Potter

Chapter 52

“Shh. Come in- Quietly. Quietly! Do you want them the hear you?” I shushed the gaggle of second years as they walked into the Room of Requirement. The hall was empty now, and the Carrows were in a meeting with Snape, but Slytherins still roamed the halls and I did not need to have one appear when I was herding second years into a forbidden meeting.

“Sorry Alecia.” A girl whispered, the last of her friends to enter the room. I stepped in after them, making sure the door shut with a loud click before turning to face. For such a shushed event a lot of people had turned up, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors alike. No Slytherins had showed.

“Is that everyone?” I asked Neville as I walked towards him. He stood near the front of the room, looking somewhat nervous as he stared out at the crowd in front of him. He gave a quick nod.

“I think so.”

“Are you alright?” My voice dropped, and I watched with concern as Neville gave a small nod. This was, after all, in many ways his moment. He, a small nobody to many, was going to become a very important somebody to everybody very quickly.

“Just a little nervous. I’ve never really spoken to a lot of people before, you know?” He said, his voice hushed. I smiled, reaching over and squeezing his arm encouragingly.

“You’ll do just fine, Neville. Gin, Luna and I are right up here with you.”

“I know. I just understand why I have to be the one to speak.”

“Because people will listen.” Ginny said, coming up to us with a small smile. She was practically humming with energy. “You’re kind, Neville. More people have noticed than you think. They’ll want to listen to you.”

“I should hope so.” Neville said, shaking his head.

“They will.” Luna’s voice was soft, her hand gently placed on Neville’s shoulder. Neville smiled, grateful for the encouragement before he turned back to the ground, clasping his hands in front of him.

“Well, I’m sure you all know why you’re here.” He began, biting his lips. There were a few murmurs from the crowd, but they remained fairly silent. Neville took that as a nod to continue.

“Right. Death Eaters have infiltrated Hogwarts. We have them as our Headmaster, our teachers, and even some of our fellow students. Hogwarts is not safe anymore, for anyone. So that’s why we- Ginny, Luna, Alecia and I, wanted to restart Dumbledore’s Army. And we want you all to help us.”

_

“I think it went rather successful.” Ginny said to Neville from where she was lying on the couch. The three of us sat in the Gryffindor common room after the meeting, all feeling rather exhausted.

“Well, it certainly could have gone worse. We’re gonna need more medallions though, don’t you think?” I said, staring up at the ceiling. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Neville shrug indifferently.

“Nah. People will keep the others informed. Besides, it’s better to keep as little evidence as possible on people, especially the younger years.” 

“ ‘Suppose you have a point.” I murmured. It was around seven. The meeting had been a little under an hour, and we had only covered the basics: How that the school and the students needed to be defended, and that if it wasn’t us to do the defending, there wouldn’t be anybody.

“What time is dinner?”

“Same as always, Gin.” Neville said, though he did make the effort to tilt his head up and looking at the clock. “Though it’s in about five minutes.”