It's School, Not a Sanctuary

It's School... Not a Sanctuary

Scheming and Sorting

It definitely wasn't going to be the same: Luna knew that before she set foot on the usual steamy, loud platform. I guess it won't be that bad, she thought. At least I'll have Neville and Ginny to keep me company.

As though thinking of them summoned them to her side, she turned to see Ginny pulling Neville along by his sleeve.

"Hey Luna," Ginny called over to her.

Luna glided over and smiled broadly at them. "Hello Ginny, hello Neville."

Her eyes made contact with Neville's face, but the angle in which she normally let her eyes fall on him had changed. He seemed to have grown a head taller over the holidays. Trying to think of something nice to say, she continued, "You're tall."

Neville grinned. "Thanks, Luna. You look very nice today."

This was actually true, for once. Even if she was wearing a purple cardigan over a green and yellow caftan, she had brushed her hair more today, and had combed it out of her face, showing her protuberant eyes.

"Thank you, Neville," Luna said serenely. "Daddy says in the holidays were going looking for a Glimping Hornberry - and they're almost as tall as you."

Neville grinned, as though he couldn't have had a higher compliment bestowed upon him.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her two friends making obvious, bizarre attempts at flirting.

"Once you two have finished this small bonding exercise...do you mind if we go and find a compartment?"

Ginny's statement brought Neville and Luna back to Earth and they dragged their trunks onto the train to find an empty compartment. For the first time in Neville's memory, they didn't have to travel far. He guessed peoples parents were still saying their goodbyes as though they may never meet again under the "new regime."

Neville helped Ginny and Luna put their trunks into the luggage racks and then dropped himself onto the seat nearest the doorway, resting his head on the pane. Ginny sat cross-legged opposite him, and Luna kneeled on the floor, seeming to have forgotten that there were four free seats. Placidly, she opened a copy of the Quibbler, the front of which read: Stand Together or United We Fall! Neville noticed it was an article about recruiting people for the "anti-Voldemort" resistance, with a large picture of Harry under it.

"Wow!" Ginny exclaimed. "It's great that your dad's still writing stuff like that. We need more people like him."

Luna looked over the top of the magazine and smiled. "Oh yes, father's all for Harry at the moment. I think he's very proud of the fact that I know him. He says he really is the only one who can stop You-Know-Who. I of course believe this too, I'm sure Harry, Ron and Hermione are going to come back, only when they've found what they're looking for."

After that illuminating reply, Luna went back to the Quibbler as if she'd said nothing out of the ordinary. Used to this kind of behavior, Neville and Ginny grinned at each other.

"You know, I've been thinking over the summer," Neville began, "and I've decided that we really should start the DA again, even if Harry, Ron and Hermione aren't here."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "But they were kind of like the ring leaders. I mean -" she amended at Neville's imploring look, " - that it won't be as simple without them, we're not dealing with stupid Ministry officials anymore. This is the real thing...I mean, Snape killed Dumbledore! If we do this, it's not messing around anymore."

"Yes but the whole point of the DA was to help us practice for the real thing and here it is, staring us in the face," Neville replied with a note of indignation in his voice.

Luna, now intrigued by the conversation, put down her magazine and sat on the seat next to Ginny. "I think it would be really exciting," she said breathlessly, staring at Neville. "It was just like having friends."

Even though this was a common phrase that Luna used, Ginny and Neville still glanced at each other uncomfortably. Luna's penchant for truth telling was sometimes quite awkward.

"We should start it again," continued Luna, oblivious to the embarrassed silence, "and only tell people who we can trust." She paused for a minute. "And, of course, they'll have to be some sort of test to make sure we're not being infiltrated by vampires...or Death Eaters..."

"Death Eaters?" Neville looked alarmed.

"I think she just means that we have to catch Snape and the Carrows off guard, Neville," Ginny said soothingly.

Neville looked towards Luna for confirmation, but Luna was spared replying as someone spoke from the doorway.

"What're you talking about?"

