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Written In The Stars CXCV (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: Welcome home, kids -Danny

Words: 4,304

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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Back To Hogwarts.

Ariana Dumbledore smiled at her brother, she turned around and started to walk towards the back of her portrait without uttering a word.

"You know," Erick muttered beside her. "You do look a lot like her."

"I know," Mel replied.

"Er..." Ron started. "What—?"

"There's only one way in now," Aberforth explained. "You must know they've got all the old secret passageways covered at both ends, dementors all around the boundary walls, regular patrols inside the school from what my sources tell me. The place has never been so heavily guarded. How you expect to do anything once you get inside it, with Snape in charge and the Carrows as his deputies... well, that's your lookout, isn't it? You say you're prepared to die."

"That's right," Mel said. "Good to hear the Carrows are still around, I have some pending business with them."

"But what..?" Hermione squinted. "You see that?"

Someone was coming back with Ariana, taller and limping, but it seemed to be quite eager to get to their end. His face was terribly beaten and his hair was quite long a messy, it got closer and closer until the portrait opened in front of them revealing a dark tunnel. Neville looked at them beaming, he jumped out of the edge of the fireplace and enveloped Mel in a tight hug.

"I knew you'd come! I knew it!"

"Neville—what the—how—?"

The boy let go of her only to hug Ron, Harry, Erick, and Hermione in turn.

"Neville!" Mel exclaimed in horror. "Who did this to you?"

He had bruises and dry blood everywhere she looked, his clothes were ripped and unkempt, but he'd never looked this excited.

"I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!"

"Neville, what's happened to you?" Harry insisted.

"What? This?" He vaguely pointed to his injuries. "This is nothing, Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going then? Oh! Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way."

"Couple more?" Aberforth frowned. "What d'you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There's a curfew and a Caurwauling Charm on the whole village!"

"I know, that's why they'll be Apparating directly into the bar," Neville replied gleefully. "Just send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks a lot."

"You've been helping them? The students?" Mel asked in a strange voice.

Aberforth looked at her as if she were asking a really stupid question. "They're innocent children."

Hermione and Ron climbed up to get into the tunnel, Erick made an attempt to follow and she pushed him back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I can't leave you guys on your own, can I?" He raised a brow.

"Yes you can! You're supposed to take my mum and my brother to France!"

"They know where to go, don't you Mily?"

"Yes," The woman nodded calmly. "It's alright, Mel."

"No, it's not. You're not coming, Flint."

"Mel, you already messed up my personal plans," He crossed his arms. "You owe it to me."

"What? That's stupid, I can think of at least ten better ways to repay you."

"This is what I'm supposed to do whether you like it or not," He scowled, pushing her aside. "I'm staying."

Mel let out a frustrated groan, she'd been complaining about people leaving her all the time, but this wasn't the time to change the narrative! She pushed her hair back and looked at her mother.

"You better go as soon as the sun comes out, d'you hear me?"

Emily just smiled at her, behind her Regulus kept on eating the leftovers of Mel's dinner.

"I don't know how to thank you," Harry told Aberforth. "You've saved our lives twice."

"Look after 'em, then," Aberforth grumbled. "I might not be able to save 'em a third time."

Harry climbed over the fireplace and offered his hand to Mel, she looked at her Grandfather one last time.

"My father would've been proud of you if you'd told him the truth. I know I am."

She could've sworn she saw some kind of teary expression on his face before he turned around. Mel climbed up with Harry's help and the portrait closed behind them.

"How long's this been here?" Ron examined the tunnel in wonder. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it, guys? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of the school?"

"They sealed off all of those before the start of the year," Neville explained. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now, not with the curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits."

He was walking backwards so he could continue to see them, he was truly glowing despise all the wounds on his body.

"Never mind that stuff... Is it true? Did you break into Gringotts? Did you escape on a dragon? It's everywhere, everyone's talking about it, Teddy Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"

"Yeah, it's true," Harry said awkwardly.

"What did you do with the dragon?" Neville laughed.

"Released it into the wild. Hermione was all in for keeping it as a pet—"

"Don't exaggerate, Ron—"

"I thought it was sweet!"

Hermione laughed, Neville and Erick both look at the pair weirdly, Mel snorted.

"This is sort of recent," She told them, pointing at the couple.

"Blimey, so Mrs Weasley's right, war causes people to get in stupid relationships..."

"Erick!"

"I'm joking!" He laughed when Ron tried to hit him.

"But what have you been doing?" Neville insisted. "People have been saying you've just been on the run, Harry, but I don't think so. I think you've been up to something."

"You're right, but tell us about Hogwarts, Neville, we haven't heard anything."

"It's been... well, it's not really like Hogwarts anymore," His smile faded. "Do you know about the Carrows?"

"Those two Death Eaters who teach here?"

"They do more than teach. They're in charge of all discipline. They like punishment, the Carrows."

