The nerves weren’t ever going to go away. Neville was sure of that. Even now, giving out orders like he knew what he was doing, putting this group together, he could still feel his hands shaking and had to stuff them deep in the pockets of his robes just to hide it. It was a miracle his voice hadn’t broken. This boldness had been growing in him for some time, ever since the DA had taken off the first time and he’d begun to do magic he’d never thought himself capable of before, when he’d realized that outside of the classroom, he wasn’t terrible at everything. But now all eyes were on him, and that should have been terrifying.
But Luna was smiling, Ginny was nodding fiercely, and Seamus had nodded his approval, even if he didn’t look all that happy about it. With support, Neville could do this. With support, any of them could do anything. He was sure of it.
“We need to know Snape’s plans,” he said. If only his third-year self could see him now; the man he feared most of all in the world, and here he was, about to suggest a suicide plan to take him down. “We need to make life difficult for him. Remind him he isn’t welcome here. We have to…we have to break into the headmaster’s office. Take whatever we find that could be useful. Destroy what isn’t. And if nothing else, make it clear that he doesn’t belong in there. That that office still belongs to Dumbledore.” There were a few cheers among the other students, a shout of ‘Dumbledore’s Army!’ that steeled Neville’s resolve. “And then the Carrows come next!”
He folded his hands together, took a deep breath, and added, “Who else has ideas? We’re all in this together.”
Seamus tapped anxiously on his leg. Even though he’d agreed to Neville’s way of thinking, it certainly wasn’t the way he would’ve handled it had the situation been left up to him, and the gulf between those strategies left him feeling unsettled. For instance, this idea of breaking into Snape’s office seemed reasonable, but Seamus foresaw at least one major issue.
“Do any of you know exactly where Snape’s office is, then?” He wasn’t trying to be confrontational about it, and hoped none of his worry had crept out into his voice. But the location of the headmaster’s office was, as far as Seamus understood it, intentionally kept secret from the students, which, he supposed, was a fair enough defense in keeping the students from breaking into it.
He had another concern as well, and while he was trying to go along with the group’s plan, and didn’t want to come across like he was trying to be difficult or make trouble, it did seem like the sort of thing that was important to bring up, and the best place to do so.
“Plus, in his office, Snape will have home field advantage. He’ll have put all sorts of spells on it, for protection, and know it like the back of his hand.” No disrespect to the members of Dumbledore’s Army, but no matter what they called themselves, they weren’t a true military force, and he wasn’t sure they training to take on a fully-prepared Snape, who’d had all the time in the world to lay traps, especially if they were going in blind.
“Maybe one of us ought to cause to trouble, and get sent there. Scope it out, maybe even try for a bit of sabotage.”
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