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Chapter 10: Troll

Penny

Quidditch practices were going well, and we were preparing for the first match of the season, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. We were pretty good, but from what I'd heard, Potter was a really good Seeker, so Higgs would have to keep a close eye on the Snitch.

I was so busy with homework, Quidditch practice, and trying to avoid Lilac's "revenge"s, but I could hardly believe it when Halloween came. We were working on Levitation in Charms (Wingardium Leviosa) and I did pretty well. I was the only one who could lift my feather, so I earned 5 points for Slytherin. I would bet ten galleons that Lilac got more points, though. After all, Flitwick favored Ravenclaw, and she had probably progressed from feathers onto pillows and such.

On Halloween, the Great Hall looked amazing. Live bats fluttered around the ceiling, and gigantic jack-o-lanterns flickered along the walls. The delicious smell of pumpkin pie floated around the corridors. I was had just started on my turkey when Professor Quirrell rushed into the hall, his turban bouncing around (lolz).

He slumped against the teacher table and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know." Then he fainted.

It was instant uproar. Professor Dumbledore shot purple firecrackers from his wand to quiet everyone down, and ordered the prefects to take us back to the dormitories. Draco and I walked in the middle of the throng, discussing the troll.

"Who do you think let it in?" he asked.

"I dunno.. Peeves, maybe? Or..." I thought harder. "It could have been Quirrell!"

"Quirrell?" he said, laughing. "Quirrell! He's scared of his own subject and students! How could he have let a troll in?" But I kept thinking about it... and I kept thinking that Quirrell may not have been who he seemed to be.

Lilac

It was Halloween. We had moved on to transfiguring non-living things into living things in Transfiguration (instead of vice versa), which was much harder, and we had started practicing Wingardium Leviosa in Charms (which I already knew) on Thursday.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick, perched on top of a pile of books. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick."

Harry and Ron seemed to be having a lot of trouble. Seamus in Gryffindor got so impatient that he prodded the feather they were supposed to be levitating with his wand, and accidentally set it on fire. Ron started laughing uncontrollably, and I had to shoot an aguamenti spell at it to put it out. Professor Flitwick saw that, too, and he gave me ten points just for knowing that spell.

Ron and Harry still weren't having much luck at all. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted, waving his arms around.

"You're saying it wrong," Hermione snapped. "It's Wing-gaaaar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

Hermione rolled up her sleeves, swished and flicked, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Her feather rose off the desk and hovered four feet above our heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!" Ron stopped talking to Hermione after that.

Most people's faces were purple and they couldn't get it, but I just swished and flicked and said, "WinGARdium LeviOsa." My feather flew up and hit the ceiling. Then I made it zoom over and tickle Professor Flitwick's belly. He chuckled when he saw my wand pointed at him and gave me a pillow.

"Here, try floating this, and ten points to Ravenclaw!" he squeaked. The pillow glided neatly into a little box near the front. Then I floated Professor Flitwick and made him land softly on the pillows. He knew it was me and pretended to fall asleep. Hermione laughed, and Ron shot us a dirty look. I glared right back, willing my eyes to glow, just to freak him out. He took a step back.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said, talking about Hermione, to Harry as we were exiting class. "She's a nightmare, honestly."

Hermione heard. She rushed past him, in tears, and sprinted straight into the bathroom.

"Hermione!" I yelled. I followed her and tried to calm her down, but she wouldn't talk to me and said she wanted to be left alone.

"Look what you've done, Ron!" I said. "Hermione's crying in the girl's bathroom. Do you feel any better?" He looked awkward and mumbled something like, "didn't mean it that harshly," but before I could snap back, we walked into the Great Hall. It took my breath away.

The whole place glowed with an orange light. A thousand live bats fluttered from the ceiling. Giant pumpkins (grown by Hagrid, along with some Engorgement charms) were carved out into large jack-o-lanterns and lined the walls of the Great Hall. I sat down at the Ravenclaw table and started tucking into my pie (dessert first is my motto - what if we had to evacuate a moment later?). Poor Hermione; she was crying in the bathroom, missing this wonderful feast. I finished early and decided to go visit her.

Penny

As we were walking to the common room, we passed the girl's bathrooms. I had heard that Granger was sobbing in there about something Weasley said, and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw Lilac slipping into the bathroom. She was probably going to comfort the Mudblood.

