"Help, Godric, please! There's trolls in north Hogsmeade!" All eyes in the great hall turned towards the lone figure that had barged into the great hall. It was a young boy wearing dirtied robes with a mop of black hair, no older than eight or nine. Immediately the great hall began filling with chatter as Godric stood up and rushed towards the doors of the great hall and the boy. "Take me there now, Salazar, Harry come join me!"
Harry leapt to his feet but was pulled back by Rowena's hand. Looking at her questioningly, he could see her looking torn, the conflict written in her eyes. It took several seconds before she seemingly made her mind, planting a chaste kiss on his lips and whispering, "Come back to me."
"I will, I promise you," Harry replied before rushing off to join Godric. Salazar was several steps ahead of him, and the three began jogging behind the boy, who began recounting how there were three trolls with blue-greyish skin wielding clubs. The trolls were about ten meters tall, some of the largest ever recorded, and bashing into any humans and properties they could get their hands on.
As they headed further north from the town center, the distant screams became louder and louder, and they all sped up their pace to a run as they weaved through narrow dirt paths towards the source of the cries.
They finally came across a well in a small open square where three trolls were grunting as they clubbed away at the small buildings that surrounded the square. It seemed that most of the villagers had escaped the vicinity, though there were a few mutilated corpses dotting the square, evidently smashed by powerful blows from the trolls' clubs.
Godric and Salazar began firing a multitude of spells at the trolls, but it was in vain, with ice mountain trolls having some of the strongest skin, even if they were slower and dumber than the average troll. "Why aren't you firing anything," Salazar uttered between curses. Harry merely watched on as the trolls turned to their new targets, shrugging off the spells as they began lumbering towards the trio.
The largest of the three trolls, also the leader and the closest to them, let out a loud war cry, raising his club into the air and shaking his head. Harry immediately capitalized on this, raising his wand and sending an overcharged reducto straight towards the troll's mouth.
The troll was stationary during its war cry, and Harry's aim was true from decades of targeting death eaters. With a loud splat the trolls head exploded out back, and the body wobbled uneasily before collapsing to the ground with a thud.
Seemingly oblivious to this, the other two trolls also let out similar war cries, and Harry sent another two curses straight to their open mouths. They too were pulverized, their limp bodies toppling to the ground uselessly. Salazar looked at him with something between fear and newfound respect, while Godric was baffled at the sheer precision of his spellwork.
Behind them, the sound of hurried and panicked footsteps as well as the shouts of several men broke them out of their silence. "Where's the troll! We're here to kill it!" the leader of the small militia yelled, his wand drawn as he surveyed the area. Harry recognized the man as John Craighton, head of the town council. "Hold on, it's dead already, you three manage to take it down?"
"Yes, we were quite fortunate to be able to," Harry replied smoothly before either Godric or Salazar could speak. "We would welcome the help for disposing the bodies though, it smells and frankly there is little use for troll's meat."
John shook his head as the men burst out laughing at the joke, probably relieved they did not have to face three ice mountain trolls. John quickly shook the three men's hands before barking orders for the militia to cart off the bodies.
"Tell me Godric, Salazar, do you know how the war in the north is progressing? It seems extremely suspect that three trolls were able to break through the coalition defence, no?" Harry queried, interested to see the insights of the two founders.
"I've only heard from bar talk about the war, but apparently it is not going well. Apparently the King sent several thousand more troops to reinforce their contingent because they suffered such heavy losses, word is that apparently there are some necromancers that are summoning armies of inferni aside from the trolls, word is some dark elves have joined them and are fighting side by side as well."
"Bar talk, Godric, honestly if half of what you listed was true we would have been overrun and in the midst of a battlefield by now, surely the tales of those drunken idiots are exaggerated," Salazar sneered.
"Say what you will, but I just hope for our sakes that it's not true," Godric mused. The three returned to Hogwarts castle where Rowena and Helga were waiting anxiously for them. Rowena immediately rushed forward and hugged him with an iron grip while Helga began fussing over Godric. Salazar merely scoffed before walking back into the castle himself, though Harry saw a flicker of remorse in those cold green eyes before they quickly returned to the cold and calculating orbs of normal.
"You're alright Harry, I was so worried for you. If I didn't know you any better I would have stopped you from joining those two idiots from going out troll hunting," she chided. "At least you haven't gotten yourself injured."
"Of course not, my dear. We couldn't just sit back while a troll rampaged through Hogsmeade, could we now? Besides, you know me well enough to know that I can handle a troll or two. I'm a wizard afterall."
"It takes dozens of normal wizards to contain a troll, and usually not everyone in a troll hunting party comes out alive, let alone unscaved," she countered.
