Chapter 4: Trolls on Halloween

Maddy had her first encounter with Peeves that Sunday, she had figured out that Bellona also had dyslexia and needed help with her reading-heavy homework so she had recruited Hermione to help them, apparently the two were roommates, and Hermione was overly excited to help. The three met up in the library, first they worked on the History of Magic homework since neither Bellona nor Maddy could stay awake during the class, then they moved on to start other homework.

As they left the library there was the sound of something heavy falling -Maddy recognized it as marble- and the trio went to find out what had made the noise. They saw a ghost cackling madly as it knocked some trophies out of the trophy case.

"That's Peeves," Hermione said quickly, her voice full of disdain. "He's a poltergeist. Really quite obnoxious."

Peeves was flying around in a really flamboyant manner, flipping and twisting and turning in a simultaneously clumsy and elegant way as he sang a rather obnoxious song in a nasally voice.

Bellona was about to say something when the caretaker, Filch, arrived and immediately began to blame them for the mess as Peeves had disappeared. He demanded for them to clean it up, which they reluctantly agreed to and he marched away, only for Peeves to appear again and continuously messed up everything that they did, while still singing his obnoxious song.

"Shut up!" Maddy exclaimed after a solid twenty minutes of having to listen to him. He quieted down immediately to both Hermione's and Bellona's surprise. "Go away, Peeves!" He quietly floated away.

"How did you do that?" Bellona asked incredulously.

"What do you mean?"

"Nobody can control Peeves except for the Bloody Baron, we heard the ghost talking about it," Hermione said. "I've also witnessed a few people lose their temper at him but he never does what they say."

"Well, I don't know what I did," Maddy lied, she knew full well it was because of her power over the undead, even though she had never been able to use the ability with ghosts -she had practiced raising skeletons and the such before coming to Hogwarts, but she hadn't been around ghosts long enough to try it with them.

Time passed by rather slowly and Maddy had become rather well acquainted with the Gryffindors, as did the girl who had woken her up on the first friday, Elliot de la Mare, which drew her to be ridiculed by Malfoy's gang as well when she had previously just been ignored by them.

Maddy remained hated by Snape -and the feeling was reciprocated- mostly because of her 'incompetence in potion making' as he put it as well as her 'stubbornness to not fix a dire problem' meaning her decision to not get her dyslexia fixed, and it didn't help that her work was often turned in with little doodles in the margins or that she sometimes ended up drawing instead of taking notes. She still felt fairly neutral about McGonagall, as well as Professor Sinistra, Flitwick and Madam Hooch -though that's only because she skipped every flying lesson-. She quite liked Professor Sprout and wasn't particularly fond of Professor Binns. She didn't like Quirrel at all, looking at him made her blood freeze, there was something wrong about him and she was desperate to find out what, it was similar to the way she felt when looking at Harry's scar.

Malfoy's antagonistic behavior got worse as the days went on, he repeatedly tried to steal her jar of fire and always found something to mock her about, and nothing was off limits. He found out that Maddy had never met her mother and didn't even know who she was and he would often taunt her about her reading skills.

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad fly around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Maddy was partnered with Bellona, Elliot was put with Neville, Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan and Ron was to be working with Hermione, which he seemed very upset about, as did Hermione.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too. Never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

The spell was rather hard, everyone was having trouble with it except Hermione, who had probably practiced the spell beforehand, and Bellona.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Maddy said sharply as she aggressively flicked her wand.

"Mads," Bellona said. "You're too stiff, try relaxing. Wingardium Leviosa." She calmly said the incantation and almost lazily flicked her wand. The feather rose.

"It's just so aggravating."

"Just calm down, look, only people who are tense haven't succeeded. Think about things that are calming. Flowers, oceans-" Maddy sent her a horrified and angry glares. "Not oceans. Flowers and beds?"

Maddy let out a deep breath and tried again. It managed to hover a bit but then fell right back down, she continued to attempt the spell for the rest of the class, never quite succeeding.

Maddy and Bellona joined Elliot after class and helped her collect her things, which she had accidentally shot into the air on at the end of class, and they all got out just before the first of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs arrived.

"Does Hermione seem upset?" Bellona asked as Hermione ran ahead in front of Harry and Ron, her head down.

"I don't really know Hermione but it seems like she's crying," Elliot said slowly.

"Should we check on her?"

"I'd prefer to be alone," Maddy said. "Especially if she's crying. She seems like the sort of person who would prefer to get rid of her emotions in private."

"We should ask Harry and Ron if they know what happened though."

"Yeah."

They didn't get a chance to ask what had happened and Hermione didn't turn up at all throughout the day. Maddy felt kind of bad that she was missing out on the decorations in the Great Hall as they were really quite nice. There were live bats flying up by the ceiling and the floating candles were encased in pumpkins with faces and designs carved into them.

Maddy had just dropped a baked potato into the jar of flames when Professor Quirrell ran into the Great Hall, turban askew and his face wrought with terror. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll! In the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

People began to scream, Maddy personally didn't understand why everyone was so worked up. Trolls weren't that bad. Although, to her delight, Malfoy was among those screaming the hardest.

