Well, I've been gone, but here I am ! Sorry for the delay guys ^^ Here you go


Chapter 7: Halloween

The fact that Bael knew almost all the secret passages of the castle in just a month and a half of life at Hogwarts did not seem to surprise Neville. He knew his friend roamed the castle every night with Ron in search of "thrilling adventures." Many times they had taken Neville with them. They had often escaped Filch (Ron argued the castle helped them camouflage) and they knew quite a lot of passages. It was a great advantage though. The three companions studied the map all night and Ron tried to retain the entire map. Neville abandoned very quickly: he had no memory, remembering the passwords of the common room was a chore so try to remember odd words like bananabumbleeschmuck was way too much for him. And how did the previous owners of the map found that particular password… Neville was sure it was not in a dictionary. I'm also pretty certain it is not English at all.

That said, life of Hogwarts was far from relaxing. Already among the Gryffondors, panic was an every morning routine. The joke war between the twins, Bael and Ron (helped a little bit by Neville) was in full swing - helped sometimes by other student randomly. Every morning, you had to check if you lacked anything and look where you put your feet. Crossing the common room to the portrait seemed to be the course of the Auror too. Very often, the students who did not succeed came out with hair of another color or spit bubbles when they wanted to talk.

But this war came to an end when Professor McGonagall fell into one of the traps of the common room when she wanted to display the next class schedules. It is said she mewed for an entire hour. Obviously the Weasleys and Bael took two full weeks of detention and each received a Howler. However Bael's seemed to be calm. Neville then found out why. The fire-breathing-demon known as Bael's mother had congratulated him for trapping the "arrogant lions" and informed him that he should continue and use more powerful spells to do more damage. McGonagall's red-faced face came to see him at the Gryffindor table and warned him of never ever trying to apply a single advice of the Howler, otherwise he would be expelled. Bael accepted all the reproaches of the professor and was very calm that day. Something to do with pleasing his mother seemed to subdued him. Or shook him.

Finally, the day of Halloween came with great impatience. It was a great day too for Neville. He had had botany and earned a few points. He had not seen Snape the whole day either, which made him much much much happier than usual. With his two friends, he went to the Great Hall for the evening feast when he felt his bag disappear. It was a cornish leprechaun who had amused himself by taking it from him. Irritated, he gave the leprechaun the chase, leaving his friends to join the Great Hall. On his way to track his bag, he met Hermione who tried to help him. Their little hunt ended in the girls' toilets near the dungeons. It was Hermione who got rid of the lepreuchaun and returned his bag and his belongings. She was not the brightest witch of his year with Bael for nothing. And as the two young students went back to the Great Hall merrily, they felt an odor of putrefaction and sewerage.

"What is that smell?"

"No idea ... better not stay here. Come on, come on Neville." Hermione pushed open the door just to close it again and shout "Hide! There's a Troll!"

Neville felt his heart miss a beat. Then a second one. He might actually faint if his heart decided to miss one more beat.

A mountains troll had just broken the door of the bathroom and swung his immense club towards Hermione. She hid in the toilet but the troll swept the whole structure away. Neville seemed to be frozen on the spot, not moving, his mouth hung open. He wanted to take his wand and use a spell but he found himself paralyzed by fear. It was in those moments that he would have liked to be like Ron or Bael. They were not afraid of anything. The smallest the creature, the scarest you would get they said.

The mountain troll then decided to change his target. He was too tired of trying to touch Hermione who could sneak into the interstices. No, he preferred Neville, who was as motionless as a statue. He raised his club and abused it on the site of Neville.

"MOVE YOU IDIOT!"

"Wingardium Leviosa"

These were the voices of Ron and Bael! When he heard the voices of his two friends, Neville's body resumed its march. He immediately noticed two things: first he had not been touched by the troll club, then Bael was in his old place and lay on the ground.

"NO! BAEL!"

Neville and Ron headed for Bael's body but the troll prevented them from passing. Ron was all red and the spell he had cast on the statue barring the entrance seemed to have emptied him of his strength. Neville stretched out his wand and threw a flippendo that did absolutely nothing if not enrage the troll even more. It was Hermione who brought the solution:

"Neville! Send the statue on the head of the troll, it will knock him out!"

"But Hermione, I don't know how to cast this spell!"

But Neville's exclamation fell into deaf ears. He tried all the same. In desperate situations, desperate means. As he attempted the spell for the third time, he quickly saw Bael's lips stir. Neville was immediately relieved, his friend had not died for him.

"What, I can't hear you!"

"The lepreuchaun" Bael said faintly, he seemed about to faint.

"But of course," Hermione exclaimed, "How could I forget?"

Ron and Neville looked at her strangely, seeming to say "it's not obvious? There is a troll right in front of us". Hermione did not give them a look and approached the Cornish Lepreuchaun she had been chasing earlier. She took it in her arms ... to throw him at the head of the troll. Under the astonished eyes of Neville and Ron, the troll staggered and fell to the ground fainting.

"Wow, Hermione, you had more strength than I thought," Ron said.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, you fool. You've never opened a book or what?" The bewildered gaze of the two boys replied. "Cornish leprechauns or sprites have a powder on their skin that is severely toxic to trolls. If they breathe this powder in large quantities, it can kill them. There, there was only one sprite, so just enough powder to knock him out for a few hours," explained Hermione.

"And you remembered that all by yourself? The Sorting Hat must have been wrong with you. You are like so Ravenclaw."

