Disclaimer: I do not own Rowling's characters or work. This is just a super intense fanwork to try to suppress an unhealthy addiction to the series. It's a work of love, don't worry!
A/N: I was hoping to have The Mirror of Erised done in time for Christmas because it's a Christmas chapter, but I'm really struggling with it (possibly because I'm taking on extra hours at work). So if I don't make it, I'll give you a double update this week. Woohoo!
Also, I'm getting a lot of very positive reviews and feedback. I was leery of doing this work, but I'm really glad so many of you like it! Thank you so much! Everyone's kind words mean a lot to me!

Chapter Ten: Halloween

Hattie had filled in Hermione at the dog they had found, and she filled in to the rest the package she had seen Hagrid take out of Hogwarts. After a few lectures on letting Draco provoke them and wandering around Hogwarts a night, (which Neville nodded furiously to) Hermione finally became enthused. As soon as she was out of the hospital, she was in the library.

Draco Malfoy also tried to provoke Hattie further, after seeing his scheme of getting them caught didn't work, but Hattie just upturned her nose. He couldn't find again find the buttons to push, even when they went back to the Flying class and he tried to make fun of Hermione. Hattie stayed strong, fuming on the inside.

But it was a week and a half before Neville, Hattie, Goyle, and Draco served their detention. Snape was right, their detention of cleaning the school with Filch was not entertaining. Hattie was devastated that they couldn't use magic. Filch seemed disgusted that they even thought of using it. Luckily, Filch was furious at all of them. He was mad at Draco for possibility lying to him about someone being around the school, and he was mad at Hattie and Neville for possibly being out like Draco said. He was mad at Goyle, too, for making the mistake of complaining about not being able to use magic.

The detention went by slowly, but after that there were little incident with Draco Malfoy. He seemed to hate having to clean the school as much as Hattie did. The whole time he murmured something about his father and how mad at the school he was going to be. She heard something else about Durmstrang, but she didn't know what that was and forgot about it before she could ask Ron.

School started to pick up. Hattie became more immersed in the school. George and Fred told Ron and Hattie when they had practices so they could watch. Hattie was becoming increasingly enthusiastic, to the point where Ron and Hattie went to watch practice three evenings a week. Hermione often scolded them for putting off their homework, but she was always quick to help them as soon as they had a problem. Neville usually joined them once a week, but he generally found it too hard on his nerves.

Every day that passed, Hattie grew less aware that she wasn't receiving letters from her Aunt. She still received a few from Dudley, usually drawings of his teachers or of something else interesting. She tended to receive one or two a week, but her heart stopped hoping to see a letter from Aunt Petunia in Rubeus' talons. She wrote less, too. She didn't know what to say.

The thing that Hattie missed most was cooking. She didn't know who did the cooking at Hogwarts, but she missed the smell of the bacon rising, or tossing a cheap cheese slice over some piece of meat, or the sizzle from grilled cheese in a frying pan. She missed digging her fingers into cookie batter. She missed eating something that she herself had made. She missed her Aunt complimenting whatever she made and helping her clean up. Some nights she was more homesick than others, but Hogwarts was beginning to feel more like home than Privet Drive ever had. She had friends. She had people to talk to. She had people who cared for her. She didn't have to hear Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon arguing beneath her room. She didn't have to hear Dudley blaming her for it. She only heard Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil's gossip. She heard Hermione reading under her breath. It was comforting. It felt normal. What happened in her home on Privet Drive couldn't have been normal.

On Halloween morning they woke up to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Hattie awoke with a pang of homesickness. She wished she was making pumpkin pie. But learning to make object fly in charms helped her keep her mind off of it. Her and Neville paired up (Neville managed to grab Hattie before Ron), leaving Ron and Hermione together. Ron was still leery of Hermione. She was too bossy for him. He preferred working with Neville to her so they could work slower. Neville and Hattie just couldn't seem to get their feathers off the desk. Ron was in the same boat as them, but Hermione, of course, was able to do it fine. She lectured Ron on the proper way to do it.

"I'd like to Win-GAR-dium Levi-O-sa something onto that stupid head of hers," Ron muttered to Hattie after class.

"You're just jealous," Hermione said nonchalantly, walking close enough behind them to eavesdrop. "We should practice at dinner."

"Yeah, because I always wanted to have my family watch me struggle to lift mashed potatoes," Ron snapped back. "No thanks, Hermione."

The rest of the day flew by to the feast. Hattie didn't get a chance to fully appreciate the Halloween decorations because she saw Rubeus standing and chirping where they usually sat. Hattie nudged Ron. "Do they usually get mail in the evening?" she asked.

"I think when it's an emergency the owls come anyway," Ron said. "You better read it."

Rubeus tried to playfully dodge Hattie's grab at his leg, but Ron was quick enough to grab the rest of his body. They had to go through this ritual quite often when Dudley sent doodles. Originally, Hattie kept getting clawed, but Ron eventually helped her handle the bird.

Hattie unwrapped the letter:

"My darling Hattie,

I think it would be best for all of us if you stay at your school for Christmas. Your Uncle is very busy right now with houseguests and work. You and Dudley would not be able to roughhouse like you usually do, so it sounds like it will be more fun at your school anyway. Please don't get upset or angry. I'll write a longer letter soon. Remember to be brilliant!