Ginny, Luna and Neville turned to the doorway to find Parvati, Padma and Lavender entering the compartment.

Luna smiled serenely, her protuberant eyes widening. "Well, I was thinking about some sort of water torture...or I've heard that there's a dragon underneath Hogwarts. We could steal that, and..."

"Not that," Neville said loudly. "How we're going to catch Snape off guard!"

Ginny leaned forward, a slightly cheeky glint in her eye. "Well, I think we should stand up to them. You know - pull pranks, make things go missing, destroy priceless heirlooms...basically follow in Fred and George's footsteps," she finished, grinning. "If they don't know who's behind any of the stunts, it'll keep them permanently on edge. We should keep things very quiet, not only for our own safety, but because it'll just scare them even more."

Trying to break the silence Parvati said, "Yeah, that's all well and good, but we have far fewer people than we used to in the DA. I mean, what are we supposed to do with all the muggle-borns gone? Merlin knows where Harry, Ron and Hermione are, and all the older students, the ones who were best at magic, have left."

"Well aren't you the optimist!" muttered Neville under his breath and everyone laughed.

~*~*~

The journey to Hogwarts progressed quicker than Ginny had expected. When the train drew into Hogwarts station, she looked out the window to see a familiar, heart-warming site. Peering down the station she was relieved to see the gigantic figure of Rubeus Hagrid shouting his signature line of, "Firs' years! Firs' years this way!"

Stepping out the train on to the cold platform, she held out her hand to help Luna get down and the three of them walked along the platform, to join the queue to get onto the Thestral drawn carriages.

"Hi guys," Ginny shouted at three figures ahead of them. The figures turned and Neville could make out the tall silhouettes of Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot and Michael Corner.

Ginny didn't feel awkward at all around Michael: they hadn't talked for a while after they had broken up, but after the last summer holidays their hostility had been subdued somewhat.

Once they got in to one of the carriages, Terry brought out a pack of Exploding Snap cards and started dealing them out. People were reluctant to pick them up and start playing, as it was a well-known fact that Terry was the Exploding Snap champion, but they did so all the same.

"I was wondering - did any of you think about restarting the DA over the summer?" Anthony asked, in a way that showed that he for one was desperate to restart the club.

Neville, Luna and Ginny exchanged looks and grinned at him. "What?" Anthony asked, looking slightly affronted.

"Oh, it's nothing," Ginny assured him. "It's just that we had the same conversation on the train."

The three Ravenclaw boys looked very pleased about this. "You think we should restart it then?" Michael asked eagerly.

"Oh yeah we're all for it, but I guess some people will need a bit of persuading," Ginny replied, but looking at their confused faces she continued. "I mean, we're not dealing with a few pompous gits from the Ministry this time, are we? This is really it, what we've all been freaked about... and there are a lot less of us now."

"Yeah I guess," said Terry, looking crestfallen. "I mean, we could persuade Padma to ask some of the girls, and we could ask some of the guys... you know, ones we can trust. SNAP!" he added, to various groans.

"Finally," Ginny smiled at him, "someone who sees sense. I think we've got some major planning to do." The others all looked a little worried by this, and turned to face her.

She grinned again at their anxious faces and elaborated on her statement. "Come on people, it's now our turn to be leaders. All the time we've been happy to help out and follow plans, but never to lead. As much as I really miss my brothers and other friends, we're stuck here so we might as well make the most of it. Don't you want to make the resistance on the outside proud of what their children are doing? Don't you want to take chances like we did two years ago, stand up for what we want, and have fun doing it?"

Ginny gave them all questioning looks and they all broke into laughter. But not laughter at what Ginny had said, that was quite clear. All five of them were ready to do anything to get back at the man who had changed their school, their second home, forever.

~*~*~

As they walked into the packed room, the Ravenclaws stopped off at their table, whereas Neville and Ginny carried on to the other end of the hall. They saw a familiar windswept face with collar length sandy hair falling into his eyes, slightly obscuring his vision waving at them.