"Like Umbridge?"

"Nah, they make her look tame. The other teachers are all supposed to refer us to the Carrows if we do anything wrong. They don't, though, if they can avoid it. You can tell they all hate them as much as we do."

"Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, except now it's just Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions—"

"What?" They exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's how I got this one," He tilted his face so they could see the cut on his cheek. "I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they've ever been top in anything, I expect."

"Bastards," Mel growled. "When I get my hands on them..."

"You won't," Harry reminded her. "We're going to remain hidden, remember?"

"Alecto, Amycus' sister, teaches Muggle Studies, which is compulsory for everyone. We've all got to listen to her explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drove wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being reestablished. I got this one," He showed them another cut, "for asking how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."

"Blimey, Neville," Ron grimaced, "there's a time and a place for getting a smart mouth."

"You didn't hear her. You wouldn't have stood it either. The thing is, it helps when people stand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you did it, guys."

"But they've used you as a knife sharpener," Ron insisted.

"Doesn't matter. They don't want to spill too much pureblood, so they'll torture us a bit if we're mouthy but they won't actually kill us."

"I think that what you're doing is great," Mel retorted.

"Of course you do," replied the other four.

"I hope this doesn't come off as rude, Mel, but it's weird how much you enjoy being tortured," Hermione said worryingly.

"I don't enjoy it!"

"Well, not enjoy it—but you were laughing and joking a lot when Bellatrix and Greyback were hurting you, as if all of it were some kind of game."

"I was trying to get a rise out of them so they would hurt me more," Noticing this wasn't helping her case, she explained further, "it's the only way I have bursts of magic now!"

"That doesn't make it better," Harry groaned. "Keep going, Neville."

"Well, the only people in real danger are the ones whose friends and relatives on the outside are giving trouble. They get taken hostage. Old Xeno Lovegood was getting a bit too outspoken in The Quibbler, so they dragged Luna off the train on the way back for Christmas."

"Neville, she's all right, we've seen her—"

"Yeah, I know, she managed to sent a message to me," He showed them the D.A. coin. "These have been great! The Carrows never rumbled how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it."

"You used to?" Harry asked doubtfully.

"Well, it got more difficult as time went on. We lost Luna at Christmas, and Ginny never came back after Easter, and the three of us were sort of leaders. The Carrows seemed to know that I was behind a lot of it, so they started coming down on me hard, and then Michael Corner went and got caught releasing a first-year they'd chained up, and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off."

"A first-year!" Mel said in outrage.

"No kidding," Ron growled.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't ask people to go through what Michael did, so we dropped those kinds of stunts. But we were still fighting, doing underground stuff, right up until a couple of weeks ago. That's when they decided there was only one way to stop me, I suppose, and they went for Gran."

"They what?" They all gasped.

"Yeah, well, you can see their thinking. It had worked really well, kidnapping kids to force their relatives to behave, I s'pose it was only a matter of time before they did it the other way around. Thing was," He chuckled, "they bit off a bit more than they could chew with Gran. Little old witch living along, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway, Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run. She sent me a letter, telling me she was proud of me, that I'm my parents' son, and to keep it up."

He grabbed the letter from his pocket and showed it to Erick and Mel.

"Cool," Ron laughed.

"Yeah! Only thing was, once they realized they had no hold over me, they decided Hogwarts could do without me after all. I don't know whether they were planning to kill me or send me to Azkaban, either way, I knew it was time to disappear."

"But... aren't—aren't we heading straight back into Hogwarts?"

"'Course! You'll see. We're here."

Erick slowed down, his face grew worried.

"Neville," He spoke, giving back the letter to the boy. "Does everyone in there think I... you know..."

"That you're a Death Eater?" He raised a brow. "Nah, you're alright. Dean sent us a message as well, we've been hearing Potterwatch so we assumed that it had to be you. It's alright, mate."

Erick nodded, but he didn't look entirely sure. Mel reached out and squeezed his hand encouragingly. Neville pushed open the door in front of them and spoke loud and clear:

"Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"

A string of shouts followed Neville's voice, Mel got a bit disoriented since she didn't recognize this room as part of the castle, especially since it seemed to have decorations of all the houses hanging around and she couldn't remember ever seeing a thing like it in her six years of studying there.

She got pulled into a group hug and saw many familiar faces, friends from her time spent at school, some of them were actually crying in delight.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville called, and it was kinda shocking to see everyone listen to him so intently.

"Where are we?" Harry and Mel asked.

"Room of Requirement, of course! Surpassed itself, hasn't it? The Carrows were chasing me, and I knew I had just one chance for a hideout: I managed to get through the door and this is what I found! Well, it wasn't exactly like this when I arrived, it was a load smaller, there was only one hammock and just Gryffindor hangings, but it's expanded as more and more of the D.A. have arrived."

