Chapter 9: The Troll
A few nights later, the girls had their first Quidditch practice. Wood asked for three people from Gryffindor to volunteer to play a Chaser, a Seeker and a Keeper, so they could split the team in half and play a mock game. Millie volunteered to be the other keeper, a third-year girl named Sabrina Convess said she'd be a seeker, and James White of Wood's own year volunteered to play chaser. They were all three fairly good, and it helped practice a lot. The three became the reserve players for their respective positions.
Sabrina was good, and faster as she had a Cleansweep 10 and the girls only had an 6, but Tabitha and Matilda had better eyesight and coordination, and worked very well together, so they caught the snitch every time.
With practice three nights a week, and more Defence practice every time they could, not to mention homework, October went by fast. Before they knew it, it was Halloween day.
They were practicing the flying spell 'Wingardium Leviosa' in charms class, attempting to make a feather fly. Ron and Hermione were together, as were Euterpe and Neville, Matilda and Aaric, and Tabitha and Millie. The three latter groups all managed to get their feather only a few inches off the table, and only for a few seconds. Hermione, however, had mastered the spell in minutes and was trying to help Ron.
"Ron, no, listen. You're saying it wrong: it's Win–GAR–di–um LeviOsa. Make the 'gar' and 'o' nice and long."
After class – when everyone except for Ron, Seamus, and Neville had managed to make their feathers float all the way to the box – Ron was fuming.
"It's Levioooosa, not Leviosa!" he was saying to the others in a high–pitched voice. Hermione and Euterpe had stayed back to help Professor Flitwick. "She's a nightmare, honestly! It's a wonder we're even her friends–!" but then there was a sobbing noise, and someone shoved past Ron and ran away.
"Ron!" cried Millie, smacking him on the head.
"She must have heard you!" moaned Tabitha, standing tip-toes to see where Hermione had gone.
"How could you say something like that?" Aaric agreed. "She was just trying to help you!"
Ron looked ashamed. "You're right…I should apologise I guess…where d'you think she went?"
They searched the school between the next two classes, but still hadn't found her by lunch. As they were discussing what to do, Morrissey Evers from Ravenclaw came over, followed by her friends Morag McDougal and Mandy Brocklehurst.
"Have you been looking for your friend, Hermione?" she asked them. They nodded. "We just saw her in the bathroom down the hall. She was crying and she wouldn't come out."
Ron groaned.
"Thanks, Morrissey," said Tabitha and Matilda in unison.
"No problem." She smiled, and the three girls went back to the blue and bronze table.
After lunch, the girls went to try and talk to Hermione. Euterpe went in by herself, while the other three waited outside. She came out after a few minutes, shaking her head.
By dinner, no one had been able to get Hermione out of the bathroom, so they resolved that they should save her some candy from the Halloween feast, because she couldn't sleep in the bathroom, right? And when she came out, Ron would be ready with a very large apology.
During dinner, Tabitha found herself looking over to the Ravenclaw table. Morrissey, Mandy, and Morag were sitting with Terry Boot and Michael Corner. As Tabitha stared, she started thinking that she really liked how long Terry wore his hair…and that the red glasses he wore made him look very smart. Then she shook herself, trying to pay attention to her dinner.
"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" screamed a voice, and the Great Hall went quiet as Professor Quirrell ran in. He sprinted to the High Table, screaming all the way. "Thought you ought to know." He finished, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
It was chaos. Everyone screamed and started to run for the doors, stampeding all over each other in the ensuing madness. Professor Dumbledore stood and – quite loudly – called for silence.
"All of you, please, don't panic! Prefects will lead their houses to dormitories; teachers will follow me to the dungeons."
Things calmed somewhat, and everyone began to file out of the Great Hall.
Then Neville gasped. "Hermione!"
Tabitha's eyes went wide. "That's right, she doesn't know!"
"We have to warn her," decided Matilda, and the seven of them slipped unnoticed through the crowd and into the corridor.
They ran down the hall until Millie suddenly said, "Wait! Listen..."
Footsteps.
They stepped into an empty classroom, shutting the door almost all the way and peering out.
It was Snape. He looked around before hurrying out a side corridor.
Euterpe frowned. "Shouldn't he be in the dungeons with the other teachers?"
"That doesn't matter right now; can't you guys smell that?" demanded Aaric. Then it hit them: a smell like rotting eggs and the type of public toilet that no one seems to clean.
And there, coming around the corner, was a twelve foot mountain troll. It lumbered into a room, dragging a club behind it.
"The key's in the door, we could lock it in!" suggested Ron, and they all nodded, running towards it.
Until they heard a sc*ream.
"Hermione!" cried seven voices.
