Disclaimer: Do not own

Battle awareness is merely a self defense reaction of the human brain to life or death situations. It is a well documented occurrence, where time seems to stretch and seconds seem like all the time in the world. This so called 'bullet time' is a magically induced version of this that plays on the initial event. It hinges on the brain developing the connections on it's own, through fear and determination.

Chapter 1 Dancing with trolls

The heavy footsteps, crashes and grunts called her back from deep thought.

'It's couldn't be' she thought as noise came closer. She quickly put the letter and the journal in her bag and got out her wand.

Whatever it was stood just outside the door making sniffing noises. She looked around for a place to hide. The bathroom was simple, six stalls along one wall, large enough for an adult to stretch his hands and not touch the walls, a row of mirrors and sinks along the wall opposite from the stalls. A comfortable looking bench was at the back wall, opposite the doorway. Like all rooms in the castle it was a rather large room but the stalls were the only place you could conceivably hide in.

She decided to stand her ground and see what it was, hoping against logic that it wasn't a troll.

The doors slammed open and something hunched down to pass through the frame. The troll was at least seven or eight feet tall, though it was difficult to tell with it hunched over like that. The beast was an ugly green thing with leathery skin, black nails and beady yellow eyes. She looked down. Ah, it was a he, and he seemed to have lost that little loincloth trolls in books wore.

"I so don't need this." Hermione muttered as the troll stepped towards her and she stepped backwards towards the middle of the room. The floor shook faintly from its footsteps.

Her heart was pounding in her chest and her mouth felt dry. She was shaking, and the floor was slippery beneath her feet, but strangely, calm and clarity had settled in her head, like a white bubble of purpose. And the world narrowed itself to her and the troll.

She gripped her wand as the troll raised it's club to the creeling and swung.

"Lumos Maxima!" she exclaimed and threw herself backwards, falling on the hard tiles, hitting her head. The bubble of white light actually detached itself from the tip of her wand and then flashed just in front of the trolls head. The troll roared as the blinding light exploded in front of it's eyes. His swing went awry, violently shattering the first stall and a piece of the floor bellow it, peppering her with shards.

"Wingardium Leviosa." She carefully enunciated, lying on her back, aching from her awkward fall. She tugged the club out of his left hand while he was still busy rubbing his eyes with his right. For a moment it seemed it would work but the monster blindly grabbed at the club that she tried float out of his reach and pulled. It was a close thing, her magic versus his strength.

But she was only a first year. Her magic slipped and the troll yelled in rage and triumph, stepping closer and kicked her across the room and into the middle of the back wall. She hit the bench on the way down and then found herself lying face down on the floor. Her wand had slipped out of her hand and rolled to a stop under the last sink. Just next to the trolls leg. It had come closer to her while she was dazed from the hit.

She eyed her wand in horror and the impossible five feet of distance between her and the wand and then she looked up at the troll. The darned thing's knee was level with her head!

"I am not letting you kill me you green skinned monster!" She yelled at it in defiance as she raised herself to her knees. The troll tilted it's head in puzzlement, blinking it's beady yellow eyes trying to get a better look. Finally he shrugged and lifted his leg over her head, intent on crushing the annoying thing into paste.

Her eyes slipped past the impossibly large foot and a feeling of calm and clarity crackled around the edges and shattered with a fresh surge of adrenaline and anger. That damned thing was here to kill her end she'd be damned if she will let it. She raised her hand and concentrated on it's middle .

"Reducto!" she yelled pouring every ounce of her will and remaining strength into the spell imagining the wand in her hand. A wave of magic burned across her hand and along that thing's leg, leaving burned blisters before it made contact with it's groin and lifted the troll into the air and and sent it crashing into the middle of the room.. The floor shook and Troll let out a deafening roar, dropping the club and clutching his unmentionables just as Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley ran into the bathroom, yelling her name. They stopped and stared as the troll that as trashing and screaming in the middle of the room.

Unnoticed by anyone the small pendant hidden in her shirt stopped glowing blue.

She got up from her knees, heart pounding, hands shaking, and stepped out of the way of the thrashing, wailing beast in front of her and stared in a semi detached manner.

'Is this what shock feels like?' she thought as she lifted her hand. Her wand absently floated back into her possession. She glanced at Ronald, smiled sweetly and then pointed her wand at the club. 'It feels kinda good'

"Wingardium leviosa." She carefully enunciated and lifted the club into the air controlling the movement carefully with her wand and then she slammed it into the beasts head, once, twice, three times.

The wailing stopped.

The boys stared.

