After a great deal of searching and teasing, I found only part of the company I craved in the very last compartment on the Express. As I walked in, they looked up at me, mirroring the disappointment on my face. "Hey, Luna. Hey, Ginny."
"Oh, hello, Neville," replied Luna happily, rocking on the balls of her feet. "How have you been doing?"
"Okay, I guess. How have you been doing, Ginny?"
"Fine," she quickly answered, "just fine, thank you."
I sat down on the seat opposite of theirs, feeling sort of awkward. "So where are..." I choked. I tried to say their names, but they got caught in my throat.
"We don't know." Ginny turned to look out the window. "Mum and Dad sent messages to places we thought they'd go to, but they couldn't respond. We just assumed that they went into hiding, but..."
"... But of course that's what they did!" interjected Luna, looking triumphant at her conclusion.
"Yeah," said Ginny dreamily, looking out the window again, “it is really obvious..." Was I imagining the tear I saw sliding down her face?
We awkwardly sat there again, all muddled in our own thoughts. "S-so what do we do?" I stammered, frightened at the prospect of me having to say it. "Snape's headmaster now. That probably means that some big changes are on their way. We can't wait for them to arrive, carrying our salvation for us."
"Yes!" Ginny and Luna both hastily agreed.
"But what are we to do?" Ginny asked. "We're just students. And we're not even in the same House."
"Well," I said, trying to piece together a solution to our communication problem, "do you still have the enchanted galleons from the D.A.?”
"Of course!" giggled Luna before Ginny could answer. She reached into one of her many coat pockets, and pulled out a fat disk of gold. "See?"
And just at the sight of the fake galleon, we instantly thought back to the times of Dumbledore's Army; crossing Umbridge, learning about Defense Against the Dark Arts from Harry, training to fight You-Know-Who... I sighed, wishing for those days to come back around again. Those were the good old days. Still, we had more pressing matters to attend to. "Now, we'll start using those again to play around with Snape, but only when we know more about what's happening this year. Okay?"
And so it was agreed.
The moment we arrived in Hogsmeade, we could tell something was very wrong. The shops weren't nearly as lively as they had been before. It was as if some great evil spirit had come and sucked all the energy out of the entire village. Which there probably had, I thought, shivering against the cold winds.
I looked up to see if anything on the castle itself had changed. To my relief, it was still the castle I had seen my very first year at Hogwarts. At least, I think it is; I hadn’t noticed it before, but the castle seemed a little... gloomier. Perhaps even the castle was getting sad and afraid and scared for what would be coming this year.
We made our way up to the castle by carriage, as usual. At least Snape followed suit sometimes. Luna sat up as front up as possible, staring directly at the beast pulling the carriage, smiling and giggling when it turned its head around to look at us. I could see them too; the skeletal beasts called thestrals were pulling the carriages up, as usual. Ginny had her eyes fixed on Luna, as always, rolling her eyes. She couldn't see the thestrals, but she knew they were there. We were quiet throughout the trip to the castle, all thinking about what Snape might have changed.
The Great Hall was amazing as always. The enchanted ceiling was dark and cloudy as usual. The House tables were there, and the students were there too; there weren’t as many students there, though. The first years were all crowded up in the front of the hall, in front of the staff table. After we were settled in the Great Hall, the Sorting began. The Hat sang its new song, and started to weed through all the First Years; it didn't take as long this time. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that there weren't as many first years, since the Muggle-borns hadn’t been allowed to come to Hogwarts this year. After they were all seated with their new Houses, Snape stood up, preparing to greet all the students facing him.
"Welcome, wizards- and witches-in-training," he started, his voice as sour and dead as usual. "This year, I have been graced with the duty of headmaster, after last year's... most unfortunate events. However, this year will be different.”
"I would like to welcome two new additions to our wonderful staff: Amycus Carrow, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." A lumpy, loopy-looking man stood up at one end, one Ginny and I recognised from the attack last year. "And his sister, Alecto Carrow, our new Muggle Studies teacher." With that, a stocky, similar-looking woman stood up at the other end of the table. Ginny, Luna, and I all jumped when she stood up; they were both Death Eaters. It took all the energy I had not to stand up and attempt to attack them both. "We are delighted to have them here, and are looking forward to this upcoming year.”
"On a slightly related note: Muggle Studies is now a mandatory class, starting this year. We want all of our young new wizards and witches to be aware of the mundane world, so they can remain as inconspicuous as possible.
"Now, all of you, off to bed! Follow your Prefects to your towers, and sleep! Tomorrow begins a new forever.
Even though it was only my first day back at Hogwarts, I could tell that Snape as headmaster was taking its toll on people. People were muttering under their breaths to friends, only to stop when anyone came walking down the corridor. People were huddled more in groups, as if to protect themselves and use other people as shields. Last year, things like that had never happened. Why did Dumbledore have to die? I was thinking about what would be different at Hogwarts if Dumbledore was still alive when I walked into the classroom.
