Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
✴ ✴ ✴ ✴
"Neville!"
Neville had a wide grin on his face gave a roar of delight and leapt down from the mantelpiece.
"I knew you'd come back!" he yelled, pulling Mia and Harry into a tight hug.
Mia looked at Neville, the worse he appeared. One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living rough. Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!"
"What the fuck?" Mia laughed.
"Hey, Ab!" Neville called, "we've got a couple more coming through. Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."
Neville held out his hand to Mia and Hermione and helped them climb up onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel, Harry and Ron followed, then Neville. There were smooth stone steps on the outside. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as they walked, their shadows rippled, fanlike, across the wall.
"Don't remember this on the Marauder's Map," Mia said as they walked.
"That's because it never existed till now," Neville told her, "the seven secret passages were sealed off, before the start of the year. This is the only way in or out, now. The grounds are crawled with Death Eaters and Dementors."
"How bad is it with Snape as headmaster?" Hermione asked.
"Hardly ever seen," Neville told her, "it's the Carrows you need to be watching out for."
"Carrows?" Ron asked.
"Yeah. Brother and sister," Neville told them, "in charge of discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows."
"They did that to you?" Mia asked as Neville nodded. "Why?"
"Today's Dark Arts lesson was practicing the Cruciatus curse, on first years," Neville said as Mia looked horrified. "I refused. Hogwarts has changed."
"Not shit," Mia said, looking horrified.
"Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?" Neville asked with a sly grin. They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. As Mia followed, she heard Neville call out to unseen people:
"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"
As Mia and Harry emerged into the room beyond the passage, there were several screams and yells:
