I love writing this fic so much!
Title: Something worth fighting for.
Previous chapter/s:
Chapter 1, The calm before the storm.
Chapter: 2, Lunar Eclipse
Fandom: Harry Potter.
Disclaimer: Owned by JK Rowling. DUH!
Pairing: Neville/Ginny.
Warning: Ginny-angst! Sort of. This is where I really get going on my prefered Ginny, so don't expect any sunlit days of bouncing hair. Do expect a fighting spirit that the evil powers will break. Bwahaha! (Since this is my prefered Ginny, things will eventually get better, but until then expect angst!)
Rating: PG-15. If you think it should have a differnet rating, please to tell me.
Random Notes: You know, I really hope I can speed up the writing of this fic, updating once a year isn't exactly ideal for me. XD Although most of this was finished sometime by December, it's just that I had so much going on at the time, then I entered a total writing slump, and only yesterday did I wrap up the chapter.
It felt like only a second had passed since she last stood here, hugging her father. Now she was hugging him again, but this time as a good bye. It had been a tearful farewell back at the Burrow, and mum had nearly kept her home just so she would be under her mother’s protective vision. But like dad had been forced to tell mum over and over again, she had to go. It would be even more dangerous for her to skip school now that attendance was mandatory. Not to mention for the rest of the family.
Ginny wondered what her father would think if he knew what she was doing? What she was participating in. She guessed, knowing how her father had been about the incident at the Ministry of Magic, that he would be torn between paternal pride and parental worry. All through Christmas break she had been very careful to make her time at Hogwarts seem as boring as possible, of course with that one exception... Her twin brothers just would not let her rest until they had all the details about her plan for breaking into Snape's office with Neville and Luna.
"Now make sure that you stay out of trouble this semester," her father admonished her. "No more incidents like the last one, understood?"
"Yes, dad," she answered, a bit too easily.
"I know how you feel, sweetie," he told her, looking into her eyes, as if he was for the first time in her life, speaking to her like an adult witch. One capable of making her own decisions. "But you're not in an ideal position to affect what's happening. Right now, you're still underage, and in the hands of an authority I know you long to thwart. I know, because I raised you. The key that you must use to decide how you lead your life is, that you must never sacrifice your life for a goal you can't achieve. Because you, who are so young and so loved, must fully understand what it is you're sacrificing. And if you throw it away for something that won't at least change the world in its fundamentals for the better of all mankind... it's not worth it. Your family values it more than you can possibly know."
"I know that, dad," she answered, keeping eye contact and smiling a lovingly pleasing smile. "More than you can possibly know, do I realise how much I'm loved by how many people."
He hugged her again, apparently satisfied with her answer. And what she said had been true. Just not the meaning that she had attached to it...
She stepped on the train and saw Michael Corner and Neville Longbottom talking with each other. Walking up to them, she greeted both of her friends happily.
"So, what's new?"
"Nothing much," said Michael. "Slow Christmas season, Death Eaters took a holiday too, I guess, so not that much war going on."
He was shushed by Ernie Macmillan who showed up from nowhere.
"Don't say things like that! If the wrong people heard you..."
"Bah," Michael derided him. "The only one that's 'taboo' to say is the one we never use any way, so why should we care about-"
"Don't you get it!" Ernie was almost besides himself. "No one is supposed to know what's really happening. We have to keep them believing that's how it is."
As Michael and Ernie got themselves more and more worked up on the issue, Ginny took Neville by the arm and led him to the compartment they had rode in last time.
"You know," Neville said as they closed the door behind them, "I can't help but think that we've overlooked that one issue. Should we keep their secret in favour of our own safety, or should we rebel in more ways than one?"
"I think that's handled by our Second Reformed D.A. principle," Ginny answered lazily as she opened her trunk and withdrew one of the extendable ears that she had gotten from her brothers over Christmas. "The one that says that all non-anonymous actions must follow the rules, to avoid us all being captured one by one."
She set up the ear towards the corridor, and then performed a sonorus spell on the talking end. If someone came their way, they'd know long before that person could hear what they were saying.
"Got new ears then?" Neville said, striking up a more pleasant conversation for both of them.
"Yes. But it was a close call. It's not like I could have told them how I lost my original pair now, is it? Luckily, I was able to invent a use for them in my story about how we broke into Snape's office, and make it seem as though they played the most innocent of parts."
"You lied to them?" Neville was looking incredulously at her.
"I'd prefer to call it giving them a more preferable truth."
She was going to ignore the look he was giving her. Ignore it, she was going to do. She was going to keep her back turned to him until she had picked up the latest issue of Quidditch Weekly which she had in her trunk. Ignore it as she sat down and kept her face buried in her magazine. She was not going to let him get in under her skin.
"Look," she said, caving in under Neville's disapproval. "I don't like to lie. I admit, I'm very good at lying, and I used to like lying. A lot! But I'm not that little kid any more, who told you that she was just going to get more punch when really she wanted to talk with the Ravenclaw by the drinks table. If I lie, it's because I have to, and you know it. What was I supposed to do, tell my brothers I used the ears to spy on a conversation between Snape and Voldemort? And that I lost them because we only had one chance to set them up, and never again a chance to pick them up? Huh? Because if I had, then my parents would make me look like I had gotten some horrible disease and then you and Luna would have to take care of the army yourselves. Of course you'd probably have no problem on your own, I'm just in the way... Aren't I?"
She finally threw down her magazine to face him. He was in shock. It was like nothing she had said had been expected or made any sense. Seeing the book in his hands, she realised that he hadn't been looking at her at all. It wasn't his disapproval she had been feeling...
