Author's Note: I know I promised action in this chapter, but I misjudged the pacing just a little bit. This chapter may seem like it's just a filler chapter, but I felt it important. It shows the reactions to the troll incident, and it shows the beginnings of the friendship between Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ron. I'm sorry if you're disappointed, but as I said, I have an idea of what's to happen throughout the story, but I'm don't have it all written out piece by piece. It isn't until I start writing that I figure out what goes where. I also got this chapter up a lot quicker than I have the last two, so hopefully that helps. Of course I also have to thank my friend that edits this all before you guys even see it because she corrects my mistakes, offers advice for improvement, and even helps it flow just a tiny bit smoother. Thanks for all of your reviews, and let me know what you think here.

~Lily~

Chapter 14: Bonding and Reactions

Harry had been completely shocked when Hermione had lied to get them out of trouble. Not only was it completely out of character for her, but it was just after she had gotten hurt by Ron's cruel words. They had also scored ten points for Gryffindor even after Hermione lost five. He did feel terrible about her getting detention, though, and hoped that Minerva wouldn't be too hard on her. However, he couldn't exactly say anything without giving them all away, so he kept quiet. As it turned out, it wasn't Hermione he needed to be concerned for.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Longbottom, and Mr. Weasley, I will advise you to head up to Gryffindor tower now. Students will be finishing the feast in their common rooms." Minerva's tone was still firm, and Harry didn't miss that his name had not been cleared to go with the rest.

"What about Harry, Professor?" Ron asked stepping forward to place a hand on Harry's back. "He needs to eat as well."

Harry heard Snape snarl, and even Minerva's lips went thin at Ron's stupidity to press his luck like this. Hermione and Neville got the point, however, and each grabbed hold of one of Ron's arms. "Come on, Ron; Harry will join us later," Hermione stated, and Harry couldn't help thinking that the adrenaline must still be rushing through Ron to let Hermione lead him away like that.

"Mr. Potter will be staying with me for a moment more, Mr. Weasley, but I can assure you that he will be fed." Harry watched Ron's ears go pink and just nod at Minerva's stern look. Honestly, if looks could kill, Harry had no doubt Ron wouldn't have made it through the first day at Hogwarts. Then again, Harry wouldn't have made it to Hogwarts in the first place.

"Later guys," Harry mumbled as he gave a sullen wave to the departing trio. He really wanted to figure out what this meant for Hermione, but he figured the less he fought with Minerva, the sooner he'd be released and able to figure it out.

"I trust that the two of you are capable of disposing of the troll," Minerva stated firmly to her colleagues. Before Harry was whisked away though, he saw Snape's smirk and Quirrell's terrified look. He then looked down, however, and between Snape's robes, he saw that the dark-haired man had torn the leg of his trousers and was bleeding quite liberally. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Minerva placed a firm hand on his shoulder and steered him out of the bathroom. At that point, all of Snape's problems were forgotten as Harry refocused on his own.

In no time at all, Harry found himself in Minerva's personal quarters. She motioned for Harry to sit on the couch before pulling out her wand. Harry watched with wide eyes as a silver cat appeared, and she spoke to it as if it were a real person. Or as if it were Albus, more like. "Albus, the troll has been taken care of, but I need to see you in my quarters for a moment please." With that, she flicked her wand once more, and the cat seemed to vanish.

"What was that, Minerva?" Harry asked in astonishment as he just stared at where the silver cat been.

"It's called a Patronus." Minerva's voice definitely had a crispness to it, and Harry decided that it would be in his best interest to keep his mouth shut. Even without any more questions however, Minerva continued to explain. "Each witch and wizard has what is called a Patronus. It's a type of silver mist that takes the shape of an animal if the magic behind it is strong enough. However, it is not a simple spell and isn't taught here until seventh year. Even then it's only taught if the instructor feels the students are ready for something so advanced." Here Minerva sighed as she sat down in a chair. "Of course, we haven't had many of our students learn it upon graduating the past several years because it's so rare we actually get a qualified defense instructor, and even then we only manage to hold on to them for a year."

"But what does it do?" Once again, Harry's curiosity got the better of him.

"Well, it has two purposes, but most of the time it's a form of communication." Minerva hesitated at this. "Well, for everyday witches and wizards, anyway."

"What do you mean everyday witches and wizards?"

"Well, a Patronus's main use is a form of protection." Harry couldn't help but jump as Albus's voice spoke. "The protection is rarely needed outside of Azkaban prison, though, so we use it as a form of communication." As Albus finished the explanation, he turned to Minerva. "I'm glad you managed to control the troll, but why have you asked me here, my dear?"

"I didn't control the troll, Albus." Minerva's lips were once more extremely tight. "In fact, none of the professors did."