They went over to join Seamus, who was sitting opposite Parvati and Lavender. He looked slightly saddened as they sat down, peering around at them, obviously searching for someone.

"He's not going to be here," Lavender said sympathetically, looking and Seamus. He nodded, and Ginny understood. He was looking for Dean, but she knew he wouldn't be coming back: he had no proof he wasn't muggle-born.

Seamus turned to Ginny and Neville with an eager expression on his face. "Is Harry coming back, do you know?"

They both shook their heads in a solemn sort of way, then, completely unexpectedly, someone exclaimed in a hoarse whisper behind them.

"WHAT! You mean he's just going to leave us here?"

They all looked up to see Jimmy Peakes had joined in their discussion. "Well you hardly expected him to just stroll into the building with Death Eaters and Dementors swarming around it!" Ginny snapped back, fuming.

Neville was looking sympathetic, but Seamus urged her on. "Well, what about Ron or Hermione? Come on, you can't mean neither of them are coming back too?"

"Well Hermione's a Muggle born, isn't she, so she'd be pretty screwed if she came back," replied Parvati before Ginny could answer.

"But why isn't Ron coming back?" Lavender asked, looking worried.

At this Ginny did something utterly bewildering. She broke out into a fit of giggles. Looking at their expressions she explained. "Well the Death Eaters know he's a really good friend of Harry's, so..." She broke off, looking worried, and glanced around to see if anyone was listening in. "You swear not to tell anyone?"

They assured her with nods and she continued. "He's pretending to have a bad bout of Spattergroit!"

"What do you mean? How can you pretend to have Spattergroit?" Parvati asked, confused.

Ginny was on the tip of explaining, but she was silenced almost immediately by the doors opening at the other end of the hall.

The Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables seemed to all breathe a sigh of relief to see the usual sight of first years being shepherded into the hall by the unyielding, straight-backed figure which belonged to the aging Professor McGonagall.

The hat was placed on its usual stool and after its song, the sorting had began. Neville noticed the line was a lot shorter than last year.

Probably owing to the fact that no letters would have been sent to Muggle-Borns, he thought, disgusted.

"Avery, Rees," Professor McGonagall called. Neville looked up - he'd heard that name before. An extremely tall boy, broad shouldered, with thick black hair in a short ponytail walked up to the hat a placed it on his head.

A few seconds later the hat roared, "Slytherin!"

Neville booed and hissed along with all the other Gryffindors, as Rees joined the rest of the Slytherins. He turned to Seamus and asked, "Who's Head Boy and Girl this year, I never found out. Is it someone like Ernie?"

Seamus sniggered. "You really think our new Headmaster would have put Ernie Macmillan as head boy? Nah... It's that Blaise Zabini git, and Parkinson's head girl." Lavender and Parvati exchanged looks that blatantly said what they thought of the appointment of Pansy Parkinson as head girl.

"Did I tell you," Seamus began, "my sister is starting this year!" And sure enough, a few minuets later Professor McGonagall called out the name, "Finnigan, Sorrel." A pretty little girl with golden brown hair in bunches and a few freckles spattered across her nose stepped up to put the hat on. It contemplated for a while this time, before shouting, "Gryffindor!"

Seamus almost jumped out of his seat with delight as the little girl ran over to the Gryffindor table to meet her elder brother. Seamus ruffled her hair with pride and turned back to watch the rest of the sorting.

A few more familiar faces were sorted this year than usual, Anthony Goldstein's younger brother became a Ravenclaw next and a few minutes after that another girl was called up as, "Parkinson, Mina." The hat seemed to take ages on this girl, supposedly a relative of Pansy's, until it shouted, "Gryffindor!"

From the other side of the hall, Ginny saw Pansy swear and give the small girl a look of deepest loathing. The girl walked, head bowed, over to the Gryffindor table, looking worried. Ginny, noticing that this little girl might need a bit of comfort, gestured her to come and join them. Mina reluctantly obliged.

