Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, page 12
"Sure, but don't worry about the fuzz for now, I don't think we have time." Michael started to dig in the trunk again as Neville went on. "No, they're not rational, or, for that matter, sane. But Snape is, and he's also smart enough to know that their biggest strength right now is that the Pureblood families feel safe, even if they don't agree. They can justify punishment and claim the severity is exaggerated, but if they start littering the wizarding world with the bodies of Pureblood kids...."
"Good point." Michael ran the comb quickly through Neville's hair, then they each slung an arm over their shoulders. "On three...one, two, three."
They stood, and Neville swayed drunkenly between them for a moment before finding his balance. Supported like this, he was pleased to find that his feet seemed steady enough under him, and he was actually able to take a few tentative steps before the world spun alarmingly.
"Easy there," Terry cautioned him. "Let us." Their shoulders tensed beneath him, and he felt himself lifted easily as they began to make their way down the stairs.
"Thanks again for doing this," said Neville.
"Don't mention it. Just know that we'll call in the same favor if it's ever one of us strung up there," said Michael.
"I hope it isn't," Neville's voice was sincere as they paused at the portrait hole, and Terry planted his feet firmly, taking Neville's full weight as Michael climbed out and reached through.
"It might be." Michael's pleasant face had grown stony. "I'm not going to just let that happen again. They try to do it to someone else, and I swear on my father's grave that I will come back in the middle of the night and cut them down if I have to. Seeing you hanging there day after day...it was hard on all of us, but I think some of those poor first-years are going to be scarred deeper than you and Ernie. We've had one little bloke in our House who's been waking up with screaming nightmares every single night since."
"Just be careful, Mike." There was an air of gentle terror in Terry's tone, and Neville knew from that more than anything that Michael was dead serious. They made it the rest of the way to the Room of Requirement in silence, concentrating on the effort of maneuvering Neville as quickly as possible with what minimal help he could offer, but as the door appeared and opened before him, a wave of noise erupted that stopped all three in their tracks.
The entire D.A. was on their feet. Applause, whistles, whoops, and cheers rang out in a deafening wall of enthusiasm. Hannah Abbott ran forward, throwing her arms around his neck and nearly hitting the two boys on either side of him as she covered his face with grateful kisses.
And then Ernie was there, himself supported by Bagman and another boy that Neville recognized as his fellow Hufflepuff Beater, Derek Adams. He wondered if he looked as pale and sunken as Ernie did, but it didn't matter as the Lieutenant held out a hand, and Neville took it, pressing it in both of his. There were no words, there never could be, but seeing his friend there and alive seemed to charge him with new strength, and he pulled himself away from the Ravenclaws and took an unsteady step forward as Ernie did the same.
The two boys embraced, and he tried to silently communicate all the gratitude, all the feeling of brotherhood that had formed over their shared ordeal, and he knew it was understood. They had survived, they would go on fighting, and it wasn't just he and Ernie, it was all of them who had been through the fire now. Snape didn't know it, but he had ensured his own eventual defeat when he had ordered their torture, creating a deeper unity and sense of purpose than Neville or Harry had ever managed on their own.
The knowledge of that filled every blazing pair of eyes that shone in the room, no matter what color edged their robes. The survivors broke apart now, shaking as they supported one another and drew their wands. Silver sparks from not just two, but nearly forty wands collided in a burst that was brighter than hope as their voices rang out in a victory cheer that simply had yet to be fulfilled. "Dumbledore's Army!"
OOO
"All right, this is tonight's drill." Ginny stood in the center of the large circle, turning slowly to address each of the people who stood around her, sleeves rolled up and wands in hand. "Luna and I will be firing Stunning Spells. You won't know when, you won't know at who until we do it. Your job is simple. Block them. But no Impedimenta, no Protego, no Expelliarmus, and no Stupifying us back. You've had three days to find another way, let's see how you've done."
Neville watched in admiration from the couch at the side of the room, wishing he could be there with them, but aware that he had exhausted himself completely just joining them in the Room of Requirement. After the initial tumultuous greeting, things had quickly settled down, and he was pleased to see how well Ginny and Luna had the D.A. in hand without him, even if it was a little humbling to see how easily he could be replaced.