But it was too late. The troll was walking back out, carrying by the scruff of her shirt none other then Hermione. It continued into a classroom down the hall, and the first-years ran after it.
"Help!" screamed Hermione. "Put me down!" she cried, beating the troll with her fists. For all the notice it gave her, she might have been a butterfly.
He stopped in a tall classroom that they had never been in before. He reached up and hung Hermione by the hem of her robe to the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, then turned around and saw the others. The troll roared loudly, starting for them.
"Spread out!" cried Matilda and Tabitha at the same time, and they all dove in different directions. The troll shook its head, confused, and reached back towards Hermione, obviously intending to take her someone he could eat her in peace, when Ron said, "Oi! Pea brain!" and chucked a book at the troll's head. It grunted and turned towards Ron, but then Millie grabbed another book and threw it, too.
"Confuse it!" Euterpe cried, and they all grabbed anything they could find and threw it at the troll, running around and jumping off of desks to confuse it. It grunted, swinging its club madly and swaying slightly on the spot.
"Okay, on three everyone stun it!" cried Tabitha, thankful they had all been able to master that particular spell. "One…two…"
"THREE!"
"STUPEFY!" they all cried, and seven jets of red light flew through the air, hitting the troll in the chest. He fell with a tremendous CRASH to the ground, smashing several desks to pieces in the process.
There was no time for celebration as Hermione's robes began to rip. She screamed, and they all ran forward, leaping onto the troll's back to be right under her as she fell.
They did manage to break her landing, because she landed on all of them. They tumbled off the troll and onto the floor.
After a second of staring from the troll to each other and back again, all eight children broke into hysterical laughter, rolling on the debris–strewn floor and embracing each other. Their luck was unbelievable.
Someone cleared their throat.
At the door to the classroom was none other than Professors McGonagall, Snape, Quirrell, and Flitwick. Quirrell took one look at the unconscious troll and clutched his heart, gasping, before plopping down on the floor.
"What in the – explain yourselves, all of you!" cried Professor McGonagall.
"Well we were at dinner –" began Ron quickly.
"–When Professor Quirrell came in yelling about the troll –" Aaric said.
"–And we remembered –"
"–That Hermione was in the bathroom –" Millie said, picking up from Neville.
"–And she didn't know about the troll –" said Ron.
"–So we went to warn her –" continued Matilda.
"–But the troll had her –" Euterpe said.
"–And he brought her in here –" said Millie.
"–So we followed it –" said Neville.
"–And confused it by throwing stuff –" Tabitha said.
"–And they managed to stun it, Professor." Hermione finished.
The teachers looked amazed, except for Snape – of course – who looked angry.
"Well…" McGonagall looked caught between giving them a month of detention or a thousand house points.
"It seems they did the only thing they could," squeaked Professor Flitwick. "If they had gone for a teacher, it might have been too late!"
"I suppose so…" said McGonagall slowly, "And an impressive display of your House attributes, as well. I think it's only fair to give you twenty–five points each." She said.
They could hardly believe their ears. That would be two hundred points for Gryffindor!
"All right," said Professor McGonagall, "The Houses are finishing the feast in their common rooms, so you can all head back there now."
They did as she said, and as soon as the eight First-Years crawled into the common room – which was empty except for their fellow first-years, a few second and third years, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan – they were assaulted.
"What happened?"
"You never came up–"
"– Said something about a troll!"
"–Thought you'd been expelled!"
Everyone was talking at once, and Millie cried, "Okay, calm down. Quiet!" they obeyed.
"Well…what happened was, I was in the bathroom and I didn't know about the troll…" began Hermione.
Ron picked up, "So we went to go tell her–"
"–And then we saw the troll walk into the bathroom and come out with Hermione!" Matilda said, not mentioning the part about Snape creeping around. Their audience was now captivated, hanging on every word. It was empowering.
"So we followed it into this huge classroom," continued Matilda.
"And it noticed us and started to grab Hermione again, to take her somewhere else–" said Euterpe.
"– But Ron threw a book at it, and then Millie said we should confuse it, so we–"
"– All started throwing stuff and running around –" picked up Neville.
"Then we stunned it and barely caught Hermione when her robe ripped," Tabitha said.
"And then McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, and Quirrell showed up," said Millie, and their audience gasped.
"So we explained what happened, and Professor McGonagall was actually a little impressed," said Hermione.
"And she ended up giving us twenty–five house points each," Matilda concluded.
Everyone gasped.
"That's…that's two hundred points!" cried Seamus. The other first–years looked amazed. Fred, George, and Lee were grinning manically.
"I think these kids are going to be good for us, George."
"I was thinking the same thing, Fred."