My first class of my seventh year was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The class I had grown to dread the past couple of years; Professor Moody being all jumpy, Umbridge not letting us practice magic in her classroom, and Snape being, well, Snape. I was expecting much, much worse this year, though; Amycus Carrow, one of the Death Eaters that invaded the school last year to help kill Professor Dumbledore, would be teaching the class. I walked into the classroom, sat down, and waited for the hell to start when he arrived.
He walked in, looking very smug about something. Carrow wasn't very handsome, or evil-looking, either. He was sort of, wheezy-looking, sort of shallow-looking, too. How could he be a Death Eater?
"Good morning, class," he said. Was I just imagining it, or was there a sarcastic tone to his voice?
Silence greeted him. We looked at each other, looking confused and scared.
"I said, good morning, class," he repeated, sounding a little heated.
A few people mumbled back. The rest of the class continued to stare at him.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to work on that... Perhaps some discipline is in order... You there!" he barked, noticing me looking out the window and not paying attention to what he was saying.
"Y-yes, sir?" I stammered, hastily looking back at him.
"Come up here," he ordered. "NOW!
I raced up there, stumbling all along the way. I finally stood up there, almost cowering in front of the class.
"Your name?" he asked, almost courtly.
"Neville Longbottom," I said quickly, as if that would prevent what would be coming up.
"Longbottom, you say." He suddenly looked mighty curious. ”Well, then, that just won't do.”
He turned to address the class. "Class, this year, we will be studying the Unforgivable Curses, particularly the Cruciatus Curse." As he said the words, my stomach did an unusually large somersault; my parents had been tortured to near-death by Bellatrix Lestrange, a fellow Death Eater, with the Cruciatus spell. They were still in St. Mungo's Hospital because of it. It pained me to see them like that; I had never really gotten to know them because of what she did to them.
"Now," Carrow continued, "does anybody here know the effects of the Cruciatus Curse?"
Again, silence greeted him. If Hermione had actually been here, her hand probably would have been up in the air before he finished the question; but, seeing as how it was one of the Unforgivable Curses, she might not have answered. I probably could have, too, but that would have been a little embarrassing.
"I guess we'll have to work on that too," Carrow murmured softly to himself. "The Cruciatus Curse, as some of us know, creates extreme pain; enough pain to the extent of torture.
"Now, observe what we will be working on this year. CRUCIO!" he shouted, pointing his wand at me.
The pain was unbearable; I screamed and threw my head back and forth in pain as I was thrown into the wall by the force of the spell. It felt like every inch of my body was in extreme and utter pain. It was there for a long time; I was withering so hard. To the class, it could have looked like I was crying and shaking really hard. I could see their faces; they were staring in anguish, pain, and disgust. I couldn't believe that our teacher, our own Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was doing this. I guess the Death Eater in him was acting, though; he probably remembered that I was a part of the fight at the end of last year. That must be it, I thought. He's doing it out of revenge, and fury, and the fact that he didn't get to do it all last year. By the time the pain went away, I was face down on the floor. I felt a foot nudge me in the side, checking on me.
"He's not dead!" shouted one of my fellow students in relief. It must have been horrible for them to watch that little demonstration.
I slowly got up, and silently glared at Carrow. He was smug; it must have been exciting for him to do that to me. I turned back to the class to go to my seat before anything else could happen, and they all gasped; I had a little gash on my right cheek, made by the wall.
"Now do you understand what the Cruciatus Curse does?"
"Y-y-yes, sir," stammered the entire class, seeming disorientated and scared.
"Good," Carrow said, satisfied. "Tonight's homework is an essay on the Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus, and the Killing Curse, and it’s due next class.”
We all flinched when he mentioned that last one; Avada Kedavera, the Killing Curse, was unblockable, unbeatable, and probably the most dangerous spell ever created. Just one shot, and the target is dead . Horrible, I'd say; the only person ever to survive was Harry, and even he doesn't know how he did it.
That night, during dinner, I sat with Ginny, Dean, and Seamus. They had heard about the "demonstration" that Carrow had done in our class; oddly enough, he didn't do it in any of the others. Maybe he only recognised me from the attack; I'm just glad he didn't do that to Ginny or Luna. Ginny and Dean were trying to act like they didn't see the damage, but occasionally, their eyes glanced over the wound, and they shuddered. I couldn't blame them, because I didn't want to have to go through that pain again.
Luna came and visited right after the meal; she caught up with Ginny and me as we were leaving the Great Hall. She wasn't frightened at the sight of the scar, or the beat-up look I had acquired; she merely ignored it, and treated me like I didn't go to the DADA class this afternoon.
"Hello, Neville. Hello, Ginny."
"Hey, Luna," I said, looking slightly happier. "How was your day?"
"Interesting," she replied. "I had Muggle Studies today, with that other Carrow person."
"What did she do?"
"She mostly talked the entire time. But I've never heard anyone talk about Muggles that way," she answered, lowering her voice a little, "except when I'm talking to Slytherins."
"Ah," I said, understanding at last why the Carrows were here. They were here to create new Death Eaters. Raise them to hate Muggles, and make them have an affinity for the Dark Arts. They were here to destroy Hogwarts; we were here to save it.