"But your message said it had been contained, and..." With that, Albus looked closer at Harry. "Am I to assume that you are the one that got rid of the troll, Harry?"

Now Harry couldn't help but squirm as Albus fixed him with a look that Harry felt could reach right through his very soul. "Well... Technically it was Ron that knocked it out." He could barely whisper and he suddenly found his feet very interesting. He had a feeling that if he looked at Albus's eyes right now, they would not be twinkling.

"Harry, what in the name of Merlin were you doing?" Harry winced at Albus's tone. Just the back of his chocolate frog card told how dangerous the man was. At sixty-four years of age, he had participated in the most legendary duel ever fought between wizards and defeated the great Grindelwald. On top of that, he was the Supreme Mugwump in the International Confederation of Wizards as well as the Chief Wizard of the Wizengamot. Those were accomplishments that the entire wizarding world recognized him by, but there was also the fact that he was the only wizard that Lord Voldemort had ever feared. You didn't accomplish all of that without being very nearly lethal.

"Well, um..." Great, now he had to remember exactly what Hermione had told Minerva. "Ron, Neville, and I noticed that Hermione wasn't with the rest of the Gryffindors heading to the tower and decided to go get her." There, that was the truth, and it didn't deviate from what Hermione had said. "Before we could get her to the safety of the common room, though, she found the troll. It was advancing toward her when Ron, Neville, and I got there, so we had to help her fight it off."

"And why, may I ask, did you not alert a prefect or a teacher as soon as soon as you noticed Miss Granger's absence?"

Because the teachers noticed it the same time we did, Harry thought to himself before taking a deep breath. "We didn't think about it, sir." It was stated simply, and Harry just sighed. "We were told the troll was in the dungeons, and we thought that we would be able to get to Hermione and get her to Gryffindor Tower without even seeing the troll."

"I must commend you for your desire to assist your classmate, Harry, but you have got to realize that your actions were extremely foolish." Albus sounded tired, but Harry could sense the agitation behind the exhaustion.

"You about gave me a heart attack, young man." Minerva was back in the lecture, and Harry wished he could just sink into his chair. "That troll could have easily killed all four of you. Instead of leaving the threat to one student, you deliberately put yourself and two other students in the same danger."

Harry couldn't even look at them. Why did he always have to mess everything up? Hadn't the Dursleys always told him what a freak he was? What a burden he was because he could never stay out of trouble for longer than five minutes? Well he had just proven them right. Not only had he put himself in danger, but he had dragged his two friends with him. The first time in his life that he had had friends, and he had risked their lives. Why hadn't he just flagged down Percy? Even if he hadn't wanted to go to Percy, there had been plenty of others he could have alerted and gotten assistance from. Now that he thought about it, he had even seen Professor Snape on their way to get Hermione. Of course, Snape wouldn't have been exactly ideal either, but he would have been helpful. For one, he probably wouldn't have forgotten the original mission and wound up locking the stupid thing in with the girl he was trying to rescue.

"I won't have you putting your life in peril, Harry." Albus cupped Harry's chin in his wrinkled hand and forced the boy to look up at him.

"Harry, I went easy on you as a professor because I truly was impressed with your desire to help Miss Granger." Minerva's voice had softened a bit, but Harry got the feeling he wasn't out of the hot water quite yet. "She needs friends as much as you do, and I'm glad you were willing to help her. This is exactly what we said when you defended Mr. Longbottom the second week of school. At the same time, we are once again discussing you assisting your friends in a safe manner."

Harry could have kicked himself. This was very similar to what had happened with Neville. "I'm sorry."

"I do believe that the last time we had a discussion like this, you were asked to write a one foot essay. Am I correct?" Harry could only nod at Albus's words, and then stare at his own hands which were folded in his lap. "This is a repeated offense, Harry, so this time I would like you to write a three foot essay on following instructions, acting in an emergency, and what you could have done differently."

"Yes sir," Harry spoke glumly. "Are you going to take away privilege points?" Harry had been thinking of asking for a broom servicing kit for his prize, but he figured that it would most likely cost quite a few privilege points.

Minerva gave a tiny, tight-lipped, smile at this. She had a hard time remembering the privilege points, since she mostly dealt with house points here at Hogwarts. Therefore, she figured she had best set the record straight. "For the most part, privilege points will be used when we are at home, or if Albus and I feel you are doing exceptionally well in your schoolwork overall and would like to reward you as guardians. Of course, if you were to get into enough mischief to warrant a letter home under normal circumstances, then it would be a plausible reason to deduct privilege points from you. Since I have no intention of writing to the, or Mrs. Longbottom, however, I would say you are in the clear. This time, anyway." She added this last part with a very stern look, and Harry could just nod silently.

