Disclaimer: If you don't get it yet, is there any point to me telling you that I don't own Harry Potter?

A/N: Sorry I've been gone so long, had school, and a few other things, but mostly, it's just been a lack of ideas, coupled with laziness. Okay, mostly laziness, a lot of it. However, I do have one idea now. This may help to move things along, cos it kind of ran away with me a bit.

Aftermath

Seamus made his way back to the common room. He probably had enough time for a shower. Even though Stephen had hit him with a cleaning charm, he still felt dirty. He may believe that the injuries on those three... animals, he supposed was the best word for them, were well-deserved, and even a little lenient (although Stephen's surprise "circumcision" was very well done, if slightly harder to heal), but that didn't help his disgust at the feeling of warm blood flowing onto his hands, or the feel of Harper's nose breaking on that last punch. The worst part was that he knew he would have to do more before the year ended. Shaking his head to clear his mind of these dark thoughts, he entered the common room, then stopped and sighed.

Neville was back and it looked like he'd told Ginny what had happened and she was pissed.

"Of all the idiotic things to do! You go after a known Death Eater and two of his friends! And do you take me or Luna, the ones who've experienced combat before, and who happen to be women, which might have been better and less invasive for the poor girl? No, you take a pyromaniac, an Occlumens, a stranger and an idiot. Great plan Neville!" At this point Seamus felt obliged to intervene.

"Hey, just because Mike dumped you doesn't make him an idiot. And what would you have done with Cornfoot? And Tony's dead-on," he said, then grinned. " You may have a point about me though, that Uro charm I used looked painful, especially where I aimed it." Ginny froze in surprise at his appearance, giving Neville time to ask:

"Uro? Isn't that usually used for making toast? And what do you mean, where you aimed it?" Seamus grinned.

"A very hairy area that he may have misused a bit," he said, making Neville wince instinctively. By now Ginny had recovered enough to start shouting at Seamus as well.

"Don't give me that spiel. First, I dumped Michael, he didn't dump me, the idiot who couldn't take that a girl was better than him at Quidditch. And Cornfoot should never have been involved! You should have stunned him and wiped his memory. We can't just trust anybody!" She kept going but Seamus just tuned her out, reminded oddly of similar experiences with his mother. Neville however, went a different route:

"We can't trust anybody?" he started, a dubious tone in his voice. "Ginny, the whole school did not turn against us. Everyone does not side with the Death Eaters. We have to trust others at some point. The twelve or so of us can't do this all on our own. Cornfoot could've been a risk, except for the fact that he was never left on his own, and now, Tony will have fixed it so he can't say anything. So, really is that what you're upset about? Or are you upset that I didn't involve you?" he finished.

"Of course I'm upset you didn't involve me! I could've helped with Astoria for a start. Do you really think that it helped after a traumatic experience to have Michael of all people looking at her private areas? And-"

"Silencio," Neville incanted, leaving Ginny moving her lips furiously. Seamus was surprised at Neville's sheer balls at doing this. Ginny scared him, he wasn't afraid to admit it. That temper of hers was legendary, as was her Bat Bogey Hex, which he had seen first hand on the train. But it seemed Neville wasn't done.

"Now, I am going to talk without being interrupted for once," he stated. "Do you trust me at all? Because if you trusted me as much as I trust you, you would've given me a chance to explain why I did things the way I did. Since Michael seems to be your biggest objection, let me clear that up now. Astoria asked me to get him herself. They're cousins and she apparently trusts him. We saw how close they were when, after just five minutes, she was more relaxed and even joked around a bit. Now I'm sure it was just an act to cover up her weakness, but Michael helped to relax her enough to pull it off. Plus he had the medical skills needed to help her injuries, which he had apparently mentioned to her over the summer. Now, if you're wondering why I didn't ask for your help in bringing in the three assholes, well, the truth is, I didn't need it. I know how good of a duelist you are, but I knew that we would be fine. There was three of us in my original plan, and since that relied on getting the drop on them I was sure we'd be fine especially when Cornfoot joined in. Plus the fact that you don't have the brutality needed to scare those three. I'm not talking about in a fight, cos everyone knows that you're a scary fighter. I'm talking about how I basically had Seamus and Cornfoot torture them there. Would you really be able to manage that? To mercilessly cause pain? Now, I didn't know for sure if Cornfoot would be able to either, but from all the stories Seamus has told me about his home life, I trusted that he'd be able to manage it." Seamus started at this. He had told Neville certain, less, savoury details about his life, but he hadn't realised what kind of impression it had made on him. Dean, Ron and Harry had all heard those stories as well, but he had thought it only made an impression on Dean. He shook himself out of his stupor to hear Neville finish his little speech.

"Now, sorry about the Silencing charm, but it was easier than getting you to let me speak. Finite Incantatem." At first, Seamus thought it hadn't worked as Ginny still didn't make any sound, then she gave off a little sob and gave Neville a hug. Feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, Seamus turned to leave.

"Seamus," came Neville's voice. "We're going to organise another meeting for today. I'll put it on the coins, but word of mouth might be better, plus Cornfoot doesn't have on." Seamus gave a nod and left.

That evening, sitting with the others in the Room of Requirement, Neville felt less nervous than before, because he had an actual plan for this meeting and also, all day, he had been seeing Nott wince in pain every few minutes during classes, and it was clear that he hadn't mentioned it to any of the teachers out of fear of even more retribution.

"Alright we're all here, and I realise that yesterdays meeting was less than stellar. Hopefully this will be more productive."

"Well, first would you mind explaining what happened this morning?" Ernie asked. The other Hufflepuffs nodded, making it clear to Neville that, while the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had all been informed by their housemates, they'd forgotten to tell everyone. He proceeded to rectify this.

"Now, any questions?" Neville asked, getting a respectful silence in response. That was going to take some getting used to.

"Right then, we need to discuss what we're going to do next. We need to do something to announce to the whole school that we're back and bigger and better than ever," he started.

"But we're not," Padma said confusedly.

"But they don't know that," Seamus continued for Neville, grinning. "We need to get them on the back foot, looking in all the wrong directions. And as it happens, I have an idea as to how to do just that."

"What do you need?" Neville asked, grinning back. He had a good feeling about this.

"Okay, first does anyone know Disilliusionment charms?" he asked.

"Yeah, a few Auror friends of my auntie taught me some useful spells, including those," answered Susan, blinking back tears at the mention of her Aunt.

"Okay, now Ginny. Two questions. How many of your brothers fireworks do you have and do you know how to modify them?" Ginny gave a devilish grin in response.

The next morning at breakfast, all was quiet in the Great Hall. But once all the teachers had arrived, including Snape, the fireworks started. Literally. They began going off over the hall, startling the teachers and creating chaos. Once people calmed down a bit, they realised that the fireworks spelled out words. Things like "Murderer", "Animal", "Death Eater", and "Monster" floating around Snape and the Carrows. Somehow as well, the word "Rapist" found itself over Nott and his two stooges. But the cherry on the cake was the giant one that said "Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting" floating over the entire hall. Dumbledore's Army had officially returned.