The two girls stood back to back, rotating slowly, then Luna abruptly flicked her wand, shooting a jet of scarlet light towards Seamus. "Sgaith!", he shouted, and the light went veering off wildly to careen against the ceiling with a deafening crack.
At almost the same moment, Ginny fired, striking out towards Fritz Bagman. "Duradermis!" His forearm took on the hardened, leathery texture of crocodile skin as he brought it up, and the spell bounced off harmlessly.
Luna sent one at Padma, but there was no incantation in reply. Instead, Padma seemed to vanish from the waist up, the spell shooting harmlessly into the wall behind her, and it was a moment before they realized she hadn't used any magic at all. She had folded herself almost completely in half backwards, bracing her palms on the floor behind her for a split second before bouncing smoothly to her feet again. Padma tossed her head, poised like a cat to move again, but a dozen people were staring at her open mouthed, and she blushed. "What? She never said it had to be magic, it's yoga."
"I'm in love." Seamus put one hand dramatically over his heart and gave her a suggestive grin. "If you can twist yourself up like that, darlin', I've been havin' all the wrong fantasies about you and your--" He was cut off as a stunner hit him full in the chest and he collapsed bonelessly.
Ginny gave a warning look around the circle. "No distractions. Minds on your wands, boys, not in your trousers. Let's go."
"Kir!" Luna's stunner towards Anthony Goldstein cracked against a solid brick wall that had sprung up out of thin air.
Susan Bones said nothing, but reached out towards the red light, jabbing at her empty, open palm with her wand, and the left hand suddenly seemed gloved in a shimmering silver mesh as she caught the spell in a single flicker of fading scarlet.
"Mortuscantum!" The jet of light Ginny had sent towards Terrance Runcorn dissolved into black smoke, shooting back up towards her wand and knocking her flat with a gasp of pain. She dropped her wand, holding up her hand and staring at it as if it belonged to someone else as fat blisters began to swell on her reddened palm.
Runcorn was smiling in smug self-satisfaction, but Lavender was shaking with fury as she spun towards him from a few positions away in the circle. "That's Dark Magic! You hurt her!"
"I blocked it, didn't I? I assure you, Princess, the Dark Lord doesn't limit himself. Neither can we," Runcorn sneered.
"Yes we can." Luna's soft voice carried surprisingly strongly over the blossoming argument. "We have to." Runcorn opened his mouth to argue her, but she cut him off. "Oh, I actually don't believe there's any difference between 'normal magic' and 'Dark Magic.' I think it's all in how the spells are used, but that's not the issue. Where did you learn that spell, Terrance?"
"My father." He spoke proudly, his dark eyes flashing as though daring anyone to challenge him.
"And he's a Death Eater, isn't he?" Luna asked the question as casually as if she were inquiring his father's first name, or what town they lived in.
"A damned good one."
"Then I would assume that would be a spell the Death Eaters would be familiar with...and know how to block. That seems to me like it defeats the entire purpose of this exercise."
Ginny had gotten to her feet now, waving her wand over her injured hand and flexing the fingers cautiously as the blisters retreated into the whitening skin. "No Dark Magic," she agreed firmly, nodding to Luna. "Avada Kedavra if you absolutely have no choice, but that can't be blocked if it's meant deeply enough, and any situation where you'd need to use it, you'd mean it. Otherwise, Luna's exactly right." Her cheeks flushed as she narrowed her eyes at Runcorn. "But I should have known a Slyth -"
"Lieutenant Weasley!" All eyes snapped to Neville as Ginny turned, her mouth falling open in shock. He had never called any of them by their formal titles before, nor had he ever spoken to her with such disapproving authority.
