star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Somehow, Arabella and her friends had managed not to get any detentions throughout the month of September. Usually, not doing your homework would result in a detention, but the Carrows didn't seem to care that half their students weren't turning in assignments, not that they gave them out very often. It was less grading they had to do, after all. They seemed focused on more obvious acts of rebellion and disrespect, which were punished most severely, sometimes going as far as using the Cruciatus Curse on the student.

The members of Dumbledore's Army knew that they couldn't in good conscious allow this to go on without trying to stop it. So, whenever they heard that someone had gotten a detention, they tried to gather all of the details of where the detention would take place and an older student would go to rescue them. Arabella, Ginny, Evelyn, Fraser, and Duncan, along with any other student that had visited Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes before the school year and brought their merchandise to the castle, used what they had to help them rescue their peers from detention. The Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder came in handy particularly well, but they had to use it wisely so that they didn't run out before they could get more during the Christmas holidays, which were a few months away yet.

One early October evening, the DA was just wrapping up one of their meetings in the Room of Requirement. The members were all leaving in small groups except for Neville, Luna, Arabella, and Ginny, who were staying back and making sure everyone left safely. Once the room was empty except for the four of them, Luna spoke up.

"Were you all listening to the Potterwatch broadcast last night?" she inquired.

"Oh, yeah!" Neville said, a look of realization appearing on his face. "Did you hear the part about the sword of Gryffindor?"

"No," Arabella replied, her tone slightly bitter. "I was busy saving Fraser from detention again."

"Again? What'd he do this time?" Ginny questioned.

"Simply dare to exist as a half-blood, probably."

"Anyway," Ginny turned back to Luna and Neville, "what about the sword of Gryffindor?"

"You didn't hear it, either?" Neville asked her.

"No. Evie and I were out. Recruiting, you know."

"Ah," Arabella said. She and the others knew what Ginny meant by 'recruiting.' Every once in a while, a couple members of the DA (typically older members) would sneak out at night to write "Dumbledore's Army, still recruiting" on the castle walls. Snape referred to it as vandalism.

"I figured as much," Luna said. "Well, during yesterday's broadcast, Romulus - who's obviously Remus Lupin - mentioned that he had reason to believe Harry's looking for the sword."

"But why would Harry need a sword?" Arabella asked. "He's a wizard."

"Well, simply being a wizard wasn't enough to save him from that memory of You-Know-Who in the Chamber of Secrets," Ginny reminded her.

"What, you think he's run into another basilisk?"

"No, I don't think he's run into another basilisk, Arabella. But it doesn't matter why he needs the sword, all that's important is that he needs it."

"Exactly," Neville agreed. "And the sword just so happens to be in the headmaster's office here at Hogwarts."

The four of them looked around at each other with grins on their faces.

"You're brilliant, Neville," said Arabella.

They all continued on to formulate a plan to retrieve the sword of Gryffindor for Harry. They decided that during dinner the next day, instead of eating in the Great Hall with everyone else, they would take advantage of the time that Snape would be out of his office to sneak in, quickly take the sword from it's case, and then keep it in the Room of Requirement for safekeeping until they were able to hand it off to Harry. This is exactly what they were still planning on doing when they realized a slight problem 24 hours later as they stood in front of the stone gargoyles guarding the entrance to the headmaster's office.

"We don't know the password to get in, do we?" Neville voiced aloud.

"No, we do not," Ginny replied, sounding frustrated.

"Hold on," Luna said, silencing the two that stood on either side of her. "It looks like Bella's thinking, so she would probably appreciate if we all stopped talking until she's done."

Ginny looked over at her, unsure how to feel about the blonde all but telling her to shut up. Arabella, however, seemed not to have heard any of the exchange and continued to stare at the gargoyles, obviously deep in thought.

"Dark Lord," she said suddenly after a few moments of silence. The gargoyles jumped aside to allow the four entry to the office, and Arabella looked back at the others. "All these Death Eaters are the same."

As they all began to climb the winding staircase that took them up to the office, Ginny said, "I suppose that's the expertise you gain after you date one."

"Ginny, Draco and I broke up a year ago, will you get over it already?"

"You haven't, so why should I?"

Arabella stopped climbing the staircase and turned to face her sister. "That was a low blow, Ginevra."

"Guys, not to be pushy," Neville interjected, "but can you maybe not do this right now? We're in the middle of something important, and we only have so much time left."

"Right," Ginny said, quieting down.

"Sorry," Arabella apologized, doing the same. However, once Neville turned his attention away from the two, she looked over at Ginny and whispered, "This isn't over," to which Ginny responded by dramatically and sarcastically feigning fear.

The group finally got up to the headmaster's office, unable to stop themselves from looking around at the circular room in awe.

"He hasn't changed it," Arabella commented, noticing that the room was the same as it was the one other time she had been in it back in her fifth year. "Not a bit. It's the exact same as it was when it was Dumbledore's."

"It's a bit eerie, if you ask me," Ginny said.

"Do you reckon he would approve of what we're doing?" Neville asked, his eyes on Dumbledore's portrait, which hung behind the headmaster's desk. The subject of the portrait was asleep.

"We're doing it for Harry," Arabella reasoned. "Of course he would."

Luna was the first one that began to walk towards the glass case that held the sword of Gryffindor. The others soon noticed and followed. They did have to use magic in order to open the case, but once they did, they were able to take the sword out fairly easily. But just when they began to make their way out of the office, they heard the entrance down below open, and they knew they were in trouble.

[word count: 1116]
[written: 2/19/21]
[published: 2/19/21]
heyyy it's been a minute