Chapter 10: Halloween part 1
-A/N-
after a couple of chapters of mundane school life, the story returns. With mundane school life included. This chapter will get on with more plot, but I am going for at least 20 chapters for this story and the first Potter book is quite thin. For obvious "I don't own" reasons, I'm skipping through the book's plot points and focusing on parallels between the two to make sure you know where the story is.
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Harry woke up with a slow, drawn out sigh. The days had melted away, with classes quickly becoming more effort and Quidditch practices taking up large portions of his free time, Harry found his time passing by. With a groan, Harry lifted himself from his bed and looked around his dorm room.
The Slytherin dorms were split into seperate rooms, and from what Harry had seen (Only being able to look into Blaise's room due to the enchantments) they were all more or less the same. A decently sized room, with a four poster bed dominating the center of the room, decorated in green and silver to represent the House colors. There was a black wood wardrobe built into the wall where his clothes were stored, along with his school materials. Harry got a fresh change of clothes and headed to the bathroom.
several minutes later, Harry walked down to the Common Room, stretching his back. Another Thursday, that's all it is, Harry thought. He sighed a bit as he entered the common room, seeing the very busy Slytherins finishing up their Halloween decor. Daphne greeted him with a small smile. She knew Halloween was one of Harry's least favorite days. Everything that could go wrong would likely go wrong.
"Happiest of Halloweens, my friends!" Said a very cheery voice. Harry groaned and rolled his eyes, Daphne sighed. Tracey looked at her friends in confusion, not sure what they were griping about.
"Really, Davis? Not the best of ideas." Blaise said, approaching his friends.
"Davis? Why the last name? And hey, it's Halloween and people love Halloween!" Tracey said with a huff.
"Blaise is right, Trace." Daphne said. The blonde girl looked into her friend's almost black eyes.
"Is anyone going to explain this or are we all gonna be vague?" Tracey snapped, looking at her three Housemates.
"If you want to know, you should ask Harry." Daphne replied.
"I'm right here, guys." Harry said with a small frown.
"Sorry" his friend said.
Harry shrugged and got up slowly. He grabbed his book bag and his friends did the same, Tracey still looking confused and somewhat upset that no one had filled her in to what she did wrong.
"Let's get some breakfast before it gets too late. We've got Herbology in a while." Harry said in a glum tone.
"Hey.." Tracey whispered to Blaise, "What's wrong with Harry? He seems so upset for some reason."
"Are you just being a jerk or do you really not know?" Zabini asked, looking at his friend in question. Tracey glared at him but continued on quietly.
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"Uuuugh" Harry groaned as they walked from the Greenhouses. Everything hurt and he just wanted the day to end. It was bad enough that everyone was so cheery and Tracey wouldn't stop asking what was wrong, but he'd basically been mauled by some weird carnivorous plant that Professor Sprout had warned them to be careful with. With another groan, he trudged up the path, not really wanting lunch before seeing Flitwick. At least there wasn't any flight instruction today, he thought.
"Harry, wait up!" A voice behind him called. He turned to see Hermione Granger walking up to him, giving him a small smile before the two walked to the Great Hall together.
"Hey, Hermione. Having a good day?" Harry asked tiredly.
"It's been rather well for me today. Where are your friends?" She asked, looking for the familiar faces that tended to be around the boy.
"They went for lunch ahead of me. I wanted some air first." He said with a shrug.
"Are you well? You're not getting sick or something, are you?" She asked, eyeing him carefully. He sighed
"I'm gonna explain this to you since you're a Muggleborn, I'm sure you're not completely aware. But on Halloween, 1981, the Dark Wizard that I'm credited with defeating came into my home and well..he killed my parents. Both of them, just for wanting to protect their son." He explained, grimacing as he did. Hermione nodded.
"Yes, the articles I read up on mentioned this. I didn't know it still bothered you like this." She said apologetically. Harry shook his head.
"Honestly, I don't really remember it. Sure I'll have a nightmare here or there, but otherwise it's nothing I'm not over. More than anything, Halloween and I don't get along. Ever since my parent's deaths, if something bad can happen on this damn day, it will." Harry said. From his tone, Hermione knew that other bad events had happened during Halloween, but didn't push the subject.
"I'm very sorry, Harry." Hermione said. Harry replied with a shrug. "Well, I've heard that you and Daphne made up." She said, changing the topic. Harry gave her a small smile.
