Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, but I didn't have internet for a while.
XOXOXOXOXO
The next morning at breakfast, Haley automatically started walking towards Fred and George, but stopped walking due to surprise. Harry Potter was waving her over to join them! When she sat down Hermione smiled at her and then went back to reading.
"Hello Haley, my name's Harry, this here is Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom. Oh, and that's Hermione Granger." Harry lowered his voice as he said, "But she's not speaking to us."
Hermione shot him daggers as Haley was shocked by that last bit of news. "Why not?" Haley asked.
"She's mad at us about last night," Ron said.
Haley leaned forward. "I wonder what that dog is guarding. That must be why the third floor corridor is off limits."
She noticed Ron and Harry look at each other like they knew something. "You know don't you?" she asked.
"Well…" Harry said, and then paused. He seemed to think he could trust her, and the need to share the news and get more opinions seemed to persuade him to tell her.
He told her about his trip to Gringotts with Hagrid and how they emptied out a vault. The very same night Gringotts was broken into. Now he thought that package was hidden in the trap door under the three-headed dog.
Haley was glad they were including her. After what they went through the night before, she hoped it meant they all shared a deeper bond.
She also noticed that Hermione and Neville didn't want to talk about what happened. That was okay with Haley. She could find other ways to bond with them.
XOXOXOXOXO
A week went by and Haley was having the time of her life. She now had six new friends. Fred and George of course, their younger brother Ron and his best mate Harry, plus Neville and Hermione. The only problem was trying to hang out with Harry, Ron and Hermione at the same time. Hermione was still ignoring Harry and Ron, so she had to hang out with Hermione separately. This meant either in their dorm room, or the library. Hermione was a book worm and preferred to spend all of her free time in the Library. Fred and George were always great when she needed a laugh. Harry and Ron were fun to hang out with because they were adventurous. And Neville was great to have around if you needed some peace and quiet.
One morning during breakfast, the seven of them were interrupted by six owls carrying a package to Harry. He ripped open his letter and passed it on to Ron. Haley read over his shoulder and was surprised to learn that the package was a Nimbus Two Thousand broom. She didn't know what that meant, but she was impressed. The two of them left quickly, and she knew it was so they could unwrap it in private.
XOXOXOXOXO
On Halloween, Professor Flitwick told the class that they would be learning how to make objects fly. Haley partnered with Neville, Harry and Seamus, and Hermione and Ron. The latter group made it difficult to work together because Hermione was still refusing to talk to Ron or Harry.
The task was difficult. They were supposed to make a feather levitate. In the process, Seamus set his feather on fire, Neville poked himself in the eye from flailing his arm so much, and Hermione showed off to Ron by doing it perfectly.
When class ended, Ron said something mean about Hermione, and she ran off crying. Haley went after her and followed her into the girl's bathroom. She tried to console her by telling her Ron was an idiot and didn't know what he was talking about, but Hermione just said she was fine and told Haley to leave.
Haley was worried about Hermione as the rest of the day past and she hadn't seen her friend since leaving the bathroom. At the Halloween feast, she asked the boys if they had seen her, but they just shook there heads no. Parvati told her that Hermione was crying in the girl's bathroom, and she wanted to be left alone. Haley couldn't believe she had been in the bathroom all that time. She excused herself from the table and proceeded to the bathroom.
She opened the door and could hear sniffling coming from the farthest stall.
"Hermione? It's Haley. Are you still in here?"
"Go away!" Hermione wailed.
Instead of leaving, Haley marched to the last stall and pushed open the door. Hermione was sitting on the seat with her face in her hands. Her head came up quickly and she gave Haley a dirty look.
"I'm fine! I just want to be left alone," Hermione said.
"You're not fine! If you were, you wouldn't have spent the whole day crying in the bathroom. Ron's a git! He's just a stupid boy who doesn't know anything. Why, anyone would be lucky to have a friend like you," Haley said.
Hermione looked hopeful. "Really? You mean that?" She looked sad again. "I've never had friends before."
Haley softened. "Neither have I."
Hermione's jaw fell open. "No way! But you have loads of friends! In fact, you seem to have a lot of guy friends."
"It's true. I never had a friend until I came to Hogwarts. You were actually the first person I've met. And that means the world to me. I like being you're friend. And if stupid boys are too stupid to realize that, then who needs them? You've still got me and Neville. And I've sure Fred and George too. In fact, Parvati seems like a nice person. Why not make friends with her. Just because Ron's a git doesn't mean you can't make other friends."
Hermione smiled. She wiped away the remaining tears and stood up. "You're right. I do have other friends. Thank you Haley." Hermione did something rare and gave her friend a hug. When she pulled back, she said, "You're the best friend a girl could have."
"Wow a best friend. I've never had a best friend before. I like the sound of it. Haley Potter and Hermione Granger, BFF's!" Haley said.
"Best friends forever, I like it! Yes BFF's!" Hermione stopped in mid celebration to sniff the air. "Do you smell that?"
They both wrinkled their noses as a foul stench wafted through the air. "Oh, it's disgusting!" Haley cried out as they both plugged their noses. Then the floor itself seemed to shake. The noise seemed to be right outside the entrance as the shaking finally stopped. The girls looked at each other as fear started taking over as the noise entered the room.
They peeked out from behind the door to the stall as they could hear the door to the entrance lock.
What they saw in front of them froze them in terror. A troll of about twelve feet was standing in the bathroom! The troll was holding what looked like a huge wooden club. It turned and looked at them. The girls grabbed each other's hands as they backed up and hit the toilet. They could hear the troll let out a growl and the stomping proceeded. The door of the stall was ripped off of its hinges and the two girls screamed their heads off as they ducked under the troll and made their way towards the exit.
