They spent the rest of the day near the radio waiting for more news. None was forth coming. Still they stayed near until well into the evening. They were just beginning to suggest that maybe they should go to bed when Fred or George's voice came from their mirror.
"James, Lily!"
Lily scrambled for it, and nearly dropped it, before managing to get a hold of it. James leaned over her shoulder, so he could see and be seen. Both the twins appeared in the mirror. "What's up, guys?"
"Harry's at Hogwarts!" They said together.
"The DA called all of us graduated DA members," said George. "We're all here now."
"We're fighting!" said Fred. "The Order needs to apparate directly into Aberforth's pub. There's a passageway from there to the room of requirement."
"We already called Mum and Dad," George continued. "But we'll need everyone."
"Let the rest of the Order know, will you?" said Fred.
"Got to go," George said, and they were gone before either Potter could ask any questions.
James and Lily stared at each other, stunned. And then they were both hurrying into their cloaks and making sure they had their wands. James was using his mirror to talk to Remus, while Lily was contacting Kingsley, telling them to pass the message on. Then, they were out the door and to the apparition point. It was time to fight.
Minutes later, James and Lily were in the room of requirement, finding it packed with students and ex-students, including the twins, Lee Jordan, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang, and Ginny Weasley, who definitely wasn't supposed to be there if there was a fight going on. James' mouth dropped open at sight of the room.
"What in the world is this for?" he asked, gesturing widely at the room.
"It's for the students who went into hiding," said Neville Longbottom, standing nearby. James was astonished by the state of him. He was covered in bruises and cuts.
"I can see why," he said, slightly horrified. "The Carrows?"
"Yup," said Neville. "They're in charge of punishment."
"Where's Harry?" said Lily, standing on her tiptoes to try and see through the crowd.
"He and Luna went to Ravenclaw Tower," said Neville.
"What? Why?" James asked.
"He said he was looking for something," said Neville. "He said it could be Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem. It's something to defeat Voldemort, but he didn't say how."
Lily and James exchanged startled looks. How could the Diadem of Ravenclaw help defeat Voldemort? Why would he think it was here anyway?
Noise behind them made James turn back to the tunnel. Arthur and Molly clambered in, followed closely by Bill and Fleur.
"Boys," said Arthur, turning at once to the twins. "What's going on?"
The twins started explaining, talking over each other. Before they could get very far, though, in came Remus, Kingsley, and most of the rest of the Order. Explanations were again begun, before they had to be started all over again by the arrival of Harry's old quidditch team. James didn't even know how they ended up there. Were they DA?
Lily was still scanning the crowd. "Do you see Ron or Hermione?" she asked.
James immediately looked around himself. "No," he said.
"Neville said Harry and Luna took the cloak. The others must be here somewhere."
A pounding sounded from a steep staircase in the corner as if a couple of people were running down it very fast. Harry leapt into view, skidding down the last couple of steps, a look of shock on his face.
Lily immediately ran forward and embraced him. James hurried forward too. He hadn't seen his son in over nine months, and while that was a normal school year, this year had been terrifying and anything but normal. He was unashamed of the tears in his eyes as he hugged Harry.
"Harry, what's happening?" Remus said, meeting them at the staircase.
"Voldemort's on the way," Harry panted. "They're barricading the school, Snape's run for it, what are you all doing here? How did you know?"
"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the DA let the Order of the Pheonix know, and it all kind of snowballed."
"What first, Harry?" George called. "What's going on?"
"They're evacuating the younger kids, and everyone's meeting in the great hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting!"
There was a great roar from the crowd, and James pulled Lily out of the way as students and Order members alike raced for the stairs with their wands out.
"Come on, Luna!" James saw Dean grab Luna's hand and race up the stairs.
"Isn't she sixteen?" Lily asked, looking worried.
Before James could answer he was interrupted by a shout from Molly. "You're underage!" The Potter's headed over to the remaining people, Remus, Fred, George, Bill, Fleur, and Arthur. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"
"I won't!" Ginny could be just as loud as her mother. "I'm in Dumbledore's Army..."
"A teenagers' gang!"
"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" Fred pointed out.
"She's sixteen!" Shouted Molly, "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you..."
Fred and George, surprisingly, looked a little guilty.
"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill, gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."
"I can't go home!" Ginny yelled, angry tears in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone..."
"She has a point," Lily muttered.
James turned to her, incredulously. "You can't be considering this."
Lily shrugged. "It doesn't matter what I think. She's not our daughter."
"She might be one day," James murmured, looking at how Ginny and Harry were having a whole conversation without speaking, her asking for support and him refusing.
"Fine," Ginny huffed. "I'll say goodbye now, then, and..."
Someone clambered out of the tunnel and fell over. He pulled himself up and looked around through lopsided glasses. It was Percy Weasley. "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found, so I... I..."
He spluttered into silence. He probably hadn't expected to find his whole family there. There was a long, awkward pause in which James was sure that no one who's last name wasn't Weasley should be in the room.
Fleur, despite actually being a Weasley, evidently agreed. "So, 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"
Remus was startled for a second. James kicked him. "I... oh, yes... he's fine!" Remus said, loudly. "Yes, Tonks is with him... at her mothers..." Thank Merlin. James didn't plan on letting anything happen to Remus if he could help it, but if something were to happen, at least Teddy wouldn't end up like Harry did for ten years.
"Here, I've got a picture!" Remus yelled, pulling it out and showing them. It was a picture of a tiny baby with a tuft of bright turquoise hair waving at the camera.
"He looks like you, Moony," James grinned. "But the hair is all his mother's."
"He's adorable!" Lily cooed.
"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Remus nearly dropped the picture. "I was an idiot! I was a pompous prat! I was a, a, a..."
"Ministry loving, family disowning, power hungry moron," said Fred.
Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was."
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.
Molly burst into tears and ran forward to hug him. Percy patted her on the back, looking at his father over her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Dad," he said.
Arthur blinked rapidly and hurried forward to hug him too.
"What made you see sense, Perce?" asked George.
"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping at his eyes. "But I had to find a way out, and it's not so easy at the Ministry; they're imprisoning traitors all the time." The crackdown was probably a result of the Azkaban break-in, James thought, grimly but without guilt. "I managed to make contact with Aberforth, and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."
"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George, pompously. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."
The Weasley boys and Fleur hurried up the stairs, but before the rest could follow...
"Ginny!" She had been trying to sneak upstairs too.
"How about this?" said Remus, ever the reasonable one. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"
"I..."
"That's a good idea," said Arthur. "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"
Ginny agreed, though she didn't seem to like the idea much.
Harry was asking where Ron and Hermione were, and Ginny said they had said something about a bathroom.
Before James could ask what that was about, Harry clapped his hand to his scar and swayed. James grabbed his arm to steady him.
"What is it?" Lily asked, concerned.
Harry's eyes focused on them again. "He's here," he whispered.
We're in the end game now