Author's Note: I'm becoming very slow at updating, and for that I'm truly sorry! But I lost my train for the story until I rewatched A Very Potter Musical by Starkid! Watching it gave me a new idea for the story, so I'm going to try and incorporate that. It also gave me a soft spot for Quirrell/Voldemort. Thank you for reading! -Nox :)
Emma was the first to notice the scowl on Draco Malfoy's face when Harry and Ron walked in the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Thought he got you two expelled," Emma snickered as they sat down.
"Good, I hope that git realizes who he's messing with now. What I'd do to go up to his ferret face right now and punch his dumb face right now." Ron mumbled.
"If only Mrs. Norris had found Draco instead of us." Harry wished aloud.
Emma scoffed. "Yeah, like Draco ever actually left his dormitory to begin with."
The rest of breakfast was spent discussing what could possibly be in the Gringotts vault.
"S' gof's be somfeink ingpong?" Ron choked through a mouthful of toast.
"What?" Harry asked, eyeing his best friend with amusement.
Ron swallowed with a large gulp and repeated himself. "I said it's got to be something important."
"It has to be. I mean why else would someone try breaking into the most heavily guarded Wizarding bank of all time?" Harry added.
Emma took a moment to think of the possibilities. She bit her lip in concentration, one eyebrow raising. A wand? Maybe a dark magic book? But none of these options made sense to her.
"Well I think-" Ron trailed off as his face drew up into a scowl. His blue eyes were fixated on the Great Hall Entrance, and Harry and Emma followed his gaze.
Hermione was walking in, her bushy hair recognizable from a mile away. In the Hermione fashion, she was clutching two books close to her chest, and her bag was bursting at the seam with others. She scurried between tables and sat a few seats away from the three. She made a scene of not looking at them.
"What's her problem?" Harry whispered across the table.
Ron shrugged.
"She stopped talking to us, so let's enjoy it."
When the morning mail arrived, Emma was disappointed to see no letter from Remus. She tapped her fingers nervously on the oak table.
"What's the matter?" Her gaze flickered up to Harry's bright green eyes.
"Remus didn't send a letter."
"So?" Ron piped up.
"I'm just a little nervous for him. He hasn't been alone since I was a baby." Emma sighed.
Remus would always get noticeably weak and sick during a specific part of the month. His already graying hair would gray more, his skin would become pallid, and he'd walk with lethargic movements. She hoped it wasn't one of those weeks for him.
Harry and Ron finished their breakfast and scrambled off the bench.
"We better get a head start to Potions. I don't need that dog snapping at my heels too." Ron muttered as the trio walked out the entrance.
Emma tried her best to fly under Snape's radar this Potions class. She kept her eyes on her feet as she took her seat next to Neville.
"I nearly forgot we had him today," Neville sighed mournfully. "I was halfway to Quirrell's room when I realized."
Emma patted Neville sympathetically on the back. "Here's to hoping he gets ill."
She heard a huff and cocked her head to see Hermione take her seat next to Emma. She didn't even cast a second glance to Emma as she took out her books. Someone's feeling all high and mighty.
When Snape entered the room, Emma's blood ran cold. His cold black eyes flickered over her briefly before focusing his attention on Neville.
"Longbottom, I hope that you will be able to find it in yourself to follow the instructions for today. I even simplified the rules just for you." He drawled as the chubby boy's cheeks flushed.
The class dragged on as Snape spat out instructions from his desk. Emma could barely figure out what potion they were making, let alone how to make it. She once has to go up to Snape's desk because Neville had run out of dried roots.
"Sir," she hesitated. Snape did not look up. "Excuse me, Professor."
Snape's lidded eyes flickered up lazily. "Can I help you, Potter?"
"Yes," she fiddled with her fingers. "I need more dried roots."
"More?" He folded his hands across his desk and leaned in, a cruel smile forming at his lips. "Potter, I gave out exactly the right amount for the potion. Have you already failed at this simple potion?"
She could tell Draco was listening from the way his talking suddenly stopped. Her palms began to sweat as she looked everywhere but Snape.
"I know sir, it's just that Ne-I need more."
