Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and/or Bleach.
Darn it, I messed up! The end of the last chapter was supposed to be when Harry got his Nimbus! Well, nobody minds... right? I'll just put the broomstick scene as the morning after that.
Agh, Hermione is such a pain in the ass in before the troll accident. It's annoying to write her, she's so... well, you know. And then Ron gets so sissy after he insults Hermione into the bathroom...
The next morning, Hermione marched over to Harry and Ron.
"You again?" said Ron. "What do you want?"
"I cannot believe that you did that," Hermione said to Harry.
"Did what?" Harry asked.
If she starts reprimanding you, I'm gonna be pissed.
"Why didn't you turn it in?" Hermione demanded, staring at Harry disapprovingly. "The Marauder's Map?"
Yup, she's dead by next week.
"Wh-What?" Harry stammered. How did she know about that?
"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, turning to Ron, "Percy- he's a prefect, he'd definitely confiscate it."
"Confiscate what?" said Ron, clearly not understanding the situation.
"Look, Granger, I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry said, furious that Hermione had been eavesdropping, "But unless you have something that is important to say, why don't you take you and your bossy attitude to the other side of the table?"
Hermione stood there, shocked. "You..." But she quickly regained her standpoint. "I can't believe how selfish you are," she said shrilly. "I know the only reason you're doing this because they know about Ish-"
Harry quickly clamped Hermione's mouth with his hand. "Don't. You. Dare. Say. A. Word."
Ron, now very muddled, stared at the strangest soap opera he'd ever seen.
Why did she have to hear that part as well? Ichigo sighed.
The owls then flooded into the Great Hall as usual, and everyone's attention was caught at once by a long thin package carried by six large screech owls. Harry watched in amazement as the owls dropped the parcel right in front of him, knocking his bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
He removed his hand from Hermione's mouth and ripped open the letter (it would be too much like Dudley to ignore it), with Ron and Hermione leaning over him.
DO NOT OPEN THIS PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't
want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll
all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the
Quidditch field at seven o' clock for your first training session.
Professor M. McGonagall
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."
Harry saw Malfoy staring at the package gleefully (Probably planning Harry's demise). Smiling, Harry raised his hand and waved cheerfully at him.
Needless to say, Malfoy was... horrified.
Harry turned back to Ron, who looked shocked. "What? It was worth it, look at his face."
"You boys are... are so stupid!" Hermione burst out. "And you! You think that broomstick is a reward for breaking the rules?" Without waiting for an answer, she stomped off with her nose in the air.
Harry had a hard time focusing that day (so he made Ichigo pay attention for him). At dinner, he bolted down his food without noticing what he was eating, and rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.
"Wow," Ron sighed, staring at the unwrapped broomstick.
Ichigo sniffed. It's just a broom, seriously. That baka (idiot)is overreacting.
Harry, too entranced to notice the foreign word, had a face similar to Ron's. As seven o' clock drew nearer, Harry left the castle and set off towards the Quidditch field, broomstick in hand.
To eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Harry mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground. What feeling- exhilaration- he swooped in out of the goal posts and sped up and down the field. The Nimbus turned wherever he wanted at his lightest touch.
"Hey, Potter, come down!"
...(However many minutes/hours later)...
"... That Quidditch cup'll have our name on it this year," said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."
I feel... nauseous... Ichigo mumbled without energy.
Harry couldn't believe that he'd already been at Hogwarts for two months. Classes got more and more enjoyable (it helped that Ichigo assisted him in his work) as they moved away from the basics.
Professor Flitwick had just announced that they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom.
Harry was paired with Seamus Finnigan, but Ron was not as lucky. He was to be working with Hermione Granger.
I, for one, am glad you weren't paired up with her. Said Ichigo. She is one nosy bitch.
Ichigo, language.
Yes, grandmother.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry flicked his wand quickly, but nothing happened.
Try a bit more 'swish' and a slower 'flick'. Ichigo advised. Why does this have to sound to stupid?
Harry ignored the last part and tried again.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The feather rose off the desk and hovered about 4 feet above their heads.
"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Mr. Potter's done it!"
Ron, at the next table, was having much less luck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.
"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap (Which was the first time she'd talked to any one of them since the day Harry's broomstick arrived). "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
Wrong move, Weasley. Ichigo called out dryly.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Their feather rose in a similar fashion to Harry's. She grinned smugly at Ron, who glared darkly.
Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of class.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly, that know-it-all."
... Have I already established that Weasley is an idiot? That's way too harsh, even on my standards.
Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face- and was unsurprised to see that she was in tears. Before she disappeared into the crowd, he grabbed her shoulder. This time Ron had taken it too far. "He didn't mean it, you know," he said.
"He didn't mean it, did he?" She said shrilly, desperately trying to wipe off the tears on her face. "You're just trying to make me feel better. I know what you two think of me. A conceited, big-headed-" She pushed off Harry's hand and ran off.
Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry, Ichigo, Zangetsu and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked very akward at this, but despite Harry's prodding, he refused to apologize.
"It seems I can't say sorry for you, otherwise I would," Harry said to Ron during the feast, "So confess your guilt and be done with it."
"Why should I?" Ron muttered, stuffing his face with food. " She must've noticed that she's got no friends."
...Harry, may I strangle him?
Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
Hermione sniffled and took a deep breath.
She was fine. She wasn't bothered by what Ron had said. She could go to the feast and-
She burst into tears once again.
Who was she trying to trick? Of course she was bothered. That- that-that dimwit- had called her- a- a- nightmare!
"He didn't mean it, you know." Harry's voice echoed in her head.
"Of course he did," She sobbed. "And You meant it too, Harry Potter!"
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
That sound... that wasn't the sound of running water. Hermione looked up in confusion.
"HHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKK!"
Twelve feet tall, with dull, granite gray skin, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding was a wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.
Hermione had read enough on magical creatures to know what it was.
"T-Troll," She squeaked out.
Maybe if she could somehow get around the troll she could sneak out of the exit-
No. That was too dangerous. She didn't think she could even move.
Then, the door opened and Potter and Weasley ran in.
"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.
The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry and made for him instead, lifting his club as it went.
Oy, pea-brain!" Ron shouted and threw a pipe at the troll. It turned its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.
"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, but she was still too dazed to respond.
The yelling and echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape. Ron helplessly held up his wand and and yelled the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Sadly, Ron had pointed his wand at the troll himself, and was raised a few inches before it toppled back onto the ground. The troll roared again and raised his club high into the air...
"Kunrinsha yo! Chiniku no kamen, banshō, habataki, hito no na o kansu mono yo! Shōnetsu to sōran, umihedate sakamaki minami e to ho o susume yo!" An unknown voice called. Hermione blinked, snapping out of her stunned state. The voice... though male, it didn't belong to Harry or Ron. "Hadō sanjuuichi: Shakkaho!"
Nothing seemed to happen, but the troll swayed on the spot and fell flat on his face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.
Hermione turned, shaking. Where Harry once was stood a someone else.
He wore Gryffindor robes and looked the age of a seventh year, but Hermione had never seen him before.
He was tall, with long orange hair that tumbled down to around his waist. He had a good-looking face, Hermione mused (she was a girl, in the end), with chocolate brown eyes. The only part that didn't seem to match the image was the scowl in his face.
Ron observed in a much less elegant way (he was a boy, in the end) and stuttered out, "Who-who are you?"
The stranger smirked.
"Who do you think, Ron?"
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, followed by Professor Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat down on a toilet, clutching his heart.
Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry (had he had appeared so suddenly, Hermione had no idea) angrily. Hermione suddenly realized that the stranger was gone.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice as she looked at the two boys. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Hermione gulped. Harry and Ron were probably going to be punished. All because they went to go look for her.
"He didn't mean it, you know."
Before she could stop herself she spoke.
"Please, Professor McGonagall- they were looking for me." Inwardly, Hermione winced. She didn't mean for her voice to sound so meek.
"Miss Granger!"
"I went looking for the troll because I- I thought I could deal with it on my own- you know, because I've read all about them." She lied.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harry mouth, Don't tell. She understood immediately.
Don't tell anyone about the stranger.
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead by now. Harry stuck his wand up its 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 me off when they arrived."
Harry and Ron tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them.
"Well- in that case..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head in fake shame.
"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to the Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."
Hermione walked out of the bathroom.
As she climbed up to the portrait hole, she was thinking.
"He didn't mean it, you know."
"Who do you think, Ron?"
How did the stranger know who Ron was?
"He didn't mean it, you know."
"He didn't mean it, you know."
"He didn't mean it, you know."
"He didn't mean it, you know."
Well, she thought, a smile on her face, I suppose he really didn't mean it.
"I don't believe it," Minerva muttered. "For Miss Granger to do something so brainless..."
Severus stood up, finished with studying the knocked out troll.
"Minerva, get the headmaster."
Minerva blinked. "Good heavens, why Severus?"
"This troll has no concussion on its head, meaning the plank never hit it there."
"You mean the children were lying? But we don't need Albus for disciplining, Severus."
Severus, seeing that Quirrell was still hanging onto the toilet for dear life, quickly ushered himself and Minerva outside. "Not only does this troll have no marks on its head, there is no damage at all, meaning it should be alive and moving. Yet not only is it knocked out, it's dead."
Minerva frowned. "What?"
"The only curse strong enough to that much harm and not leave a mark would be..."
Minerva's eyes widened in understanding.
"... Avada Kedavra."
Holy... where the heck did the last scene come from? I planning something totally different, and it just pooped up randomly...
I feel very exhilarated now (even though I'm about to go to sleep)... I wonder what's going to happen next? *smiles mysteriously*
Truthfully, I have no idea.
THANKS EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED AND STUFF!