"I am placing you on restriction until that essay is finished and handed into me, Harry." Albus's voice was still stern, and Harry didn't even think about complaining. "That means I don't want to see you outside of your common room or the library except for meals and classes. I only say the library because I understand that sometimes the Gryffindor common room can be a hard place to focus your thoughts."

"Yes sir." Harry had to agree with this last statement. He absolutely loved the Gryffindor common room, but sometimes it was just a bit too crowded and noisy to accommodate studying. Maybe that was why Hermione preferred the library.

"Harry, you understand that restriction means no Quidditch game on Saturday, unless you get me the essay before curfew tomorrow, correct?" At this, Harry and Minerva's mouths dropped. Harry was even more shocked when Minerva managed to shut her mouth again and didn't comment on how she needed Harry to play. This just showed him how serious this had all been.

"Y-yes sir." Harry couldn't help but stutter at this point. How was he supposed to do a three foot essay in twenty-four hours with class tomorrow? He sighed. It looked like he really was headed for the library for some quiet time, and he was extremely lucky that they had their afternoon free. That would seriously help.

"I do believe it is time to revise our rules, since obviously putting your life in danger is not one of them." Albus's voice was cheery again, and Harry just had to give a smile; Albus could bounce back from his strict, disappointed guardian mood so quickly that Harry wondered how the man managed to avoid whiplash.

With a wave of his wand, the parchment containing their family rules appeared on the desk in front of them. Dumbledore took out a long purple quill and wrote in his beautiful slender writing at the bottom of the page. When he had finished, he flipped the parchment around so that Harry and Minerva could view it.

The Dumbledore House Rules

Eat meals together

Prepare and clean up meals together

Come to meals washed and presentable

Respect each other

No cursing

No yelling

No throwing things

Pick up after yourself

Talk things out

No lying

Knock before entering other bedrooms

No stealing

Do not put yourself in life-threatening situations

Follow instructions

Harry could just grin at the two added rules. "Now that they are made official, hopefully I'll remember them easier." He knew he was being cheeky, but seeing Albus's twinkle in his eye again told Harry that things were right in the universe once more. So long as he got that essay to Albus before curfew tomorrow, of course.

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

When Harry got to the common room just barely before curfew that evening, it was still in chaos. The remains of the feast had long since been cleared, but it seemed that every Gryffindor in the school was still in the common room. Harry guessed this wasn't exactly an uncommon experience since curfew didn't mean you had to go to bed, but it definitely wasn't usually this crazy. The troll had caused a lot of excitement, and several people were still circled around Ron, Hermione, and Neville asking for details of what had happened. Others were chatting animatedly about a troll actually getting into the castle and what could have happened. There was even a seventh year group who was lounged in a corner of the room discussing how Quirrell was the defense teacher and supposed to be good with things like vampires, werewolves, and trolls, and yet he had barely been able to alert the rest of the staff before fainting dead away.

Harry's appearance didn't attract too much attention, since everyone had already heard the story, but Hermione, Ron, and Neville were quick to escape their captivated audience when the portrait door swung open and Harry climbed through.

"You ok, mate?" Ron was the one to speak. "McGonagall looked furious. I mean, I can't blame her, of course; my mum would go completely mental if she found out I'd been up against a mountain troll."

"Yeah my parents would pull me from school if they found out I'd gone looking for a troll that could have easily killed me." Hermione gently patted Harry's shoulder. "What about your gran, Neville?"

"Well, if she was told I just cowered under the sink, she'd be pretty angry and yell at me to live up to my potential. If I had actually been of use, she would probably be proud." This made Ron, Harry, and Hermione just stare at him in shock. "Of course, she would probably just scoff if she found out the stupid beast was taken out by a simple charm."

"But why?" Hermione asked genuinely perplexed. "Charms is a fantastic subject and comes in handy."

"Gran thinks it's a soft subject," Neville said, red in the face. It was one of the classes he managed to do halfway decent in.

"Probably because she didn't do well herself," Ron mumbled, only to get smacked in the arm by Hermione. "Ouch! Definitely uncalled for." He rubbed his arm as he glared at Hermione for a minute, but then turned back to Harry. "So what'd McGonagall say anyway? She can't have been too hard on you. I mean, you did help save Hermione and you weren't hurt. It's not like it was all that big of a deal."

"Let him breathe, Ronald," Hermione scolded gently, leading the group to a part of the common room big enough to fit the four of them. There were no free seats, so they all just slid down to the cool flagstone floor and sat cross-legged in a circle.

"Minerva was pretty upset, but it was Albus I worried about," Harry stated truthfully as he leaned against the stone wall behind him.