"And the Carrows can't get in?"

"No," said Seamus, Neville wasn't lying when he said he was looking way worse. "It's a proper hideout, as long as one of us stays in here, they can't get at us, the door won't open. It's all down to Neville. He really gets this room. You've got to ask it for exactly what you need—like, "I don't want any Carrow supporters to be able to get in—and it'll do it for you! You've just got to make sure you close the loopholes! Neville's the man!"

"It's quite straightforward, really," Neville shrugged. "I'd been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that's when the passage to Hog's Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He's been providing us with food, because for some reason, that's the one thing the room doesn't really do."

"Yeah, well, food's one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," said Ron casually.

Hermione held onto his arm and beamed up at him, everyone looked at the pair in surprise.

"So how long you've been in here?" Mel asked so the crowd would stop staring at her friends.

"We've been hiding out here for nearly two weeks," Seamus explained, "and it even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up—"

"—and thought they'd quite like to wash, yes," Lavender crossed her arms.

"Tell us what you've been up to, though," said Ernie. "There've been so many rumors, we've been trying to keep up with you on Potterwatch—You didn't break into Gringotts?"

"They did! And the dragon's true too!"

"Is it true that you've been helping muggle-borns flee the country, Flint?" A Slytherin questioned.

Erick's cheek turned slightly pink as he answered. "I—Yeah, some friends have been helping me."

The crowd erupted into cheers and applause once more, Ron bowed dramatically.

"What were you after?" Seamus inquired excitedly.

"Well, it's a long story..." Mel started.

Next to her Harry hissed and lowered his head, one hand shutting up at his forehead. Mel abruptly remembered why they'd gone to the castle in the first place. The boy stumbled sideways and Erick was quick to catch him before he fell.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville frowned. "Want to sit down? I expect you're tired, aren't—?"

"No," Harry looked at his friends urgently, he moved away from Erick. "We need to get going."

Ron and Hermione nodded, Mel drew out her wand.

"What are we going to do, then, Harry?" Seamus got closer. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Harry blinked. "Well, there's something we—Ron, Hermione, Mel and I—need to do, and then we'll get out of here."

"You forgot to mention me there, mate," Erick raised a brow.

No one moved, Neville crossed his arms. "What d'you mean, 'get out of here'?"

"We haven't come back to stay," Harry was rubbing his scar, he couldn't tell that what he was saying wasn't helping him at all. "There's something important we need to do—"

"What is it?"

"I—I can't tell you."

"Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"

"Well, yeah—"

"Then we'll help you."

"You don't understand," Harry grunted. "We—we can't tell you. We've got to do it—alone."

"Why?" asked Neville.

"Because... Dumbledore left the four of us a job," He looked up again, but he was blinking a lot, Mel started to feel a distant pounding on her forehead. "We weren't supposed to tell—I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the four of us."

"We're his army," Neville shook his head. "Dumbledore's Army. Mel's a Dumbledore and we were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you four have been off on your own—"

"It hasn't exactly been a picnic, mate," Ron retorted.

"I never said it had, but I don't see why you can't trust us. Everyone in this room's been fighting and they've been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. Everyone in here's proven they're loyal to Dumbledore—loyal to you."

"Harry," Mel started carefully. "We should let them help."

Her friends looked at her as if saying 'not now!' but none of them got to speak, because right at that moment the portrait opened, and someone jumped out of it.

"We got your message, Neville! Hello, you four, I thought you must be here!" Dean smiled openly at them. Seamus rushed over to engulf him in a bear hug.

"Hi, everyone!" Luna beamed. "Oh, it's great to be back!"

"Luna," Harry blinked, "what are you doing here? How did you—?"

"I sent for her," Neville said. "I promised her and Ginny that if you turned up I'd let them know. We all thought that if you came back, it would mean revolution. That we were going to overthrow Snape and the Carrows."

"Of course that's what it means," Luna piped up. "Isn't it, guys? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?"

At that Mel did panic, she shared one frightened expression with Harry and the boy tried to calm the crowd.

"Listen, I'm sorry, but that's not what we came back for. There's something we've got to do, and then—"

"You're going to leave us in this mess?" Michael Corner asked.

"No!" Ron said right away. "What we're doing will benefit everyone in the end, it's all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who—"

"Then let us help!" Neville was starting to get angry. "We want to be a part of it!"

Mel wanted to be with her friends, be part of something that could remove some of the guilt she'd been carrying for months. She saw herself leading this group of kids, that could surely take down three adults, and she imagined how it'd be to have Hogwarts as their main quarters.

If they could do that, that would mean Voldemort would have no way to enter, therefore they would be in possession of one of the Horcruxes, and the basilisk was right underneath them as well!

On the other side, though, these kids had gone through enough, they were children that didn't have anything to do with what was happening. She refused to be like Albus, she didn't want to turn them into soldiers before they even had enough common sense to decide for themselves.

