"Where's Malfoy?" was Nott's first question as they went through dinner. It was a legitimate question, as they had not seen the boy since he had walked off on them in the library.
"Who cares?" Zabini snorted. "Probably thinks he's too good to join us at dinner, anyway."
"Hopefully, spite has not driven him to do something stupid," Artemis muttered. While he cared about himself, he also cared about the state of his House. After all, that was what he was representing, and vice versa. He did not need some self-important, arrogant bully to ruin that.
"Well, his loss. This Halloween feast is magnificent," Nott said. Indeed, the Great Hall not only served delicious food that fit the season, but was also decorated tastefully, corresponding to both the Day of the Dead and Samhain. By far, a better choice than the tacky Muggle decorations Artemis had seen. Somehow, someone had actually found live bats to release in the Great Hall, but thankfully, all of them were roosting in a quiet corner-beam of the hall.
The discussion was halted, though, as the main doors slammed open, and Professor Quirrell rushed in, face red, breathing heavily, and looking ready to pass out at any moment. Professor Dumbledore cocked an eyebrow at the man, asking him what was wrong.
"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!"
Here, the man actually swayed on the spot for a few seconds, before actually fainting, mumbling, "Thought you ought to know."
The Great Hall erupted into screams, and Artemis covered his ears, annoyed. Yes, he was concerned that there was a deadly monster rampaging through the castle. No, he was not stupid enough to lose his control and yell like a thoughtless maniac.
"SILENCE!" the headmaster roared, his old voice amazingly carrying through the awful din that had erupted. "Teachers, follow me and we shall investigate the troll. Prefects, lead the students to the dormitories." Try not to trample poor Professor Quirrell, Artemis thought scathingly as he regarded the man, still prone on the floor of the Great Hall.
There was a creaking of benches and the students calmly filed out the door, reminiscent of the unrealistically perfect fire drills grade schools force their students to practice (because, really, who calmly walks out of a building in case of fire? Artemis may have had self-control, but in case of fire, he would run out of the building as fast as he could like any logical human who valued his life. Maybe with Butler to help him).
A thought struck him. "There's a troll in the dungeons."
One of the prefects regarded him. "Yes, we are aware of that, genius." The students in his year looked at him curiously, expecting the prodigy to have said something more intelligent. Artemis rolled his eyes at his companions' idiocy.
"Don't you understand? The SLYTHERIN DORMITORIES are in the DUNGEONS!" he explained. Now that he thought of it, was Dumbledore trying to kill them all?
Everyone suddenly seemed startled at this realization. Mutters of, "What do we do now?", "We can't just stay here!", "We can't wander the castle aimlessly, either!", and "Oh, going to the dungeons, that's a smart idea! Looking for trouble like Gryffindors, are we?" were heard through the mass of green-clad students.
Theodore Nott broke through his thoughts. "Wait, Malfoy isn't here! He might not know!"
"And your point is?" Zabini drawled.
"Are you really that heartless? He could get killed!"
"He wouldn't do the same for us!"
"Well, acting that way makes you as bad as he is!"
This seemed to sober Zabini up slightly. "Nott is right, Zabini. It's not exactly a matter of friendship or honor, but I would rather not have blood or a preventable death on my hands," Artemis said. He didn't particularly care for Malfoy, but he was not keen on the idea of death, either. Malfoy hadn't done anything deserving of exit by troll…yet.
"Wait!" Theodore yelled to the prefects. "Malfoy isn't here! He might not know about the troll!"
That stopped the prefects. "Oh, this just gets better and better," one of them muttered. "You'd think Slytherin House would be the easiest to keep track of." He turned to everyone. "Who has any idea where Malfoy is? I'd rather not have his father on our case, thanks."
Pansy Parkinson spoke up. "I think he's in the dormitories!" Zabini's normally tan face drained of all blood, and in a split second he was pale enough to rival Artemis.
