October, 1991

A couple of days later Hermione was still shunning him because he still hadn't returned the Pure-Blood Directory, and wasn't apologising to her satisfaction. He'd been so busy with Quidditch practice and homework that he hadn't had enough time yet to look up all the families on his excitingly expanded family tree. He tried explaining that he needed to see what other pure-blood families he was related to, but she refused to listen. Neville was interested though.

"I'll owl my grandmother to see if there's a connection between the Longbottom and Potter families. Or even the Parkinsons," he said. "I can't think of anything off the top of my head, though."

"That's alright," said Harry. "We're still friends either way, right Nev?"

"Absolutely."

"Did you have to claim a relationship with the Parkinsons, though?" asked Ron.

"Hey, more family is a great thing. She's not so bad. And it could be worse, apparently I'm related to the Malfoys too," he teased.

"Ugh!" said Ron, scrunching up his face. "I'm sure you can do better than claiming those gits. I guess the Parkinson family isn't too bad, compared to them. You know, I think the Weasleys and the Potters might have a connection of some degree, but Merlin, I think Ginny would go mental if I claimed kinship," said Ron.

"Why? Too embarrassed to be related to Muggles?"

"No, and I'm sure dad at least would be happy to have some Muggles to chat to."

"Good!" interjected Hermione.

"Actually," continued Ron, "it's because she's got this dumb plan that one day you're going to meet and it'll be just like something sappy Fifi LaFolle would write. You'll meet, you'll fall in love at first sight, kill a dragon to win her heart, shower her with jewellery, and live happily ever after."

"But I've never even met her!" said a wide-eyed Harry, appalled.

"I know, right? It's dumb. But if we claimed kinship then you couldn't marry her, so she'd be pretty devastated." Harry shuddered.

"Who's Fifi LaFolle?" asked Hermione curiously.

"She wrote the Enchanted Encounters series. She's on a chocolate frog card, you know," explained Ron. "But seriously Harry, Slytherins? Do you have to make friends with those slimy snakes?"

"It's not like a quarter of the school is evil, Ron. Snakes aren't either for that matter – they're just animals. And Pansy's my second cousin. I think family's important, don't you?"

Ron muttered under his breath something Harry couldn't hear. "Well just don't come crying to me when they stab you in the back. Slytherins can't be trusted. I guess you'll have to learn that the hard way," he concluded, washing his hands of the whole business.

On Wednesday afternoon Harry went to the library to meet up with Pansy. He spotted Hermione studying there first, and she piled up some books on her table to make room for him.

"Sorry Hermione, but I'm not here to study today – I'm meeting up with Pansy."

"Oh. Fine," she said, scribbling down something in one of her notebooks and pointedly ignoring him again.

He sighed at the missed opportunity to mend fences – it couldn't be helped. After a little exploring he went over to one of the sofa chairs near the windows when he spotted a cluster of girls with green hair ties - Pansy was sitting with Daphne and Millicent.

"Hi Pansy, hi Bulstrode. And uh, Miss Greengrass, right?"

"That's right," she smiled at him.

"So Harry," started Pansy after everyone had said hello, "I was wondering why you gave the cut to Draco?"

"They're such good friends," explained Daphne. "It's going to be awkward."

"Well, I'm not really sure what you mean by giving the cut, but I did snap at him a bit on the train when he was rude to Hermione and Ron."

"He said you refused his polite offer of assistance in society. You refused to greet him or shake his hand, and then turned your back on him, telling him you had better company than him already," explained Pansy.

"What? That's not what happened! Well, maybe some of it," conceded Harry. "I didn't shake his hand, and I didn't want him telling me who the 'best people' were. But he was being a total prat about it - he wasn't at all polite! He sneered at Hermione being lowborn or something like that, and made fun of Ron for being poor and having too many children in his family."

"That sounds like Draco," said Millicent, snickering.

"It does not!" retorted Pansy. "He's a perfect gentleman."

"In Slytherin he's a perfect gentleman. But you know the Malfoys are feuding with the Weasleys, don't you?" said Daphne. "Surely you've heard him and Weasley sniping at each other. And he's made no secret of his dislike for Mud... Muggle-borns."

"I suppose he might not have been… less than proper in his behaviour towards Weasley," conceded Pansy grudgingly. "You still shouldn't have cut him like that in public unless you've allied with the Weasleys."

"I don't think there's a formal alliance of any kind if that's what you're asking? Ron says he's not sure if he wants to claim kinship, if there even is a connection."

"That's a separate issue. But if you don't think you're allied then you're not. You should be more polite to Draco when you talk to him next. You don't want to start a feud unnecessarily."