They both felt a swish over their heads as the troll swiped at them with his club. He missed and they backed up towards the sink. They ducked under the sinks as the club hit the ones farthest from them.
"Confuse it!" Haley heard someone say from the door and saw both Harry and Ron!
The two boys succeeded in confusing the troll as Harry yelled at the girls to run. Hermione was rooted to the ground petrified. Haley grabbed her arm and tried dragging her.
Harry jumped on the troll's back and shoved his wand up its nose. The troll roared in pain and started whipping his club around trying to shake Harry off his back. The club struck Haley in the stomach and she went flying into the wall. All of the air was knocked out of her and she struggled for breath.
Ron pulled out his wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The club flew up into the air and dropped onto the troll's head. The troll swayed and fell face forward with a tremendous thud.
When she looked up again; Harry was getting to his feet, Ron was still pointing his wand in shock, and Hermione was still rooted to the floor.
"Is…it…dead?" Haley wheezed out as she struggled to her feet.
"I think it's knocked out." Harry said as he helped Haley stand up. "Are you alright?"
Haley nodded yes. "Just got the wind knocked out of me."
As Harry got his wand out of the troll's nose and cleaned it off, a commotion came from outside the door and Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell came running in. McGonagall stopped in shock from the spectacle in front of them, and asked them what they were doing there.
"They came looking for me," said Hermione. She seemed to have come out of her daze. "I went looking for the troll." She explained that she went looking for the troll when Haley, Ron, and Harry found her. She told them how Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club.
Professor McGonagall took five points away from Hermione and told her to leave. She then turned to the three remaining and gave them each five points for 'sheer dumb luck.' She dismissed them and they walked back to Gryffindor Tower.
When they all stepped inside, they noticed everyone else was eating there dinner at the table, and Hermione lingered by the door. Without looking at each other, they all mumbled thanks, and went and got some food.
The four of them sat down next to Fred, George, Lee, and Neville.
"Oi. Where've you lot been?" Fred asked.
"Yeah, we saw you just come in. What have you been up to?" George said as well.
The four of them looked at each other. Some half smiled, and some grimaced.
George leaned in and wrinkled his nose. "What's that smell?"
Fred leaned in as well. "You saw the troll, didn't you?"
When nobody denied it, the twins whistled and Neville dropped his fork in shock.
"What happened?" Neville asked. "Was it big and scary?"
The four of them re-counted what happened. They each told what happened from their point of view, though Hermione never mentioned why she was in the bathroom in the first place. She just said that she and Haley were in there when the troll came and the boys rescued them. The boys said they knew about them being in the bathroom and when they heard about the troll, went after them. From there the story remained the same.
"Wish we'd thought of that, George," Fred said.
"Yeah, if a bunch of first years can take on a troll, so can we," George replied.
After dinner, Haley, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Fred, George, Lee and Neville all hung out together playing games and getting to know each other. From that night on, they were all the best of friends.
XOXOXOXOXO
November was finally here, and that meant Quidditch. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Fred and George did the best they could in getting Haley up to date. She had never heard of that sport and therefore knew nothing about it. From what she did seem to get, the sport was sort of like basketball, baseball and soccer in one. When she mentioned this to them, they looked at her like she was crazy, and then asked her what those were. She laughed and then explained each game. They seemed offended, and said Quidditch was much better.
The day of the first match, Haley, Ron, and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean Thomas. When the teams came out, shook hands and mounted their brooms, Haley was blown away by what she was seeing. She had never seen anything so fast-paced before. Not to mention how funny Lee Jordan was with his commentating. Haley never realized how dangerous Quidditch could be. Those Beaters were literally beating the ball at people. At the speed they were moving, any mistake could cost them broken bones or worse.
At one point Hagrid, the giant, joined them. He turned to everyone and introduced himself.
"Hello. Me name's Hagrid. Are you friends of Harry Potter as well?"
Everyone nodded yes and introduced themselves. When Haley introduced herself, Hagrid went stiff and stared at her. His eyes watered a bit and his voice was shaky when he said, "Potter, ay? It's nice ter see ya again. I mean, it's nice ter meet ya."
Haley looked over at everyone else to see if they caught his slip up as well.
"What do you mean it's nice to see me again?" Haley asked.
Hagrid blushed. "I on'y meant tha' I've seen yeh on yer first day o' school. Firs' year and all."
Hagrid changed the subject by talking about Harry and how he was doing during the match. Haley continued to stare at Hagrid. He definitely knew something that he didn't want to share. She knew Harry was friends with him, so she would have to ask him and see what he thought or if he could get Hagrid to elaborate.
Finally Harry saw the Snitch, and he and the other Seeker were chasing after it, neck and neck.
The Gryffindor crowd roared in anger as Marcus Flint blocked Harry and almost knocked him off his broom.
As the game continued, Hagrid wondered aloud about what Harry was doing on his broom. Everyone looked and noticed his broom was out of control. Harry slipped off of the broom and was only holding on by one hand.
Hagrid said something about it being dark magic, and Hermione whipped his binoculars out of his hands and searched the crowd. She gasped and said it was Snape. Sure enough they could see him staring at Harry while mumbling nonstop under his breath.
Hermione jumped up and disappeared. They saw her re-emerge almost behind Snape when she bumped into Professor Quirrell. When she was behind Snape, she mumbled some words and blue flames leap from her wand to his robes. When Snape realized what was happening and leapt up in shock, Hermione scooped up her flames, put it in a jar, and ran back to her friends.
Up in the air Harry was able to get back on his broom. But to their surprise they saw him speeding towards the ground and clap a hand to his mouth as if he were going to be sick. When he reached the ground, he fell on all fours, coughed, and something gold fell out into his hand. Harry had caught the Snitch and won the game!
