Year One
Chapter Eight
Hallowe'en
When Persephone told Hermione about her seeing the three-headed dog, she thought the other girl was going to have a stroke.
"You could have been killed! Or worse!"
"It wasn't so bad, I'm pretty good with animals."
"That wasn't an animal, Persie, that was a monster."
"Hardly," Persephone argued, "He was just like any other dog, just 100 times bigger." She saw Ron and Harry enter the great hall. "Maybe Ron and Harry would better appreciate my story."
As she got up to move to them Hermione grabbed onto her wrist, "No don't!"
"Why not?" Persephone asked, her eyebrow raised.
"I'm not talking to them at the moment." Hermione explained.
"So I can't talk to them either?"
"You can, of course, but I'd rather you didn't," said Hermione.
"Why?"
"They're a couple of troublemakers, and they don't care about the rules they break."
"I broke a rule." Persephone pointed out, "Well, a few of them actually."
"True, but you didn't involve me in it."
Persephone sat back down. "You're lucky I like you better."
Persephone had finally gotten homesick. It was nice not having her mother around for a few weeks, but now that she had settled in she missed her. She couldn't even send her any post, with whatever spell Magnus cast on her she didn't even know that Persephone was at a magical school. She couldn't even imagine what her mother would do if an owl came by to drop the post. She missed her sister too, and the letters they'd send to each other while Lara was away at her own boarding school.
The other students had already received plenty of things from their parents. Draco received a care package of sweets every week, sometimes more than once. Persephone only knew because he was so obnoxious every time he got a box of sugar quills or chocolate frogs.
One morning Persephone was surprised when a black owl landed in front of her, she was more surprised when she realized it wasn't even carrying a letter or package.
"Would you like a piece of bacon?" She asked, offering a piece from her own plate.
"No, but if you've got salmon somewhere I'd love some of that."
"Sebastian?" Persephone asked, surprised. Last time she saw Magnus' familiar he was a cat.
"'Course who else do you think Magnus sends to do his busy work, aside from yourself of course." Sebastian explained that he would be taking her letters to and fro her family, so that they could still remain oblivious to magic while she corresponded with them.
Persephone was more than pleased. She began writing a letter to Lara right there at the breakfast table.
"What's Potter got? Is that a broomstick?" Malfoy asked loudly.
Persephone glanced behind her at the Gryffindor table where a parliament of owls had just placed a long thin package in front of Harry Potter. When she turned back to her own table Malfoy and his two goons were gone already. She turned again to see Harry and Ron swiftly leaving as well. Knowing any confrontation between those boys couldn't mean anything good, Persephone left the Hall as well.
She found the two Gryffindors being accosted by Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"Who are they, bullies?" Sebastian asked, perched on Persephone's shoulder.
She nodded. "Crabbe and Goyle are the big ones. Malfoy's the ringleader."
"You should stay away from them," Sebastian warned, "their parents were supporters of Voldemort."
Persephone didn't know much about 'you-know-who' and the wizarding war except that he was a very bad man, called himself 'the Dark Lord,' and hated muggles. Lord Voldemort was gone now, but the ideals of blood purity that he and his death eaters supported were very much still around in certain circles. Persephone learned that from several members of her own house.
"That doesn't mean they're automatically bad too." She said.
Although even as she said it she had her doubts that those three could become good people. Persephone had gotten close enough now to hear Malfoy taunting Ron about his family's wealth, or lack thereof.
"You shouldn't make fun of people for having less than you," Persephone reprimanded, "I'm sure the Weasleys are rich in other ways and it's very rude. I'm surprised your parents haven't taught you better manners. They could afford the etiquette classes."
Malfoys face became red with anger, Persephone had a talent for making him mad.
"Perhaps I'll pick up better manners once you stop pretending to know better than everyone else, Croft. You—"
But they never got to hear what Draco was going to say because Professor Flitwick suddenly appeared at his elbow. "Not arguing, I hope?" He squeaked.
"Potters been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly, remembering why he was bothering Harry in the first place. But Professor Flitwick didn't punish Harry like Draco hoped, instead he smiled at Harry and asked what model he got.