"I'll be polite if he will," said Harry, which seemed to satisfy her for now.

Pansy had decided that with Halloween only a day away that Harry desperately needed to learn about wizarding traditions surrounding the holiday.

In a quiet voice, she spoke about the four seasonal festivals that marked the quarters of the year: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh.

"Each celebrates the flow of life, and the waxing and waning of magic. Samhain," she said, pronouncing it a bit like 'sow-in' and spelling it out carefully for him afterwards, "marks the beginning of winter, the end of the harvest, and the time for slaughtering livestock. It's a time of death, a time for divination, and a celebration of those who've gone to the next world," Pansy explained.

"And those who won't travel on, but hang around as ghosts," said Daphne. "They have a party here at Hogwarts, I've heard. They mostly eat the essence of rotting food. Except for the Baron of course - he usually joins us in the dungeons where the pickings are better."

"Some say it marks the end of the year and the start of a new one, but that really doesn't matter because it's all a cycle anyway."

"Isn't it usually all about dressing up as monsters and collecting candy? Does anyone do anything special here? Apart from the ghost party?"

"It's all… modern here now. The traditions don't get a lot of respect at Hogwarts anymore. You won't find anyone driving cattle between bonfires, let alone making a blood offering," said Pansy.

"That sounds like Dark magic!" exclaimed Harry worriedly.

"Just a cow, for Merlin's sake!" said Pansy testily. "You like eating steak, don't you? Where do you think meat comes from? If you're slaughtering animals for the winter anyway, why not use the power of that for something good? It used to be a blessing for the herds – a powerful ritual so they wouldn't catch any diseases for the whole year. Muggles used to beg and bribe us to sacrifice their cattle and bless their animals and families. It wasn't a wicked thing. But oh no, the Christians took over more every year, and the Muggle families worried it was all too eeeevil. They just wanted All Hallow's Eve. So no sacrifices, and then, no bonfires. Because people might sneakily sacrifice something. No offerings to our ancestors – they didn't like all the talk of death, never mind it was all about remembering those who came before us."

"Uh ohhh, you got her started," smirked Millicent.

"So I have strong feelings about it," sniffed Pansy. "You follow the Old traditions too."

"Yes, but I don't feel the need to go on about it. I just celebrate things properly in the dorm and stuff myself full of pumpkin pie at the feast. You should've just told him something nice - like telling your lover's name with an apple peel."

"Look," said Pansy to Harry, "Samhain is a sacred day. Just… don't make fun of it. It's not for laughter and pranks. It's for remembering the dead. If you do nothing else, light a candle for the departed, wish the ghosts well, or throw a bit of meat from the feast into your common room fire, if no-one's watching. You can read The Decline of Pagan Magic by Bathilda Bagshot if you want to know more about how the Old Ways have been suppressed. You might not find it in the library, though. I think they moved it to the Restricted Section. Just goes to show."

Daphne shared a final thought. "Hey Harry, everyone knows it's the day the Dark Lord was defeated… the day your parents died. It wouldn't be seen as at all odd if you wanted to be quiet and reflective. It would show your parents respect. Send them a greeting in the flames, give them an offering, and look in a mirror at midnight. Sometimes you get to see a glimmer, so they say."

"A glimmer of what?"

"Beyond. You know, the Otherworld. Just shadows and shapes, mostly. I've never tried it, but I've heard stories from people who have."

"I don't think I have the gift of Second Sight," said Harry.

"Have you tried?" asked Daphne curiously.

"….No."

"Then you don't know unless you try. Don't you want a chance to see your parents?"

Harry did. Very much so. He knew what he'd be doing at midnight.

Pansy was right. There wasn't much in the library about the festivals or the Old Ways, at least not in the general use section that he could discover on a quick browse of the dusty shelves. He found a few snippets of information – like how Samhain started at sunset on the 31st and finished at sunset on the 1st of November. And that in some villages long ago it used to be traditional for Muggles to give their local wizards and witches gifts of food in exchange for spell work or goodwill. Ever since the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was signed in 1692 guising of that kind by wizards and witches was completely forbidden – no-one was allowed to offer or sell spellcasting services, or let their Muggle neighbours know anything about magic at all.

On the morning of the 31st Professor Flitwick announced they would be working on making objects fly. Harry was partnered with Seamus, and Ron was paired with Hermione, which he got increasingly grumpy about over the course of the lesson. She got the spell very quickly, and that fact combined with her well-meaning but tactless attempts to correct Ron's pronunciation got him in a jealous, snarling mood.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry after class as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Hermione bumped into Harry as she hurried past in tears.