"Yeah, it was over something kinda stupid, but things are better now." He said.
"kind of stupid, huh?" Came an angry voice from the side. Startled, Harry looked to his right to see Daphne glaring at him, arms crossed. Harry sighed and groaned.
"Not stupid, Daph. It was a misunderstanding." He said
"A very stupid one, right?" She said icily, turning to walk away. Harry sighed and walked to a wall. He leaned against it with his left side and tried to softly smack his head into the wall, going through it instead. He yelped as he fell, landing on his side.
"Harry!" Came a startled Hermione from the other side of the illusion wall.
"I'm okay, Hermione." Harry said, rubbing his side. Of course one of these damned invisible passages was this close to the Great Hall. They led everywhere, so why not here too?
"Where did you-? How?" She asked, not too sure what was happening.
"Is there anyone around you?" He asked.
There was a pause thay was perhaps a bit longer than necessary.
"Hermione?" He asked
"Oh. I thought you could see me. Sorry, no. The corridor is empty." The girl said. Harry walked out and looked around carefully, happy with no one having seen that.
"Invisible passage ways, or hidden corridors and stairs, basically." Harry said as he explained to Hermione what she just witnessed. He left out where he'd found this out from or where these passages were, but did explain that the castle had its share of them.
"That's very interesting. I'm not very surprised that they left it out of the books." She said.
"The books?" He asked, looking at her with curiousity.
"Hogwarts: A History." She explained, reaching into her bag. He looked at rhe book, recognizing it.
"Oh yeah. Daphne and I read this." Harry said. "Ugh. I've got to find her and apologize again."
"Well, you could ask her during or after class. We've got ten minutes to get to our next periods." Hermione said, looking at one of the large pendelum clocks in the corridor.
"Great. Charms class. I wonder what we're doing today." Harry wondered.
"Oh, levitation charms." Hermione answers with a smile. Harry looked at her as she explained the class and described the very amusing story of Flitwick making Neville Longbottom's toad fly around the room.
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"Wingardium Leviosa." Tracey said, moving her hands in the swish and flick that Flitwick had taught.
"Trace, relax. You'll get it with some practice." Blaise said, hoping his friend would shut up. She sighed.
"It's not fair. You got it almost right away, Daphne got it in an instant. He's having emotional issues but even Harry got it!" She whined. Harry shot her a look, while Blaise smirked.
"Speaking of which, I've got to find Daphne." Harry said grumpily.
"And what exactly did you do now?" Blaise said, his attention on the forlorn Potter heir.
"Yah, she didn't seem upset this time, just suuuuuuuper angry." Tracey said. Another long sigh, and Harry explained to them the part of the conversation Daphne walked into. Tracey looked a bit ruffled herself, while Blaise was trying not to laughh.
"Potter, you two are like a bad romance novel" Blaise said with a chuckle.
"You're an idiot. And why do you know so much about romance novels?" Tracey said, quickly sidetracked by Blaise's words. The boy looked like he just said something bad.
"I shouldn't have said that out loud..." Blaise said with a groan. "Look, I've got a single mother who has been widowed almost seven times. She gets bored and buys certain types of books and I happen to come across one now and then, alright?"
Both Harry and Tracey snickered while Blaise looked utterly indignant. They walked into the Slytherin Common Room and saw Daphne sitting alone, looking bored into the fireplace. Blaise and Tracey nodded, leaving Harry alone with the very angry girl. She saw him, glared, and continued to glare at the fire.
"Daphne. I'm sorry for-" began Harry before Daphne's hand signaled him to stop.
"Save it, Potter. You don't care about what I think is important, I don't care about what you think is." She spat.
"But you are important to me." Harry said. Daphne looked away, trying not to smile and walked out of the Common Room, leaving Harry to his lonesome.
"Trouble in paradise again, Potter?" Cackled a very rude girl behind him. He sighed and watched Pansy Parkinson walk from the dorms to the dormitories. He glared at the girl, making her flinch for a second before her mean smile came back. "I can't understandhow or why either of you two even get along. You're both insufferable." She said, leaving the Common Room too.
Harry sighed angrily and looked at the clock in the room. Almost dinner time.
"Maybe I can speak with Tracey and Blaise and see what they think." Harry said to no one. He turned and left the Slytherin House, heading towards the Great Hall.