Dumbledore commanded everyone to be quiet then told the prefects to lead their houses back to their dormitories.

Through the mass of people Maddy saw Ron and Harry rushing out of the hall without the other Gryffindors. Maddy told Elliot to go on ahead without her and, without waiting for an answer, ran off after them.

"What the hell are you two doing?" She asked after she caught up with them -which was quite easy as she was running at full speed.

"Telling Hermione about the troll," Harry said.

"Do you two know where she is?"

"She's in the girls bathroom," Ron said.

"Okay. I'm going with you. Come on. Quickly." She began to run to the girls bathroom, Ron and Harry trailing behind her.

She skidded to a halt as she entered the bathroom, standing before her was a twelve foot tall troll with dull grey skin covering it's lumpy body. It smelled terrible and was dragging a club along the ground. It wasn't anywhere near the most menacing thing she'd seen -in her opinion of lycanthropes was far worse- but it was definitely a little intimidating, height wise anyway.

Maddy looked around the room as she gently but quickly pulled down on the pendant on her Camp Half Blood necklace, it quickly turned into a double ended Stygian Iron spear. She saw Hermione quivering against the opposite wall, looking like she was about to faint as the troll advanced on her, knocking the sinks off of the walls as it slowly moved forward.

That was when Harry and Ron arrived, they were stunned and unsure of what to do, Maddy climbed up the broken skins and up one of the stalls, then jumped onto the trolls head to the boys surprise. She showily spun her spear around then lodged it into it's thick neck.

It began to flail about, causing Maddy to fall off. She tried to land on her feet, nearly managing to do so but she lost her balance and fell over. She cut her cheek as the palm her hand on a piece of the broken sink as well. Her spear flew across the room. She cursed in Greek and got up to her feet and began making her way to it.

"Confuse it!" Harry yelled as he grabbed a piece of the broken sinks and threw it against the wall opposite of Maddy's spear and away from Hermione.

"Oy! Pea-brain!" Ron yelled and threw a pipe at the troll from the far side of the bathroom. It turned to face the redheaded boy. Harry began to help Hermione up and tried to get her out.

Maddy yelled as she ran towards the troll, once again twirling her spear in a rather flamboyant manner. She jumped and used her spear to cut open the trolls stomach, though the cut wasn't very deep -it did start to wobble around as it tried to regain it's lost balance- so she pulled her spear back, placing it behind the troll's legs, and pushed it forward. She moved out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by the troll and stabbed it right in the head, breaking through it's skull. She dislodge the spear and it shrunk back into the pendant on her necklace.

The three gaped at her.

"What?" She asked, raising her arms up defensively.

"Is it," Hermione hesitated. "Dead?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't-"

"Hermione, it almost killed you." Maddy said, but Hermione didn't seem convinced that it was the right thing to do. Maddy began searching for an explanation Hermione would understand, which was hard because killing it just came so natural to her. "Also, trolls barely even have a conscience, their brain is almost literally the size of a pea, which means it only tells it how to get food and reproduce and whatever else it needs to survive. And that means that they are incapable of meaningful thought and can't feel any emotion more complex than rage, it's like killing a bee."

Hermione was about to say something more but was interrupted when Snape, McGonagall and Quirrell entered. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bent over the troll, inspecting the wound on it's head. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. Maddy had never seen her look so angry, her lips were pressed so tightly together they had turned white.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall said, with cold fury in her voice. Harry looked at Ron. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?" Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look then directed his attention to Maddy.

"Yes, Miss Mender," he almost snarled. "You can't even create a simple cure for boils and you-"

"With all due respect, professor," Maddy interjected, thinking that very little respected was due. "I was the one who got the troll to this state. Harry and Ron helped but it was mostly me."

"Please, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape," Hermione suddenly said, Maddy quietly thanked her for piping up as Snape was suspiciously eyeing the troll's wounds -which were quite obviously caused by a blade and not a wand- and Maddy. "They were looking for me. It's my fault."

"Miss Granger!" McGonagall exclaimed.

"I went looking for the troll because I-I thought I could deal with it on my own. You know, because I've read all about them. If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

"Well, in that case..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" Hermione hung her head. "Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry, Ron and Maddy. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a fully grown mountain troll and come out alive. You are each awarded five points for your respective house's. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had reached where they had to part ways. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"What was that spear thing?" Ron asked.

"What spear thing?" Maddy feigned ignorance.

"You used a spear to kill the troll."

"Nope, that was a piece of wood from a broken stall with a bit of the marble from the broken sinks tied to it." She was reluctant to explain about her weapon.

"But it was the wrong colour," Harry pointed out.

"You must've been imagining things because I don't have a spear. Now, I'm off." She said as she quickly departed from them, descending down the stairs to the dungeons.

As they entered November it became cold, the dungeons were particularly cold as the compacted earth surrounding the walls kept all the cold air in and the ground was constantly covered with frost.

The Quidditch season had begun and Maddy had promised Harry that she would watch his first game on Saturday, which she couldn't say she was looking forward to, although Elliot -who wasn't the type of person who like sports of any kind at all- had agreed to sit on the Gryffindor side with her, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad as long as they got a seat towards the ground.

