Chapter Sixteen
Surprise After Surprise After Surprise

“You need to focus on now” I said, grabbing Jamie’s face and forcing him to look at me. “Forget the future! We’ll change it- we have to!” I was talking more to myself at that point, but he nodded, pulling my hands away and kissing my palm.

“Live in the present, I know” He said, planting a kiss on the inside of my left wrist quickly. I stiffened as a faint stabbing pain started in my temple. “What?” I ignored him, turning to pull open the door as Hermione stumbled to a stop.

“Situation with Harry” She said, turning and retracing her steps. I glanced back to see Jamie drawing his wand and nodding.

“Are you all right, Harry?” I heard Neville ask as we hurried to the front of the crowd. “Do you want to sit down? I expect you’ve got what Alicia’s got-”

“No” I snapped, making little shooing motions at him and he stepped aside quickly. “Harry’s fine, aren’t you?”

“We need to get going” He retorted, staring at me. I felt the colour drain from my face and I half glanced at the others to see the same reaction.

“See? Fine” I mumbled, stepping back.

“What’s the plan?” We all stared at Seamus with different reactions. Jamie and Hermione looked confused, Harry looked strained, Ron looked completely lost and I was positive I had a look of total shock plastered on my face.

“Plan?” Harry repeated, glancing round to catch the look of understanding dawn on my face.

“There’s something we- Ron, Hermione, Jamie, Harry and I- need to do” I said slowly, my hair turning the colour of golden wheat. “Then we’re leaving”

The room fell deadly silent and every eye fell on me.

“What do you mean?” Neville asked, confusion clouding his face.

“We haven’t come back to stay” I said calmly. “Leave it alone” I added, slapping Harry’s hand away from his scar.

“There’s something important we need to do-” Harry said, frowning at me, and Neville rounded on him.

“What is it?”

“We- we can’t tell you” Harry’s words made Neville’s eyebrows contract and caused a ripple of mutinous muttering to surge through the listening crowd.

“Why can’t you tell us?” Neville countered, his eyes cutting from Harry to me and back again repeatedly. “It’s got something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?”

“Well, yeah” Harry said, frowning at me as I slapped his hand away again.

“Of course it does, Nev” I started, trying to diffuse the mounting tension.

“Then we’ll help you” Neville cut in, sweeping an arm across the crowd of DA members, who were nodding or standing up.

“You don’t understand” Harry said, starting to sound tired. “We can’t tell you. We’ve got to do it- alone”

“Why?” Neville ordered, sounding much older than he looked.

“Because…” Harry trailed off, shooting me a desperate look.

“Because Dumbledore left the five of us a job, and he wanted just us to do it” I said, brushing strands of chocolate hair out of my face.

“We’re his Army” Neville started, and I stifled the urge to roll my eyes.

“I’m not saying you’re not!” I got in quickly, but he continued, ignoring me.

“Dumbledore’s Army. We were all in it together, remember? We’ve been keeping it going while you’ve been off on your own-”

“It hasn’t exactly been a picnic, Neville” Ron said quickly, and Neville glanced at him.

“I never said it had-”

“Good, because we’ve been through hell- and Alicia’s just found out her family is dead-” Jamie added, his wand still held tightly in his hand.

“And we’re sorry about that, really” Neville said, glancing at my face quickly. “But I don’t see why you can’t trust us!” He said, his voice getting louder. “Everyone in this Room’s been fighting and they’ve been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down” Neville’s serious gaze swept over us and landed on Harry. “Everyone in here’s proven they’re loyal to Dumbledore- loyal to you”

“Look-” Harry started, looking awkward.

“We got your message, Neville!” I spun round so fast my hair, which was now bright green and down to my waist, whipped Ron round the face, turning pure white. “Hello you five, I thought you must be here!”

“Lu?” Jamie frowned, lowering his wand as he helped her climb down from the tunnel entrance. Seamus’s roar of delight told me Dean was with her.

“Hi, everyone! Oh, it’s great to be back!” Luna continued, smiling happily and ignoring my look of utmost shock.

“Luna, what are you doing here? How did you- ?” Harry said, completely distracted.

“Neville” I hissed, rounding on him as my hair slowly turned to black.

“I sent for her” He said, ignoring me and holding the fake DA Galleon out for us to see. “I promised her and Ginny that if you turned up, I’d let them know”

“Ginny?” Ron repeated, frowning and becoming distracted himself.

“You- you all thought that if we came back, it would mean revolution- that we’d overthrow Snape and the Carrows” I said into the silent room, my messy black hair turning into sickly green curls. I felt Jamie step up behind me and leaned into his chest, closing my eyes.

“Of course that’s what it means!” Luna said brightly, not catching on to the strained atmosphere. “Isn’t it? We’re going to fight them out of Hogwarts?” I turned my head away and down as Jamie rubbed my arms soothingly.

“Listen, I’m sorry, but that’s not what we came back for!” Harry blurted in his panic.

“You’re going to leave us in this mess?” Michael Corner’s voice demanded.

“No! What we’re doing will benefit everyone in the end!” Ron said loudly. “It’s all about trying to get rid of You-Know-Who-”

“Then let us help you!” Neville said angrily, and his anger broke through my thoughts. “We want to be a part of it!” There was a scuffling sound behind us and I looked up to see Ginny, Fred, George and Lee climbing into the Room. Ginny gave Harry a blinding smile, who just stared at her, while the twins gave me a tight double hug, waving to the crowd.