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Dinner was a particularly entertaining affair. The Hogwarts house elves had set up very well made decorations, the thousands of floating candles in the hall were replaced by minature jack-o-lanterns. Various of the preexisting cobwebs were made larger, with Hargid carrying spools of some kind of webbing and Flitwick enchanting it up into the nooks and crannies. McGonagall had transfigured several of the stained glass windows into more-season appropriate showings of monsters and people, and some which were more violent than usual. It didn't help that the windows were animated, but at least they were silent. The school resident Ghosts were in the festive mood, none more than the Bloody Baron who rattled and groaned all day from the magically darkened halls, scaring everyone who came close.
Harry walked over to the Slytherin table, sitting next to Blaise who gave him a look.
"She's not with you either?" He asked, looking at Tracey and Blaise. They both shook their heads.
They ate the Halloween feast, enjoying the added fall-time treats that had been added during the feast. The many pies that had been added made a very welcome lull in eating, meatloafs and we'll seasoned fish and chips were drawing in a very attentive eye. As they enjoyed their meal, Harry felt himself tense up. His scar was slowly starting to ache. He looked at the staff table and saw Professor Snape eyeing him with curiousity which changed back to its usual indifferent mask when Harry noticed him.
"Bloody Greengrass. She doesn't have to act like she's so superior. Why is she even wandering the dungeon?" Asked Hestia Carrow to her cousin Flora. The Slytherin girls walked to their usual spot on the far end of the table. Harry frowned.
"So she hasn't even come for dinner?" He asked with a frown.
Before anyone could say anything, Professor Quirell ran into the Great Hall, stumbling and falling several times before he reached the Headmaster. Panting and huffing, he looked at the elderly wizard with fear, shaking far worse than usual.
"Troll. In the dungeon. Thought you ought to know." The shaking professor said, falling down in a faint.
"Troll?" Said one student loudly. A commotion soon came out of the entire Hall as people began to panic.
"How the hell did a troll get in?
"Are we gonna die?"
"Where is it?"
"SIIIIIIIILENCE!" Demanded the suddenly booming voice of one Albus Dumbledore.
He looked across the hall, everyone shutting up before his word had stopped echoing.
"Ares Professor Quirell has said, there is a troll in the dungeons. For your safety, the students will remain in here. The Professors and myself shall handle this. Prefects, Head-Students. Keep your Houses in order and we shall return quickly." The headmaster ordered. "Professor Flitwick will take Professor Quirell to the Hospital Wing. Until we return, all students will remain here."
With that, the staff marched out, with Flitwick levitating Quirell out. The Great Hall's massive doors swung shut, booming loudly as the students began their panic anew. Students from several Houses ran to each other for support, groups of friends uniting in the panic. Harry got up and was sat down by Montague.
"Where off to Potter? We stay here." He said, others keeping the students in line.
"We can't stay here. Daphne's in danger!" Harry said, glaring at the older boy. Montague looked surprised.
"Someone's got a bit of Gryffindor in them after all. How do you know Greengrass is in trouble?" He asked with narrowed eyes.
"She's not here and we overheard the Carrows saying they saw her down in the dungeons alone." He said, standing up. Montague looked worried.
"And why would you help her?" He asked, trying to deter Harry and his friends, who had now also stood up.
"We're Slytherins. We take care of our own." He said. Montague nodded and turned to see if the threesome would be clear.
"Be careful." He said, casting a quick disillusionment charm. "This will make you unseen for a minute or so, run." The older boy instructed.
-Down in the Dungeons-
Daphne looked around, very confused. She had been heading towards the Great Hall. What happened? She was in the dungeons, but not somewhere she was very familiar with.
"Why am I here?" She whisper to herself. She'd been walking to clear her mind, and had decided that it wouldn't make sense to get mad at Harry again over the same thing she'd been mad about. And then... "Blah." She said, drawing a blank. Why was she down here?
She wandered about a bit more, looking at her surroundings carefully now, trying to figure out where she was. She kept track of several hall markers a day plaques, trying to use them to navigate. Her head felt fuzzy and she was having a difficult time understanding what she was even looking at. She stopped at another intersecting hall, holding her head softly.
"Ugh. Why does everything feel funny?" She asked herself.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Daphne looked around and blinked quickly, trying to clear her head a bit more.