"B.. Blimey." Ronald exclaimed and she knew he would never dare ridicule her competence again..

And Hermione sighed, letting the club float back to the floor. No one could harm her now, she was safe she had the power to protect herself, and she would use it. The feeling of something leaking down her face distracted her from the look abject terror on Ronald Weasley's face..

'Oh no! Am I crying again?' she touched her face and looked it was red, she tasted it. Salty. 'When did I get blood on me?'

She wavered on her feet feeling a bit dizzy as the world greyed around the corners of her eyes.

"That is how you cast a proper levitation spell, Ronald." She said to the boys just as someone entered the doors. She turned her head to look who it was but the world swirled around her and then went black.

Just moments before the troll incident Ronald Weasley was wavering between fear and anger. Potter had forced him to go find the know-it-all and judging by the sounds down the hallway she was in trouble. And it was his fault. Potter might ditch him for this. Why'd she have to go all emotional anyways? Stupid useless girls.

He glanced at his friend jogging just ahead of him and towards the bathroom when he heard Hermione yell something and saw a blinding flash through the doorway. The troll's roar made him shiver and he looked at Harry. The boy sprinted full speed towards the bathroom, wand out, and Ron joined him almost a second behind pulling out his wand as he ran.

Ron and Harry ran into the bathroom to hear her cast a spell and troll fall down. They winced as the electrified feel of concentrated magic prickled across their skin and turned pale as they watched the troll grab his crotch and trash about, bleeding on the floor.

The boys watched as she calmly got up with her face all bloody and clothes torn. She stepped out of the way, levitated her wand from the floor, and mercilessly beat the screaming green, huge bloody troll with his own club.

"B... Blimey!" He exclaimed "I insulted that! I'm so dead!" He muttered to himself and shuddered.

"That is how you cast a proper levitation spell, Ronald." The battered and somewhat deranged looking girl said in a soft, dangerous tone of voice and Ron paled further while Harry turned back to look at him with something akin to fear or perhaps horror.

He was shoved out of the way by Snape, and he realised that the bushy haired terror had passed out.

The professor rushed right past the troll, letting out a casual stupefy into it's head as he passed it and started muttering and passing his wand over the girl.

Professor McGonogal heard the beast roar in anger and ran with all her speed towards the sound; professor Flitwick, despite his small stature was only a few steps behind her. Yet she knew she'd be too late. She took in the devastated bathroom when she entered; Professor Snape was preforming diagnostic charms over the prone, bloodied girl her, and heart clenched flashing back to the war and the battered forms of her students dead at her feet.

She blinked and shook of the memories and looked closer at the troll. It looked too messy to be a castration hex; Now that she thought about it, it's head and chest looked a bit misshapen as well. No wonder the two Gryfindoor boys looked pale. She conjured a white sheet and with a flick of her wand it settled across it's midsection.

"So what happened?" asked McGonogal in a calm neutral tone of voice while professor Flitwick carefully approached the beast. She knew Snape was too busy making sure the girl was not going to die to bother him with questions. Not that she was going to die. Kids don't die at Hogwarts. Not any more. Not since the war. Not ever. Not again.

The boys looked at each other and Mister Potter visibly pulled himself together and started to calmly explain. The boy truly had his father's mannerisms down.

"We heard Hermione was upset and shut herself in here, since she didn't know about the troll, so we came to warn her." Potter started to explain. "By the time we came to the corridor we heard noises and the troll's roaring. Then there was a bright flash of light from the room as we ran towards it."

"We wanted to save her." Added a pale looking mister Weasley in a shaky voice. "She didn't know about the troll, she missed the feast you see."

"Only she didn't need saving. By the time we got there she had already dropped the troll and was beating it with it's own club!"

Potter added, the boy was obviously impressed by the girl's feat. She was slightly sceptical about the beating the troll with it's own club part, however the boys probably misunderstood something. If the girl truly had beaten the thing on her own after a scant few weeks of training...

The possibilities whirled in her mind.

She had initially though that Snape had saved the girl, the devastation the troll suffered was exactly his style. Although, now that she thought about it, he probably wouldn't go for the groin. Men usually didn't.

"Blimey I'll never get on that girl's bad side again!" Mister Weasley added somewhat redundantly.

Snape came over levitating the girl. "That's the first intelligent thing I heard from you all year, Weasley."

