Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not owned by me. He is a wizard with free will, but he also has to bow down to the Great Goddess J. K. Rowling.
Summary: Harry Potter is abandoned on the London Underground in 1987 by complete accident. This is the story with the trains in it. Go back to the beginning if you forget.
Oh, by the way, what I mean by football is a soccer ball.
Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Connect
by whoturnedoutthelights
Chapter 7: October 31st 1991, or Wolverine Longbottom part 2
October 31st, 1991 was the tenth anniversary of the temporary defeat of Lord Voldemort. Thousands died due to his actions, but only the wizards remembered them. Three of the Light side's wizards in particular remembered the dark times best.
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, was of course one of these. Leader of the vigilante group the Order of the Phoenix, he remembers both the lives he succeeded in protecting and the many lives he failed to save. The war had taken its toll on him, and he would never act in violence towards another human being again.
Severus Snape, resident Potions Master of Hogwarts, was also one of these. Having served on both sides during the conflict, he most likely knew more of the dead than any other. One name, though, stood out. Lily Evans Potter. Oh, he had no problem with the name Lily Evans Potter, as he had mostly put his infamous schoolboy grudge aside after ten years of not seeing hide nor hair of the Marauders. Mostly - a hatred still burned for Sirius Black, the Potter's betrayer, but he could no longer hate the man who died attempting to save Lily, the man who died trying to avenge her, or the man who had nothing left for himself any more.
Because Severus Snape also had very little left for himself.
As for the third person, that was Garrick Ollivander, of course. Being a wandmaker with a conscience is a difficult profession in a wizarding war, and Ollivander, the man who sold the wands that caused so much grief felt guilty. Some say it unhinged him, while others claim he was always mysterious and creepy.
Harry awoke particularly early on Halloween. Actually, if he'd woken up seconds later, he would have seen Fred and George Weasley sneaking out of his dorm room, but he did not.
Transfiguration Class remained unaffected by the Halloween spirit, as Professor McGonagall continued to instruct them in turning crystal balls into either ordinary footballs or Quaffles. This transfiguration was more difficult than the original transfigurations with matchsticks and needles as the crystal ball is made of solid crystal, while the football or Quaffle contains air. Hermione's footballs tended to deflate far too easily, while Ron's Quaffles were more likely to fall apart. Seamus's Quaffles exploded. Harry attempted both transformations - he could pull off the Quaffle, but the football continued to evade him - it would not come out the wrong colour.
Hermione continued to use molecular structure to master her transfigurations.
Harry had mastered the transfiguration through imagining the required ball becoming softer.
Ron remained baffled by Hermione's Muggle science approach to the problem - his approach to transfiguration was simply to single-mindedly visualise the end result, and when doing Transfiguration the three of them would constantly butt heads as to which way was best.
As for Charms Class, Professor Flitwick had decided they were finally learning how to make objects fly. Thanks to Fred and George's fake wands, Ron and Harry had finally gotten the knack of the wand movements by having mock swordfights. Hermione disapproved of this method, but she disapproved of a lot of things, like breaking the rules, bulking up your essay length by writing with large letters and recklessly flying.
And, of course, obstructing the lines of sight of others by waving your levitated feathers in their faces, as Ron was soon to find out.
Harry was paired with Neville, who was having trouble with the levitation. Neville's performance in Charms was always a bit on the risky side - just like in the first class, he would fail to perform the charm several times, then it would be massively overpowered. Hermione thought it might have been because his wand was resisting him, but Neville denied this every time. Sure enough, the feather went rocketing up to the ceiling and was completely destroyed on impact.
"I think we're going to need another feather here, Professor," said Harry.
In response, Seamus's feather exploded.
The Halloween Feast was everything you could expect from a Hogwarts Halloween Feast, with live bats swooping around, pumpkins galore, and large bowls of sweets scattered about. The highlight, or lowlight if you're that sort of person, was when Fred and George set off a Halloween-themed prank, dressing the school's demographic up in classic Muggle Halloween costumes. The general trend was caricatured vampires, werewolves and skeletons, though there were a number of green skinned witches and evil bearded wizards in black robes. Dumbledore and Snape were the latter, though they took it with differing amounts of grace.
What really gave Fred and George away was the spectacular troll outfits worn by Graham Montague, Marcus Flint, Millicent Bulstrode and Ron Weasley.