"I..." he started to say. Then he shook his head and started over. "I understand that you had to lie... I don't like it either... but I've had to do so too. And I understand."
Ginny was certain that her hair and face were unison in colour.
"I .. I... I need to go to the loo. Be right back!"
Rushing out of the compartment, hastily making sure that she didn't mess up the extendable ear, she ran to the closest toilet.
Neville looked down on the hand he had unconsciously stretched out towards his old friend as she rushed off. Embarrassedly he retracted it. This explosion of hers had been building up for some time. His cheeks heated as he thought back to what she had said about the Yule ball. He remembered it well, that's how she met Michael Corner. That was how he had been stood up for the first time ever. Along with his first time ever taking a girl somewhere, even if it had been school mandatory. Apparently she had been feeling worse about it than she had let on. He had gotten over it fairly quickly, he was used to rejection. And it wasn't like either of them had gotten into it with expectations of an actual date, was it? But what really troubled him at the moment was the last thing she had said... "I'm just in the way." How many times hadn't he felt exactly like that when he was younger? How impossible wasn't it to imagine Ginny thinking that way about herself? She was the one who had called up on him and Luna to start the D.A. She had always been radiating with confidence and determination, how could she have been harbouring such feelings during this time? It couldn't be related to her stay at home for Christmas, could it?
Absently he noted that the train was leaving the station. How was he going to handle things when she came back...? What would Luna do? Where was Luna by the way? They were already leaving the station, she should have boarded the train by now. Would it be her or Ginny coming in that door first? And what should he say to either of them? This was just too complicated...
"I am not going to cry any more than this," she said angrily to her reflection that mercilessly revealed how her features had been distorted by tears. "I resolved back then, I was not going to be a crybaby. I knew Harry would have to go after You-know-who, and I knew the last thing he'd want would be for me to cry about it. I knew my family would only get more involved into the war."
Yes, she knew all of that. She knew that if she was going to be someone others could depend on, she would have to be strong. This was not the time to break down in front of one of the people she wanted to be able to depend on her. The only times she could allow herself to let loose was when she was completely alone. Harry, Neville, Luna, Hermione and her entire family... The members of the D.A. and her teachers... None of them could be allowed to see her weak. She whipped out her wand and begin cleaning of her face and put disillusioning charms to remove any visible trace of her tears. How was she going to explain her outburst? Should she just pretend like nothing had happened? Right, that would make her the idol of sanity... She could always blame it on hormones, tell him that she was on her period. Yes, that's it! No guy questions a girl's period! Right, a plan! Now it's all about getting the game face on. She looked deeply into the mirror and gave herself her most blazing look.
"I am Ginny Weasley. I will do what I have to do. I am dependable."
There wasn't a knife sharp enough to cut through the tension in the compartment. The awkward silence, and the uncertainty of who should go first. That's when Ginny noticed something she should have noticed at once.
"Where's Luna? Hasn't she come by this compartment?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since before Christmas."
"But the train's moving! Did she miss it? Should we go look for her?"
"I don't know," said Neville, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe she decided to sit with friends from her own house?"
It was true that Luna had been getting along better with people since she became one of the leaders of the school resistance, and that she had made more friends in her own house.
"Maybe," she conceded. "Any way, we don't want to make us look suspicious, insisting on sitting together the three of us no matter what."
"We'll see her at school," Neville said positively.
"Yes, we will," agreed Ginny, before they were consumed by the return of the awkward silence.
Neville twiddled with his thumbs, and Ginny fingered threads coming loose on her robes.
"So how was your holiday?" Neville asked, breaking through.
"So and so," she answered, bracing herself to look him in the face. "It wasn't the same with Ron not being able to join and all. But mum cooked great food as usual, and dad liked the present I gave him. My brothers gave me some nice gifts for once. How was it for you?"
"The usual. I think mum has been getting better though. When I told her some of the things that happened since last I saw her, she smiled and nodded. And she gave a start when I told her about Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts and Dumbledore dying, so she must have understood what I was saying. Dad seemed aware I was there for once."
"That's great, Neville! How was your grandmother?"
Seeing Neville talk about his parents, more openly now than he had in the past, it made her more aware of how strong he really was. It made her feel embarrassed for her own weaknesses. But at the same time, it made her feel better.
"She was her usual self," Neville shrugged. "No ministry change is ever gonna affect her. When she heard some of the things I told mum and dad, she told me that I was becoming more like them. I don't know if she meant it as a compliment though, or if it just meant that she was going to be worried about me. But she did make the best Christmas pudding I've ever had that Christmas so..." He shrugged again, and Ginny chuckled.
"Family," she said. "What can you do?"
"Yeah," he said chuckling with her. "Can't understand them..."
"... and can't be understood by them either."
They both laughed at this. As far as each was concerned, the other had forgotten entirely what had happened earlier. None of them saw any reason to breach the subject, so they kept talking about just everything else.
When they arrived at Hogsmeade, they started looking around for Luna. They should at least go with her in the carriage. But she was nowhere to be seen. For the first time since the subject of the missing Luna had been breached, Ginny was starting to worry. Relax, she told herself. Luna might not have gotten off the train yet.
"Should we get a carriage?" asked Neville in a low tone of voice, trying not to whisper.
"We could wait for her, I think," answered Ginny as she saw both students waiting for friends and carriages that were already filled leaving for Hogwarts.