At these words, she blushed: "Uh, I ... no, it's Bael who ... Oh my god Bael, quick, we have to take him to the infirmary! "

And before the three Gryffindors could make a single step, the professors of the castle appeared. In front of them stood McGonagall, Snape, Quirrel and Dumbledore. All were shocked by the chaotic landscape that rose before their eyes.

"I ! Black! Granger, Weasley and Longbottom! Never in my entire career ... Explanations now! "

The tone of the professor frightened everyone. It looked like she'd swallowed a lemon. Her lips were so thin they were hardly visible and her nostrils were completely dilated. Her cry was shrill.

"It's not our fault," Ron began bravely, "The troll was there before we could"

"And what were you doing there? "

"I bah uh"

Ron was stuck. In truth, when Bael had shown the Marauders' map to Ron, they had seen that Ron and Hermione were trapped by a troll (named Percy the Troll by the way). They had run to save them and saw Professor Quirrel coming the other direction. Then Ron chose to remain silent.

"5 points, each of you! You realize you could have been killed! McGonagall exclaimed.

"And I take 10 points from Gryffondor for hurting one of your comrades," Snape announced.

He was leaning over the shape of Bael and passing his wand over his body.

"I'm not hurt. I'm very much fine." A pained voice echoed. A snort from professor Snape answered the small voice.

"As much as I would like to let you wander through the halls again, I'm afraid you will have to go through Poppy first. Also, Black, I happily inform you, you have another detention, which will make the twenty third detention given from me. Congratulations Black, you've earned your place as my most depised student ever."

"I'll quit potions the moment I can."

"Don't worry, I look forward to that day."

"I'll make your life a personal hell until then."

"I'll manage Black, ten points."

"I hate you."

"5 points."

"I don't care."

"And another detention for disrespect."

McGonagall gave the two wizards a scornful look and announced: "You will go through the infirmary. 35 points for Gryffindor for being lucky too. Now out! And Black, not a word anymore. We certainly do not need to lose more house points here." the teacher chastised.

The three Gryffindors hurried out before Snape changed his mind.

"It's not fair to take away points. We just beat a troll and all the teachers can do is scream," Ron snarled.

"McGonagall took us 20 points and Rogue 15, so we lost a total of 35 points; But we regained 35. So, we're even in the end." said Neville

"No" intervened Hermione, "Bael had the gall to talk back to professor Snape. So we lost another 10 points and Bael gained two more detentions. I think we managed to do well in the end Only 10 points were lost …" she said in a dream-like stare.

Neville remained silent. He had noticed that Bael had not recovered from the troll all that well. All that was left were a few snarky remarks but they only seemed like a tradition between Snape and Bael.

The three Gryffindors had been treated in the infirmary but Madam Pomfrey had not kept them the night. She was taking care of Bael. He was in a bed and did not move at all.

"Out! You are perfectly healthy! I have another patient who needs my immediate attention right away! "

So they left the infirmary and headed for the dormitory. On the way back, Hermione asked them if they had not noticed things. Faced with their lack of expression she explained: "Professor Snape was wounded on the leg before coming. He was limping. " The fact that even in the worst situations, Hermione noticed these sort of things intrigued Neville greatly.

"You think he ventured into the forest and a beast wanted to devour his leg?" Asked hopeful Ron

"No, Ron, even a magical creature would not eat Snape!" Hermione replied

Her reply left them speechless. Ron and Neville then proceeded to ask if she was okay. Hermione Granger would never speak ill of a professor. Hermione blushed.

"Haha, Bael really influenced you," Ron laughed.

" Yes, good. I think Snape wanted to go up to the third floor in the condemned wing. ", Hermione diverted the attention almost immediately

"Why, what is there?" "

"I do not know but I'll find out"

"You want to die Hermione! Do not do that," Neville pleaded, asking Ron for help, but the only thing he got was "We're waiting for Bael's return first"

" Perfect. Hermione paused and turned to face them. "Oh, and did you see his hair?"

"What of them? He dyed them pink or something?"

"... I'm not sure, but I swear they were curly and completely brown"

"Maybe, I do not know Hermione. He has weird antics like that."

The three Gryffindors then disappeared in their dormitory. The next morning, as the three new friends came down the stairs to the Great Hall, they went through the infirmary to see Bael. But the nurse denied them access. According to her, he needed rest. However, this calmed the doubts of the three friends. Bael was not going to die.


"It's impossible Albus!" Cried Minerva, "We must protect the stone, then we discover a mountains troll – and an adult one at that - in the enclosure of the castle, a student is missing in the castle and students are wounded. You realize that …! And Black who finds himself in a hospital bed! He's a brilliant student, I do not understand how he was … " but the professor never finished his sentence.

Snape, who until then had merely listened to the conversation, entered the scene: "Perhaps, if you had listened to my words. Black is not who he claims to be. "

"What? You're not thinking clearly! Black is a normal boy! And"

"He's a metamorphmagus," Snape snapped.

"So what? It has no importance. He is not the only metamorphmagus student I know!" Minerva collapsed into a seat and wanted to speak again but she did not seem to know what to say. Albus Dumbledore, who listened to the conversation, said the two words.

"Mr. Black is actually more than what he claimed. He is a metamorphmagus too, but the real question is why try to hide it, " Albus sighed and Snape resumed

"Surely you have seen his original appearance? "

A silence broke through the room.

"It does not change anything for me. Black remains a … »

"Unfortunately Minerva, we will soon be fixed. As he was wounded, I had to call his parents. They should come to the castle in the morning. If it turns out that ... I dare not imagine it to tell you the truth. I pity the poor boy and I understand why he would have done all this. "

An alarm sounded on the teacher's desk.

Baelfyre's parents had arrived.