"NEVILLE!" Kamrynn yelled and shoved her way in front of Neville when he tried to hug Ron and Hermione after he had finished hugged Harry. "What happened to you?" she said, slapping his shoulder after she hugged him tightly. 

 I looked at Neville when it was my turn to hug him: one of his eyes was swollen, yellow and purple, therewere gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living rough. 

Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of me and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling Seamus it was a matter of time!" 

"Neville, what happened?" I asked, softly. 

"ANSWER US!" Kam yelled, on the brink of tears. "I SWEAR I WILL TEAR THIS PERSON TO PIECES FOR TOUCHING YOU!"

 "What? This?" Neville dismissed his injuries with a shake of the head. "This is nothing. Seamus is worse. You'll see. Shall we get going, then? Oh," he turned to Aberforth, "Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way."

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

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

Neville held out his hand to Hermione and helped her to climb up on to the mantelpiece and into the tunnel; Ron motioned for me to go next, helping me into the tunnel. He then helped Astoria and Kamrynn before following suit. 

There were smooth stone steps on the other side: it looked as though the passageway had been there for years. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as we walked, our shadow stippled, fan-like, across the wall.

 "How long's this been here?" Ron asked, as they set off. "It isn't on the Marauder's Map, is it, Harry? I thought there were only seven passages in and out of school?"

"They sealed off all of those before the start of the year," said Neville. "There's no chance of getting through any of them now, not with curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and Dementors waiting at the exits." He  started walking backwards, beaming, drinking them in. "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, Terry Boot got beaten up by Carrow for yelling about it in the Great Hall at dinner!"

"Yeah, it's true," said Harry. 

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

 "Released it into the wild," said Ron. "Hermione was all for keeping it as a pet –"

"Don't exaggerate, Ron –" Hermione flushed.

"But what have you been doing? 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," said Harry. 

"Enough about our travels," Kam interrupted. "Tell us about Hogwarts. What has been going on? We heard it was open, but not a single other thing." 

 "It's been ... well, it's not really like Hogwarts any more," said Neville, the smile fading from his faceas he spoke. "Do you know about the Carrows?"

 "Yeah," Astoria said. "They're death hungry deatheaters. I can only imagine what they've been like here. I'm sure they're the ones that did that to you. I can't believe they teach here." 

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

"Like Umbridge?" Harry asked. 

 "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 the Dark Arts. We're supposed to practice the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions –"

"What?" All six of our voiced united and echoed up and down the passage.

 "Yeah," said Neville. "That's how I got this one," he pointed at a particularly deep gash in 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. Alecto, Amycus's 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 towards them, and how the natural order is being re-established. I got this one," he indicated another slash to his face, "for asking her how much Muggle blood she and her brother have got."

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

"You are a fucking badass, Neville!" Kam cheered excitedly. 

"You didn't hear her," said Neville. "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, Harry."

"But they've used you as a knife sharpener," said Ron, wincing slightly as they passed a lamp and Neville's injuries were thrown into even greater relief. 

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

What was happening at Hogwarts was not sitting right with me. This was supposed to be our home, and the deatheaters were ruining it. Tears stung my eyes as I thought about how I barely missed being forced into the dark side like Draco was. 

"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 told us. 

"Neville, she's all right, we've seen her –" Hermione started to explain. 

"Yeah, I know, she managed to get a message to me," he said, starting to rummage through his pockets.

From his pocket he pulled a golden coin, and I recognized it as one of the fake Galleons that Dumbledore's Army had used to send one another messages. 

"These have been great," said Neville, beaming at Hermione. "The Carrows never figured out 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?" said Harry, who had noticed the past tense.

"Well, it got more difficult as time went on," said Neville. "We lost Luna at Christmas and Ginny never came back after Easter, and the three of us were sort of the leaders. The Carrows seemed to know 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."

We listened as Neville continued to tell us all about how Hogwarts was now. I didn't want to listen to it anymore. I didn't want to think of Hogwarts being ruined. I wanted to continue to think of it as home. 

We turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Another short flight of steps led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait. Neville pushed it open and climbed through. As we continued to follow Neville, we started to hear other voices calling out. 

 "Look who it is! Didn't I tell you?"

"HARRY!"

"It's Potter, it's POTTER!"

"Ron!"

 "Hermione!"

"Courtney! Kamrynn!" 

 I had a confused impression of colored hangings, of lamps and many faces. The next moment, we were engulfed, hugged, pounded on the back, their hair ruffled, our hands shaken, by what seemed to be more than twenty people: it was like we just  won a Quidditch final.

 "OK, OK, calm down!" Neville called, and as the crowd backed away. 

We were then able to take in our surroundings. I did not recognize the room at all. It was enormous, and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multicolored hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-paneled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings:  the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow, and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wooden-cased wireless. 

"Where are we?" Harry and I asked in unison.

 "Room of Requirement, of course!" said Neville.