More and more students filed out of the train and fewer and fewer carriages were remaining unoccupied. Soon the only students left at the station was the two of them and a couple of third years that had been waiting for the last of their group of friends to return from the train toilet before it left. Neville turned to the conductor that made sure the third year got off the train.
"Excuse me, sir," he said, getting the man’s attention. "A friend of ours hasen’t shown up yet, is she still on the train somewhere?"
The man shook his head.
"No, I’m sure she’s not. I just checked the train front and back for stragglers. This last one using the toilet was the only one aboard besides personal. You probably missed each other, if she was on the train here, I’m sure she’s up at the school for dinner. Like you two should be." He indicated the last carriage as well as the carriage that the three third years were already riding up to school with.
"Thank you, sir," said Neville. "See you at the end of the year."
He and Ginny hurried on to the carriage and sat up.
"Do you reckon he’s right?" Ginny asked.
"Maybe," said Neville. "But any way, if she didn’t come on the train, there’s nothing we can do about it."
"You don’t think anything’s happened to her, do you?" asked Ginny worriedly.
"No, I don’t," Neville replied decisively. "She’s very strong and brave, she’ll be alright."
"Yeah, you’re right." Luna would not let herself get captured.
But when they arrived at school, they found that Luna was nowhere to be seen along the Ravenclaw table, or any of the others in the Great Hall. For the first couple of days they returned to their school routines, but they were at first hesitant to call to a meeting without Luna there.
"We have to do this," said Ginny, as she and Neville were discussing the matter in hushed voices in the library. There was less Death Eater control here, as madam Pince was generally indiscriminate in restricting noise making. "If we don’t call to a meeting, the others will lose their will to fight. Luna wouldn’t want us to lose focus, wherever she is."
"I know, but can’t we wait just a little? She might yet show up..."
"How?" Ginny shook her head. "If she didn’t come with the train because she narrowly missed it, the school would have arranged for a floo or portkey. She either didn’t come because she was or is still sick, and has to lie in bed. Or because her father insisted on her safety. Or because..." She hesitated. "... or because she has decided for herself not to come back because she has found another way for her to be useful to the fight." Ginny hoped more for that alternative than the unspoken one.
"Maybe... But then she would contact us, no?" Neville flipped the page of the book infront of him, to make it appear as if he were actually looking for some information that would aid his schoolwork in it. "But you’re right. We have to have a meeting. It’s no longer our choice now, is it? It has become more like our responsibility..."
"I know... Now I know how they felt two years ago."
"You mean Harry and them?"
"Yeah," said Ginny, scratching nonsense and doodles on her parchment as madam Pince walked by. "They had to organise all of this, with people having such high expectations of them because of who they were and what they had done. It’s really a pressure you can’t understand until you feel it for yourself."
"Very true," Neville replied, soaking up the somber truth in her words. "But back to business, when should we have the next meeting?"
They decided to have the next meeting on the following Friday at 9 pm, after the forbidden time to be in the corridors. It would have been nice if they had that map that Harry had, but Ginny hadn’t thought of asking for it during summer. You realise much more in retrospective, she guessed. Anyway, they had managed to sneak into the room of requirement during night hours before, and it was the best time. Security was always the sharpest on Saturday night, and other nights they couldn’t stay up too long, since being caught asleep in class now had strict punishments applied to them. That Friday morning she received her usual subscriptions of the Daily Prophet, a Quidditch magazine (the only way she could enjoy the game now that their extracurriculars had been restricted) and of course this week's copy of the Quibbler. She hadn’t read any of The Quibbler during Christmas break, her mother had insisted that she kept to any homework she had been given over the holidays, or to play with her brothers instead. Overprotective parents could be such a bother... Hold on, Ginny thought as she looked at the front page of The Quibbler. What the...?
At 9 pm as many as were going to come had gathered in the room of requirement. People were looking a bit worried, and Ginny couldn’t blame them. Those that had returned from Christmas had gotten their first head on contact with the world outside since Voldemort took over the ministry. For many this had added a new depth to what they were doing here, which in the long run was only good. The only problem Ginny saw...
"Now," started Neville, alerting Ginny who suddenly remembered that she was the one who was supposed to start the meeting this time. "before any of you ask," Neville continued, "some of you may notice that we’re not our full numbers right now. Luna Lovegood has yet to come back from Christmas break, and we have yet to hear from her. Also missing, are Clara Rivers, Jack Dane and Peter Griffith. Unless anyone here has heard what’s happened to either of them, we are left to assume that they’re either not returning to Hogwarts or are experiencing extreme delays. Does anyone in this room know anything about these missing people? Yes?" Neville pointed towards a student that had raised their arm.
"By not returning to Hogwarts, does that mean they’ve run away from the fight?"
"No, not necessarily. It could mean a number of things. They could have decided to take up the fight a different way, away from Hogwarts. They could have been taken abroad by their families fleeing the country against their will. They could even be part of the growing list of misdeeds by Death Eaters..."
"Luna would never flee from the fight," spoke a timid Ravenclaw. "She hasn’t been killed, has she?"
"Of course not!" said Ginny with conviction.
"How can you be so sure?"
Ginny wouldn’t answer. So Neville did it in her stead.
"Because Luna Lovegood is the best example to show that you don’t have to be a Gryffindor to be brave and strong, just like Hermione Granger is the best example to show that you don’t have to be a Ravenclaw to be smart. But like the rest of her house, she’s also frighteningly clever, even if her enemies may underestimate her. In her wake, let us all work our hardest to continue the fight!"