Harry told him and added, because he knew it would anger Draco even more, "It's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it."
"Why does Potter get rewarded for breaking school rules?" Malfoy complained once Harry, Ron and the Professor had gone.
"You're right, it's not very fair. But it's not Harry's fault. He didn't ask for a broom, just like he didn't ask for—" Persephone stopped herself, she didn't feel it would be very appropriate for her to say 'he didn't ask for his parents to be killed.'
"Life's not fair," She rerouted, "some people get lucky, others get the short stick, and sometimes people get both."
"Go away, Croft." Malfoy turned his sour look to her, "Nobody needs your lectures, today, that's what classes are for." Crabbe and Goyle laughed at her as Persephone turned back to the great hall.
Later that same day Persephone went up to the owlery where Sebastian told her he would be waiting. Draco was there amongst the hundreds of owls. It was a rare sight to find him without his entourage.
"Malfoy." She greeted, politely.
"Croft." He replied.
And because she couldn't help herself, Persephone asked, "Writing a letter to your father about the injustice of Potter getting his own broom?"
"Writing a letter to your father to take you back home?" Draco snapped.
"No, my father's dead." Persephone said.
"Oh." Draco replied, feeling uneasy.
Persephone tied her letters to Sebastian's leg, the cat-in-bird-form giving her a warning look, as if he knew what she would say next. Before Draco could leave the owlery she suddenly asked,"Was your father really a supporter of You-Know-Who?"
"My father was under the imperius curse, everybody knows that." Draco replied quickly, "Why do you care?"
"My dad was killed by a death eater." If Draco hadn't felt uncomfortable before, he did now. He gulped.
"How do you know?"
"Because I was there." Persephone said slowly, approaching Draco as she spoke, "It happened in my bedroom. I was seven. I saw the mask he wore. I heard the spell he cast. "
"Why are you telling me this?"
Persephone wasn't quite sure, the only other person she had told was Hermione.
"I don't know. Don't worry though, it couldn't have been your father. It happened after You-Know-Who was defeated, and your father wasn't really a supporter, was he?"
Something Persephone had said had affected Draco. The pale boy was paler than usual and he had a strange look upon his face, as if he had been slapped across the face. She had expected him to get defensive and angry, not quiet and torn. Having sent Sebastian off she bid her farewell and swiftly left the owlery, wondering what had gotten into Draco Malfoy, and what had gotten into her.
The morning of Halloween Persephone awoke having the most hideous shade of green hair she had ever seen. She almost screamed when she saw it in the bathroom mirror, but she remembered what day it was and figured tricks were to be played. So instead of getting mad, she got even.
"What you did to me, now goes to you. Bibbity bobbity boo" Persephone was no wordsmith that was for sure, but her spell worked well enough. It didn't reverse the spell on her own hair, but a steady stream of magic found the culprit and turned their hair the same color.
A moment later Pansy entered the bathroom, she took one look into the mirror and let out a monstrous scream.
"What did you do to my hair?!" She yelled.
"Just the same thing you did to mine." Persephone replied, smirking. Pansy was not smiling though, she was furious. Persephone thought that if Pansy could get away with it, she'd probably be dead.
"It's hideous!" Pansy cried, pulling at the chartreuse strands. "What am I supposed to do with green hair?"
"Don't dish out what you can't take." Persephone shrugged, turning back to the mirror. Pansy glared daggers at her in the reflection. Persephone ignored the other girl as she brushed her hair. "You know, it's actually not so bad. Kind of festive really."
Pansy scoffed. "Of course you think it's festive, you muggle-born freak. But I can't play off green hair as some lame muggle tradition."
"Oh? And how exactly do wizards celebrate Halloween, if not with things that are weird and spooky?"
"In a much more sophisticated manor than this." Pansy struggled to fix her hair.
Then Daphne entered the shared bathroom, laughing hysterically as she saw her two dormmates.
"Starting a new trend Pansy?" She asked between giggles. "I think it's starting to catch on."