"Well now Potter, I'm afraid that's not a good enough reason for me to give you dried roots. If you can't think of a better reason, stop taking up space in front of my desk and go sit down."
Emma ended up cutting her roots in half and sharing them with Neville.
The rest of their lessons went by in a blur, and soon Harry was jogging down to the Quidditch Pitch with his new Nimbus Two Thousand. It was just a quarter to seven, so Ron and Emma decided to stay in the Gryffindor Common Room. They were briefly joined by Fred and George, who were boasting about a new invention they created that could shock a person from 50 feet away.
"If mum gets another letter about you two…" Ron began, eying the electric wand in George's hand nervously.
"We get another howler and continue on our merry way," Fred finished, winking before disappearing with his brother outside of the Portrait Hole.
"What homework do we have?" Emma began to rummage through her messenger bag for a quill and parchment.
Ron shrugged. "Beats me. Oi, Seamus!" The devilish boy turned from where he was playing Wizard Chess with Dean Thomas.
"What is it, Weasley?"
"Did we have any homework?"
"Uh, yeah? I mean, I think we had a Potions essay and then Quirrell gave us something to write about. But it's not like Quirrell will take points off if you don't do it."
That was true. Quirrell never took off points for late homework, but then again, Quirrell barely seemed to know what was going on in his classroom half of the time. The one thing Emma could say about Quirrell was that he graded fairly.
"You'd think, with it being the beginning of the school year, Snape would go easy on the workload." Ron grumbled, taking out his Potions book but not opening it. "On to a more important topic." His voice dropped. "That trapdoor."
The mentioning of Quirrell caused Emma to smack her forehead. "That reminds me! I forgot to tell you guys something."
Ron leaned in, bright blue eyes eager.
"When we were heading to the duel I heard two voices coming from Quirrell's room. He sounded really scared. They were talking about the third corridor and how Snape knows."
"I knew it!" Ron hissed, tossing his books aside. "I knew Snape had something to do with this!"
"I feel bad for Quirrell. I mean, he isn't exactly a the bravest." Emma had gone up to hand in her homework earlier and she could have sworn Quirrell jumped out of his skin.
"We have to tell Harry when he gets back. Finally, a valid reason to get Snape sacked!"
September and October began to race by as Harry continued with Quidditch practice and Emma struggled to keep up with all her work. Harry wasn't surprised to hear Snape had something to do with the trapdoor. Emma began spending more time frequenting Quirrell's office, doing various tasks for him while looking out for Snape. The two would work in an uncomfortable silence, Emma failing to make conversation with the jumpy professor.
"So sir, what House were you sorted into?" She asked timidly as she went through stacks of paper.
"R-Ravenclaw."
"Ravenclaw, that's nice. I wouldn't have minded Ravenclaw, a lot of smart people in there." She immediately realized the stupidity of her sentence. She thought she heard a snicker from Quirrell, but it was too husky to be the man's voice.
"Well, Ravenclaw i-is known for its sm-smarts." Quirrell replied tartly, a ghost of smile lingering on his face.
And then the room would be silent once more, the only noise being the shuffling of parchment and the scratching of his quill.
She found it quite useful to be Quirrell's unofficial assistant, however. One day, after she finished whatever task he had asked her to do, Quirrell offered to help her with her homework. The offer shocked Emma, seeing he was always quick to rid himself of her. "Are you sure Dumbledore wanted you to help me?" He had asked.
"Yes." She lied smoothly, and Quirrell never did go to Dumbledore to ask for himself.
"Emma?" Quirrell said her name without stuttering.
"Yes Professor?" She was packing her bag at this point and looked up at him, but he was sitting as his desk, writing away.
"Do yo-you need help with P-Potions, by any chance?"
"Excuse me?"
"I-I heard Snape dis-discussing your pap-papers, and he didn't seem im-impressed." Emma remained silent.
"I figured this is how I could re-repay you, seeing as you ha-have helped me immensely."
"That would be great! Thank you sir!" She scrambled across the room to sit in front of Quirrell, pulling out her Potions book.
"Er, sir?"
"Yes, Emma?"
"Can you also help me with my other homework?" Quirrell eyed her warily.
"For what classes?"
