Well I missed the Hogwarts Express again. So I'm stuck going to Muggle school again and trying to keep myself sane by writing fanfiction. So on with the story

Disclaimer: I no own.

It was all settled. We talked to the house elves. They were more than happy to put our special potion inside all of the desserts. Wiggles was excited to do it when we told him it was to raise school spirits and let the students get over any homesickness they could be feeling.

The Mini Marauders were no longer allowed to practice in the library. Madame Pince had kicked us out after the shimmering smoke had almost damaged her books. (And by almost, I mean they fogged up the glass surrounding/protecting them.) Eloise was able to sneak back in and grab whatever we needed though. I don't think Pince had even noticed her. She just kept yelling for the Gryffindor hooligans to get out of her library.

Halloween left us slightly anxious. It was going to be the first unveiling of our little group. That's not to say we hadn't pulled any stunts before. The previous ones just weren't very public. Smith still can't figure out why bubbles come out of his mouth whenever he says anything insulting. It was really hilarious because he keeps insulting people for laughing at him. Pink, blue and green bubbles covered the Great Hall Ceiling. In some places, they blocked out the sky above.

The plan was a relatively simple one. Right before dessert, Fred and George would set off the fireworks. Rigel, Lee and I would shoot out multicolored smoke, while Eloise wrote our message to the student body in the air. She definitely had the best handwriting and it was kind of necessary for them to be able to read it.

Halloween saw us up bright and early. Rigel wanted to stop in with the house elves one more time before tonight but the overwhelming smell of pumpkins stopped us from getting too close.

I wasn't able to talk to Eloise in History either. Professor Binns gave us another quiz. There's one about every three weeks. Well, there was the same one every three weeks. Exact same questions, exact same answers. I don't think many people have realized it. Harry and Ron were still getting 'T's. I let Neville in on the little secret a couple of weeks ago but he still had some problems remembering the answers. He's really got a terrible memory.

Though Neville does have an amazing flying toad. Professor Flitwick demonstrated Wingardium Leviosa on Trevor before splitting us into pairs to practice. Rigel and I were already fairly good at the charm. You can do almost anything with it. I had taken the liberty to make random objects fly around the room while Rigel acted like a good little boy and played with his feather. Professor Flitwick seemed torn between congratulating me and stopping my reign of havoc. He compromised by trying to help the class.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

That gave me an idea. "Hey Rigel, watch this!" Rigel gave me an exasperated look like he knew exactly what I was going to do. "Wingardium Leviofa"

A tiny stream of flaming buffalos sprouted from my wand unto the desk in front of us. Seamus Finnigan batted at the buffaloes with his wand and eventually squashed one right on his feather. It spluttered and smoked before finally bursting into flames. Harry grabbed his hat and flattened the flames. He turned around and looked back at us. Rigel nodded his head in my direction. I gave Harry a sheepish smile.

"Now we know what happens, so can you please just go back to the original spell?" Rigel glanced at me before turning his attention back to his feather.

Well I was going to practice but something a lot more interesting caught my attention. At the next desk over, Ron and Hermione were arguing again.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Hermione snapped, "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.

Okay, that really wasn't a smart thing to do. Hermione is going to take Ron down.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and recited the spell. Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

As wonderful as that is, I've been doing that for a while, much to Professor Flitwick's annoyance, and yet Hermione gets the recognition. "Now everyone who didn't complete today's charm," he flashed a same smile in our direction, "should practice over the weekend." Okay I was appeased. I gathered my books and walked out of the classroom behind Harry, Rigel and Ron.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron said as he tried to push his way past some rather tall 6th years content with watching the 1st years struggle, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

I felt someone rush past me and purposely ram into Ronald "Irritating-Absolutely-No-Tact-What-So-Ever" Weasley. That someone was Hermione and it was obvious to everyone but the idiot that she was crying.

"I think she heard you." Harry said glancing at the girl in question as she turned into the girls' lavatory.

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"That's true," Rigel began. I started to glare at him. This wasn't my brother. He had never in his life ever acted like that before. Mum and Dad, not to mention any teacher that could possibly be around, would punish him severely for supporting such bullying. He quickly changed his sentence, "But that was harsh not to mention cruel."