A roar of agreement arose and Neville sneaked a look towards Ginny. While she smiled, her smile looked fake, and her eyes seemed glazed over. But she quickly came to herself and walked up closer to the crowd to speak up.
"We have prepaired a operation to jumpstart this semester. Combining two suggestions from the suggestion box we have a plan to make things difficult for our dear Mr Filch, which will be used as a distraction for while we execute another part of the operation: To see if we can locate the missing first year. Anyone volunteering to make things difficult for Mr Filch, raise your hand now." As several hands shot up she continued. "You need to be quick on your feet and know protego and accio well." Some hands were lowered, but enough remained. "Those of you still holding your hands up, are going to meet with me here one week from now. I will be volunteering myself for this part."
"Those of you interested in finding the first year with me, raise your hands." For some reason, Neville noticed, several girls’ hands shot up instantenously through the air. He guessed that it had to do with some sort of maternal instinct... "You will need to be good at keeping yourself hidden and sneak around, and we shouldn’t be too many. Healing spells are a bonus, because the boy might need medical attention. Knowing the Patronus spell might be a good idea too, because there’s a probable risk that they have a dementor on guard." Several hands were dropped, but the few remaining were now prepaired for what hazards they might have to face. "Great, I will see you the day before Ginny’s group meet up, the coins will tell you what time. Now, does anyone have anything else they wish to discuss?"
After the meeting was adjourned, Neville turned towards Ginny.
"What’s wrong, Ginny? Something happened?"
"Read this!" Ginny slammed her copy of The Quibbler on a table she required.
Neville looked down on the paper infront of him. A huge picture of Harry Potter took up half the front page above the headline.
Undesirable Number 1
Harry Potter has very fittingly been given this name as he is a very horrible young wizard. He has no concern for the lives of innocent, but only for his quest to seek out You-know-who, who is much too weakened by the efforts of our ministry to be of any of our concern.
Neville couldn’t believe what he was reading, he looked once more to make sure that it was The Quibbler and not The Daily Prophet.
"Why would Luna’s dad write this load of bollocks?" he asked Ginny, anger dominating his voice. "Have the Death Eaters finally started seeing him as a threat? Have they started to threaten his life?"
Clearly agitated, Ginny shook her head with small, quick movements.
"Luna said that even if they threatened his life he would not change his mind," Ginny spoke with a trembling voice, keeping her eyes low so that Neville couldn’t really read her expression. "They would have to offer him something more valuable than his life."
"What are you saying, Ginny?"
"They’ve got Luna hostage, it’s the only explanation! She isn’t coming back to us."
His jaw dropped, and Ginny was trembling violently. Inside she was fighting between cries of despair and bouts of anger. She wasn’t going to cry, anger was more useful to her, but Neville wasn’t the one that her anger concerned. It was Voldemort, always Voldemort.
"They’ve got her. They’ve got her, and if Mr. Lovegood doesn’t do as they want him to, they’ll... They’ll..." Anger and fear coursed through her like a violent current.
"They won't kill her, she's strong, isn't she?" Neville clasped his arms around her, and pulled her into a tight embrace. He was worried that all that trembling might lead her to getting hurt. "Besides, her pureblood status will keep her protected won't it?"
"From death, maybe," Ginny hiccuped as she stubbornly forced away tears and sobs. "But the crucio doesn't kill!"
"No...," Neville started saying with a weak voice. "It does something far worse..."
She bit her lip in regret, and pushed herself away from Neville just enough to put one of her arms comfortingly around his shoulders.
"Oh Neville, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to..."
"It’s alright! It’s alright." As she wasn’t shaking anymore, he released his grip on her so that he could stroke the arm of hers that wasn’t draped over his shoulders. "Besides, judging from this article, Mr Lovegood is doing what he’s told to. They won’t hurt her unless he tries to resist, which he wouldn’t. No parent would."
"I know."
She still didn’t look all that comforted to him, so he put his arm over her shoulders and decided to go all anectdotal on her.
"And you know Luna, remember back when we were trapped in Umbridge's office? And she calmly pointed out that Goyle's shoes were tied the wrong way, and then shot a bodybinding curse on him?"
They both laughed at the memory of Goyle simply letting his hostage go to take a closer look at his shoes, and of Luna quickly pulling out a wand as Draco had just noticed what happened and admonished his housemate for his stupidity. Which gave Ginny the perfect opportunity to elbow her own captor and start a commotion with several well-aimed Bat Bogey Hexes.
"Yeah...," Ginny said as the laughter grew quiter. "And back in the department of mysteries, she was able to take down two death eaters by herself, and still avoid hitting Ron who was out of his mind right then."
They looked at each other, and suddenly they didn’t feel so alone anymore. Even if Luna wasn’t there with them to help with the DA, she was still their best friend. And more importantly, they still were each other’s best friends, and none of them felt they could ask for any better.
Ginny turned serious again, and looked Neville in the eyes.
"The six of us were prepaired back then to do what we had to do. Now we are so again, even if we're seperated. You and I have to be strong now, the other students are depending on us."
"I know..." said Neville. "And it is for Harry’s sake in the end, isn’t it?"
"In the end," Ginny nodded. "I have this gut feeling that everything will end here at Hogwarts. He’ll come back, and then the fight will be for real. But even if he doesn’t, even if Harry defeats Voldemort off some place we’ll never know of or be to, we have to keep fighting here. We can’t let Death Eaters have full control over this school."
"He’ll be back, Ginny," Neville said as they started walking to the exit. "I know he will."
"You’re right," Ginny said before they opened the door and started making their way to Gryffindor tower. And she hoped he was.