"Ha-ha Greengrass, you're so funny." Pansy replied sarcastically. "Wait until Snape hears about this." And with her nose high in the air, Pansy walked out of the room.
"Is she seriously going to tell Snape? About a prank she started?" Daphne asked.
"Honestly, I don't think Snape will care."
And Persephone was right, Snape didn't care about something 'so trivial as girl drama,' and told the girls that they would just have to live with green hair until the magic wore off on its own. Persephone's hair would go back to normal the next day, but it would be three days before Pansy's returned to her regular brunette shade.
Midway through classes on Hallowe'en Persephone heard from the Ravenclaw Padma Patil, who heard from her sister Parvati, a Gryffindor, that Hermione missed her afternoon classes because she was crying in the girls' toilets. Perturbed by such un-Hermione behavior, Persephone immediately went in search for her friend.
"Hermione?" Persephone called out into the stone room. There was no response other than a pitiful sniffle. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" she replied, "I just want to be left alone."
"Well, tough luck." Persephone said. She sat down on the ground near the stall Hermione hid in, leaning against the neighboring stall door. "I'm not going anywhere."
"You should be in class!" Hermione cried, scandalized, as if she finally realized who she was.
"Says the girl ditching classes to cry in the toilets," Persephone countered. "Was it those stupid boys?" No need to specify which boys.
Hermione repeated to Persephone the hurtful things she overheard Ronald Weasley saying about her. "And then he said that's why I don't have any friends," she concluded.
"You've got friends. I'm your friend. In fact, you're my best friend, Hermione. See? He's an idiot. All boys are at this age."
"I'm your best friend?" Hermione asked, it sounded like she finally stopped crying.
"'Course you are!" Persephone said, adding sarcastically, "Who else would it be? Draco Malfoy? Pansy Parkinson?"
In truth, Hermione was the only other person at Hogwarts Persephone spent any significant time with. She got along fine with Daphne and Tracey, but Daphne preferred to hang out with a group of older Slytherins and Tracey was a bit of a loner. Everyone else in her house either wasn't interested, or -like Pansy, Draco and the rest of their lot, made fun of Persephone too.
"Sometimes I forget you're in the same house as them." Hermione admitted. "What's it like for you?"
"Malfoy can be mean and sometimes what he says actually gets to me, but mostly I just ignore him."
"How do you manage that?"
"I just remind myself that his problem isn't really with me. It's something else, with his family or himself or how he was raised." Persephone continued, "Pansy's a little harder to ignore though. You know she magicked my hair green today."
"What?" Hermione let out a small laugh despite herself. "What did you do?"
"I turned her hair green too. She was so mad, and I didn't do anything worse than she did to me! It was hilarious." Persephone coaxed, "My hair's still green. If you come out of that stall you'll be able to see it."
Hermione finally unlocked the stall door and stepped out. Her eyes and nose were red and puffy. She broke out into a smile when she saw the emerald color of her hair.
"Your hair matches your robes." She laughed.
"That's better." Persephone said, hugging her friend. "Don't waste your tears on them Hermione. They'll learn to appreciate you one day. And if they don't you'll be better off without. Now let's get you washed up, you don't want to miss the Halloween Feast. It's supposed to be the most magical feast of the year. Even Pansy was excited for it and it's hard to impress her."
Hermione was washing her tear stained face when the girls heard heavy footsteps like elephants feet and low grunting. They looked up simultaneously to see a Troll, twelve feet tall with lumpy grey skin, in the toilets with them. The door behind it, and the only exit, closed quickly.
"Um, hi?" Persephone greeted cautiously. She'd never seen a troll before, she'd only read that they were big and strong and aggressive and not very bright. She'd also read that some wizards had the ability to control them. She was hoping as a future sorceress, she'd have that ability.
Persephone remained calm in the face of the troll, even when in its confusion it broke off one of the sinks.
Hermione on the other hand let out a high pitched scream. She ran back to the far wall in fear, shrinking down to make herself look small. The screaming startled the troll and he knocked into another sink, breaking it.