Ron's cheeks turned as red as his hair and he started to stutter like Professor Quirrell. Rigel risked a glance in my direction. What he saw was not anything reassuring.

I turned into the lavatory, both trying to avoid the guilty boys and to comfort Hermione. Parvati was just coming out. "I'd try somewhere else if I were you. Hermione is crying like a baby in there."

I pushed past her. I really didn't have time to deal with her supiority. I started banging on one of the two locked stalls, where the sobs sounded louder.

"Hermione! Hermione! Open up this door RIGHT NOW! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

A startled 3rd year covered in a green potion unlocked the door. "Sorry to disappoint you." She winced and stalked out muttering under her breath the entire way. "Maybe Madame Pomfrey will be able to get rid of it. Higgins is possibly the worst partner there is."

I walked to the only other locked stall. "Uh? Hermione? Are you in this one?" I wasn't exactly comfortable anymore. I didn't want to rip this door its hinges just to reveal more angry older students.

There was no reply. "Well, you should no they're just irritating gits who haven't learned the wonders of a little thing called tact, or respect or thoughtfulness or even manners. Well to tell the truth, there are a lot of things they don't know."

A small giggle escaped from the stall.

"Can you come out now? We can't really fix this without you leaving your little rabbit hole."

"Fix this?" Her voice broke threw amongst the sobs. Hermione sounded as though she was genuinely surprised some one wanted to help her.

"Of course fix this! What our friends for?"

Hermione burst out of the stall and pulled me into a tight hug.

"I've never had a friend before," she confessed tears still streaming down her face.

"I'm sure you can think of one person."

It took her a while to ponder it but Hermione slowly stopped crying.

"Well there was Mrs. Anderson. She was the nicest librarian a school could ever have."

If we were up in our dormitories, I would have whacked her with a pillow.

"How 'bout some people our age?"

Hermione started crying again, "No that's about it. The other kids weren't exactly very nice. Always calling me the weirdo amongst other thing. 'Lousy Bookworm' 'Bossy Know-it-all' 'Freak.'" She spat out the insults. "I was hoping Hogwarts would be different, you know less irritating gits" another small giggle omitted from her, seemingly calming her down a bit.

"Well, it helps to talk about it you know. Bullies tend to make funny insults, rather pathetic." I let the sentence trail off. I'm not exactly sure what else I could do. I hadn't really been a situation like this before.

"Yeah, you could say that. Just look at all of Malfoy's." Hermione looked off into space. I was about to apologize when she let out a real laugh. It was a nice sound a lot better than the weeping.

"Back at my Primary School, we had this art show. I'm not really an artist but our teacher was offering extra credit. It really wasn't worth it. Timothy Stone wrecked my drawing. I worked really hard on it too. It was of one of those old fashioned castles, just like this one."

I let out a laugh, "Either you're really good at Divination or that was accidental magic."

"Professor McGonagall says that Divination is a rather useless subject, not at all practical."

"Fine you win. You have some nice accidental magic though. I blew up the vase in our living room 147 times but nothing like that."

Now it was Hermione's turn to laugh. "147 times?"

"Yep! I get angry easily, especially with Rigel to drive me over the edge. Can you continue with your story?"

"Oh yeah. Mrs. Anderson helped me paste it back together. That night, Timothy started singing the stupidest song. The tune was pretty catchy and soon all the kids were singing it."

"How'd it go?"

Hermione blushed.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No it's probably the funniest insult I've ever gotten."

Hermione cleared her throat, "Hermione can't draw, Hermione can't draw, Hermione cannot draw, She only reads books and she cannot draw even if she's reading a how-to-draw book"

Gosh that tune was catchy. I started to sing along. It definitely wasn't a smart move.

"Hey!"

I just kept singing, until I heard her singing a different song, "Amira can't sing, Amira can't sing, Amira cannot sing. She only reads books and she cannot sing even if she's reading a how-to-sing book."

Now it was my turn to indignantly yell.

"You started it." Hermione stated before collapsing into a fit of laughter. It was only seconds before I joined her. We calmed ourselves down after a while.

"We should probably head to the feast. There are supposed to be live bats! I read about it in-"

"Hogwarts, A History." I finished.

Hermione gave me a smile, dried her eyes and tried to make herself look presentable. In the meantime, I frantically worried. What were the Mini Marauders going to do without me? We could probably make it in time for dessert.