Previous chapter/s:
Chapter 1, The calm before the storm.
Chapter: 2, Lunar Eclipse
Fandom: Harry Potter.
Disclaimer: Owned by JK Rowling. DUH!
Pairing: Neville/Ginny.
Warning: Ginny-angst! Sort of. This is where I really get going on my prefered Ginny, so don't expect any sunlit days of bouncing hair. Do expect a fighting spirit that the evil powers will break. Bwahaha! (Since this is my prefered Ginny, things will eventually get better, but until then expect angst!)
Rating: PG-15. If you think it should have a differnet rating, please to tell me.
Random Notes: You know, I really hope I can speed up the writing of this fic, updating once a year isn't exactly ideal for me. XD Although most of this was finished sometime by December, it's just that I had so much going on at the time, then I entered a total writing slump, and only yesterday did I wrap up the chapter.
It felt like only a second had passed since she last stood here, hugging her father. Now she was hugging him again, but this time as a good bye. It had been a tearful farewell back at the Burrow, and mum had nearly kept her home just so she would be under her mother’s protective vision. But like dad had been forced to tell mum over and over again, she had to go. It would be even more dangerous for her to skip school now that attendance was mandatory. Not to mention for the rest of the family.
Ginny wondered what her father would think if he knew what she was doing? What she was participating in. She guessed, knowing how her father had been about the incident at the Ministry of Magic, that he would be torn between paternal pride and parental worry. All through Christmas break she had been very careful to make her time at Hogwarts seem as boring as possible, of course with that one exception... Her twin brothers just would not let her rest until they had all the details about her plan for breaking into Snape's office with Neville and Luna.
"Now make sure that you stay out of trouble this semester," her father admonished her. "No more incidents like the last one, understood?"
"Yes, dad," she answered, a bit too easily.
"I know how you feel, sweetie," he told her, looking into her eyes, as if he was for the first time in her life, speaking to her like an adult witch. One capable of making her own decisions. "But you're not in an ideal position to affect what's happening. Right now, you're still underage, and in the hands of an authority I know you long to thwart. I know, because I raised you. The key that you must use to decide how you lead your life is, that you must never sacrifice your life for a goal you can't achieve. Because you, who are so young and so loved, must fully understand what it is you're sacrificing. And if you throw it away for something that won't at least change the world in its fundamentals for the better of all mankind... it's not worth it. Your family values it more than you can possibly know."
"I know that, dad," she answered, keeping eye contact and smiling a lovingly pleasing smile. "More than you can possibly know, do I realise how much I'm loved by how many people."
He hugged her again, apparently satisfied with her answer. And what she said had been true. Just not the meaning that she had attached to it...
She stepped on the train and saw Michael Corner and Neville Longbottom talking with each other. Walking up to them, she greeted both of her friends happily.
"So, what's new?"
"Nothing much," said Michael. "Slow Christmas season, Death Eaters took a holiday too, I guess, so not that much war going on."
He was shushed by Ernie Macmillan who showed up from nowhere.
"Don't say things like that! If the wrong people heard you..."
"Bah," Michael derided him. "The only one that's 'taboo' to say is the one we never use any way, so why should we care about-"
"Don't you get it!" Ernie was almost besides himself. "No one is supposed to know what's really happening. We have to keep them believing that's how it is."
As Michael and Ernie got themselves more and more worked up on the issue, Ginny took Neville by the arm and led him to the compartment they had rode in last time.
"You know," Neville said as they closed the door behind them, "I can't help but think that we've overlooked that one issue. Should we keep their secret in favour of our own safety, or should we rebel in more ways than one?"
"I think that's handled by our Second Reformed D.A. principle," Ginny answered lazily as she opened her trunk and withdrew one of the extendable ears that she had gotten from her brothers over Christmas. "The one that says that all non-anonymous actions must follow the rules, to avoid us all being captured one by one."
She set up the ear towards the corridor, and then performed a sonorus spell on the talking end. If someone came their way, they'd know long before that person could hear what they were saying.
"Got new ears then?" Neville said, striking up a more pleasant conversation for both of them.
"Yes. But it was a close call. It's not like I could have told them how I lost my original pair now, is it? Luckily, I was able to invent a use for them in my story about how we broke into Snape's office, and make it seem as though they played the most innocent of parts."
"You lied to them?" Neville was looking incredulously at her.
"I'd prefer to call it giving them a more preferable truth."
She was going to ignore the look he was giving her. Ignore it, she was going to do. She was going to keep her back turned to him until she had picked up the latest issue of Quidditch Weekly which she had in her trunk. Ignore it as she sat down and kept her face buried in her magazine. She was not going to let him get in under her skin.
"Look," she said, caving in under Neville's disapproval. "I don't like to lie. I admit, I'm very good at lying, and I used to like lying. A lot! But I'm not that little kid any more, who told you that she was just going to get more punch when really she wanted to talk with the Ravenclaw by the drinks table. If I lie, it's because I have to, and you know it. What was I supposed to do, tell my brothers I used the ears to spy on a conversation between Snape and Voldemort? And that I lost them because we only had one chance to set them up, and never again a chance to pick them up? Huh? Because if I had, then my parents would make me look like I had gotten some horrible disease and then you and Luna would have to take care of the army yourselves. Of course you'd probably have no problem on your own, I'm just in the way... Aren't I?"
She finally threw down her magazine to face him. He was in shock. It was like nothing she had said had been expected or made any sense. Seeing the book in his hands, she realised that he hadn't been looking at her at all. It wasn't his disapproval she had been feeling...