On the Friday before the match Harry had gotten the book Quidditch Through the Ages confiscated by Snape, so he went back after their potions lesson to retrieve it, Maddy, Elliot, Bellona, Ron and Hermione waited for him to return, which he did very quickly and without his book.

Ron asked what had happened and he explained how he had seen Snape and Filch alone in the staffroom, Snape had been holding his robes up above his knee -apparently he had been limping and Maddy hadn't noticed- and had said something about keeping his eyes on all three heads at once -Elliot, Bellona and Maddy shot curious glances at each other here- and yelled at Harry to get out when he noticed him.

"Wait," Bellona said slowly. "'All three heads'? And you three know what that means?" She gestured to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Well, you see," Hermione began. "Before the incident with the troll, Harry, Ron and I went into the corridor on the third floor-"

"The forbidden third floor?" Elliot asked.

"Yes. Continuing what I was saying, in the room we saw a giant, three headed dog guarding a trapdoor."

"That sounds like Cerberus," Maddy said, thinking of the giant three headed dog that guarded the underworld. The other five looked at her. "Do you want help getting past him?"

"You know how to get past it?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that Cerberus' fall asleep to music. Unfortunately, I can't play any instruments whatsoever so-"

"I can," Bellona interjected.

"Since when?"

"I have been in the orchestra this entire year, Mads. Did you not know that?" Bellona asked.

"No."

"Oh, also I can sing. If that's helpful. That way I don't have to carry an instrument with me."

"Can you come with us?" Ron asked.

"Absolutely!"

"I'm definitely coming too," Maddy was getting restless, she was used to being able to train everyday and go out and do something -whether it was training, climbing the lava rock wall or anything else- whenever she needed to let of steam but at Hogwarts all she could do was run around the school and it was getting too cold for that.

"I probably won't," Elliot said, then began to elaborate when everyone looked at her like she was insane. "I mean it sounds fun but I really don't want to be killed by a giant dog. Also, I'm horrified of animals so, not really the best situation for me."

"Okay, well I'm definitely going," Bellona said. "When should we go?"

"We should go on Sunday," Hermione suggested. "Almost everyone will be outside and Harry will have finished his Quidditch match."

"Sounds good to me," Harry said and everyone agreed with the time.

On Sunday, Maddy, Bellona, Harry, Ron and Hermione had the extreme misfortune of being continuously distracted, delayed, intercept or reminded of previous engagements on their ways to meet each other and on the way to the third floor. It had gotten to dinner time and they lamely decided to hold off on the escapade until they all knew they could actually get there, preferably after hours as they had repeatedly been noticed on the way to the door, having to feign ignorance of the fact they were going to a forbidden corridor.

"We should've thought that out better," Harry said on their way to the Great Hall.

"I'm surprised Hermione didn't remember that she had offered to help that Hufflepuff with some homework," Ron said.

"Honestly," Maddy said. "Very uncharacteristic of you, Hermione."

"I was preoccupied," Hermione grumbled as the quintet entered the Hall and Maddy branched off to go sit beside Elliot at the Slytherin table.

"Did you're ingenious plan work?" She asked smugly.

"No. Shut up," she said as he filled her plate and dropped some of it into her jar of fire. Elliot grinned.

"So, what are you doing instead?"

"We don't know yet. We think we're going to try meeting up after hours."

"Ooo, that's smart."

"Shut up, El."

"Any new information uncovered other than what we learned yesterday?" Elliot asked, referring to the groups talk with Hagrid after the Quidditch match -where Harry almost choked on the snitch- and they had learned that the Cerberus was named Fluffy -which made Maddy laugh- Hagrid had bought him from a Greek person -a demigod perhaps? Maybe even a god?- and that someone named Nicholas Flamel was involved. That name sounded familiar but she just couldn't place it. She had sent Annabeth a letter with Melinoe asking her about the name and if anyone at camp knew about him.

"Nope," Maddy shook her head. "I'm hoping to get some information on Nicholas Flamel sometime soon though. I've got a friend back in America that knows a lot about this sort of thing."

"What are you doing for the winter holiday?" Elliot suddenly asked.

"I'm going back to New York. What about you?"

"I have to go to Nepal to visit some family."

"Isn't your family originally from England?"

"Yeah, but about a century back a couple of people from my family moved to Nepal and now the majority of my family lives there. They all live in a really small village and it looks nice but it's pretty boring."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I've already promised to go this year but I think next year I'm going to stay here instead and forevermore. After we graduate my mum'll kindly ask, 'Sweaty, are you going to Nepal this year?' and I'll respond 'no, mum, I'm staying at Hogwarts' then she'll say 'but dear, you live in Hell, that's nowhere near Hogwarts' but even so I will return." Maddy nearly choked on the pumpkin juice she was drinking as she forced down laughter. "What about you?"

"I'm probably going to go to America every year, but I don't do well with planning ahead like that." Elliot nodded and the two dug into their food.

The reason the troll didn't get absorbed into her spear is because it's a creature that belongs to the wizarding world instead of the demigod world.