It was Alex's first Halloween at Hogwarts and all that he could say was that magic folk celebrated the holiday like it was purely self-dedication. The Halloween feast in The Great Hall was more than enough evidence to prove it.

Everything was delectable and extravagantly made (except for the cockroach crunch, which to Alex's disgust was actually made out of real cockroaches). He had never seen so many sweet treats in his life. His favourites were definitely the spooky cupcakes, followed by the liquorice spiders. Ron was busy hacking away at a large golden pudding. Harry's favourite seemed to be the treacle tart. Alex knew that almost everyone in The Great Hall was going to feel sick following the digestion of too much sugar.

One person Alex was sure wouldn't be sick was Hermione, who was far too sad to enjoy herself tonight. She was sitting beside Harry with eyes that were red and puffy. She

"What can I do?" Ron shrugged, "I already said I was sorry."

Harry shook his head. Ron had teased Hermione after Charms when she had tried to show him how to levitate a feather. It was Tracey who had ultimately coaxed Hermione to come to the Halloween feast and with Alex and Harry's help, forced Ron to apologise.

'It's levi-O-sa not leviosa. No wonder she hasn't got any friend.'

Alex could only frown at Ron and say, "You have to admit it wasn't very nice."

Ron then turned to Hermione and between mouthfuls of food said, "Hermione, I am really, really, really sorry. Please forgive me."

Hermione pouted and turned her face away from Ron. Obviously, it would be a while before Ron would be forgiven.

Alex found himself feeling sorry for Hermione. There was a definite reason why she lacked social skills. From what he already knew about Hermione, she hadn't had many friends before. At her last school she was bullied and teased by other girls for her pompous and bossy attitude. As a muggle born she didn't know why odd things seemed to happen in her presence but unlike Alex she kept on having accidents and had little control of her innate magic. She had never explicitly told Alex this though, it was just a conclusion he had come up with based upon the stories he overheard like listening to her tell Tracey and Lisa about how she made a nasty blonde girl go bald overnight.

Alex had to admit that it would have been much more fun if Hermione's bitter mood didn't come towards him like a rain cloud. Never-the-less, Alex would have continued to talk and eat the entire night if it wasn't for a certain interruption…

Professor Quirrell bust through The Great Hall door, ran through the corridor and screamed in a voice louder than anything Alex had ever heard him:

"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!"

Everyone stopped in silence. Their attentions had been turned to the turban wearing man who had disrupted their evening.

"I thought you might want to know…"

He then fainted, leaving his body lying like a rock in the middle of The Great Hall.


After the initial reaction of shock, the students were evacuated to their common rooms as a safety precaution. Alex wanted to follow his friends and the other Gryffindors back to the common room, but it seemed that fate had other plans.

"Harry, Alex – I think I've left my bag in the girls' bathroom." Hermione said anxiously.

Harry frowned, "Well, I'm sure you can pick it up tomorrow."

"Harry, I have my homework in there. I have to get it. It's the Charms homework which is due tomorrow morning."

"I'm sure Professor Flitwick will understand this once, he only gives detention if you forget more than twice in a row. We have to go back to the common room."

It was then that Hermione started to plead, "Please help. I can't sleep without having done it. If you boys won't help me I'll go by myself."

Under normal circumstance the boys would have just said 'no' to her unreasonable request and left Hermione to get her belongings on her own with a troll on the loose but the boys knew they would have to be nicer than usual to Hermione after what had happened this afternoon, especially Ron.

They went out with the impression that it was highly unlikely that in a castle as big as Hogwarts, they would encounter a troll.


"Well, Hermione?" Ron said, "Are you happy now?"

Hermione picked up her dull beige bag and gave it a hug. She did not answer him, it was clear that she was still giving Ron the silent treatment.

Alex felt was necessary to say something, "Let's go, if anyone catches us where dead."

Hermione nodded. This girls' bathroom wasn't too different to boys but with some notable differences. Obviously, he didn't want to stay there very long.

'Clump, clump, clump, clump.'

The four of them could hear what sounded like heavy footsteps. They all froze where they were standing. Alex hoped that they had not made enough noise to make the troll decide to follow them. As the sounds started to get louder, there was a peculiar horrid smell and the sounds of groaning.

It was exactly what they feared.

"Quick, hide." Harry whispered. They all began to scramble to hide and just in case the giant would follow them into the bathroom.

They waited in silence for what felt like an eternity. The footsteps didn't get any fainter. The smell slowly got worse and worse. It was a sickly mucous smell that made them all want to gag.

Inevitably, the troll made its way into the bathroom. Alex guessed that it could have easily been about ten feet tall. Its skin had a greenish hue. In its hand it held a club. Alex had never seen such an awful looking thing in his life.

"Grurrr…." It groaned at the sight of the children.

'Oh no,' were the only words that instantly sprung into Alex's mind.

The children were frozen in fear; they did not want to make the first move. Within seconds, the troll became angry and started to swing its club violently in all directions. It smashed some cubicles and a sink as it tried and failed to attack the children. Hermione started screaming for help. As strong as the troll seemed, it obviously didn't have a lot of co-ordination, hearing or intelligence. Alex thought that if they could all try to go out the door, they could run to safety.

Something really bad only happened when Ron tripped over and the giant picked him up by the leg. It began to shake him around; Alex hoped that Ron wouldn't get a serious injury. Harry threw a plank of wood at the troll in an attempt to distract it and make it put Ron down. Alex followed, so did Hermione.

However, the troll seemed to be thick skinned and did not notice. Harry took out his wand. He hadn't learnt many spells yet, so Alex had no idea what he was planning to do.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Harry chanted and the club that was in the trolls other hand levitated out of reach. The troll did not like losing control of the club and grasped to reach it. It dropped Ron in the process; Hermione was prompt to run to his aid and see if he was alright. Ron was still conscious, though it looked like he was in pain.

Harry had enough control to be able to move the club and smashed it hard enough to into the troll's skull to render it unconscious.

That was not really a good idea. The troll began to fall in the direction where Hermione and Ron were. It was now that Alex knew he had to act, with all his strength he tried to make the troll stop.

Within seconds, the troll disintegrated into dust before their eyes. They, the floor and everything around them were covered in dust. It wasn't something that Alex had planned but had no regrets.

They all decided to make a quick getaway. They dusted themselves off as well as they could before Hermione used a cleaning spell to get rid of all the dust on them. Alex and Harry helped carry Ron back to the common room. It was there that Ron said to Hermione:

"Hermione, you do have friends. You know that."

She was touched.


The next day the group of four went on with their day as if nothing had happened. Ron had drunk a healing potion to rid him of his injuries (given from his mother just in case Ron had an accident). The troll was considered to be either a prank or hallucination of Professor Quirell. The mess in the girls' bathroom was attributed to Halloween mischief.


A/N: Sorry if I haven't been undating this as regularly as you would have liked. I have just been so busy. I've also had a wild burst of creativity with my other story 'Harry James Evans: The Boy Who Lives.' Check it out if you have nothing better to do. Thanks for the reviews (even the random ones) and follows. :)