"I..." he started to say. Then he shook his head and started over. "I understand that you had to lie... I don't like it either... but I've had to do so too. And I understand."
Ginny was certain that her hair and face were unison in colour.
"I .. I... I need to go to the loo. Be right back!"
Rushing out of the compartment, hastily making sure that she didn't mess up the extendable ear, she ran to the closest toilet.
Neville looked down on the hand he had unconsciously stretched out towards his old friend as she rushed off. Embarrassedly he retracted it. This explosion of hers had been building up for some time. His cheeks heated as he thought back to what she had said about the Yule ball. He remembered it well, that's how she met Michael Corner. That was how he had been stood up for the first time ever. Along with his first time ever taking a girl somewhere, even if it had been school mandatory. Apparently she had been feeling worse about it than she had let on. He had gotten over it fairly quickly, he was used to rejection. And it wasn't like either of them had gotten into it with expectations of an actual date, was it? But what really troubled him at the moment was the last thing she had said... "I'm just in the way." How many times hadn't he felt exactly like that when he was younger? How impossible wasn't it to imagine Ginny thinking that way about herself? She was the one who had called up on him and Luna to start the D.A. She had always been radiating with confidence and determination, how could she have been harbouring such feelings during this time? It couldn't be related to her stay at home for Christmas, could it?
Absently he noted that the train was leaving the station. How was he going to handle things when she came back...? What would Luna do? Where was Luna by the way? They were already leaving the station, she should have boarded the train by now. Would it be her or Ginny coming in that door first? And what should he say to either of them? This was just too complicated...
"I am not going to cry any more than this," she said angrily to her reflection that mercilessly revealed how her features had been distorted by tears. "I resolved back then, I was not going to be a crybaby. I knew Harry would have to go after You-know-who, and I knew the last thing he'd want would be for me to cry about it. I knew my family would only get more involved into the war."
Yes, she knew all of that. She knew that if she was going to be someone others could depend on, she would have to be strong. This was not the time to break down in front of one of the people she wanted to be able to depend on her. The only times she could allow herself to let loose was when she was completely alone. Harry, Neville, Luna, Hermione and her entire family... The members of the D.A. and her teachers... None of them could be allowed to see her weak. She whipped out her wand and begin cleaning of her face and put disillusioning charms to remove any visible trace of her tears. How was she going to explain her outburst? Should she just pretend like nothing had happened? Right, that would make her the idol of sanity... She could always blame it on hormones, tell him that she was on her period. Yes, that's it! No guy questions a girl's period! Right, a plan! Now it's all about getting the game face on. She looked deeply into the mirror and gave herself her most blazing look.
"I am Ginny Weasley. I will do what I have to do. I am dependable."
There wasn't a knife sharp enough to cut through the tension in the compartment. The awkward silence, and the uncertainty of who should go first. That's when Ginny noticed something she should have noticed at once.
"Where's Luna? Hasn't she come by this compartment?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since before Christmas."
"But the train's moving! Did she miss it? Should we go look for her?"
"I don't know," said Neville, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe she decided to sit with friends from her own house?"
It was true that Luna had been getting along better with people since she became one of the leaders of the school resistance, and that she had made more friends in her own house.
"Maybe," she conceded. "Any way, we don't want to make us look suspicious, insisting on sitting together the three of us no matter what."
"We'll see her at school," Neville said positively.
"Yes, we will," agreed Ginny, before they were consumed by the return of the awkward silence.
Neville twiddled with his thumbs, and Ginny fingered threads coming loose on her robes.
"So how was your holiday?" Neville asked, breaking through.
"So and so," she answered, bracing herself to look him in the face. "It wasn't the same with Ron not being able to join and all. But mum cooked great food as usual, and dad liked the present I gave him. My brothers gave me some nice gifts for once. How was it for you?"
"The usual. I think mum has been getting better though. When I told her some of the things that happened since last I saw her, she smiled and nodded. And she gave a start when I told her about Death Eaters attacking Hogwarts and Dumbledore dying, so she must have understood what I was saying. Dad seemed aware I was there for once."
"That's great, Neville! How was your grandmother?"
Seeing Neville talk about his parents, more openly now than he had in the past, it made her more aware of how strong he really was. It made her feel embarrassed for her own weaknesses. But at the same time, it made her feel better.
"She was her usual self," Neville shrugged. "No ministry change is ever gonna affect her. When she heard some of the things I told mum and dad, she told me that I was becoming more like them. I don't know if she meant it as a compliment though, or if it just meant that she was going to be worried about me. But she did make the best Christmas pudding I've ever had that Christmas so..." He shrugged again, and Ginny chuckled.
"Family," she said. "What can you do?"
"Yeah," he said chuckling with her. "Can't understand them..."
"... and can't be understood by them either."
They both laughed at this. As far as each was concerned, the other had forgotten entirely what had happened earlier. None of them saw any reason to breach the subject, so they kept talking about just everything else.
When they arrived at Hogsmeade, they started looking around for Luna. They should at least go with her in the carriage. But she was nowhere to be seen. For the first time since the subject of the missing Luna had been breached, Ginny was starting to worry. Relax, she told herself. Luna might not have gotten off the train yet.
"Should we get a carriage?" asked Neville in a low tone of voice, trying not to whisper.
"We could wait for her, I think," answered Ginny as she saw both students waiting for friends and carriages that were already filled leaving for Hogwarts.