The door opened and a terrible smell entered the room like a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. I really hoped that the Great Hall didn't smell like that too. I might just puke. I glanced at Hermione in the mirror. Behind her was a full-grown mountain troll. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, 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 was most definitely coming from it. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

Frankly, I did the only reasonable thing: I screamed. Hermione and I backed into one of the far corners. The troll advanced. He used his club to break every sink in between us. I tried to pull Hermione to the side, so we could run to the exit. Trolls were stupid and most likely wouldn't even notice until we were long gone.

Then, Harry, Ron and Rigel burst in. Rigel looked as if he was about to start hyperventilating. If he stayed, he was just going to get hurt. "Rigel! GO GET THE TEACHERS!" The boys went right into action.

"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 away from us. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, and then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Come on! Hermione! We have to get out of here!" I pulled hard on her arm.

Hermione wasn't budging. She was absolutely terrified. I was too but I just wanted to get out of here.

"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry helped me push Hermione towards the exit. He was a lot stronger than he looked.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started stomping toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid to distract him:

He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. Harry's momentum had caused his wand to land up the troll's nose.

I stopped trying to move Hermione. She sunk to the floor in fear.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club. I just couldn't let that happen.

I tried every spell I knew. They were all bouncing off of the troll's thick hide. "Ron, WILL YOU HELP ME ALREADY!"

Ron pulled out his own wand. He called, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Why would that work? Ron failed miserably at that in class. Why was even he going to try using it? He could hurt Harry. But what other choice did we have?

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto 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.

We just stood there at first, panting. It was Hermione who spoke first. "Is it dead?" She looked at the troll's unmoving form more often than she had been during the attack.

"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out."

He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue. I gagged. It was just disgusting.

The sudden sound of footsteps made me look away from the gunk covering Harry's wand. A moment later, Rigel came bursting into the room leading Professor McGonagall, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.

Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Rigel cautiously stepped around the troll and pulled me into a hug. I was sure he wasn't going to let go anytime soon and I wasn't sure if I wanted him to. It was nice to be reminded my brother cared about me so much. Enough that he would risk his safety to try to warn me there was a mountain troll in the castle.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall interrupting my twin bonding moment. She glared at the four of us. Hermione was hidden in the shadows. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

There was no rush to explain to her what happened. I tried to think up a legitimate excuse for missing the feast without getting the boys in trouble. They didn't deserve it. They had only come to save us. Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look. Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for us, um Amira and me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.

"I was in the bathroom with Amira. We didn't know about the troll. If they hadn't found us, I'd be dead by now. Amira was doing her best to defend us. But I was just petrified. It was about to finish me off when they arrived"

Ron dropped his wand. His face was completely unreadable. Though it was obvious the story was new to him.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for missing the feast and skipping your classes after charms," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Oh! If the students are finishing dinner in their rooms, we're going to have some interesting results in the morning. Although it isn't going to be as cool as it would have been tonight. People dyed to match their house colors are always interesting.

Hermione left. Professor McGonagall turned to us.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

We rushed out of there as quickly as possible, to escape the angry teachers and the overwhelming stench of the troll. Rigel wouldn't let go of me, like he was trying to reassure himself that I was perfectly safe. We were two floors up before Ron started complaining.

"We should have gotten more than 20 points."

"Fifteen, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's."

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

"Safe her? I wouldn't have been in there if it weren't for you Ronald 'I don't know your middle name yet' Weasley."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry pointed out.

"WAIT! YOU LOCKED US IN!" Ron sped up his pace and was practically running into the common room.

Hey Everyone! School starts after Labor Day. I hope to get one more update before then.

By the way, I'm on Pottermore (Part of the reason for the delay. It's pretty fascinating.) as GobletWitch150. I also discovered that I have house issues. I have always been a Ravenclaw in my mind from the moment I read the first book. All of the other sorting hat quizzes tend to agree with me too on that fact. But not Pottermore, I was a Gryffindor, which I was happy about but really surprised. I never thought I was brave enough for it. I guess Amira rubbed off on me. Recently, I found myself growing attached to the Hufflepuffs and so I was almost hoping for that. To make matters funnier, my sister is a Slytherin.

Thanks for reading my rant. Please review!