The two of them spent the rest of the evening completely rewriting all of her essays.
The first two months at Hogwarts flew by for Emma. She formed her tight-knit group of friends with Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean. From time to time she would spot Cedric Diggory and the two would study together in the library, Cedric cheerfully telling her all about Hufflepuff Quidditch practice while she told him about her first-year classes.
On the morning of Halloween, Emma awoke to the delicious smell of freshly baked pumpkin. The excitement for Halloween filled the air, and Professor Flitwick added onto this when he told them he believed them ready to make objects fly. As the Gryffindors filed into class, Professor Flitwick began breaking them into pairs. Harry and Seamus were partners (Emma caught Harry's look of relief as Neville was paired with Lavender Brown), whereas Dean Thomas and Emma were partners. Ron and Hermione were both in a sour mood when Flitwick paired them together. Emma couldn't tell who was angrier.
"Swish and flick, remember swish and flick! I am sure none of you want to have a buffalo sitting on your chest like Wizard Baruffio, who had 's' and not 'f'! Remember that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick squeaked from his stack of books.
It was much harder than Emma thought it was going to be. She and Dean flicked their wrists and swished their wands, but the feather remained stationary on the table. She could hear Seamus muttering under his breath in front of them, and before she knew it his feather was on fire and Harry was using his hat to put it out.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted, his arm moving in a weird motion. He too was having no success with raising the feather.
"No, no, no!" Hermione snapped at him, her bushy hair seeming to bush out more. "You're saying it wrong Ron!"
"No I'm not!" Ron retorted, his face turning as red as his hair.
"It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, the 'gar' needs to be nice and long."
"I'd like to see you do it then, seeing as you think of yourself as being so smart." Ron growled.
"Fine," Hermione huffed, and fixated her wand on the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Emma's mouth dropped as the feather began to float above their heads.
"Excellent work Miss Granger! See everybody, see how it floats?"
Ron was boiling mad by the time class ended.
"I can't stand her!" Ron complained loudly after class. "She's a walking nightmare, that's what she is. Nobody wants to be around that."
Harry let out a 'oof' as someone pushed past him. He noticed in surprise it was Hermione, tears in her eyes.
"Hey Ron," He began, "I think she might have overheard you."
Ron watched as Hermione's silhouette disappeared, and he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Who cares," he said in a tense voice, "it's not my fault she's got no friends."
Hermione missed their next class, which happened to be Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was a shame too; Quirrell chose Emma to perform 'Expelliarmus', a spell she cast (semi) perfectly.
Hermione wasn't at lunch either. Parvati told Emma on the way to the Great Hall that Hermione was bawling in the Girls Bathroom. When she recited this to Harry and Ron, Ron's face turned a bright pink. However, the Great Hall was decorated so beautifully and Hagrid's pumpkins were fantastic that the three quickly forgot about Hermione.
Emma was just helping herself to a second helping of roast beef when Professor Quirrell came whirling into the Great Hall, his turban lopsided and his face pale from terror. He stopped in front of Dumbledore, panting heavily. "Troll-in the dungeon-thought you should know."
He fell to the floor and fainted.
The Hall broke out into chaos, students shouting and people pushing into each other. It quickly fell silent when Dumbledore stood up.
"Silence! Prefects, lead your students to your dorm. Teachers, come with me."
Percy began to wrangle them up and headed towards the great staircase. Emma was just trailing behind Harry when he abruptly stopped.
"Hermione!"
"What about her?" Ron asked as the three suddenly stopped walking.
"Hermione's in the girls bathroom! She doesn't know about the troll!"
Emma's blood ran cold. "So what are you saying? That we should just go waltzing around looking for her?"
"She's in danger Emma, we can't just leave her."
Emma cast a nervous glance at Ron and then at the already fading backs of the Gryffindors.
"I….I guess." She finally muttered.
The three managed to cut across and follow behind the group of Hufflepuffs, ducking low as to not be seen. Once they reached a deserted corridor they broke out running. They quickly turned the corner, however, when they heard footsteps.
"Snape?" Ron hissed as the man glided past them, glancing both ways before heading up the stairs.
