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

As Harry emerged from behind Neville, there were several screams and yells:

"HARRY!"

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

"Ron!"

"Hermione!"

Then everyone surged forwards to greet the three.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" Neville called.

"Where are we?" Harry asked.

"Room of Requirement, of course!" said Neville. "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?" asked Harry, looking around.

"No," said Seamus. "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," said Neville modestly. "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 the 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. I'm pretty sure Hermione's been grilling them with that one a lot.

"So we've been hiding out here for nearly two weeks," said Seamus, "and it just makes more hammocks every time we need them, and it even sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up "

"—and thought they'd quite like to wash, yes," supplied Lavender.

"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. " He pointed at the wireless. "You didn't break into Gringotts?"

"They did!" said Neville. "And the dragon's true too!" There was a smattering of applause and a few whoops I'm pretty sure were from Caleb and Jade.

"What were you after?" asked Seamus eagerly.

Before anyone could answer, Harry put his hands to his forehead and turned away from the crowd.

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

"No," said Harry. He looked at Ron and Hermione. "We need to get going,"

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

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

Nobody was laughing or whooping anymore.

Neville looked confused. "What d'you mean, 'get out of here'?"

"We haven't come back to stay," said Harry, rubbing his scar. "There's something important we need to do "

"What is it?"

"I-I can't tell you."

There was a ripple of muttering at this: Neville's brows contracted. "Why can't you tell us? It's something to do with fighting You-Know-Who, right?"

"Well, yeah "

"Then we'll help you." Everyone was nodding at this statement, some enthusiastically, others solemnly. Jade, and Caleb,I rose from our chairs to demonstrate our willingness for immediate action.

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

"Why?" asked Neville.

"Because . . ." The boy seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. "Dumbledore left the three of us a job," he said carefully, "and we weren't supposed to tell- I mean, he wanted us to do it, just the three of us."

"We're his army," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army. We were all in it together, we've been keeping it going while you three have been off on your own "

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

"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."

"Look," Harry began, but he was interrupted. The tunnel door had just opened behind him.

"We got your message, Neville! Hello you three, I thought you must be here!" It was Luna and Dean.

Seamus gave a great roar of delight and ran to hug his best friend.

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

"Luna," said Harry distractedly, "what are you doing here? How did you-?"

"I sent for her," said Neville, holding up the fake Galleon. "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," said Luna brightly. "Isn't it, Harry? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?"

"Listen," said Harry with a rising sense of panic, "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?" demanded Michael Corner.

"No!" said Ron. "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!" said Neville angrily. "We want to be a part of it!"

There was another noise behind them, Ginny was now climbing through the hole in the wall, closely followed by The Weasley twins, and Lee Jordan.

"Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said one of the twins, I could never figure out how to tell the two apart, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station."

Right behind Lee Jordan came Cho Chang. She smiled. "I got the message," she said, holding up her own fake Galleon, and she walked over to sit beside Michael.

"So what's the plan, Harry?" said one of the twins.

"There isn't one," said Harry.

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind," said the other twin.

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

"We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "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 wand?" began Seamus. Ron turned to Harry and Hermione and the three began whispering furiously to one another.

"Okay," Harry called to the room at large, and all noise ceased: Fred and George, who had been cracking jokes for the benefit of those nearest, fell silent, and all were alert, excited.

"There's something we need to find," Harry said. "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?"

He looked hopefully toward the group of Ravenclaws, and Luna answered, perched on the arm of Ginny's chair. "Well, there'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," said Michael, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."

"When was it lost?" asked Harry.

"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho, and Harry's face visibly sank. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but," she appealed to her fellow Ravenclaws, "nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?" We all shook our heads.

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

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

"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons-" But Harry cut across Luna. "And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"

They all shook their heads again.

Cho spoke again, "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."

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione.

"Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know the other one safe."

Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, and Cho sat down again, looking disappointed.

"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.

"Over here." He led Harry and Luna to the passage way. "It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've never been able to find it," he said. "Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they're always patrolling the corridors at night."

"No problem," said Harry. "See you in a bit." He and Luna hurried in.N