"I think she heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"But I'm her friend! Neville is too, a bit. I thought you were as well."

"I've just been friendly to her because she's your pal. And I thought you'd broken that friendship bond. You've been fighting for weeks now," he said, exaggerating a little. "She's just so annoying."

"Can't friends fight? Dudley argues with his friends all the time. I thought she'd get over it. I'll try talking to her again. Maybe you should too."

Ron shrugged non-committedly. But Harry didn't get to talk to Hermione, because she wasn't at their next class, or indeed all afternoon. Harry and Neville went to check on her after classes finished. They asked one of the Gryffindor girls to go up the stairs to the girls' dorm and ask her to come down. But Fay reported to them that she wasn't even up there.

"I haven't seen her since this morning," she said. "That waving hand is hard to miss."

Neville suggested she would surely show up at the feast for dinner, so they put their pointy hats on and went down to the hall. The Great Hall was decorated with thousands of lifelike charmed bats that fluttered and swooped everywhere, and carved pumpkins with flickering candles were everywhere, even floating in mid-air. About half the students were wearing their hats, the rest were bare-headed. The feast appeared on golden plates suddenly, just like it had at the start of term feast. Harry got started on eating, keeping an eye out for Hermione, while Neville chatted to Lavender Brown on his other side.

"Lavender says that Parvati told her that Hermione was crying this afternoon in the girls' toilets on the second floor," he reported to Harry.

Ron, who was sitting opposite Harry, just shrugged.

Everyone stopped and stared when Quirrell rushed into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. Over the consequent uproar, Dumbledore set off a fireworks spell to get attention and ordered everyone back to their dorms. Percy started herding the Gryffindors, but Harry turned anxiously to Neville.

"Hermione might be in trouble – she doesn't know about the troll."

"I suppose we'd better go find her?" suggested Neville hesitantly. "Are you coming, Ron?"

Ron hesitated, "Do you want me along, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "Up to you. She was pretty mad at you."

"I don't think she'll want to talk to me," said Ron. "And the troll is in the dungeons anyway. You only need to bring her upstairs quickly, and two people is ample for that. I'd probably just make things worse. I'll let Percy and the other prefect what's-her-name know you've gone to fetch Hermione so you don't get in trouble, okay?"

"Thanks, Ron."

Neville and Harry darted through a crowd of Hufflepuffs and slipped down a deserted corridor. On the way they spotted Snape moving swiftly and silently down the corridors ahead of them.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

"Maybe there's some stray Slytherins he's gone to find?" suggested Neville quietly.

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said. But there was no time for further pondering on Snape's intentions. They soon heard the footsteps (and smelled the terrible odour) of the troll. They shrank into the shadows as it emerged into a patch of moonlight. Twelve feet tall, ugly as sin, and armed with a huge wooden club, it sniffed the air then lumbered into a nearby room.

"The key's in the lock," Harry muttered. "We could lock it in."

"No! That's the girls' bathroom!" hissed Neville.

"Oh no!" said Harry, a little too loudly. "What do we do? Is she in there?"

"We'd better check," said Neville nervously.

They crept forward as stealthily as they could, hearing crashing sounds from inside the room (but no Hermione), and peeked around the corner of the door. The troll had broken open a couple of toilet doors and was peering inside the cubicles. As they watched, one of the toilet door locks slowly unlocked, and Hermione peeked out and tried to run for the door. Her eyes widened as she spotted them peering around the corner, Harry beckoning frantically to her.

The troll spotted her too, and smashed its club on the floor right in front of her – broken shards of tiles few everywhere, a few hitting Hermione. She screamed loudly and scrambled backwards towards the sinks. She shrank against the wall opposite the door, looking as if she was about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Neville, and rushing into the room he grabbed a tile and threw it as hard as he could against the wall where it shattered loudly.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. It spotted Harry and started lumbering towards him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Go for the club!" Harry yelled to Neville, frantically fumbling in his robes to get out his wand.

"What should I do?"

"Anything! Cast a spell at it!"

Neville cast practically the only spell he knew, even though he had never yet managed to make his feather float.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club completely failed to fly out of its grip. But it did explode. Hermione squealed and covered her head with her hands, curling into a ball on the ground. The troll roared with surprise and pain as jagged splinters of wood flew everywhere, particularly into its hands and face. A couple landed in its eyes, temporarily blinding it as it dropped the last chunk of wooden club onto the floor to rub at its face.

Harry finally got his wand free. "Incendio!" he shouted. The troll's clothes, and then the troll itself, started burning as Harry kept his wand pointed steadily at it.

