A sleepless night

[heartswill.livejournal.com]

None of the Gryffindors slept last night. The apprehension and dread were so thick in the air that you could almost taste them, sour and metallic, in the back of your throat. We all left our beds and drifted by ones and twos down into the common room where we sat together and talked in hushed voices about Professor Snape as Headmaster of Hogwarts and the class that is no longer called Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"I'm going to drop out of the class," Romilda whispered, and immediately there was a murmur of agreement.

"No!" Neville stood up, and everyone stared at him in surprise. "Do you call yourselves Gryffindors? This is when we have to stand strong! We need to know how they're going to fight, and we need to know how to fight back! It may be called the Dark Arts now, but we can still decide for ourselves what to take away from it!"

"That's what Harry would do," Ginny agreed quietly.

"Yeah, but he isn't here, is he?" Jimmy shouted. "None of the Golden Trio are--they're all hiding who-knows-where."

"No, they're not!" Ginny retorted fiercely. "How could you say that when you have no idea what sort of danger they're in?"

"Yeah, and I suppose--"

"Stop it!" Seamus cut him off. "Neville's right, we have to stand strong as a House! How are we gonna get through this if we're already tearing each other apart?"

Everyone fell silent until Neville said determinedly, "Harry's out looking for a way to defeat You-Know-Who--I know he is. We're his House, and we've gotta have faith in him. And there's lots we can do from right here, right?"

People nodded, but many of them half-heartedly. Neville clutched his fists, and I could see something gold glinting from between one of them. Ginny exchanged glances with Seamus, and I wondered if they were thinking was I was thinking--was Neville planning to start up the DA again? And how many people would join if he did?