Lots of love,
Hugs and kisses,
Aunt Petunia"

Hattie could feel rage rising through her throat in the form of bile. She was upset. She was angry. She twisted the letter into a ball in her fist. She took a deep breath. She noticed Draco curiously eyeing her up from the Slytherin table. Her friends at her own table seemed to be doing the same. Did she look like she was about to snap? She certainly felt like it.

"Everything all right, Hattie?" Neville asked.

"Yes," Hattie said, pressing her lips into a thin smile. "Everything's fine. Excuse me one moment."

Hattie could feel her friend's eyes on her back as she walked to the girl's washroom. There were a bunch of girls, including Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, gossiping in the one closest to the Great Hall, so Hattie rushed up to the one down the Charms corridor. Maybe she wouldn't bother going to the feast. She could feel the tears building up behind her eyes. She had to get into the bathroom first.

This was the day of her parents' death. She remembered that. She put down the toilet's lid and sat down on it. She wrung the letter and started to cry. She thought her Aunt should have been writing a letter about the Anniversary of her parents' death. She should have written to make sure she was okay, and maybe tell her more about them. She never heard anything about her father. The only thing she knew about her mother was that they looked alike and she was a witch. Presumably her father was a wizard, too. He must have been. She supposed, too, she knew that she had her father's eyes. But this wasn't enough. She wanted to know everything. She wanted to be with them.

She wanted desperately to go home for Christmas. No one would be here for Christmas. She wallowed for a while with fierce sobs that shook her chest. It had been a while since she cried, let alone this hard.

She sniffed hard trying to contain her snot, but through all the muck she smelt something. A foul stench reached her nostrils. It was horrible. Worse than the time Dudley dared her that she wouldn't smell his gym shoes. She could hear some sort of shuffling, as if someone larger than Hagrid was moving through the bathroom. Was someone else in there?

She covered her mouth and opened the stall door.

She screamed, staring at the troll leering down at her. It advanced at her, and she shut her mouth, worried that it was trying to shut her own mouth violently.

There was a crash against the wall. Hermione, Neville, and Ron were there. One of them had thrown a tap against the wall. Hattie could feel the blood draining from her face as the troll blinked down at her and began to look around. It gripped its club, which could have just been an uprooted tree, and turned in the direction of her friends. They scattered and yelled commands at one another. Hattie stared blankly for a moment at the troll.

When Ron grabbed her arm she still felt rooted to the ground. "Merlin, Hattie!" Ron shouted in her ear. "Snap out of it!"

Hattie suddenly got moving again. "Hattie!" Neville shouted. "Get Hermione!"

Neville's wand pointed at Hermione who the troll had trapped. Its angry little eyes were latched onto her, and it as beginning to raise its club. Neville clearly had no idea what to do, but neither did Hattie. Hattie was positive Neville was just as surprised as she was when Ron pulled the first spell out of his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club lifted out of the troll's hand and dropped, with a sickening crack, on its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Hattie clutched her stomach, holding down more vomit that suddenly wanted to come up. "What just happened?" she asked, hunched over. "What is that?"

"We passed Snape on the way here," Ron said.

"What?" Hattie said, wiping one of her eyes with her sleeve. "What's going on?"

"A troll got in!" Neville said, excitedly.

Hermione looked like she was still trying to catch her breath. Hattie was frustrated because Hermione was probably the only one who would fill in the details coherently.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made them realize the Professors were probably charging in to save them. A moment later, Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell came into the room. Quirrell looked more terrified than Hattie had ever felt.

Snape bent over the troll after sneaking a curious look at Hattie and her friends. Hattie supposed she looked like a mess. She could feel her eyes throbbing from the tears, and she knew her nose was raw from blowing it on the rough toilet paper. The anger Professor McGonagall had when Neville was fighting Draco was nothing compared to how mad she was now. Her lips were so thin they were white.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall. "You're lucky you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"They were looking for me," Hattie said, defeated. She tried to ignore the piercing look Snape gave her.

"Miss. Potter!" McGonagall said. "What were you doing out of your dormitory?"

Hattie could feel her sinuses clogging again. She wasn't going to cry in front of all these people. "A letter from my Aunt... upset me. I left the Great Hall to come here, but I hadn't heard about the troll, and I suppose my friends figured out where I was and," Hattie hesitated, "Saved me. I'd have been flattened without them here."

Professor McGonagall sighed. "I suppose there was no way you would ever suspect something like this could happen," she said. "And while it was foolish for you three to go looking for her, she was very lucky for it. Not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You three each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. If you're not hurt at all, you may go back to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. "Okay," Hattie said. "You'd better tell me what happened."

"We should have gotten more than fifteen points," Ron grumbled.

"Professor Dumbledore sent us back to our houses because Quirrell barged in and said there was a troll in the castle. As we were heading up we remembered that you had, well, left so we checked the bathrooms for you," Hermione explained.

"On the way," Neville said, excited, "We saw Professor Snape heading in the direction of the forbidden corridor. What do you think he was doing?"

They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Pig snout," they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. "Hattie," Ron started, "I thought you should know-"

Hermione shushed him as she approached the food. "What?" Hattie said. "What should I know?"

"Do you think Snape was trying to get into the Forbidden room?" Neville asked.

"You know you never give Snape a break," Hattie said.

"He's terrifying," Neville said.

"He's a greasy git," Ron admitted.

"Are we talking about Snape?" George asked.

"George! You wouldn't believe what we just did!" Ron said.

And he vividly retold the story of the troll to the Gryffindor common room. By the time Ron finished the story, Hattie had completely forgotten she wasn't going home for Christmas.