While Professor Snape failed to undo the spellwork, he tucked the rather impressive beard he was sporting down the collar of his robes. Professor Dumbledore frowned at everyone, but the effect was offset by the twinkling eyes. Professor McGonagall, a now rather convincing double for the Wicked Witch of the West, issued a week of detention to both the twins.
Harry, a thin-looking skeleton, found it very funny.
"I hoped they'd do something like this at Hogwarts," he said to Hermione, a particularly bloody corpse. "I always wanted to go trick or treating!"
Hermione wiped some of the blood off her sleeves, but before she could answer, Professor Quirrell burst into the room, yelling, "TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" before fainting about halfway up the aisle.
There was a stampede. Students across the hall leapt up and ran for the door. Several of the Slytherins actually got out. It took several purple firecrackers bursting from Dumbledore's wand to silence the student body. Professor Snape strode down the length of the Great Hall to track down those of his students who had panicked.
"Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Prefects, lead your houses back to the dormitories. Hufflepuff and Slytherin Prefects, lead your houses to the Library and Hospital Wing respectively. Teachers, come with me to the dungeons," said Dumbledore.
Percy rounded up the students.
"Everyone here? Excellent! Follow me, everyone! No need to fear the troll!" he said, leading the house out. Most of the house filed out of the room before Harry, Ron and Hermione noticed that Neville was lying on the ground groaning. Ron shouted for Percy to stop, but only Alicia Spinnet and Kenneth Towler at the back of the escaping horde stopped to see.
"What do we do?" asked Hermione frantically. Luckily Madam Pomfrey, the school's nurse, stopped to see. Bending down, she hit his torso with a healing spell, then straightened up.
"He should be all right now, but you will have to stick together and get back to your common room. For Merlin's sake, keep your heads down. I have to stay here to process any injured Slytherins, what were they thinking, running off like that?" she muttered as she walked up to the Slytherin table and started vanishing the mess made.
It was a mark of the seriousness of the occasion that Ron did not comment about the Slytherins. The six of them hurried up the marble staircase and down a long, stone corridor.
"How did a troll get in?" asked Harry.
"Well, they're supposed to be highly unintelligent and very large," said Hermione. Neville gave a half smile at that. "Which begs the question, how did one make it through the wards?"
"Maybe Peeves let it in as a joke," suggested Ron. Alicia Spinnet shot that down, though.
"He can't have, Peeves was planning to lead the ghosts in a charge on the Great Hall. Well, some of them - the Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady refused on principle, but the Fat Friar was really excited," she said.
"Wait, did you know?" asked Kenneth Towler in surprise.
"Yes, Fred and George weren't discreet enough in their planning. See how my skin hasn't changed colour?"
Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them.
"Y-y-y-you there," said Professor Quirrell, who for some reason had his turban off. "W-why aren't you in your c-common rooms?"
"Neville was hurt in the stampede," supplied Hermione. Professor Quirrell walked past them, his head turned to face them.
"W-well you should g-get there as quickly as you c-c-can," he said, before backing away from them and then going down a corridor.
"Where's he going?" asked Harry. "Isn't he supposed to be in the dungeons?"
"There's always something wrong with the Defense Teacher," said Patricia Stimpson matter-of-factly.
"Should we tell a teacher?" asked Hermione as they took a right turn through a tapestry, down a short connecting passage and into the southern wing.
"When this is all over, we'll go and talk to one," replied Alicia. "What's that smell?" she asked. They stopped and sniffed - a powerful and musty stench came from the corridor to their left.
"I think it's the troll," whispered Hermione. Alicia stepped forwards, pushing the first years backwards and listened. A low grunting noise emnated from the corridor, then some heavy footfalls before the troll lumbered into view and saw them.
The troll was twelve feet tall, grey skinned and lumpy, with short fat legs and an enormous wooden club. But they didn't have long to study the troll before it struck out with the club and hit Alicia, who flew backwards down the corridor. Ron and Harry backed away towards Alicia, but Hermione and Neville stood frozen to the spot. Kenneth yelled, "Furnunculus!" at the troll, but the spell did nothing but enrage it further. Its eyes picked out Neville, who was the nearest of the bunch.
"Confuse it!" yelled Harry, reaching into his pocket for something to throw and finding it empty. However, nothing was necessary - the troll turned to look at Harry, lifted its club and lumbered towards him. Kenneth threw a few more hexes at the troll, but none of them affected it apart from directing it towards him. Ron and Harry yelled at it, but to no avail - it clubbed Kenneth in the side and he crumpled to the ground.
