Seamus ran up to embrace him as he dropped from the canvas, but, of course, he had to wait until Neville had laid the tray on a table, which groaned under its weight.
'We had no idea where you'd been, mate!' Seamus said loudly, clapping Neville on the back.
'I'm fine, I'm fine,' said Neville reassuringly, 'who else ...?'
It was just him and Seamus at that point, but even as Neville looked over to the entrance door, more boys emerged into view.
'Neville!' yelled Ernie happily, also running up to hug him, Terry, Michael and Anthony looking delighted over Ernie's shoulder. They had all wheeled in their trunks and stacked them on an oversized trolley at the back of the Room, rather like the food trolley on the Hogwarts Express. When Neville broke off, he saw that the Room had expanded seconds ago, and more hammocks appeared between the pillars. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff hangings materialised on the balconies aside the red-and-gold Gryffindor ones, just as they had done on the first DA meeting of the year. Zacharias and some of the younger boys came in, depositing their belongings and looking round and pointing at new artefacts, impressed.
'Where're all the girls?' asked Neville curiously, only just noticing their absence.
'Not sure, I think Lavender and Parvati possibly got caught running down the corridor with their trunks,' said Ernie. Neville felt worried.
'They'll be fine,' he said bravely, trying to believe it himself.
It was a whole hour before any of the girls arrived, during which Ernie sat beside the large wireless, whispering words into it and tapping his wand. Neville was on the verge of asking what he was trying to achieve, when the door opened again. Neville had lost track of how many doors there were now, but yet another appeared as the girls walked in, labelled Bathroom.
'Funny how that opens when a girl walks in,' Lavender smirked as she hugged Neville, who laughed.
'What kept you?'
'Snape,' answered Susan. 'He saw us on the top floor with our trunks.'
'And he let you go?'
'Told him we were going downstairs to see Alecto Carrow 'cause she wanted to examine our possessions. Snape just left us to it.'
'Nice,' said Neville with a grin. They were all in here now. It seemed odd to not have Ginny or Luna with them but at least they knew they were safe.
So the Army spent most of the hours in the Room. It would be suicidal for Neville to return to the rest of school, but as long as one person stayed, the Room remained unchanged. Everyone else attended their lessons, but for Muggle Studies and Dark Arts, during which they returned to see Neville. By day, Neville would visit Aberforth in the Hog's Head once a day, keeping them all stocked with food; Ariana would walk up her tunnel towards the Room whenever Aberforth wanted Neville, whether for food or news. The rest of the DA attended dinner in the Great Hall as usual, to avoid further suspicion.
Ernie and Terry spent the first two days desperately whispering words to the radio, which, Neville had been told, would tune them into a channel called Potterwatch, the only channel that wasn't angled towards the Ministry's input. Despite being on Harry's side, the channel wasn't reliable all the time and they occasionally heard the most ridiculous rumours, including one particularly strange report about Voldemort being attacked by wild centaurs and house-elves with broomsticks – something that Neville seriously doubted, but at least it made him laugh.
A couple of weeks into staying in the new camp, however, they picked up a more interesting report.
'Now, we have an exciting event to report on, this time from a reliable Gringotts insider,' the man on Potterwatch was saying, clearly struggling to hold back his excitement. The whole group was sat down round the wireless, listening intently.
'We have been informed that a dragon guarding the high-security vaults in Gringotts has broken out, yes broken out, from the bank. It's been rumoured that three humans were riding on its back, one of which, ladies and gentlemen, is none other than young Harry Potter –'
Neville laughed in triumph, while Seamus and Ernie both shouted 'No way!'
'The dragon has flown right over London it seems, but its current whereabouts are undetected.'
Ernie turned the volume right down on the wireless, beaming.
'Excellent,' he said, delighted.
Neville was restless for the rest of the afternoon, he was too happy about the image of Harry, Ron and Hermione escaping Gringotts on the back of a dragon. When everyone left for dinner that evening, he sat down, hoping that the trio would soon return, but he wasn't completely confident.
He was slightly put off, however, when Terry returned with a fresh cut on his cheek and Anthony explained that he'd shouted about the dragon in the Great Hall. Terry seemed fine though.
Half an hour later, everyone was back in the Room. Neville was teaching Lavender how to play wizard's chess, but it didn't help that he'd forgotten most of the rules himself.
'... and then bishops can only move diagonally, I think – then there's the rooks that can jump over any over piece – or is that the knight? I think it's the knight actually, yes –'
'Neville,' someone said.
'... yeah that can kill the pawn,' Neville said as Lavender moved the piece, shrieking slightly as the knight hopped down from his horse and began beating up the black pawn. 'Sorry Seamus?'
Seamus jerked his head to the portrait, where Ariana was silently waiting, looking at Neville with that permanent half-smile.
'OK,' said Neville, getting to his feet, 'see you in a bit, everyone.'
There were noises of farewell and Neville pushed the portrait gently open. He walked briskly down the tunnel, wondering what Aberforth could want. If Neville had to help identify the Death Eater's potions again ... he'd already told Ab how useless he was at that subject.
He neared the end of the passage. The back of the Hog's Head portrait was transparent now, as it was whenever Ariana came to fetch him from the Room. He could already see the thin figure of Aberforth, but he wasn't alone.
'You're joking,' breathed Neville, excitement and disbelief in equal measure escalating through him. He paused in the passage, fumbling excitedly for his coin. He addressed the message to both Luna and Ginny.
The three, younger people next to Aberforth looked up at Neville as he half-ran the last ten feet of the tunnel, bursting through the portrait. He leapt from the mantelpiece and shouted, 'I knew you'd come! I knew it, Harry!' before bringing him into a hug.