Harry Potter Fan Fiction

A Bet to Fallon

First Year

Chapter Eleven - Trapping Trolls

Alex finally convinces Hermione to sit up, take a few deep breath and join the school for the feast. Alex smiles reassuringly at he friend as she stands up, wincing as the blood rushes back to her feet. The blonde girl moves to turn on a nearby tap, splashing water on her face and gesturing for her friend to do the same.

Alex finds herself wondering what he bother is doing. She hasn't seen him in weeks, and she often worries about her far more secluded bother. He's more distant than she, colder and less likely to make friends. She hopes she hasn't left him alone during he focus on Hermione -

A scream wrenches Alex back to the present, and she turns in time to see Hermione staring in abject terror at a huge, ugly troll. Alex lets out a curse and grabs her friend, diving out of the way as the troll's club swings overhead. A piece of splintered wood catches Alex's shoulder and she screams in shock and pain.

Alex's hand finds her wand and she pulls Hermione behind her and casts a shield charm. The two girls crouch under the sinks and watch the troll happily destroy the stalls, reducing them to rubble. Alex tries to cast a complex charm, cursing again when her magic fails her. Her distance from her brother has crippled them both beyond what she had believed possible for so short a time.

Her brother. Alex can feel the link between her and Zander, muffled and distant. She can feel Zander prodding at it, and she realizes that he probably herd her scream. Alex knows that she needs him here, now, with her. She knows the he is aware of this as well.

Shards of debris patter against the weakening shield charm. Alex knows it will not last much longer. As the charm wavers and falls, Alex screams again, hoping that Zander can hear her.


Draco stares uncomprehending as Zander halts mid-stride and spins to face back where they came from. Draco knows that Zander suspects Quirrell to be behind that door, but cannot understand why they haven't followed the weird professor down there already.

"Alexandra is in danger," is all the other boy says before sprinting back the way they came, Draco confused but still right behind him.

"What about Quirrell?" Draco yelps, running after Zander. The green-eyed boy doesn't even blink as he leaps half a staircase and hurtles down a corridor.

"Doesn't matter," he says. "Nothing matters but Alexandra."

Draco falls silent, needing all his breath to keep up with his now machine-like friend. As they turn a corner and they spot Harry Potter and his friend the Weasley boy, Draco asks one last question.

"How - do - you - know - she's - in - trouble?"

Zander glances behind with a vague smile.

"Magic."


"What are you two doing?" Ronald demands as Zander and Draco run past. Zander sighs - he has no time for idiotic questions. At least Draco asks and runs. He remains silent, heeding his sister's plea for help. Only she matters right now.

"I could ask you the same thing," Draco sneers as he follows Zander. Zander smiles, he likes Draco - quick thinking and very similar to himself. Zander loses track of the insult-swapping as his link to his sister grows stronger, less fuzzy.

Fear, pain, worry, anger. Zander staggers as a torrent of emotion hits him. It is not his own. Zander's speed increases as he realizes that Alexandra is feeling all these emotions. What could possibly be happening to spark such a reaction in his Gryffindor, brave and fantastic sister?

Another wave of fear echoes through the link, accompanied by an image of a hulking mass ob bad teeth and worse odor. Zander swears loudly.

Troll!

Zander tears down a secret passageway to his left and bursts out a few meters from the girl's lavatory, uncaring who - if any - follows him. As he sprints towards the sound of crashing and crying, Zander's face sinks into a mask of cold anger and determination.

"I'm coming, sister."


Alex watches as Hermione, in a fit of mad bravery, attempts to cast a spell of the gigantic beast. The fast moving charm strikes the troll, but does little to impede it's path. Hermione dives aside with a squeak as the club swings past yet again.

Alex refrains from cursing the ugly monster - Oh, how she wishes her powers are at full strength! Restricted to relatively basic wandwork, Alex is unable to cast effective troll-repelling hexes without severe possibly fatal - strain.

The one consolation is the awakening of the bond between her and her twin, proving that Zander is on the way. A flash of another's sight shows Alex that Zander is close, and she gains strength enough from that knowledge to grab Hermione and haul her out of the club's path.

"Please brother, come quickly. I need you."

Despite the growing panic swirling in Zander's gut, he remains of sound mind enough to halt outside the door and take stock of the situation. Inside the girl's bathroom is a troll, a small mound of rubble, a meddlesome girl and his sister. Out here with Zander is a rusting suit of armor, a trusted friend and two bumbling baboons.

Zander doesn't like the odds, but figures the troll might survive. If it's lucky.

