains than her brother, which is to say, none.
"Yes there are, didn't you hear from Bellatrix?" Amycus said, his tone as if he were hiding a secret. "Dark Lord's sayin' that anyone not pureblood ain't no good. So, Mudblood." His sister harrumphed and continued her ugly stomping towards the classroom. Neville held his breath, crossing his fingers that their plan worked
"Aack!" one of the Death Eaters screeched. He grinned and so did his companions. "Those bloody traitors. I'm gonna kill that little Longbottom." Then whoever had spoken hit the wall with their fist. Neville gasped as the fist connected with his gut through the tapestry. "Aha! What have we got here?" Amycus snarled. So it had been Amycus, Neville thought. That undergrown troll. Then the tapestry was ripped aside to reveal the three of them crouched behind it.
"Ooh, we've found you now, Longbottom!" Alecto crowed. "Let's go!" But she didn't expect them to fight back. Ginny sent a Bat-Bogey hex at her and sprinted down the corridor so they would have the tactical advantage. If they were caught, they were supposed to save themselves, but Neville knew they wouldn't and he was immensely proud of his friends. He sent a curse of his own at the Death Eaters, hitting Amycus with a stunner that practically bounced off his thick skull, only dropping him to the floor temporarily. He muttered a few choice words under his breath but went after Amycus, fists flying, and kicked him in the gut.
"Rectumsempra!" Luna cried, her high-pitched voice echoing down the corridor. Alecto fell to the floor, the Tickling Jinx taking her mind off the battle temporarily. Neville smiled and started away down the hall, Luna and Ginny following, but they weren't fast enough. Amycus had recovered and sent a Tripping Jinx at all of them. Neville fell to the stone floor as he clutched his knee, which had cracked rather unpleasantly upon landing.
"I got you!" Amycus yelled down the hall. "I got the little traitors!"
"Yippee for you!" Ginny called back, sarcastic as always. "I'm incredibly impressed that you could even manage walking with that thick skull of yours."
"Shut your mouth, brat," Alecto shouted nastily, standing over the three of them on the floor. Neville winced at the sudden appearance of the ugly woman's face in his view. Actually, he saw three Alectos, which was even worse, because Amycus had been so kind as to kick him in the head.
"Let's go," Amycus muttered, yanking Neville upright by his hair. Alecto pulled the girls upright and frog-marched them towards the dungeons. Neville was desperately trying to come up with a plan and they'd almost reached the entrance to the dungeons when he realized it. He just hoped their captors weren't smart enough to realize his motive, because he had no intention of coming along like a meek sheep.
"Why don't you go take us through breakfast in the hall? Show that, you know, you're stronger than us?" he offered, crossing his fingers. Amycus sneered nastily at him.
"You ain't gonna fool us, kiddie." Ginny opened her mouth to insult him but Neville kicked her ankle and she nodded, dropping as if defeated into Alecto's grip. Luna copied her.
"What exactly are we going to do against all of you?" Neville pointed out. Quite a lot, would be the proper answer, but Amycus didn't know that.
"Ain't a bad idea," he muttered, as if to himself. "Let's go, Alecto." The siblings roughly yanked them across the entrance hall and into the Great Hall, which seemed dull and empty even though it was filled with students. Snape stared Neville down from across the huge room and he gulped slightly but met the eyes of his tormentor. He was not going out without a fight. They marched in between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, the students sitting at each staring openly at them. Colin Creevey waved half-heartedly at Neville as he passed.
"What do we have here?" Snape sneered as they reached the Head Table. Professor McGonagall and several others looked shocked.
"They were tryin' to prank us," Amycus complained gruffly, standing as straight as Neville's limp weight would allow.
"Were they now? We cannot have that. Take them to the dungeons."
"Severus!" Professor McGonagall cried. Neville's heart warmed at her defense of them and he sent her a grateful glance. "You can't do this!"
"I can and I will. I am the Headmaster, am I not? Don't think I'll give your Ravenclaw special treatment either, Filius." That was when Neville ripped his wrist out of Amycus' limp grip and knocked the Death Eater over, then pushed Snape down the small flight of stairs leading up to the Head Table. He pointed his own wand at his throat and muttered "Sonorus!"
"Hey! Everyone! I'm sure you know who I am and what I've done. But if you're willing to sit around and watch scum like these idiots take over, stay here. If not, then find someone who knows. Because Dumbledore's Army? We're still recruiting!" Gryffindor cheered loudly, standing on their table and clapping, followed by Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and even a couple Slytherins.
"You'll get it worse for that, brat," Amycus mumbled, grabbing Neville's arm again and marching him out of the hall. But he honestly didn't care. The bruises and cuts from the curses aimed at him as 'punishment' were just proof of his victory. Because once he got back to the Room of Requirement, he found their numbers had swelled by almost twenty and more and more came in every day until the Gryffindor table was practically empty and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs only had a few remaining. He might have been once considered the clumsiest and most-unlikely-to-do-anything-remarkable, but he wasn't going to just go along with this quietly. He would fight, and apparently not alone.