"But I'm not normal, am I Rowena," Harry retorted.
"That you aren't, my Harry," Rowena conceded as she wiped a speck of dirt off his face, "That you aren't. Now come back in, I've had all the students stay in the great hall instead of attending lessons. They'll be glad to hear that all three of you aren't injured." They both took a moment to watch Godric dramatically retell their attack on the trolls.
"Can I guess that you managed to take them down?" Rowena whispered as they walked back into the castle.
"How did you know?" Harry asked, genuinely intrigued.
"So you did, not too shabby, my hero," she teased with a giggle. "But having known those two, they are more alike than they think. They probably just tried to overpower the trolls with spells."
Harry was genuinely impressed at her deductions, confirming, "I just waited until they let out a war cry before shooting them through the mouth. You were right though, I thought Salazar was the striking serpent, how come he's just trying to bludger his opponents like Godric?"
"Salazar might be a powerful duellist, but he is by no means elegant. He's in for theatrics and showmanship, while I honestly have no idea how Godric is capable of teaching transfiguration," Rowena explained. "Most of Salazar's reputation is based on Godric's drunken ramblings at the tavern. He and Sal always injure themselves in their duels, and they don't do it in public so people use their imagination to fill in the blanks. I have every confidence you could handily beat them. Regardless, I doubt Godric or Salazar will be talking about anything other than their bravado, and Helga won't leave Godric's side. Where does that leave us?"
"I would say we should go to our charms class, but I have a feeling the students will be just as restless. We might as well cancel classes for the day and let those two distract the students," Harry reasoned.
Rowena nodded in agreement, "Too true, and that leaves us with quite the bit of free time, doesn't it." Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as she breathed huskily down his neck. She had opened up much in the past year, and their relationship had progressed far, though they hadn't done much physical exploration by unspoken agreement.
"I would be aroused, my dear, were it not for the fact that I know you want to finish working on the tome," he jibed, enjoying her fake hurt look.
"Fine, see if I let you sleep with me tonight, hmph," she threatened half heartedly. Harry merely chuckled as be feigned horror.
"You couldn't possibly do that to me, my raven." At her giggles he pecked her before continuing, "But this does remind me, I want to train you a bit. This attack will be the first of many. It is a sign that the coalition is faltering, and I cannot imagine anything happening to you." Rowena was about to protest, but seeing the pleading in his eyes and having made educated guesses about his deceased family, she acquiesced with a nod. "Thank you, my love."
With that he got into a duelling pose, and gestured for Rowena to do the same. She complied half heartedly, letting out a yelp when he shot a stinging hex at her. "Pay attention! Now dodge!"
She was about to protest when he shot another stinging hex, hitting her cheek, followed by another one that his her torso, followed by another that grazed her left ear. Seeing that he meant business, she quickly cast a protego, only for her to be completely knocked back when he shot a powerful reducto at her. Without giving her a chance to speak, he lectured, "Shield as a last resort, it puts you on the defensive and means that the opponent will have free reign!"She wisely rolled to the side when he began firing a flurry of stinging hexes at her again, and banished a chair followed by a pillow and several books at him as she regained her footing, Contrary to popular belief, the most scholarly of the four founders was by no means unfit, and could hold her own in a duel.
"That's better, keep dodging, allow your magic to flow, to guide you. Heed your senses, surrender to your instincts," he mentored. She allowed his words to guide him, soon finding that she did not have to play close attention to dodge his spells. Her realist side admitted that he was hardly trying his hardest, sending spells slowly and not always with true aim, but her irrational side settled on celebrating the fact she was holding her own against a man who had defeated three trolls without a scratch.
What followed would make Rowena question whether Harry had a split personality, because he was one of the strictest taskmasters she had ever been put under the tutelage of. She had been subjected to a barrage of stinging hexes until she learned to dodge the spells, and he had trapped her into a conjured stone prison until she was able to cast a strong reducto. The kind Harry she knew would return everytime they had a break, when he would wipe away the sweat on her head, hand her a goblet of water and offer pointers. By the end of the day, she had been completely exhausted, admittedly not having used so much magic in a day for years, and her entire body was feeling sore. She felt slightly bad acting quite grumpily towards him in the later part of their training, but she swore everytime she was hit with a stinging hex his eyes would twinkle mischievously.
She turned to see him, his body pressed tightly onto hers and his hands wrapped possessively around her stomach. His black hair messier than usual his pair of emerald eyes shining brightly as they watched her. "Thinking of something Row?"
She smiled at his attentiveness, her heart beating slightly quicker as she basked in a feeling of warmth. "You know me too well Harry. Just thinking of how long the peace will last."