The portrait swung open again, out if came down Ginny, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan.

Her mind seemed to short-circuit as the twins grabbed a hold of her and Erick and pulled them in for a suffocating hug.

"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," Fred said to them. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station—Good to see you, Prince! How's your cousin?"

"He's—" Erick stopped and looked at him. "Wait, you know my Joseph?"

"I met him last July," Fred smirked. "Great dancer, but a better kisser."

Mel and Erick gawked and complained loudly at the same time. Cho Chang walked out of the portrait then.

"I got the message!" She said happily, walking over to Michael Corner and giving him a hug.

"So what's the plan, Harry?" said George, his arm still very much around Mel's shoulders.

"Alright," Mel pushed him away. "This is... guys..."

She looked at Harry with pleading eyes.

"Mel, tell me you're not considering it? We have no plan!" Harry looked at her stubbornly.

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind," Fred grinned.

"Perhaps... perhaps we can make it work, Harry," She appealed.

"What the hell are you saying?" Ron frowned. "Most of the people here are kids! They're not of age!"

"They don't have to fight!" Mel insisted. "We can keep them safe in here, and if we manage to take down Snape and take over the castle—"

"Then You-Know-Who comes around and we all die!" Erick stated.

"No!"

"Yes!" Her friends replied.

"You've got to stop this!" Harry turned to Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane—"

"We're fighting aren't we?" Dean raised a brow. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though—"

"You haven't got a wan—?" Seamus asked in bewilderment.

"I got a few," Erick responded as he casually pulled five wands out of his inner pocket.

"Ron, help me on this," Mel approached her friend. "Use that strategic brain of yours and if you tell me this would never work I'll shut my mouth and obey Harry, but if you think there's even the smallest chance we can do it..."

Ron looked down at her with a little frown, he closed his eyes tightly and tapped his foot impatiently, then he turned to look at Harry and blurted out:

"Why can't they help?"

"What?"

"They can help," He grabbed Hermione so she could listen to their conversation and started to speak in a whisper. "We don't know where it is, we've got to find it fast. We don't have to tell them it's a Horcrux."

"Sounds good enough to me," Mel nodded. "If some of us run into the Carrows, though..."

"I need you to hold back your murderous needs for a second," Harry glared at her. He turned to Hermione waiting for her opinion.

"I... I think they're right. We don't even know what we're looking for, we need them! You don't have to do everything alone, Harry."

"Glasses," Mel put a hand on his shoulder. "Years ago it was just the two of us. Then two turned to four, then five... you remember what You-Know-Who's best at? He divides us, turns us against each other. We have a whole crowd of people that have proven time and time again that they want nothing to do with what the Death Eaters are offering. There's safety in numbers!"

Harry closed his eyes tightly, his hand went up to his forehead once more.

"Please, Harry," Mel insisted. "Have I ever been wrong?"

"All right," He muttered. "Okay!"

His voice silenced everyone else's, even Fred and George remained still, waiting for instructions.

"There's something we need to find. Something—something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone ever come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"

"Well, that's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," Michael Corner started, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."

"When was it lost?" Harry asked.

"Centuries ago, they say," Cho shrugged. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"

"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron.

"It's a kind of crown," Terry Boot explained. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons—"

"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Wait," Mel grabbed his arm and clung to it tightly. "Harry... I think you have!"

"What?" He frowned. "No, I haven't!"

"You have!" She insisted. "Last year, you were looking for a place where to hide the potions book, remember? And you came in here, and you told me exactly where you'd hidden it! You said you knew where you'd put it because—"

"There was a warlocks' head and I put a weird tiara on it," Harry grabbed her by the shoulders. "That's true!"

"But how can we know that was it?" Hermione frowned. "That place was full of rubbish, Harry! What if it was just a random tiara?"

"We should make sure first," Ron nodded. "You'd need to kick everyone out of this room to check—and I don't think that risking all of the younger students to get caught is a good idea if we're not certain that's it..."

"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry. Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue," Cho offered politely.

Harry groaned again.

"He's on the move," He whispered to her and his friends. "Listen, I'm going to go and look at this statue, find out what the diadem looks like so I can confirm Mel's right. Wait for me here and keep, you know— the other one— safe..."

Cho got to her feet, Mel found herself blurting out:

"Luna should go as well! Safety in numbers, remember? And two Ravenclaws are better than one!"

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to!" Luna smiled brightly.

Erick and the twins looked away to hide their knowing smirks, Cho looked slightly disappointed.

"How do we get out?" Harry inquired.

"Over here..." Neville walked towards a bookshelf.

Mel grabbed Harry's wrist to get his attention.

"Be careful," She whispered. "Come back to me in one piece, alright?"

Harry seized her hand and kissed it briefly before following Neville.

"Always."

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