More and more students filed out of the train and fewer and fewer carriages were remaining unoccupied. Soon the only students left at the station was the two of them and a couple of third years that had been waiting for the last of their group of friends to return from the train toilet before it left. Neville turned to the conductor that made sure the third year got off the train.
"Excuse me, sir," he said, getting the man’s attention. "A friend of ours hasen’t shown up yet, is she still on the train somewhere?"
The man shook his head.
"No, I’m sure she’s not. I just checked the train front and back for stragglers. This last one using the toilet was the only one aboard besides personal. You probably missed each other, if she was on the train here, I’m sure she’s up at the school for dinner. Like you two should be." He indicated the last carriage as well as the carriage that the three third years were already riding up to school with.
"Thank you, sir," said Neville. "See you at the end of the year."
He and Ginny hurried on to the carriage and sat up.
"Do you reckon he’s right?" Ginny asked.
"Maybe," said Neville. "But any way, if she didn’t come on the train, there’s nothing we can do about it."
"You don’t think anything’s happened to her, do you?" asked Ginny worriedly.
"No, I don’t," Neville replied decisively. "She’s very strong and brave, she’ll be alright."
"Yeah, you’re right." Luna would not let herself get captured.
But when they arrived at school, they found that Luna was nowhere to be seen along the Ravenclaw table, or any of the others in the Great Hall. For the first couple of days they returned to their school routines, but they were at first hesitant to call to a meeting without Luna there.
"We have to do this," said Ginny, as she and Neville were discussing the matter in hushed voices in the library. There was less Death Eater control here, as madam Pince was generally indiscriminate in restricting noise making. "If we don’t call to a meeting, the others will lose their will to fight. Luna wouldn’t want us to lose focus, wherever she is."
"I know, but can’t we wait just a little? She might yet show up..."
"How?" Ginny shook her head. "If she didn’t come with the train because she narrowly missed it, the school would have arranged for a floo or portkey. She either didn’t come because she was or is still sick, and has to lie in bed. Or because her father insisted on her safety. Or because..." She hesitated. "... or because she has decided for herself not to come back because she has found another way for her to be useful to the fight." Ginny hoped more for that alternative than the unspoken one.
"Maybe... But then she would contact us, no?" Neville flipped the page of the book infront of him, to make it appear as if he were actually looking for some information that would aid his schoolwork in it. "But you’re right. We have to have a meeting. It’s no longer our choice now, is it? It has become more like our responsibility..."
"I know... Now I know how they felt two years ago."
"You mean Harry and them?"
"Yeah," said Ginny, scratching nonsense and doodles on her parchment as madam Pince walked by. "They had to organise all of this, with people having such high expectations of them because of who they were and what they had done. It’s really a pressure you can’t understand until you feel it for yourself."
"Very true," Neville replied, soaking up the somber truth in her words. "But back to business, when should we have the next meeting?"
They decided to have the next meeting on the following Friday at 9 pm, after the forbidden time to be in the corridors. It would have been nice if they had that map that Harry had, but Ginny hadn’t thought of asking for it during summer. You realise much more in retrospective, she guessed. Anyway, they had managed to sneak into the room of requirement during night hours before, and it was the best time. Security was always the sharpest on Saturday night, and other nights they couldn’t stay up too long, since being caught asleep in class now had strict punishments applied to them. That Friday morning she received her usual subscriptions of the Daily Prophet, a Quidditch magazine (the only way she could enjoy the game now that their extracurriculars had been restricted) and of course this week's copy of the Quibbler. She hadn’t read any of The Quibbler during Christmas break, her mother had insisted that she kept to any homework she had been given over the holidays, or to play with her brothers instead. Overprotective parents could be such a bother... Hold on, Ginny thought as she looked at the front page of The Quibbler. What the...?
At 9 pm as many as were going to come had gathered in the room of requirement. People were looking a bit worried, and Ginny couldn’t blame them. Those that had returned from Christmas had gotten their first head on contact with the world outside since Voldemort took over the ministry. For many this had added a new depth to what they were doing here, which in the long run was only good. The only problem Ginny saw...
"Now," started Neville, alerting Ginny who suddenly remembered that she was the one who was supposed to start the meeting this time. "before any of you ask," Neville continued, "some of you may notice that we’re not our full numbers right now. Luna Lovegood has yet to come back from Christmas break, and we have yet to hear from her. Also missing, are Clara Rivers, Jack Dane and Peter Griffith. Unless anyone here has heard what’s happened to either of them, we are left to assume that they’re either not returning to Hogwarts or are experiencing extreme delays. Does anyone in this room know anything about these missing people? Yes?" Neville pointed towards a student that had raised their arm.
"By not returning to Hogwarts, does that mean they’ve run away from the fight?"
"No, not necessarily. It could mean a number of things. They could have decided to take up the fight a different way, away from Hogwarts. They could have been taken abroad by their families fleeing the country against their will. They could even be part of the growing list of misdeeds by Death Eaters..."
"Luna would never flee from the fight," spoke a timid Ravenclaw. "She hasn’t been killed, has she?"
"Of course not!" said Ginny with conviction.
"How can you be so sure?"
Ginny wouldn’t answer. So Neville did it in her stead.
"Because Luna Lovegood is the best example to show that you don’t have to be a Gryffindor to be brave and strong, just like Hermione Granger is the best example to show that you don’t have to be a Ravenclaw to be smart. But like the rest of her house, she’s also frighteningly clever, even if her enemies may underestimate her. In her wake, let us all work our hardest to continue the fight!"