“Abenforth’s getting a bit ratty” Fred said, as Lee replaced him, hugging me quickly before joining the crowd. “He wants a kip and his bar’s turned into a railway station” I just stared at the tunnel entrance, my hair a sickly green still but now streaked with white as Cho appeared next.

“So, what’s the plan?” George’s question brought back my anger at Neville, causing my hair to curl and darken.

“There isn’t one” Harry answered automatically, raising a hand to his burning scar.

“Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favourite kind-” Fred said, grinning up until the point where I cut him off.

“You’ve got to stop this!” I yelled at Neville, who took an automatic step back as the room fell deathly silent. “What did you call them all back for? This is insane-”

“Alicia!” Ginny gasped, shocked.

“We’re fighting, aren’t we?” Dean said, cutting me off and offering his fake Galleon. “The message said you were back and we were going to fight! I’ll have to get a wand, though-”

“You haven’t got a wand-” Seamus started, but Ron caught my attention as he stepped between Harry and me.

“Why can’t they help?” He asked quietly, turning to glance round at each of us.

“What?” Harry and I said together- him confused and me outraged.

“We don’t where it is, and we’ve got to find it fast. We don’t have to tell them it’s a Horcrux” Ron explained, just loud enough for us to hear.

“No” I said cuttingly, glaring at him, which he pointedly ignored. “We can’t get them involved!” I hissed. “It’s too dangerous!”

“Everything we’ve done so far is dangerous!” Ron countered, and Jamie’s hands appeared on my shoulders. Harry’s gaze swept over us quickly.

“I think Ron’s right” Hermione said, speaking at last. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for, we need them” Harry looked like he was agreeing with me. “You don’t have to do everything alone Harry”

Harry’s thoughts started churning and I glared at him. “Listen to me! You’re nothing like Dumbledore! You have us- you’re not alone! We get them involved, and it’ll end badly!” I snapped but I knew I had lost.

“All right” He murmured, glancing at Ron, Hermione and, surprisingly, Jamie.

“You agree with this?” I ground through my clenched teeth, turning round to glare at him. “After what I told you?”

“What if that happens because we leave them out?” He countered, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you” I spat, glaring at the three of them before turning to the crowd, who fell into an excited and alert silence immediately. “There’s something we need to find, something that’ll help us overthrow You-Know-Who” I said slowly, gazing into the faces carefully. “It’s here, at Hogwarts, but we don’t know where” I paused, glancing at Harry quickly and sighing. “I’m certain it belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard or come across an object of hers? Something with an Eagle on it or something?” I asked, my gaze lingering on the little knot of Ravenclaws on the far right of the group. Terry glanced at Michael, who shrugged and turned to look up at Padma, who looked to Cho, who gave me an apologetic look.

“Well, there’s her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The Lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy’s trying to duplicate it” Luna said from the arm of Ginny’s chair, which was close to where we stood.

“Yeah, but the lost diadem is lost, Luna, that’s sort of the point” Michael said, rolling his eyes.

“Luna, remember we told you Daddy almost killed us?” Jamie said, making the twins snort with laughter at his tone before they realised what he was saying.

“Enough” I snapped, whacking Jamie in the stomach and glaring at the twins, who fell into a silence only reserved for a friend’s death bed. “When was it lost?” I demanded, my gaze sharp as I refocused on the Ravenclaws.

“Centuries ago, they say” Terry said immediately, looking slightly panicked.

“Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but nobody’s ever found a trace of it, have they?” Cho continued, glancing round at the others, who shook their heads. I turned to Harry, raising an eyebrow and giving him a ‘well, I told you so’ look.

“Sorry, but what is a diadem?” Ron said and despite my still slightly high temper, my lips twitched up at the side.

“It’s a sort of crown” Padma said from her perch on Terry’s chair arm. “Ravenclaw’s was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer”

“Yes, Daddy’s Wrackspurt siphons-”

“Enough, Luna” Jamie sighed, making me hit him again.

“And none of you have seen anything like it?” Harry asked desperately. They shook their heads again and he swapped a disappointed look with the others, ignoring me.

“If you’d like to see what the diadem’s supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room, Harry? Ravenclaw’s wearing it in her statue” Cho said nervously and I turned to narrow my eyes at her.

The room pitched suddenly and I staggered under the immense pain that suddenly appeared in my temples as Harry swayed. Whatever Voldemort was doing, it was suddenly affecting me, too.

“He’s on the move” He said quietly, pulling us closer together. I saw him glance over his shoulder at Cho, and I locked eyes with Ginny for half a second. “I know it’s not much of a lead, but I’m going to look at this statue, at least I can find out what it looks like. Wait here and keep the other one safe-”

“You are not going into the castle on your own!” I snapped, glaring at him. “We promised that after Christmas and when- when Ron came back, we weren’t going to split up again!” I said, faltering slightly over my sentence.

“Ali, we can’t all go strolling through the castle!” Jamie retorted and I squished the urge to roll my eyes at him.

“I know that, Captain Obvious, thank you” I shot at him and he smirked.

“No problem, Sargent Sarcastic” I ignored him and looked Harry directly in the eye.

“I’m coming with you”

“No way” Jamie said sharply, his voice going flat with supressed anger.

“Look, I can send you all an image of the diadem telepathically, and foresee any dangers” I said, giving Cho a quick glance.

“Fine, just be careful” Jamie sighed, sensing I wasn’t going to change my mind and kissing me briefly, making the twins wolf- whistle.