Draco heeds Zander's sudden halt and slows as well, eyes full of questions. Zander waves him down, grateful when his friend remains silent. Zander is thankful for Draco's quick-thinking and patience.

Unfortunately, the Gryffindor duo do not have as much common sense. Zander bites back a curse as Potter and Weasley tear past and burst into the room, unaware of the danger. Zander risks a peek into the room only to see Potter leap onto the troll's swinging club and Weasley just standing there gawping.

Potter jumps onto the troll's head and distracts it by shoving his wand up it's nose. Angered, the troll head butts the boy off his neck and the Gryffindor flies into Weasley, knocking the two out of the way and into a mound of toilet shards.

Zander uses the distraction to run into the room, directly at his sister. He can feel the link screaming it's anticipation to the only ears that can hear it.

It's been far too long.


Alex watches incredulously as their daring rescuers Harry and Ronald go careening into the rubble, unconscious. She rolls her eyes - boys are always so quick to do and slow to think. Alex looks at the troll readying itself to attack again and wishes that Zander would hurry up and get here already!

Suddenly, the link in her head starts rejoicing. Dancing and singing in her mind, screaming with joy. Alex has never known it so eager, which can only mean -

Alex spins to the door only to see her beloved brother sprinting straight towards her, green eyes blazing with angry determination in an otherwise blank face. Alex grins and holds out her arms, ready to greet her brother head on.

As Zander runs straight into her embrace, Alex can feel the floundering link snap back into place. Thoughts and feelings rush into her mind from her brother's head, all unfamiliar and yet sorely missed. Belonging in her mind as much as his. Alex laughs in exultation - oh, how she's missed this.

As Zander's arms wrap around her in turn, Alex can feel their power racing back to them, flowing around them as its rightful carrier is formed once again. Two halves of the whole, reunited. Magic crackles at her fingertips and through her hair, and Alex swears it may even be more powerful than before.

Zander steps back and the twins share a smile. Alex slips her pinkie to entwine with her brother's in that familiar hold, and together the Fallons raise their wands against the oncoming troll.

Alex smirks. The poor thing doesn't stand a chance.


Draco watches with wide eyes as magic flares upwards from the twins in the rubble. His father has taught him how to recognize powerful magic - to see it like an aura - but Draco has never before seen anything quite so spectacular. Magic is flowing in and around Zander and his sister, pulsing with colors that Draco has never before associated with magical power.

He must ask his father about this.

Before he can ponder the source of such immense power, Draco notices the twins link pinkie fingers. He has seen this many times before - usually before something interesting happens. Draco firmly tells his mind to shut up and focuses on the present.

In spooky synchronization the twins raise their wands, both unerringly aiming for the troll's eyes. As one they open their mouths in a wide grin, lazy and luxurious. Draco spies them glance at one another, Zander's sister winking, before both turn to the troll and cast their simultaneous spell.

Draco doesn't recognize the incantation, but the wand movements look similar to a stunning spell his father has used once before. The effect seems much the same, and the troll staggers once before keeling over with an echoing thud.

Alex and Zander lower their wands as one, always touching. Draco barely notices Granger creep out from behind a stall and the Gryffindor morons beginning to stir. All he seems aware of is the raw power trailing about his friend and his twin sister.

As Zander starts talking to his sister quietly and urgently, Draco decides enough is enough. He will find out what that magic was, where it came from.

Zander is going to talk.


"The teachers are coming," Zander whispers to his sister quietly. Alex is checking that Granger is safe, and Zander spares a glance at Potter and Weasley, who are - finally - waking up.

Unfortunately, so is the troll.

Zander curses. He has been separate from his sister for too long, and their magic - whilst restored, if not increased - has yet to re-learn to answer to them. Spells of so high a caliber are still faulty, it seems.

Zander prepares to cast another charm, hoping it will work. He turns in time to hear Draco shout.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The troll's club wobbles before Zander's eyes, drifting jerkily into the air and swinging downwards to knock the troll out once again. Zander cannot hel but stare as his friend nods to himself, tucking his wand away.

Nodding his thanks to a rather proud - and rightfully so - Draco, Zander turns to face the next challenge. The teachers.

AN ~

Okay, so after five days of no electricity, communal bathrooms, minimal luxuries and an allergic reaction to the sun block, I have once again delivered.

Here is your next chapter, you greedy things, you.

No, really, I love you guys. Thank you so much for your reviews, which I have read and loved after my five long days in the middle of nowhere. I hope this chapter is satisfactory. The next will be up in a week, as always.

But, unfortunately, from then on my postings shall become somewhat erratic, as I shall be incredibly busy with study - no rest for the wicked, as they say.

And so, until next week,

Zanchev.