As far as she was concerned, there was nothing special about Cassidy Winters. She's simply a girl who drinks far too much coffee than she would like to admit and reads books to escape her life as an unwanted orphan. Then, when she appears in a world...
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Harry's POV:
"Neville- what the- how-?"
But Neville had spotted Ron and Hermione, and with yells of delight was hugging them too. The longer I looked at Neville, the worse he appeared.
One of his eyes was swollen yellow and purple, there were gouge marks on his face, and his general air of unkemptness suggested that he had been living enough.
Nevertheless, his battered visage shone with happiness as he let go of Hermione and said again, "I knew you'd come! Kept telling them it was a matter of time!"
"Neville, what's happened to 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 to the way."
"Couple more?" repeated Aberforth ominously. "What d'you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There's a curfew and a Camwaulding 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 onto the mantelpiece and into the tunnel. After Cassidy did so too, Ron followed, then Neville. I looked over to Aberforth.
"Look after 'em, then," said Aberforth gruffly.
I clambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana's portrait. 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.
"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 the curses over the entrances and Death Eaters and dementors waiting at the exits." He started walking backward, 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 Cassidy.
Neville laughed gleefully.
"What did you do with the dragon?"
"Released it into the wild," said Ron.
"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."