Now that they could see her up close, Ginny noticed that she looked nothing like her older sister. She had chestnut coloured hair and large, navy blue eyes. Now that Ginny came to think about it, she might not have been Pansy's sister at all.

After the sorting Snape didn't even stand up to make a speech, he just gave a slight nod to the students and the food appeared in front of them as usual. Seamus helped himself to steak and kidney pudding, and then turned to the girl sitting next to Ginny. "You any relation to the Pug sitting over there?" he asked, gesturing to the Slytherin table. "OUCH!" he added suddenly, and Ginny guessed by the annoyed look on his face that Lavender had just kicked him in the shins.

However the little girl smiled and answered, "She's my cousin. I really didn't want to be a Slytherin, I can't stand her boyfriend. You know, the kind of short one with blonde hair who sneers at everything. I can't see him over there though."

Neville noticed that this reply came with a superb streak of confidence for a first year. "Oh yeah, we know her boyfriend," he said darkly, and went back to his shepherds pie.

Sorrel looked around, as though wondering who best to query her thoughts with and then asked Parvati, "Is it true you guys have a secret society?"

Seamus sniggered and ruffled his sister's hair again.

"I'm guessing Seamus here's told you all about Dumbledore's Army then?" said Lavender with a grin, giving Seamus a glowing look.

He winked at her and replied, "Well you've got to talk about something in the holidays don't you! Hell, we could do with some new blood in the DA if we're going to carry it on."

At the end of the meal, the puddings and dirty plates vanished to leave their places clean again. Professor Snape waited for silence before getting up off the headmaster's chair, to look down at all of them. He definitely didn't have the same warming presence as Professor Dumbledore: he looked solemn and sour, and had an expression on his face as though didn't really want to be there. However he spoke in his usual, carrying voice.

"We have two new staff appointments this year. Alecto Carrow," he gestured to the stout, ugly woman on his right, wearing blood red robes, "will be teaching Muggle Studies due to the early retirement of Professor Burbage, whereas her brother Amycus Carrow," he indicated to the man sitting on the right of his sister, wearing jet black robes with a high collar, "will be taking up my old post of as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

With that he sat down, not choosing to make any announcements, which made everyone look around and start muttering perplexedly.

At this point they saw Snape nod towards Professor McGonagall and she stood up instead. "I have been told to explain the usual notices which are normally given out by the Headmaster." She gave Snape a contemptuous look before turning back to her audience. "The Forbidden Forest is, as ever, out of bounds. Any items bought at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes are banned, and Filch tells me he would like to emphasise this rule on any form of fireworks bought on those premises." Her mouth twitched and the students could tell that she was on the verge of smiling, obviously remembering the catastrophic incident with those fireworks two years ago. "Please give your names to your house Quidditch Captains if your wish to apply for the team, and lessons will start at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. So for now, goodnight." She sat down again as the students rose from their seats and, talking loudly, exited the hall.

Demelza Robins and Felicity Spinnet, two girls in Ginny's dormitory, caught up with the group as they left the hall.

"Hey, Ginny," Demelza started. Ginny turned around to meet her. "I was wondering if you know who's Quidditch Captain this year?"

Ginny looked puzzled at this comment at first but then replied, "Oh yeah, it won't be Harry now, will it?"

"No. I just thought McGonagall might've given you the Captainship instead, seeing as you've been on the team for the longest."

Ginny smiled at her and the group carried on up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower. As she was putting on her pyjamas and climbing into bed, Ginny started to think of Harry and hope desperately that he, Ron and Hermione were all right.

Resting on her pillow, she stared around at her dormitory that she'd known so well for five years. Demelza and Felicity were both chatting to people in the common room, and Leonie had already gone to sleep, and then she noticed an empty bed near the North window. Of course, she thought bitterly, Jade Markston wouldn't have come back, that poor, sweet, sixteen year old girl was on the run or halfway to Azkaban.

This terrible, heart-wrenching thought, made Ginny reach out, subconsciously, for the Galleon that was lying on her bedside table. Just touching it, knowing it was there, reassured her enough to close her eyes and get some sleep.