"How is she?" McGonogal asked, concerned. Her clothes were damaged and her face was scratched and bloody. Oh goddess Bast let her be aright

"She has a minor concussion, cuts and bruises, cracked rib, magical exhaustion and her right hand is burnt from the inside for some odd reason, probably a burst of accidental magic of some sort. She'll live." He said in a monotone. He glanced at unconscious troll that was still bleeding on the floor raised an eyebrow. "Though I'm not that sure about the troll," and raised an eyebrow at Flitwick.

"It's dead." the diminutive professor said cheerfully as he joined them. "I'm not sure if it's the cracked skull or the bleeding."

McGonogal could see the wheels turning in the diminutive professors head and she growled inwardly as she cocked an eyebrow. No way he was getting this one. She was training her and that was final.

Flitwick looked at her for a moment and smiled sardonically. Accepting the challenge.

Later that evening the rumours were going wild in the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey did you hear? That Granger girl got cornered by the troll and got clobbered. She's in the hospital wing with a concussion." A voice could be heard, and overheard.

"I heard the troll was in a worse shape then she was." Someone else would correct.

"I heard Potter say she took it out." Dean Thomas said, and him being a dorm mate that practically made him an eye witness.

"Ronald Weasley is scared witless and muttered something about her clubbing the thing to death." was added to the grapevine as fact.

There were a few sceptics, but they were quickly convinced.

"Oh come now, that's ridiculous. An ickle firstie taking out a troll, with it's own club?"

"I saw the troll when the prefects transported it." Intoned Percy Weasley gravely "It was covered in a sheet. Professor Snape confirmed that Granger did it in. Now enough gossiping! Headmaster will clear things up later, so off to bed with you lot!"

In the end, it would always stay in the back of the minds of Gryffindors, how the stray Ravenclaw was truly one of them. Even if she was a know it all.

That evening an emergency staff meeting was held in the Teacher's Lounge.

"How is your Gryffindor Minerva?" asked Albus Dumbledore.

"She is stable but Poppy wanted to stay and monitor her condition. She has some sort of head injury but will probably be fine." an agitated looking McGonogal explained.

"I want to know how a troll got past the creature wards?" asked Professor Snape.

"I had to take it down temporarily to help set defences for you-know-what. It must have snuck in then." Said Dumbledore "We must check the grounds tonight to ensure nothing else made it past the ward limit. Quirrel? Do you have an idea how we should go about sweeping the castle?"

The meeting and patrols lasted into the night to some time after midnight. No other creatures were found.

Hermione woke up to a pounding migraine and laid very still, she stopped breathing, fearing her head would fall apart and half hoping it would.

She opened her eyes, abruptly closed them again and groaned the light was way too bright.

"I am glad that you are back with us, Miss Granger." She heard a voice and she carefully opened her eyes again. Madam Pomfrey was preparing a salve next to her bed.

"Now relax relax, this will help with the cuts." the nurse said as she lightly dabbed the potion on her face and shoulders. The liquid was warm and stung a little but quickly cooled and soothed causing a tingly feeling to spread across her body and she closed her eyes again.

"Don't go to sleep yet. How are you feeling?" a voice asked and Hermione opened her eyes again.

"Think 'm ok." she said. "Head hurts. My jaw hurts if I move it to much. Can't feel my hand?" She looked. Her hand was wrapped in bandages.

"Yes that would be the concussion and magical exertion combining." Madam Pomfrey nodded. "Reaction headaches are bad enough without getting your brain physically scrambled."

"What about the hand?" Hermione asked concerned.

"Strange tissue and skin burns, I'm not sure from what. Did you botch a spell?" The healer asked with curiosity.

Hermione tried to nod and then reached for her head with her left hand. Her right arm just lay there uselessly.

She helped Hermione sit up and handed her a potion vial. "Drink this. It will help with the concussion and the pain. Your magic will recover soon enough."

Hermione gulped the foul liquid barely tasting it. The soothing sensation spread across her head almost instantly and she thanked whatever gods were listening. It still hurt but it was much better.

"What about my arm?" She asked.

"I immobilised it to avoid further injury." Pomfrey said, passing her wand over Hermione's head. "Yes, this should alleviate the danger from your concussion. Sleep now, I'll be waking you up periodically.

"Th'k y'." Hermione mumbled already drifting off to sleep.

"You are welcome Miss Granger. Rest and heal child. Just rest and heal." Intoned the mediwitch, gently swiping a sheen of sweat from the girl's forehead.

Madam Pomfrey stayed there all night carefully monitoring the girl's condition, her body and ethics easily remembering wartime reserves when sleep was a luxury and medication scarce. She remembered the strokes and the burnouts that the simple potion she gave the girl could have prevented.

"Rest child. I will care for you."