Little Bird

Chapter Fifty-Six

Eve

            I spent Christmas break mostly holed up in my dormitory, lying in bed and rarely leaving the common room even just to eat. Nearly everyone, including Flint and Pansy, had gone home for the holidays, so there was practically no one for me to talk to anyway.

            When break was over and the train brought back the students on Saturday, it was clear a great number of them had chosen not to return. There were several empty seats in most of my classes now, because their parents must have decided that Hogwarts wasn't safe anymore—and they couldn't possibly have been more right. I wished it was that easy for me to up and leave the castle, since the Carrows were making life at Hogwarts even more difficult every day.

            Something had seemed off with Neville and Ginny ever since they'd come back from the holidays. I'd been too afraid to ask them in person—after what happened the last time I tried to talk to Ginny, I didn't dare—so I'd had to learn from Flint and Christian Hunter that Death Eaters had stopped the train on its way to Kings Cross Station and taken Luna. No one had any ideas as to why they had taken her, and I didn't have any clue either—I'd tried Owling Draco about it, but he hadn't replied.

            In fact, he hadn't written to me once since right before Christmas break, and nearly a month and a half had passed since then.

            I was trying not to worry too much; after all, Draco wouldn't want me to be that concerned about him while everything was going on. But nearly every day after my classes were over and I was alone in the dormitory, it seemed there was nothing for me to do except worry. There was no way I could stop my mind from producing images of the worst possible scenarios that could be happening to him, since the last letter he'd sent had been to tell me that things weren't safe for me at the Manor. If it wasn't safe for me, how could it possibly be safe for him?

            But Draco wasn't the only one I was worried about—as the days passed, things between the Carrows and Neville got progressively worse.

            I had to watch terrible things happen to him even during classes, because Neville wasn't someone who could stand by and watch anyone else get hurt. If a student was getting punished by one of the Carrows, he would nearly always step in to try and stop it—which never helped anything. Lately, I found it hard to remember what he looked like without a black eye and bruises.

            I knew it would be useless for me to try and tell him to stop acting out and getting into trouble with the Carrows. Ginny had told me to stay away from him, and it was clear Neville wanted nothing to do with me either; even though I'd done nothing this year but keep quiet in every single class, he still looked afraid of me whenever I would make eye contact with him. Maybe it was because of what had happened between me and Zabini during Herbology before Christmas break—although Zabini and I hadn't said two words to each other since then. I'd just been hoping Neville would eventually realize that standing up to the Carrows was doing much more harm than good, because there was no way for me to even attempt to talk him out of it.

            But things changed when I overheard the Carrows talking about him.

            I'd been on my way to the Slytherin common room after classes had ended for the day, and the hallways were mostly empty because the spring air had finally turned a bit warmer and most people were outside. The Carrows' office was located just a short distance from the Potions classroom in the dungeons, and I had only walked a few feet past the closed door when I realized I could hear every word they were saying to each other.