I could hear the troll yelling in the next corridor. It was coming towards the bathroom. Good. I hoped Lilac got hurt really badly in there, as well as Granger. And who knows, maybe Potter and Weasley would come to save them and also get hurt. Or die, that would be better. Muah ha ha! (evil laughter)

The Slytherin Common Room was right below the bathrooms, and I listened to what was going on in there. Potter yelled something, and then the troll bellowed, "Gaaaarrrr!" I heard a bit of metal smacking against the stone walls, and Lilac cursing. Wow. Something really crazy must have been going on, Lilac never cursed. It was probably that she forgot her wand, she got hurt, or something else really bad happened. Then I heard a crack, and she screamed in pain. Ooh, bad one.

Then, I heard footsteps. McGonagall walked in and yelled at the four of them, and took some points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. I can't say it felt good, but it didn't exactly feel bad either.

While I was sitting in a chair, listening to what was happening above, and staring into space, someone had moved all of the small, circular tables together to make one big table. It was piled high with food from the feast, which had been moved down here so that we could finish eating. I dug in and almost forgot about my Quirrell theory.

Almost.

Lilac

I tiptoed into the bathroom. I knew that the stall that was closed contained Hermione, but she was silent. Suddenly, I saw a flash of purple outside the bathroom door. What was that? I peeked my head outside and saw Professor Quirrell. He stopped right outside the door, holding a thick rope. He ushered a large, gray, lumpy, smelly troll into the castle, and led it down the stairs to the dungeons. He came back out a second later, and zoomed off to the direction of the Great Hall.

The troll started lumbering towards us. "Hermione, you've got to come out, there's a troll and it's heading this way!" I said. She crept out of the stall silently.

I heard a loud commotion coming from all of the students at the feast, and I stuck my head back into the bathroom as many feet walked past. Harry and Ron sprinted into the bathroom.

"What the - " I said. "Why are you guys here?"

"There's a troll, it's heading our way!" Ron said breathlessly.

"I know there's a troll, Quirrell sent it in - "

"Wait WHAT!" Harry yelled. "Quirrell?"

I didn't have time to answer, as the troll stomped into the bathroom. "Gaaarrrrrr!" it yelled.

"That's nice," I said in a small voice. Hermione backed up against the far wall, frozen in terror, her face read-streaked from crying. She looked like she was going to faint. She gripped onto the wall for dear life.

"Confuse it!" Harry yelled to Ron, and he seized a tap from the sink and threw it at the wall. The troll blinked stupidly, a few feet away from Hermione, and turned around to see what had made the noise.

"Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled, and he threw a metal pipe at it as Harry ran around to the other side of it.

Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and attempted to pull her towards the door. "Come on, run, run!" Harry said to Hermione, but she was still shrinking against the wall, her mouth open in terror.

"Hermione, you've got to move," I said. She still stood there, like a statue. The troll strode towards me.

"I'll freeze it!" I said. I groped for my wand in my pocket, but it wasn't there. I reached into my bag, but it wasn't there either. No! I must have left it in the Common Room when I went down to dinner. Great. "I don't have my wand!," I screamed, and said some choice curse words (that I can't repeat) a little louder than I had planned. The lights had gone off and the only light now was from my glowing eyes. Now I was actually glad that they lit up. The whole place glowed an eerie purple. My favorite color, but... not so much right now.

"What is going on?" Harry said, examining my eyes carefully.

"They glow! It happens, okay!" I snapped. "Now watch out the troll is behind you. And I don't have my wand to protect you this time!"

"Great," Ron said sarcastically. "You're always carrying the thing around, practicing your spells, and the one time we need it, you don't have it?"

"Oh, shut up," I snapped, turning my head towards Ron, looking away from the troll. He slowly looked up in terror. In that one moment, the troll took a swipe with its club at me. Luckily, I had quick reflexes and dived out of the way, but not fast enough to avoid getting hit in the arm and hip by the club. A nasty crack followed.

"Lilac! Are you okay?"

I felt like sleeping. It didn't really hurt, just left me dizzy. I put my hand to my side and felt something wet. Blood. "I think they're broken," I mumbled, then crumpled to the ground against the wall. Shaking my head to regain my senses, I felt around for the light switch and flipped it on.