It was as the troll was lifting its club again that Harry did something that was both very stupid and quite possibly saved Kenneth Towler's life - he ran at the troll and leapt up, grabbing its club as it rose, then fell onto the troll's head. The troll did not feel Harry, but it did notice the wand that went straight up its nose, and shook its head violently, with Harry attempting to hold on. Hermione, on the other hand, had finally recovered from the shock, and threw the Knockback Jinx, Flipendo. This did absolutely nothing, and the troll continued to shake its head, lifting its club into the air. Hermione panicked, and threw red sparks, the Leg-Locker curse and the Unlocking Charm at the troll, none of which did anything. Ron pulled at Neville, but he was still frozen.
The troll then managed to dislodge Harry from its back. Ron looked at the troll in horror as it lifted up the club, Harry held in one of its fists.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The troll's club flew upwards with such force it cracked the ceiling, then fell to the ground; the troll itself looked up in confusion and dropped Harry, who moved away quickly. Neville looked at the ceiling in horror, his wand drawn. The troll then looked down and reached for its club, but was distracted as Professor Dumbledore, the four Heads of Houses, Professor Quirrell and Madam Pomfrey came charging round the corner. Professor McGonagall waved her wand in a flourish and the troll was flung backwards and bound in chains. Quirrell staggered back against a wall, clutching his heart.
Snape went over to the troll. Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout, Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick went to inspect the two third years. Professor McGonagall glared at the four of them with pure fury.
"What in Merlin's name were you thinking?" she said. "You're lucky you weren't killed. What possessed you not to go to your dormitory?"
Snape glared at Harry looked at the floor. Ron, Hermione and Neville opened their mouths at once and started speaking.
"Well, what it is-"
"When the stampede-"
"They were helping-"
"One at a time," said Professor McGonagall, pointing at Hermione.
"When the stampede happened in the Great Hall, Neville got trampled on by someone. We tried to stop Percy, but only Alicia and Kenneth heard. Madam Pomfrey fixed up Neville, and we were just going to our common room when the troll found us. It knocked out Alicia, and when Kenneth tried to curse it, it got him too. Harry jumped on its back and stuck his wand up his nose and Neville levitated its club out of the way," she said, motioning to the ceiling. "If you hadn't found us, we'd probably be dead."
Snape snorted. "A likely story -"
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," warned Dumbledore, but Snape was not listening.
"Can anyone confirm this? Poppy would never abandon a patient behind. What probably happened was Potter, like his idiotic father, dragged his friends into danger trying to play the hero. He's playing innocent now, and you're just going to look the other way, as usual," he ranted. Harry looked at him in anger and confusion. His father wasn't stupid, surely? What did Snape mean?
"Actually, I did have to patch Neville up," said Madam Pomfrey. "I would have escorted them myself if I didn't have to tend to those foolish Slytherins."
"See," said Professor Dumbledore. "A simple misunderstanding, Severus. Now, I believe Miss Spinnet is awakening..."
Alicia had indeed opened her eyes.
"Professor," she said.
"Can you inform us as to what happened, Miss Spinnet?" asked Dumbledore.
"I can't really remember," she said, "we were walking back to the common room because Neville had been injured, and we bumped into Professor Quirrell, but he just told us to hurry on, and then there was a horrible smell and the troll came out. I don't really remember anything else," she finished awkwardly.
"Quirinus?" asked Dumbledore. Quirrell looked up at him.
"What? Oh yes, yes, I saw P-Potter and Spinnet, they were heading to their d-dormitories."
"Well, that's settled, then. Now, I think you should all go back to your common room, you can continue the feast in there," said Dumbledore. Snape looked livid, but kept his mouth shut.
"Not these two, or you, Longbottom," said Madam Pomfrey. "I'm taking you to the hospital wing. They are injured and it is my responsibility to care for them."
She, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick and Professor Dumbledore levitated the two unconscious third years and walked off to the hospital wing, and took Neville with them.
"As for you three," said Professor McGonagall, "I don't think I need to tell you how lucky you were. In future, stick to a teacher or prefect. I sincerely hope this never happens again, but at least you should be prepared. You may go."
She and Professor Snape turned to the troll. Harry, Ron and Hermione left.
"I hope that never happens again," said Hermione. Ron nodded along with her.
