Disclaimer: Don't own HP.
Speech
Thought
Alorkin: With marshmallows, yum!
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"For the love of Merlin.." Harry muttered to himself as he walked into the great hall, feeling several pairs of eyes shifting his way. He didn't have to look to tell that some were admiration and curiosity, while others were just plain disgust. Ever since his assistance to Blaise a few days ago, he began noticing other students turning their attention toward him; most of the Ravens and 'Puffs seemed to be mainly in approval that he'd helped her, especially the female half. Even a few of Slytherin seemed to have taken a more relaxed attitude towards him, although some seemed to be enjoying the way he treated Malfoy more.
The majority of the disgust, however, seemed to come from the Gryffindor house. He'd already been accosted more than once by Ron Weasley and others like him for helping a 'slimy snake'. Of course, they all ended up at Pomfrey's with at least one embarrassing and highly uncomfortable condition, usually and/or a nasty bout of diarrhea coupled with burning hemorrhoids. Since they would be starting it, and non-leathal spells were used against the antagonizers, Harry was able to claim self-defense.
The first couple of times it was reather funny, but now it was just annoying, "How much of a git can someone be??" He thought, rolling his eyes at the glares a few of the lions shot him. Talking a seat at the table, he noticed all the decorations, "Damn, it's Halloween already? Then that means Stutterman'll be here in a few minutes." He glanced at one end of the Ravenclaw table, then the other, "Hey, Padma, where's Hermione?"
"That tosser, Ron." She spat the name in disgust, "She found out he was struggling with some lesons and took pity on him. But when she tried to help, he yelled and called her a...I can't even repeat it."
"Pad, what did he call her?"
She took a breath, "He said she was 'nothing more than a frendless little know-it-all m-mud...,"She cringed a bit as if it felt like she had just threw up, "Mudblood bitch... and that she had no business being here.. I think Susan said she saw her run into one of the girls' restrooms."
Harry's eyes narrowed, his irises once again glowing AK green as they focused on the redhead responsible, The students nearby froze at the sight, along with ones at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table who were facing towards him. After what he did to Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy prior, several students took the glow as an indication that the person responsible was going to be in a world of hurt very soon. However, said target was oblivious, stuffing his face in the process.
He started to get up when, as if on cue, 'Professor' Quirell came barrelling into the hall, screaming, "T-Troll! In the D-D-Dungeon!" Before doing his fake faint.
"Dammit!" He cursed his forgetting about the troll going to the girls restroom last time as the students started screaming. Knowing he didn't have time to waste, Harry deftly made his way out while Dumbledore yelled for silence and started sending everyone back to their dorms.
"Hang on, Hermione.." He said, running down the hall with his wand drawn. Suddenly, he caught a faint scream followed by a crash as he ran up the stairs. "Shit!" He growled and picked up speed.
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Hermione screamed as the troll's club came down a foot away from her, shattering the sink she had been curled up under a short while ago. Deep inside, part of her wondered how her day could have gone so wrong. Less than two hours ago in Charms class, she noticed Ron Weasley struggling to perform the lesson. She had made an attempt to show a bit of kindness and give him a hand; only to get a blast of hurtful insults from the boy. Though, that was mostly forgotten as she scrambled away from another swing.
The troll grunted, slightly dissapointed that the little thing hadn't been squished yet. It frowned as it took yet another swing, not liking the noise it made as the club landed in front of it this time. It grunted again as it stared down at the little thing before raising its club one more time.
"REDUCTO!" Both Hermione and the troll jumped as the spell slammed into the club, shattering it. Within seconds, a call of "Over here, you ugly bastard!" Drew it's attention in time for another Reductor curse to strike the troll in the face, causing it to roar in pain.
Hermione looked at the entrance and her eyes widened to see Harry standing in the doorway before he began firing off curses at the lumbering brute as he made his way over to her. While troll skins give them a measure of protection against some spells, it doesn't quite help against a pissed-off wizard using it to vent some of his anger. It let out another howl when a cutting curse struck its knee and forced it down, "Time to end this. Be easier to just take you down, but fortunately for you, I have more important things to worry about. Aquamenti!"
The troll hollered again, this time in shock as the blast of water covered it from head to toe. However, it had little time to voice its upset before Harry called out, "Glacius Maximo!" Freezing it where it stood under a thick layer of ice.
"You all right?" He asked, holding out a hand for her, when she gratefully took, albeit shakily.
"I think so..Harry, what are you doing here??"
He looked at her as if it was obvious, "I came to help a friend out, what else?"
She started to say something, but he quickly answered the question he knew she was going to ask, "Yes, Hermione, I said 'friend', because that's what you are." Hee paused a moment to wipe one of the drying tears off her face, "That's the gist, isn't it? You were scared of not fitting in and the prick made it feel like your fears were being confirmed."
She glanced at the floor, looking a little uneasy until she felt an arm around her shoulder. " 'Mione, there's nothing wrong with being as smart as you are as long as you don't lord it over them. People who can't handle that aren't really worth worrying over. Besides, Ronald Weasley is the classic example of a complete and utter wanker. And even then he does a pretty sorry job of it." He grinned as she stifled a slight giggle, "Anyway, we better head to the Ravenclaw tower before we get spotted."
The duo quickly made their way out down the hall in the direction of the Ravenclaw dorms. After a minute, Hermione glanced back, "Wait..shouldn't we tell a teacher about..?" .
Harry shook his head, "It'll be a while before the ice starts to melt, and by then they''ll more than likely find it. Besides, the only thing I'm concerned about right now is making sure you're ok." At that, Hermione felt her heart lighten, before she suddenly wrapped her arms around him, "Thank you, Harry."
"However," His expression hardened, "I still have a bone to pick with 'Red'"
"Harry, no..he's not worth it..."
"And let him get away with that? Oh, hell no! " the glow had returned slightly as they finally made it back to the common room entrance, "What Mr. Weasley fails to realize is that you do NOT treat a friend of Harry Potter's like that without suffering the consequences."
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The next morning was not kind to the youngest male Weasley. A strange sensation caused him to wake up and realize that it was a rather large spider on his face, causing him to shriek loudly, waking up his dorm mates in time to be treated to the sight of him flailing around madly, as well as wetting himself in abject terror. However, this early morning entertainment was short-lived before he slammed into the wall, the spider and his panic having impaired his vision, and knocking him cross-eyed for a few minutes.
The result was the majority of Gryffindors torn between pitying him and laughing themselves sick, the twins among them. That and Percy yelling at him for acting like he did, especially after Dean Thomas discovered the 'spider' was just a plush toy, attached to Ron's face with a suction cup.
Of course, through all this, none of them took note of the green-eyed, raven haired boy quietly making his way out through the common room entrance.
"Amazing what a transfigured pillow can do." He chuckled malevolently to himself as the door closed behind him
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Tried to flesh out Hermione a bit on this chapter, hope it worked
If Harry seems kinda cruel in how he delt with Ron....like it said at the beginning, this Harry is vindictive and mainly motivated by revenge: against Voldamort because he killed his parents, Dumbledore for trying to use him and the Weasleys (sans twins) for being in on it and interested in him for his money. He doesn't really give a damn about the wizarding world in general outside of his friends.
Next time: A trip down memory lane for Harry and Dumbledore attempts to truely meddle in his life.