Cessation ⌁ Draco Malfoy [3/4] ✔

32

"Right on time," said Aberforth Dumbledore. 

It had been a while since Harry, Ron and Hermione had left for their Gringott's mission -- which they couldn't tell Emma or anyone else why exactly it was so important to retrieve Gryffindor's sword. Neville Longbottom had gotten a message out, and Luna, Emma and Dean arrived to Aberforth's pub. 

The old man did a double take when he saw Emma. She knew why, knowing that there was some resemblance between her and her biological family, but she acted like she had no idea why he looked at her like that. 

Ariana Dumbledore's portrait swung open, and the trio made their way up onto the mantlepiece. 

"Just go right on through and you'll reach the end where there's a door," Aberforth said. Luna thanked him as Dean nodded. 

Emma wasn't sure how Harry would react to seeing her. The last time they had really spoken was when he told her to go away. She wasn't mad at him for it, in fact she pitied him. And then the next thing she knew, Harry, Ron and Hermione had to leave. 

"Pretty long tunnel," Dean commented to break the awkward silence. 

Emma's stomach twisted as Luna pushed open the tunnel door. A lot of people were in the room -- Seamus, who launched himself at Dean, Neville, the Patil twins, Michael, Ernie, Lavender...Harry, Ron and Hermione. Just to name a few. 

"Emma!" Hermione gasped, rushing over to her and pulling her in a hug. "How did you--? How--?"

"We got your message, Neville!" Luna announced. Her eyes locked on Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Hello you three, I thought you must be here! Hi everyone -- oh it's great to be back."

Harry stared at Emma before he slowly approached her with an awkward grin. "Emma...what are you doing here? How did you--?"

"I sent for them," said Neville, holding up his fake Galleon. "I promised Luna 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 mean," Luna beamed. Emma furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Harry, who was looking back and forth between everyone. "Isn't it, Harry? We're going to fight them out of Hogwarts?"

Harry explained that they hadn't come back to fight, but that there was something else he and his two best friends had to do, only he refused to say what, even as there was an uproar from Dumbledore's army. Next thing Emma knew, Ginny, Fred, George and Lee were climbing in from the hole in the wall. Then Cho Chang came through. 

Emma smiled and walked into Ginny's hug, and then moved over to hug Fred and George, choosing to forget Fred's rude comments at the Burrow that one night. His arms tightened around her and he lifted her off the ground a little. 

"Er -- where's my hug?" Lee joked when Emma pulled away. She laughed and gave him a quick hug. 

Fred was looking at Emma when she looked at him, and she gave him a friendly smile. 

He suddenly winced. "I'm sorry, Emma...I'm a git."

"Yeah, you are," Emma said seriously, nodding, before she broke into a smile again. "Apology accepted until you do it again."

"Fair enough. So, what's been happening? Where's your dad?" Fred asked, his eyebrows creasing when he asked his last question. 

Emma's smile dropped and she suddenly felt a breeze blow through her body, like she wasn't safe without Samson. "I..." she paused, biting her lip, looking up at Fred with watery eyes. "I don't know. We were at a motel and...and they came -- Death Eaters came. He tried to save me, but they knocked him out and took me to the Malfoys, and that's where I came across Harry, Ron and Hermione."

Fred took Emma by the hand and dragged her away from the chatter where they couldn't be overheard. "Have you tried sending him a letter?"

"I thought about it but I couldn't. What if the owl comes back with my letter? What if he's...I'm just too scared to. I should have, gosh, I'm such a wimp!" Emma hated herself in this moment. "I'm going to owl him after tonight. But the thing is I haven't gotten any letters from him either!"

Fred gave her hand a squeeze. 

"Okay!" Harry said loudly all of a sudden, quieting the room down. Everyone stared at him expectantly. "There's something we've got to find. 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?"

Harry was staring hopefully at the Ravenclaws at this point, until Luna spoke up and everyone rolled their eyes in doubt as she mentioned Ravenclaw's lost diadem. 

"When was it lost?" Harry asked. 

"Centuries ago, they say," Cho answered him. Emma noticed Harry's shoulders slump. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked but...nobody's ever found a trace of it."

Harry looked around helplessly. 

"Poor sod," Fred muttered from beside Emma. 

Cho spoke up 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 paused and his hand reached up to his scar. "He's on the move...listen, I know it's not much to go on, but I'm going to go and look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. You guys wait here and keep, you know -- the other one -- safe."

Ron and Hermione nodded at Harry as he turned to leave with Cho, but Ginny jumped up fiercely. 

"No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

"Oooh, yes I'd like to," Luna said happily. Harry took one last look at Emma as Neville led him and Luna out.