"An Unlocking Charm, really?" asked Harry.
"Well, I was panicking, okay? Besides, I don't see you doing any better - you jumped on its back!"
Ron laughed.
"Ron!"
"Sorry," he said immediately. "But it was kind of funny, mate."
"But what happened with Alicia?" asked Hermione. "She got hit on the head by a club and she's mostly fine."
"Probably the Professors," said Ron knowingly. Hermione looked at him oddly.
"And Neville," said Harry. "He was almost crushed - how can he function well enough to cast such a powerful Levitation Charm?"
"It can't have hurt that much," said Ron.
"Trust me, I know how dangerous a stampede can be," said Harry. "I was there when they put up the Bethnal Green plaque." Hermione looked at him in surprise.
"What happened at Bethnal Green?" asked Ron.
"I'll explain later," said Hermione.
They kept going in silence until they reached the Fat Lady.
"Pig snout," said Ron and they climbed through the portrait hole. The common room was packed, and they hurried off to get plates. Angelina Johnson rushed up to them.
"Where's Alicia?" she asked. There was a brief silence.
"She's in the hospital wing with Kenneth Towler. They were protecting us and Neville from the troll. Neville got hurt in the stampede," explained Harry. Angelina glared at them, then her face softened. Oliver Wood was not happy, though.
"My Chaser is in the Hospital Wing a week before the first match?" he thundered. Hermione looked alarmed.
"Yes, she got hit on the head by the troll," replied Ron. Harry looked at him with a certain respect for the way he risked life and limb telling Oliver Wood that. Wood, however relaxed. Angelina looked at him angrily.
"She got a blow to the head and that suddenly makes it better?" she asked him.
"Well, at least it wasn't her arms," said Oliver Wood. This was the wrong thing to say. Harry, Ron and Hermione edged away from the brewing catastrophe and piled their plates with dinner.
An hour later, Neville came through the portrait hole and went up to the three of them. "Thanks," they said awkwardly, then Neville went off to get his plate, stepping gingerly round an Oliver Wood lying face down on the ground.
But from that moment onwards, Neville Longbottom became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve foot mountain troll is one of them.
Well, thought I'd get this chapter done fast to make up for the long wait for the last one. Oh, Neville.
RIP for those who died at Bethnal Green, the biggest UK civilian disaster in WWII. Harry would know about stampedes, just like he knows about other bad things like fires and standing on the left of the escalator.
In terms of how Harry learnt to read (beyond Year 2/Second grade in primary/elemental school), it was mainly from Evening Standards read under the guidance of station staff who just couldn't resist his natural charm and persuasiveness. And his due-to-the-Horcrux charm and persuasiveness. The same members of staff who direct him to where he can procure food. For those who don't know, the Evening Standard does not have the strongest political stance (that's got to be the likes of the Daily Mail, which Uncle Vernon reads).
The Professors are covertly looking into where Harry can stay, but haven't found anywhere. I say covertly, because the only option standing in the way of open floor to the Notts and Rowles is a registered werewolf.
Also, magical cores is wrong, just so you know. The Selwyn Laws of Motion get that bit wrong, just like Newton gets it wrong that mass is constant. Augustus Selwyn had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but as he was a pureblood wizard, he attributed it to a lack of magical skill (a Muggle disease, how could a noble pureblood contract such a thing), and bought into popular 13th century theories like the Magical Core as a way to explain away the constant exhaustion he tried to hide for so long. What he refers to as the Magical Core is actually the scalar product of the magical power of the animal which provided the core and the caster's familiarity with the spell, and the high powers explain why it's so hard to do a spell without lots of practice!
Please review! I've got some plot done! I always thought that the Halloween feast was lacking Halloween costumes, and that we see remarkably few (read none that I can remember) of Fred and George's pranks over the span of the books.
Deleted Scene:
Hermione ducked into a toilet, while Ron and Harry waited. Suddenly, Fred and George came charging down the corridor to the toilet door, turned the key and ran away.
"GITS!" yelled Ron. Harry shook the handle, but it was no good.
"Alohomora," came a voice from within, and Hermione opened the door. "It wasn't you who did this, was it?"
"No, Fred and George," said Ron. "Alohomora?"
"Standard Book of Spells, chapter 7," replied Hermione.
Meanwhile, round a corner, Fred and George smirked.
"We have finally found our revenge."
"Indeed. We have."