"Come on Hermione!" yelled Neville. "Run! Now!"

Hermione scrambled to her feet and scurried out the door to safety, dodging the wildly flailing troll with a horrified look on her face.

The troll was howling in pain, and as it thrashed its limbs and staggered around crazily trying to put out the fire it ran blindly headfirst into a wall, knocking itself out and collapsing to the floor. Harry stopped his spell and backed away warily.

It was Hermione who spoke first.

"Is it – dead?"

"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out. It's still breathing. For now."

A second later Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper and sat down quickly on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll and ignored them, but McGonagall ranted coldly and furiously and seemed to blame the whole thing on them. "Typical," thought Harry, who was used to this kind of behaviour from grown-ups. He quickly spoke up at the first break in her tirade. He thought he'd better work in an appeal to Gryffindor values, if he could.

"Please Professor, we were just concerned for our friend Hermione, who'd left the feast to go to the bathroom. We sent a message for the prefects so we wouldn't be unaccounted for – we didn't want anyone to worry. And once we saw the troll go into the bathroom, we knew we had to do something! We couldn't just run away like cowards to fetch a teacher, leaving our friend to die," he widened his eyes in his best sincere and earnest expression. Sometimes it helped, and luckily for him this was one of those times.

"It's true, Professor," said Hermione, backing his story instantly. "I left the hall – I didn't even know there was a troll in Hogwarts. They were so brave!" Harry was so proud of her for lying convincingly to a teacher. There was no need for her to get in trouble for skiving off classes to have a cry, if no-one had noticed yet.

McGonagall's expression softened tremendously, and she praised them for their bravery and excellent spellwork, and gave Harry and Neville twenty points each for Gryffindor.

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look but didn't say anything.

McGonagall shooed them back to their dorm, and promised to tell Dumbledore all about this.

Ron apologised very nicely to Hermione after they were all back safe in the dorm, and their tale had been told to a fascinated audience of appreciative Gryffindors. Neville in particular almost glowed under the attention and praise. Harry joined in the retelling occasionally to give Neville more credit for their success, and talked off his Incendio as a "lucky fluke".

But while Hermione was happy to accept Ron's apology and make friends again, in a way it was too little too late. From that moment on, Hermione Granger became best friends with Harry and Neville. There are some things you can't share without ending up close to each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them. Neville talked them through how to formally swear friendship, which was quite easy. They all linked hands and said, "I vow thee my friendship – thou mayst call upon me as thy ally". So they were officially allied from that evening onwards. Harry's hands felt a bit tingly when they did it, but the others said they didn't notice anything.

Harry almost forgot his plan to try and commune with his parents' spirits, in all the drama. He woke at around 2am, wondering what it was that he'd forgotten, and scrambled out of bed so fast his legs got tangled in the sheets and he almost fell over. He took a candle from the bedside candelabra, and rummaged in his trunk for one of his cached emergency snacks. He couldn't find any meat (it didn't keep well) so grabbed a bit of bread roll to be his offering. In the boys' bathroom, feeling a bit silly, he burnt the bread roll in the candle flame and said a prayer (addressed to Merlin in case that helped) asking to hear from his parents. He stared into the mirror for half an hour, but didn't see anything but his own reflection. Eventually he got tired of trying, and a bit teary. Either he didn't have Second Sight, or he'd done it all wrong and wasted his chance for the year to see his parents. He went back to bed feeling very sorry for himself. He thought he'd like to swap Parseltongue for Second Sight, if he could. It seemed much more useful.

As he settled down to try and get back to sleep he tried to think of other, happier things to take his mind off his disappointment. His spell against the troll had worked great, even though it hadn't taken it out immediately. And it was only from the first year book! Imagine what he could do with stronger spells – no Dark wizard or crazy bigot or evil creature was going to make him a victim. He'd try and catch Professor Quirrell some time later this week for a private chat and ask him for a pass to the Restricted Section, so he could read up on some stronger magical spells. The poor guy was so scared by that troll – he'd surely understand Harry's worries.


A/N: Apologies, but something continues to be wrong with the reviews. While submitted reviews will count towards my total number of reviews on a fic, and I can read what you've written in an automatically generated e-mail, they're not displaying correctly. So if you click to look at your own review, you may not see it. (There's six reviews on the last chapter, and none of them are displaying - grrr!) And, I can't click on the link in my e-mail to reply to your review! Sorry. :( If you're particularly keen to get a response to your review, as well as submitting it, please message it to me. :) Don't let this technical glitch stop you from posting reviews - I do so love to read them! I've contacted support, and while I haven't heard back from them yet, I remain optimistic they will resolve this issue soon.