"Hermione stop, you're agitating him!" Persephone called back to her friend. "Who let you in?" Persephone asked, unfazed by the Troll's presence now or Hermione's frantic attempts to get her to hide from it. The Troll was grunting out a response when Harry and Ron burst into the room.
Frustrated from being interrupted, the Troll smashed another sink. It knocked two more over as it stepped closer to the girls. Moving quickly Harry threw a tap as hard as he could against the wall. The Troll stopped in its tracks and lumbered around to see what made the noise. When it saw Harry it moved towards him instead, lifting its club as it went.
"You're just making him angrier!" Persephone said, she was by Hermione's side now, urging her to move but Hermione couldn't move, she was frozen against the wall, her mouth open in terror.
"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but the yell made it pause again and he turned toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.
"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her towards the door, but she still couldn't move.
"I can't get her to move, she's too scared." Persephone said, "We'll have to get rid of the troll first." Which was easier said than done. All the shouting had worked the troll up into a frenzy. It roared again and started towards Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape. "Stay here, 'Mione"
Hermione didn't have a problem with that order.
Persephone ran under the troll's legs to get in front of Ron. At the same time Harry jumped onto its back, his arms fastened around the trolls neck and his wand had somehow ended up in the trolls nose. Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed it's club. Persephone put her hands up, her magic creating a shield protecting her and Ron from the troll's club.
It hit Persephone's shield once and the force made the club fly back, hitting the troll in the face. The troll almost fell back, with Harry still attached, but regained its footing.
"We need to knock him out." Persephone suggested, "I think we can use his club against him."
Ron pulled out his wand and cried: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rising high into the air, turning over as it went - and dropped, with a sickening crack, on to the troll's head. With a loud thud the troll fell flat on its face.
Persephone rushed over to check if the troll was still breathing. Harry, who had still been attached to the troll as he fell, shakily got to his feet. Ron remained frozen, wand still raised and pointing where the troll had stood, amazed at what he had done.
Hermione was the first to speak. "Is it - dead?"
"No," said Persephone near the trolls head, "he's just been knocked out." She pulled Harry's wand out of the troll's nose, strands of lumpy grey snot coming out with it. "Nasty."
"Urgh - troll bogies." Harry said, taking his wand back and wiping it off the troll's trousers.
"Someone let him in." Persephone said suddenly.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Before you two came in," Persephone pointed at Ron and Harry, "I was trying to talk to him. Asked how he got in."
"You speak troll? When'd you learn that?" Ron asked, putting his wand down.
"What, like it's hard?" Persephone said, "Anyway, he was telling me a 'thin man' let him in from inside. It must have been one of our professors."
There wasn't much time to digest such a discovery, for there was a sudden slamming, and loud footsteps were heading their way. A moment 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 quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Persephone rolled her eyes at their 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' teacher. Snape shooed Persephone away from the troll so he could examine it himself. Professor McGonagall had her stern gaze trained on Persephone, Ron, and Harry. She looked angrier than any of them had ever seen her before.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?"
Persephone looked at Harry and Ron, unsure what to say. She could tell the truth, but it was really Hermione's truth to tell, considering how embarrassing it might be for her.
"Please, Professor McGonagall - They were looking for me." Hermione spoke up from the back.
"Miss Granger!"
"I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them."
Persephone was shocked. Hermione Granger, lying to a teacher?
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Persephone put up a shield to protect us, Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."
All three tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them.
"Well - in that case…" said Professor McGonagall, staring at the lot of them. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head. Persephone gained a new kind of respect for her best friend, Hermione was the last person to break the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to keep Ron and Harry out of trouble.
McGonagall took five points from Gryffindor and sent Hermione up to her house's tower. Then the witch turned to the rest of them.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win five points for your respective houses. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."
The three rushed out without a word. Before they parted ways Persephone stopped them.
"I just wanted to say thanks, for looking for Hermione. I know she wasn't your favorite person."
"She's alright," said Ron, "but after that, she might be brilliant."
"Although," Persephone added jokingly, "I think I could have handled that Troll on my own."
"Probably." Harry Potter said, smiling.
"Maybe you're not so bad," Ron said, "for a Slytherin."
