ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀ 4

waitin' for a sign from you

Dean and Seamus and I left earlier than the others to meet Neville outside Moody's office. They seemed to be finishing up as we arrived. Neville held a rather large volume under his arm and his eyes looked rather red. Professor Moody nodded when he saw us coming down the corridor.

"Ah, see there, here come your friends now."

Neville waved at us, smiling, before turning back to Moody. "Thanks for the book, Professor."

"Of course, Longbottom," he nodded, one eye on us, the other on Neville. "Being an Auror means you can recognize another's strengths. You were really brave in class today, sonny. Give yourself some more credit."

"How'd it go?" Dean asked as the four of us rounded the corner.

"It was alright," Neville shrugged. "He turned out to be nice. He just wants us to be ready, I suppose."

Ready for what? I wanted to prompt him, but decided against it in the moment. His gaze was far off, expression longing.

"Perhaps he's just old-fashioned, as well as a bit mad," I mused. "I still don't like him, and I don't like what he put you and Harry through today."

"We talked about my parents, in his office," Neville told me softly. "He said he arrested the Death Eaters that hurt them. He's a good guy, he's just tough."

"If you say so," I reached out and patted him between the shoulders. Only because I'd spent so much time with Neville could I tell that he was putting on a brave face, and I knew Dean and Seamus knew it too. We walked back to the common room making subdued small talk, but I was immediately accosted once inside.

"Lila!"

Hermione had materialized beside me and started tugging my arm toward a table where Harry and Ron were sitting.

"Sorry, boys, but I have to borrow her for a second," Hermione told Seamus, Neville, and Dean. Hermione led me to a box filled with monogrammed buttons.

"Ah, so I see you went with spew," I said. Quickly, I corrected myself, "I mean, S.P.E.W."

"Lila is Vice President and campaign manager," Hermione said proudly to Harry and Ron. I blinked.

"I am?" I asked blankly. Hermione looked at me very seriously.

"Of course. People listen to you. You're an essential part of us reaching our goals," she cleared her throat. "Which is, by the way, where I'd left off: Our short-term aims are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly underrepresented."

I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to get people to go along with this, but I was flattered that Hermione thought I could.

"And how do we go about doing this?" Harry asked, seeming more amused than anything.

"We start by recruiting members," Hermione said, seeming very pleased that Harry had asked. "I thought two Sickles to join — that buys a badge — and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer, Ron — I've got you a collecting tin upstairs — and Harry, you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting."

There was a pause. Ron looked as if he'd been hit over the head, Harry was trying to hide his laugh, and I was still puzzling over the rapid events that had just occurred. My mind was still trying to process the whole issue with Moody and suddenly I'm campaign manager for elf-rights.