Boom. Boom.
Some kind of loud step? Maybe some kids having too much Halloween fun? She thought. She didn't know exactly what that meant, but several fourth years and up had said that she'd know when she was older.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. A long paused and silence. Boom. Boom.
Daphne realized that the noise was coming from behind her, and tuned, paling far more than she thought her complexion was capable of.
Lumbering in slowly walking in a massive mountain troll. Each step it took boomed out, making the floor tremble below it. It's massive legs led up to its bulging waist which was bound in some torn and ragged looking loincloth. It's almost fully exposed torso had a small arm bound leather strap, running across its chest. It's massive arms were muscled and hung low, almost to the floor. It's almost comically undersized head gave her a look of the upmost hatred, making her step back into the wall.
But there was something that scared her more than the monstrous grey brute. In one of its hands, it held a wooden tree trunk sized mace, dragging it slightly with each step.
The troll looked at her, glaring at the young witch before it roared, sending shocks through the girl. It raised its weapon, taking a long swing at Daphne. She threw herself down, narrowly avoiding the swinging death. A loud rumble and several bit of debris told Daphne its weapon had hit a wall. She scrambled up and ran, the angry trolling roaring as it began pursuing the frightened girl. Daphne ran, screaming as she looked back at the monster attacking her. Its weapon came down from above, making Daphne side step quickly. The shock wave knocked her down, the troll picking her up with its empty hand. She looked at the face of the creature that had her as it lifted her up, putting the upside down girl on eye level.
The troll roared in her face, its terrible breath making her gag. It raised its weapon, ready to snuff her lights out. It swung down, ready to end her. She closed her eyes quickly, hoping it wouldn't hurt too badly to die. According to the Bloody Baron, it wasn't so bad. Only hurt for a second. A long, very very painful second.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA" screamed out a voice behind the troll.
It looked around,confused that its favorite club had disappeared. The beast was certain it was in its hand. Where was it now?
"Hey, ugly!" Called a second voice. It turned to see three more of the small things behind it. It looked in its hand and realized that the small thing he had captured was missing too. First its club, now its dinner?
"Hey, come get me!" The middle thing asked.
Harry had no idea what he was doing. They'd seen the troll and he quickly instructed Tracey to save Daphne using the levitation charm and ordered Blaise to do the same to the creature's tree trunk. Daphne was floating off on one side, oddly calm despite her situation. Over the troll itself, it's massive weapon hung suspended. Harry was now just catching its attention.
"Blaise, now!" Harry yelled.
Zabini nodded, releasing the charm and watching the massive tool hit the troll over the head with a sickening crunch. Without a parting groan, it fell, moving no more.
Harry ran to Daphne as Tracey gently lowered her, taking her in a very tight embrace as she got to her feet. She returned the hug without a second thought, grateful to be alive.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked in concern. He took her hand and gave her a once over.
"Some scratches and maybe a skinned knee. I'll live, Harry." Daphne said with a small smile.
Harry let out a breath of relief. His friends approached her, Blaise simply nodding, but Tracey ran to her, hugging her even tighter than Harry had.
"I thought you were a goner! I was so worried I was crying!" Tracey said shakily, sniffling to punctuate her sentence.
No sooner had they made sure Daphne was okay that the staff appeared. The headmaster took a step forward, looking at the four children, and then at the fallen troll.
"Harry.." Dumbledore said carefully. "I need you three to step away from the troll and Miss Greengrass. Now." The headmaster said.
Confused, Harry turned to see Daphne pointing her wand at him, her face blank and her eyes looking oddly clouded over.
"Avada Kedavra!"
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-A/N-
Good place to end the chapter, right?
Daphne attacking Harry, and with a killing curse? What's going on here?
All of this and more on the next Chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Enigma!
...and now rhe reviews!
Vi38- keep enjoying, my friend!
Guest- I'm not sure I get exactly what you mean about signing in, but okay. I do get the tendency to ramble on in my Author's notes, but generally they don't affect the story, so feel free to skip them. I do understand that the personal messaging set up on the sight does suck, so I'm thinking I'll add some type of way to communicate with me on my profile. Maybe. Anyhoo, I hope you liked the story.
PheonixBJB- Thank you for the very IGN review. Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.
I hope you guys enjoyed the story and I'll see you soon!
-Vaine