Neville pushed himself up on his elbows, trying to muster the same withering look that McGonagall used so effectively. "We leave our Houses at the door in this room. In here, we're all Dumbledore's Army. I agree, no Dark Magic, but that's it. My whole House has rallied around me while I'm hurt, Ernie's too, and if they had gotten Luna or one of the others, Ravenclaw would be there. If Slytherin finds out where those two are tonight, they'll be lucky if there's much left of them to be turned over to the Carrows. If you're going to say anything about what House they belong to, you should say you respect the sheer guts they've shown."
Then he turned his gaze towards Runcorn, his frown deepening. "But if you ever hurt a fellow D.A. member again, or if I ever hear you calling anyone 'Mudblood' or 'Blood-Traitor', you will have me to answer to personally, and I promise you, once I'm back on my feet, I'm a lot bigger than you. Is that clear?"
Both the red and chestnut heads nodded, chastened, and Neville settled back on the couch again, wincing as his sore joints protested the exertion he had put them through that night. "Go on."
The exercise proceeded without further incident until each person had taken their turn to try and block the Stunning Spell. Neville was proud to see that by the end of it, only three people needed to be Ennervated, not counting Seamus, and even tiny Dennis Creevey had acquitted himself well with a nice little Deflecting Jinx that was effective, even if not particularly impressive or unusual compared with some of the other spellwork that had been demonstrated.
Finally, when everyone was conscious and seated again, Ginny strode to the front, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she turned to address them. "That was really great, I mean it. You did some really incredible stuff, things that I've never even heard of before, and that's exactly what we wanted to see tonight. Thinking outside the box. We're going to need that when it comes time to fight, because we'll be up against the best You-Know-Who can throw at us, not just Snape and the Carrows."
Luna came up next to her, a small brown-paper parcel in her hands, and Ginny took it, her smile changing in a way that reminded Neville strongly of the twins. "Now, some people don't know when to quit, but we are an army here, and we follow orders. Although, Ernie, I want to let you know that on the other side of this door, House rivalries are firmly in place, so Hufflepuff had better change their hand signals before the next Quidditch match."
Ernie laughed, raising his hand in a signal that was universally understood, and had nothing to do with Quidditch. Ginny stuck out her tongue at him and returned the gesture, then looked back at the others. "Our bravely battered leadership told us to keep going and make another attack, so that's exactly what we're going to do. Tomorrow morning, everyone will take one of these --"
Slitting the paper with her wand, she opened the box and pulled out several small bundles of tissue and began handing them out to the front row, where they were passed back until everyone had one. Satisfied, she took one herself and handed the box back to Luna, who extracted the last one before vanishing it. "Scatter them wherever you can, just don't get caught. Classrooms, hallways, common areas, the grounds...." She paused, then gave a deliberately inclusive glance at the two Slytherins. "Terrance, Malcolm, if you could get some into the Slytherin common room or the dungeons, that would be great. We want them everywhere. Dobby will even be helping us get them into the Staff Lounge."
Lavender opened her bundle and stirred the contents with her finger, frowning at what looked like a handful of burnt rice. "What are they?"
"Leaflets." She tapped a grain with her wand, and it exploded in a tiny puff of smoke, then the smoke resolved into a sheet of parchment. Ginny grabbed it as it floated towards the floor, waving it in demonstration. "Anthony wrote them, they're fantastic. It's an article about great Muggle-borns in wizarding history. These -" She shook the little tissue bundle, " -won't be noticed when you're scattering them around, but they're set with delayed charms to go off at random times tomorrow afternoon, so if we do it right, the whole school will be filled with these things and we'll all be somewhere completely innocent."
In the front row, Romilda Vane raised her hand. "Won't they be able to just vanish them?"
Luna smiled happily. "Oh, please, Romilda, try."
With a skeptical frown, Romilda waved her wand at the parchment in Ginny's hand. "Evanesco!"
A cascade of parchment flooded from Ginny's grip like a waterfall, and she was forced to drop the original copy as her hand grew too full of the replicas. "They multiply by one hundred every time you try to destroy them. I'm sure there's a way to do it, but the ten most common spells to get rid of something are covered." She took a little bow as a ripple of applause burst out. "Thanks, but credit for that set of spells goes to my brothers and Weasley's Wildfire Whizbangs."