A roar of agreement arose and Neville sneaked a look towards Ginny. While she smiled, her smile looked fake, and her eyes seemed glazed over. But she quickly came to herself and walked up closer to the crowd to speak up.
"We have prepaired a operation to jumpstart this semester. Combining two suggestions from the suggestion box we have a plan to make things difficult for our dear Mr Filch, which will be used as a distraction for while we execute another part of the operation: To see if we can locate the missing first year. Anyone volunteering to make things difficult for Mr Filch, raise your hand now." As several hands shot up she continued. "You need to be quick on your feet and know protego and accio well." Some hands were lowered, but enough remained. "Those of you still holding your hands up, are going to meet with me here one week from now. I will be volunteering myself for this part."
"Those of you interested in finding the first year with me, raise your hands." For some reason, Neville noticed, several girls’ hands shot up instantenously through the air. He guessed that it had to do with some sort of maternal instinct... "You will need to be good at keeping yourself hidden and sneak around, and we shouldn’t be too many. Healing spells are a bonus, because the boy might need medical attention. Knowing the Patronus spell might be a good idea too, because there’s a probable risk that they have a dementor on guard." Several hands were dropped, but the few remaining were now prepaired for what hazards they might have to face. "Great, I will see you the day before Ginny’s group meet up, the coins will tell you what time. Now, does anyone have anything else they wish to discuss?"
After the meeting was adjourned, Neville turned towards Ginny.
"What’s wrong, Ginny? Something happened?"
"Read this!" Ginny slammed her copy of The Quibbler on a table she required.
Neville looked down on the paper infront of him. A huge picture of Harry Potter took up half the front page above the headline.
Undesirable Number 1
Harry Potter has very fittingly been given this name as he is a very horrible young wizard. He has no concern for the lives of innocent, but only for his quest to seek out You-know-who, who is much too weakened by the efforts of our ministry to be of any of our concern.
Neville couldn’t believe what he was reading, he looked once more to make sure that it was The Quibbler and not The Daily Prophet.
"Why would Luna’s dad write this load of bollocks?" he asked Ginny, anger dominating his voice. "Have the Death Eaters finally started seeing him as a threat? Have they started to threaten his life?"
Clearly agitated, Ginny shook her head with small, quick movements.
"Luna said that even if they threatened his life he would not change his mind," Ginny spoke with a trembling voice, keeping her eyes low so that Neville couldn’t really read her expression. "They would have to offer him something more valuable than his life."
"What are you saying, Ginny?"
"They’ve got Luna hostage, it’s the only explanation! She isn’t coming back to us."
His jaw dropped, and Ginny was trembling violently. Inside she was fighting between cries of despair and bouts of anger. She wasn’t going to cry, anger was more useful to her, but Neville wasn’t the one that her anger concerned. It was Voldemort, always Voldemort.
"They’ve got her. They’ve got her, and if Mr. Lovegood doesn’t do as they want him to, they’ll... They’ll..." Anger and fear coursed through her like a violent current.
"They won't kill her, she's strong, isn't she?" Neville clasped his arms around her, and pulled her into a tight embrace. He was worried that all that trembling might lead her to getting hurt. "Besides, her pureblood status will keep her protected won't it?"
"From death, maybe," Ginny hiccuped as she stubbornly forced away tears and sobs. "But the crucio doesn't kill!"
"No...," Neville started saying with a weak voice. "It does something far worse..."
She bit her lip in regret, and pushed herself away from Neville just enough to put one of her arms comfortingly around his shoulders.
"Oh Neville, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to..."
"It’s alright! It’s alright." As she wasn’t shaking anymore, he released his grip on her so that he could stroke the arm of hers that wasn’t draped over his shoulders. "Besides, judging from this article, Mr Lovegood is doing what he’s told to. They won’t hurt her unless he tries to resist, which he wouldn’t. No parent would."
"I know."
She still didn’t look all that comforted to him, so he put his arm over her shoulders and decided to go all anectdotal on her.
"And you know Luna, remember back when we were trapped in Umbridge's office? And she calmly pointed out that Goyle's shoes were tied the wrong way, and then shot a bodybinding curse on him?"
They both laughed at the memory of Goyle simply letting his hostage go to take a closer look at his shoes, and of Luna quickly pulling out a wand as Draco had just noticed what happened and admonished his housemate for his stupidity. Which gave Ginny the perfect opportunity to elbow her own captor and start a commotion with several well-aimed Bat Bogey Hexes.
"Yeah...," Ginny said as the laughter grew quiter. "And back in the department of mysteries, she was able to take down two death eaters by herself, and still avoid hitting Ron who was out of his mind right then."
They looked at each other, and suddenly they didn’t feel so alone anymore. Even if Luna wasn’t there with them to help with the DA, she was still their best friend. And more importantly, they still were each other’s best friends, and none of them felt they could ask for any better.
Ginny turned serious again, and looked Neville in the eyes.
"The six of us were prepaired back then to do what we had to do. Now we are so again, even if we're seperated. You and I have to be strong now, the other students are depending on us."
"I know..." said Neville. "And it is for Harry’s sake in the end, isn’t it?"
"In the end," Ginny nodded. "I have this gut feeling that everything will end here at Hogwarts. He’ll come back, and then the fight will be for real. But even if he doesn’t, even if Harry defeats Voldemort off some place we’ll never know of or be to, we have to keep fighting here. We can’t let Death Eaters have full control over this school."
"He’ll be back, Ginny," Neville said as they started walking to the exit. "I know he will."
"You’re right," Ginny said before they opened the door and started making their way to Gryffindor tower. And she hoped he was.