"In that case," Artemis said calmly, though by now his insides were churning just as tumultuously as everyone else's, "we should all go to the dungeons anyway. All of us together will give a better chance against the troll, and the teachers are going there anyway as well." With that, they set off...to the dungeons.
Arriving at the dormitories, a seventh-year prefect nearly kicked the wall down, yelling the password and barreling through the entrance to the common room, everyone else tumbling after. More frighteningly, though, was the fact that a thorough search of the Slytherin dormitories found no Draco Malfoy. "I swear, he was here!" Parkinson squeaked, flipping over couches for the umpteenth time.
"You're not helping, Pansy," Eva Bole said. Her friend had an obvious crush on the blonde for reasons unknown.
"He can't have gone far, we didn't meet him on the way down," Nott said. "Search the rest of the dungeons!"
A low growl echoed through the stone corridors.
"What was that?" Pansy screamed. "What if that monster found Draco?" Without a second thought, she hopped out of the stone gate and ran in the direction of the noise.
"I swear, she's like a Gryffindor sometimes," Eva Bole muttered, and tore through the door after her friend.
Artemis watched in horror as Theodore Nott ran after them, along with Blaise Zabini.
In a manner very unbecoming of his character, he stepped out with the rest of the Slytherin first-years.
The troll was indeed monstrous. "Why do trolls have to be so darn huge?" Zabini whined, ducking behind a pillar. The troll had passed the hallway in front of them, and though they were at least fifty meters away they could still estimate the size of the troll to be as tall as the arches – maybe taller, as the troll walked with a hunched back.
"It's a mountain troll," Artemis said. "Of course it's huge."
"Thank you, Fowl, we can see that. Now why does it matter what species of troll it is?" Nott asked.
"Different species of troll have different weaknesses. Mountain trolls are protected by very thick skin, so normal spells would bounce off –" A strangled yell interrupted him.
"That sounded like Malfoy!" Parkinson screeched, but this time Eva held her back. "Pansy, you can't just jump in there, you don't know the first thing about trolls!"
"I do know that they're going to kill Draco if we just stand around here like pigeons!"
"Calm down, Pansy. If we find him first, we won't need to take down the troll."
With that in mind, the Slytherins slunk along the walls after the troll, Artemis feeling more and more foolish by the second.
They found the troll at a dead end, and, oh-so-surprisingly, Draco in that corner.
Draco looked ready to throw up and die at the same time. Given the stench of the troll, which was like dead dogs fed refried beans, and its hideous face, which was even worse close up, Artemis could see why.
Why do I feel that some greater deity is controlling this plot-line? Artemis thought. But they couldn't stop now, now that they knew for sure what the troll was doing. Artemis, who had never paid attention in Care of Magical Creatures past this point, felt quite angry at himself at this point. From the physique of the troll, it seemed to have a thick skull, with all brawn and no brain, but that was not exactly helpful with six eleven-year-olds against a monstrous beast.
The troll advanced on the cowering Malfoy, who was now hyperventilating. Before anyone could stop her, Pansy ran out from the corridor, screeching for her dearest Draco. It would have been funny if the situation was not so serious.
It did seem to buy them some time though, because the troll, with its club half-raised, turned away from Malfoy and walked in the opposite direction. It was a good thing now that no one was in imminent danger, but quite unfortunately, the troll began advancing on Pansy instead.
"No! Pansy!" whispered Eva. "You idiot, why did the stupid hat put you in Slytherin when you are such a Gryffindor at times?" she moaned.
"Dear Merlin," Blaise whispered. "We have to do something. If she gets hurt or killed, there will probably be a lawsuit, and they might shut down the school and send us to Durmstrang or Beauxbatons."
Nott looked expectantly at Artemis. "You always have a plan, Artemis," he goaded.
Artemis' mind suddenly went blank. He was supposed to be calm in these situations. Yet, when Draco had been near death, and now Pansy nearing her demise, Artemis felt oddly worried for these people. He barely knew them, and yet his heart was beating its way out of his chest out of fear, not for his own life, but for theirs. What was wrong with him? What was Hogwarts – what was magic, in general, doing to him?