"If they feel like finishing their education, let them know they're really missed, will you?" Colin said, and there was a round of nostalgic, knowing chuckles among the older students who remembered Fred and George's reign of mischief most vividly.
Ginny smiled brightly. "I will, I promise." Turning down the cuffs of her sleeves, she picked up her robe from the chair she had tossed it over at the beginning of the meeting and pulled it on over her jumper. "That's all for tonight, guys. It's twenty to, so let's start getting back to our common rooms. Remember: small groups, don't rush, have an alibi agreed on for where you've been. Meeting dismissed."
As the meeting began to break up, students separating into innocuous pairs and trios of Housemates and friends, Neville motioned towards the sturdy young Slytherin who was standing apart from the others, looking at his Housemate with distaste as Braddock chatted with a Creevey-like eagerness to two Ravenclaws. Runcorn scowled, then crossed over to where Neville lay, his arms folded defensively across his broad chest. "Sir?"
"I stood up for you, Runcorn. Now I want to know why I won't regret that." Neville did not flinch as he met the younger boy's insolent gaze, aware that in his weakened position; he could not afford any chinks in his apparent authority.
"I already told you," Runcorn spat sullenly, "he had my father tortured."
"And if your father is in favor tomorrow, if he's You-Know-Who's right-hand man, how do I know you won't betray us?"
Runcorn shrugged. "Fidelius Charm. What could I say?"
"I didn't ask why you couldn't betray us, I asked why you wouldn't." The younger boy's mouth opened, then shut again, and Neville continued. "My grandmother is Augusta Longbottom. You're too young to remember, but about ten years ago, Lucius Malfoy put a bill before the Ministry that would have legalized use of magic against Muggles who were causing 'harm' as he very loosely defined it. A lot of people tried to have the bill banned before it hit the floor, but my Gran led the movement to have it introduced."
"But I thought -" Runcorn stopped himself, clearly baffled.
"She's always been proud it was defeated in open debate. She taught me that the most dangerous thing that can happen to a civilization is when it starts to prevent people from having their own beliefs and being able to speak those openly. That's what we're fighting for. Not Muggle rights, not Wizard rights, but the right to live and believe whatever we want without fear. You-Know-Who isn't fighting for Pureblood Superiority, Runcorn, he's fighting for his own absolute power, and you've seen what he does with that power."
The room was almost empty now, only a handful of people lagging behind, and Runcorn glanced around before looking back to Neville. When he did, the bravado had melted away, and he suddenly looked very much a child of fourteen, his eyes wide and vulnerable. He knelt down next to the couch, leaning in close so that his next words were between them alone. "I'm scared," he said simply.
Neville shifted, lowering his voice to give the boy privacy. "Of what?"
"Everyone. You were right earlier." His hands twisted the green satin trim of his robes. "If the others find out, I'm dead meat. And the Dark Lord would...." He bit his lip, unable to continue, and Neville reached out a hand, placing it gently on Runcorn's shoulder.
"I know. You're being very brave. I just want you to understand that you really are doing the right thing...do you go by Terrance or Terry?"
"Renny."
"Renny. I think if he really understood what was going on, your Dad would have made some different choices. Because if you really do believe in Pureblood Superiority, you'll have a better chance of seeing it happen - really happen, not some twisted version of it - under an honest government." There was a long pause, and he felt the arm under his hand begin to shake. Over Runcorn's shoulder, he could see Ginny beginning to approach them, and he shot her a warning glance, thankful when she understood and turned away to help see Ernie and his little cluster of Hufflepuffs out the door.
"Dad was with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He's tough, really tough. Our family's been Enforcers for generations. I wanted to be one when I grew up. My Mom's letter said he...he'd begged." Runcorn looked like he didn't quite know whether to be more horrified by this apparent weakness, or the torture that had caused it.
Neville's voice was gentle but firm. "Your Dad has been loyal to the Ministry, he's a Death Eater and a Pureblood. If You-Know-Who is going to repay him like that, he doesn't deserve your loyalty."