"He's going to the third corridor!" Emma shouted-whispered, but before she could say more, a foul smell hit her nose and Ron grabbed the hem of her robe.
"H-H-Harry!" Ron whispered, his face paling.
"What?" Harry snapped, but quickly fell silent. Standing a few feet away stood a giant troll, even larger than Hagrid. Emma covered her mouth with her hand to keep from gagging. The troll was probably 12 feet with lumpy, dull gray skin and long, wrinkled ears. It dumbly searched from room to room, wiggling its ears, looking for something. It dragged a club behind it, and was sniffing in a room before its ears quivered. Slowly, it slouched down and stomped into the room.
"Quickly, close the door!" Harry yelled, and he sprinted across the hall with Ron, the two slamming the door shut and locking it.
The three let out a sigh of relief. "Yes!" Ron shouted, while Harry laughed in victory.
They were heading back down the passage, scanning each corridor. "Okay, so where's the girls bath-" Ron never finished his sentence as a high pitched scream came from the chamber the troll was locked in.
"Oh no…"
"Hermione!"
Emma struggled with the key to turn in, fumbling with it. Harry pushed open the door, and there was the troll, smashing its club into the sinks as it went. Hermione Granger cowered on the other side of the bathroom, face as pale as snow.
"Do something to distract it!" Harry shouted over his shoulder as he began to run to Hermione.
"Hey, pea-brain!" Ron shouted, picking up a piece of broken sink and chucking it at the troll's head. It turned to face Ron and Emma.
"Over here!" Emma danced around it, ushering to Hermione to hurry up. The troll had just loomed over Ron when Harry leapt on its back and stuck his wand up its nose. The troll let out a confused grunt before swinging its club madly back and forth, trying to get Harry off. Hermione reached Emma and was clutching onto her hand, terrified.
"What do we do?" Emma panicked, frozen in place. It turns out, Emma Potter was not good under pressure.
But Ron Weasley was. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He shouted, and the troll's club floated into the air, hovering over the troll's head. It fell with a thump, and the troll collapsed unconscious.
"You did it Ron!" Harry exclaimed as he (with great disgust) retrieved his wand from the troll's nostril. The four looked at each other awkwardly.
"Th-thank you." Hermione whispered, for once looking meek.
"It's my fault, really." Ron replied, his hand flying to the back of his neck. They had just barely reached the door when Quirrell, Snape, and McGonagall entered.
"What do we have here?" McGonagall pushed past them, her mouth gaping open as she saw the knocked out troll. "Who did this?"
"Ron did. He saved us from the troll." Harry spoke up.
"What on Earth were you four thinking of?" McGonagall snapped at them as Snape bent over the troll to examine it. "You could have been killed! Why didn't you go to your dormitories?"
"Professor, we-we were just-" Emma fumbled for words.
"They were looking for me, Professor," Hermione's soft voice startled her. "I-I thought I could take on the troll so I-I went looking for it."
Ron's mouth fell open as Hermione lied to a teacher while Emma and Harry looked dumbly at each other. Snape eyed Emma and Harry coldly, an eyebrow raised.
"Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall looked astonished, before quickly composing herself. "Well Miss Granger, it was a very dangerous thing you did. You could have been hurt or killed. I will need to take five points from Gryffindor."
Hermione hung her head. Professor McGonagall turned to Emma, Ron, and Harry.
"Not all first-years are able to defeat a mountain troll. You were lucky this wasn't full-sized. In recognition for your bravery, each of you will receive 5 points for Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore will need to hear about this."
Quirrell and McGonagall left the bathroom, while Snape lingered. "You seem to have an affinity for trouble." And with that he too swept out of the bathroom.
Back at the Common Room, students buzzed with the story of the troll.
"15 points to Gryffindor!" Harry said in amazement.
"10 points, Hermione got 5 taken away." Emma quickly added.
"And right so. It was her fault anyway." Ron grumbled, but he too felt excited. Many of their classmates eagerly listened to his dramatized rendition of the story.
The three were just starting on Transfigurations when Hermione sat down next to them. She glanced over Ron's shoulder before sighing.
"You're doing it wrong," she grabbed his paper, "here, let me." And from that point on, Hermione became a friend.