"Professor Dumbledore isn't scary, though," Neville pointed out confused.

"Oh he can be when he's angry. This is the second time I've done something that could have easily ended with me killed or seriously hurt." Harry could only laugh at the stunned looks on his friends when he stated that Albus could be scary. "Oh come on you guys. Hermione, you would probably be able to spout off all of his accomplishments without so much as looking it up again."

"Well I know that in 1945 he defeated the great wizard Gellert Grindelwald." As predicted, Hermione started spewing facts as if she had swallowed a textbook and was regurgitating it like a parrot. "That would have put him even older than Professor McGonagall is now, and any muggle would have been considered too old to fight. Then again, the muggles live a much harder life and few make it to one hundred years of age. If they do, most are unable to provide for themselves and—"

"Hermione, what on earth does this have to do with Dumbledore?" Ron snapped, and instantly the young witch went crimson.

"I was just pointing out that simply being alive and capable of running a school is a major success at his age."

"Yes, Albus has a lot of successful things about him," Harry agreed deciding to finish his argument that the Headmaster is scary. "How do you think he managed to do all of that? I can assure you that it wasn't by handing out lemon drops to everyone he meets." At this, all three of his friends looked extremely confused, and Harry could only laugh.

"What's a lemon drop?" Ron and Neville spoke together, and Hermione recovered from her shock enough to shake her head.

"It's a hard muggle sweet coated in sugar that tastes kind of like lemon," she prattled off distractedly before waving her hand as if to wave the question away. "How do lemon drops and Professor Dumbledore go together?"

"Trust me, Hermione; you can't set foot in Albus's office without the risk of being offered a lemon drop." Harry watched Hermione shake her head and just grinned. "I'm pretty sure even if he expelled you, he would say 'I'm sorry about all of this. Please, have a lemon drop for your trouble.'" At this, Ron and Neville fell over laughing.

"That's not something to joke about, Harry." Hermione's tone was a no-nonsense one now, and she glared at the boys still laughing on the floor. "Getting expelled is a very serious thing."

"Hermione, you have to understand Dumbledore." Ron had managed to catch his breath but hadn't bothered to sit back up yet. "You should have seen him when they took us to Hogsmeade. He practically bought out Honeydukes sweetshop, and Harry even says that the password to his office is always a sweet."

"That's all I meant by it, Hermione." Harry hadn't meant to offend the girl and was grateful for Ron's help. "I just meant that Albus plays very sweet and grandfatherly with lots of sweets that make it a miracle the man still has a tooth left in his mouth. On the other hand, there are times he needs to be serious, and when those times happen, he can be quite intimidating."

"I see." Hermione's voice was stiff and Harry just sighed. He liked the idea of being friends with Hermione, but it was going to take some getting used to.

The four friends stayed up until midnight talking. They didn't notice their fellow Gryffindors head to bed, and when they all turned around, they were shocked to find the common room nearly empty. They took this as their cue to separate for the night, and Harry, Ron, and Neville went up the staircase to the boys' dormitory, while Hermione crossed the room and went up the stairs to the girls'.

As Harry slipped into some red and gold flannel pajamas that Minerva and Albus had bought him before school, Harry couldn't help but wonder about the events of the day. He hadn't been allowed to do a lot of reading when he was at the Dursleys for fear of looking smarter than Dudley, which of course he was. He had heard a lot of television shows and movies, though, and could therefore put together a few pieces of knowledge. When he was locked in his room as punishment, Dudley was at school, and Uncle Vernon was at work, Aunt Petunia would watch soap operas. Harry couldn't see the screen, of course, but he could hear a good portion of the dialogue. There was usually some mushy nonsense where a man asked the girl if she believed in fate, the girl said that she did, and they wound (stay in past tense) up getting married.

Considering it was all that he had to distract himself from thoughts about how hungry he was, Harry would spend quite a bit of time pondering what those shows meant, granted there wasn't much he could ponder when it came to some woman taking her wealthy husband to a single, male doctor, only to find out that he had terminal cancer and would be dead by the end of the month. Considering they were all he had to distract himself from thoughts about how hungry he was; Harry would spend quite a bit of time thinking about fate. All of the mushy stuff didn't leave much to think about, but Harry could often distract himself by thinking about fate. His first question had been what fate was, and since asking questions was forbidden he'd had to figure it out on his own. It took him awhile of listening to the shows in his cupboard to realize that fate and destiny were at least similar. Now he couldn't help but wonder if it was fate that he, Ron, Neville, and Hermione had all become friends. It was clear that they were all a group of misfits that desperately needed each other; could that be why they had gotten along in the end? Harry didn't know, but he was happy that they were all together now.