"Good idea," Ron said. I mumbled something like 'thanks' back. Or maybe it was 'you're welcome'. Not sure.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid. He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck, which was about 11 feet in the air. Wow. His wand had been in his hand, and it had gone up the troll's nostril. Howling in pain, the troll swung its club, with Harry hanging on for dear life, about to be flung off of the troll's neck.

Ron yelled the first spell that popped into his head. "Wingardium Leviosa!" It actually worked this time. The club flew out of the troll's hand, rose high into the air, and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto the troll's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, making the whole room tremble. We had made quite a racket.

Harry shakily got to his feet. "Well, that was quite an adventure," Ron said.

"I'd say that's a bit of an understatement," I said, rolling my eyes. I couldn't feel anything. My whole right side was numb.

Hermione finally spoke in a very small voice. "Is it - dead?" She came away from the wall to inspect the troll.

"I don't think so," Harry replied. "I think it's just been knocked out." He pulled his wand out of the troll's nose, covered in disgusting gray goo. "Urgh - troll boogers." He wiped it on the troll's pants.

"That was really brave, what you did there, Harry," I said, holding my arm.

He smiled. "Thanks. Are you okay?"

"Um... not really. But I'll be fine," I said. He still looked uncomfortable.

Then I heard footsteps. "Uh oh," Ron said.

"You got that right," I said.

McGonagall burst into the room angrily, followed by Snape and Quirrell. In a normal circumstance, I probably would've yelled at Snape and Quirrell for being in the girls' restroom. Snape was looking positively livid. Quirrell took one look at the unconscious troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat down abruptly, clutching his heart. Snape glared at Quirrell murderously. "What on earth were you thinking of?" McGonagall said, cold fury in her voice. "You're lucky you weren't killed, and Miss Starre looks extremely close." Did I really look that bad? "Why weren't you in your dormitory?"

Nobody spoke up. I had to do something. I swallowed my fear and said, "Professor McGonagall?"

She looked at me, and her expression softened slightly. "Yes, Miss Starre."

Everyone was staring at me, including Snape, with that creepy penetrating glare of his. He stared straight into my eyes, and I realized they must be glowing. "Well," I continued quietly. "Hermione had been in here when dinner started, and she didn't know there was a troll, so I came down here to warn her. And then - well, the troll came in, and we thought we could deal with it, because we've read all about them... If Harry and Ron hadn't found us, we'd be dead now." Hermione nodded, and Harry and Ron tried to look like this story wasn't new to them.

Hermione continued from there. "And - Harry stuck his wand up the troll's 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 us off when they arrived, and Lilac might have died if Ron hadn't pulled her out of the way of the troll's club."

"Well - in that case..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of us, "You foolish girls, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?" I hung my head, and Hermione did the same. Ron dropped his wand and Harry opened his mouth, but closed it quickly. Yes, we were pretending we had broken rules to get the boys out of trouble, and we were the last people on earth to ever think of breaking rules. Snape looked like Christmas had come early. Glee was evident on his face.

"5 points will be taken each from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. Miss Granger, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left quietly.

Professor McGonagall turned to me. "You'd better get over to the hospital wing. Can you stand?" I pushed myself up on my good arm, and something felt uncomfortable, like it wasn't in the right place. I sat back down abruptly. "Obviously not," she said, and dismissed Snape and Quirrell. She got me onto a levitating stretcher and sent me to the Hospital Wing.

Once inside, Madam Pomfrey looked at me and tutted. "What happened to you?"

"Troll," I said matter-of-factly.

She sighed. "Well, we'd better get you into bed, and you can spend the night here." Once I was floated onto a bed, she said, "Are you hungry at all?" I had completely lost my appetite, so I shook my head. "All right then," she said, and started examining my broken bones. "Broken upper arm... " She poked around, feeling my ribs, and I yelped. "Sorry... four broken ribs... and a dislocated femoral head. Miss Starre, you are really hurt."

"That's what troll clubs do," I said, grimacing.

She chuckled. "All right, I can fix the bones - " she pointed her wand at me, and I felt some bones clicking into place, "But you will need a lot of rest." I yawned. "And you can start now," she said. I lay down and she shut my curtains and turned off the lights. "Good night."

"Good night," I mumbled.

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