"Artemis?" Artemis snapped out of his daze. "The only thing strong enough to defeat it is…itself. We need a distraction first, quick!"
"Easier done than said," Blaise said, picking a loose stone off the wall. He whistled to the troll. "Hey, ugly, I'm talking to you!" The troll turned around, confused at the new noise coming from a different direction. Immediately, Blaise threw the rock, which found its way home on the troll's left eye.
Snarling, the beast flailed its arm without the club wildly, clawing at the damaged eye and howling. Artemis took this chance to fire a well-aimed burning spell at the troll. "Incendio!" he growled, and suddenly the troll's ear hairs were aflame. The monster began shrieking and shrank from the sudden heat and light. When the fire instead followed him and grew bigger (much to Artemis' disgust; the troll already smelt bad enough without its burning, lice-ridden hair to add to the stench), it tried to snuff out the flames itself.
Its method of dousing a fire, was, as Artemis planned, to flail at the fire and hope it would go away like flies would. The troll slapped itself in the face, and fell to the ground, writhing.
Using the simple levitating charm they had been taught on the first day of classes, Artemis made the club hover above the troll's head, and released the spell. The chunk of heavy wood, following the force of gravity, fell to earth, its fall broken by the troll's skull. A rather ominous CRACK was heard as the force of the dropping club overcame the strength of the parietal bone. The creature shuddered, and was still.
"Aguamenti," Artemis said, and the sputtering fire, which had been happily converting troll hair proteins into atomic element number six, died out. The troll would probably suffer some heavy brain damage now, but that would not really affect it considering its overall mental state.
Everyone was silent. An uncomfortable cloud of uneasiness hung over them, like the stillness was a vortex that had to be filled with words. Finally, Malfoy, who had somehow slunk over from his position in the corner over to the group without anyone noticing, nervously (since when were Malfoys nervous?) cleared his throat and mumbled, "Thanks for finding me. I've been such a jerk, and you still saved me from becoming troll food."
Pansy, sobbing, ran over and threw herself onto Draco. "When Quirrell ran into the Great Hall yelling about the troll, and you weren't there, we thought you were dead! I had to come look for you! Don't ever do that again!" Draco, not knowing what to do, stood stiffly and awkwardly patted her on the back, wanting nothing more than this smaller, younger version of his mother to get off.
Theodore seemed perfectly forgiving. "It's okay, Draco. Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is that we're all friends now."
Blaise was incredulous. "Holy hippogriffs (Blaise certainly had an interesting vocabulary), a Malfoy apologizing? Call the papers, this should make the front page of the Daily Prophet!"
Artemis himself was surprised, but felt that it was not impossible. People were not exactly wholly bad, he decided. Malfoy simply needed a nudge in the right direction, and, well, if being nearly killed in a gory manner and saved in the nick of time by those you looked down upon, then good for him. It was honorable enough to thank your rescuers; he would have put aside his pride and done the same thing if he had been in Draco Malfoy's situation. Probably. Maybe. He hoped he would not have to be in such a deathly scenario to find out. "Apology accepted."
Blaise whistled through his teeth. "Well, that was melodramatic. And it didn't even take five minutes for us to take down a huge troll! It should only take five minutes to get back, and if we're lucky the others won't blab about us being gone, and if we're really lucky, the professors won't notice!"
Then, from behind them, a tart, stiff, voice sharply snapped, "The professors will not notice what, Mr. Zabini?"
The group spun around, and was met with the extremely livid face of Professor McGonagall.
"Oh, we are so in for it," Zabini muttered. "Me and my big mouth."
A/N: This was from both the book and the movie. I couldn't help but put that bit in there about the troll and the Slytherin dormitories both being in the dungeons. I'm surprised J.K. Rowling didn't notice that. Or maybe she did, and was trying to kill all the Slytherins...
:) Smiles.