Chapter 13 A Troll's Clash With Night
Harry looked into his plate of excessively sugared food items dejectedly. Picking up his fork and stabbing some sort of jelly filled pastry, Harry grimaced at the purple ooze that squished out. It seemed everything at the feast strove to remind him of him earlier confrontation with one criminally unexpressive Potion's Master. All he'd been trying to do was warn the stupid git about the headmaster's actions, but could the man say thank you? Apparently not, for all the great bat did was give a barely perceptible nod after slightly raising an eyebrow. Harry looked down again and realized he'd murdered his dessert, getting powdered sugar all over his hands. He turned to ask Ron for some napkins and quickly decided to retrieve them on his own. The other first year was preoccupied with stuffing his face with as many diabetic coma inducing goodies as possible, his hands way stickier than Harry's.
In truth, Harry was ready to get back to the tower. All he wanted was for the Professor to like him. He didn't understand it, but even before the whole potion's incident, Harry always wanted to be near his somewhat prickly, if not outwardly hostile, professor. He made Harry feel safe. Was it wrong for wanting the person who made you feel all warm and secure to actually like being in your presence? Maybe the Dursley's were right, Harry was just a freak.
Harry stood to approach a prefect about leaving the feast early when Professor Quirrel practically blasted the doors to the Great Hall open.
"TROLLLLLLLL!! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!!!" he stopped short, taking deep breaths, his chest raising up and down almost comically. "Thought you ought to know." And with that, the man, a defense specialist, fainted in the middle of the Great Hall. Several seconds of silence reverberated through the room, before simultaneously, all the students erupted into panic. Ron even dropped his sweets as he stood, joining the chaos.
The Headmaster rose from his seat at the head table, voice booming through the room with the power behind it.
"SILENCE!"
Everything froze.
"Thank you," he said sternly, "Prefects, please escort your houses to their dormitories. Professors, accompany me to the dungeons." The oddly dressed, powerful wizard strode purposely from the raised table, the other professor's grim-faced in tow. Once outside the great hall, the leader nodded to his deputy, whom promptly headed in the opposite direction to check on the stone.
Severus lingered as the other teachers exited. He approached his eldest prefect, "Perhaps heading to the Slytherin Dorms isn't the best choice. Follow the Ravenclaws instead. I'll explain to Prof. Flitwick when I arrive."
"Yes, sir."
The vampire watched the children leave, guaranteeing none of them tried to sneak into the dungeons to catch a sight of the troll. He noticed the once unconscious professor absent from the floor.
Severus strode purposefully toward the stair cases, intent on tracking down his fellow professor, confident the rest of the staff could handle a troll. Just as he was set to follow (he hoped) Quirrel toward the third floor, he heard heavy footsteps in the opposite direction. Making a point to walk silently, Severus followed the sound. Before long, the vampire caught the pungent scent of Quirrel's troll. Debating leaving it to the other professors', Severus turned to stalk Quirrel once again.
Halfway down the hallway, the footsteps became silent as the troll approached the door way to the girl's bathroom, smelling flesh beyond the door.
Two boys watched in horror as the huge beast entered the bathroom where they suspected Hermione resided. Harry grabbed Ron, dragging the other boy into action as the two sprinted towards the bathroom.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted once he was able to see the small girl cowering underneath one of the sinks. Harry dodged out of the way as the huge creature swung his club towards the two boys. Ron was not so lucky; the red haired child was clipped on his left leg by the troll's wood. The young boy yelped in pain, falling to the ground before some rubble collapsed atop him.
"Ron! Harry!" Hermione sobbed loudly. Harry looked on in disbelief.
"I'm alright…sort of," came a muffled noise from beneath the pile.
Harry's attention was called back to the troll as it fixed on him, Hermione and Ron momentarily forgotten.
Harry opened his mouth to scream, but his voice faltered. He scrambled to turn around, slipping to the ground and losing the grasp on his wand. Without getting it back, he fled from the bathroom, leading the beast from his friends. Harry darted as fast as his legs would carry him, but the creature's size ate up any lead he gained.
Thinking back to Privet Drive, Harry wished it was his oaf of a cousin chasing him. Coming to an abrupt halt, he could feel the bile rising in his throat alongside his heart as he realized he ran straight into a dead end. Turning around, he faced the slowly approaching troll.
Severus froze in his tracks when he heard the child-like screams several floors down where he'd left the troll. Bounding back towards the stairs, he cursed himself for thinking the humans would be able to deal with the problem.
"Ron! Harry!" a voice resounded to his sensitive ears that strongly resembled the Granger girl's.
"Stupid Gryffindors," he swore to himself and doubled his efforts. As he came to the first staircase, he transformed into Night, bounding over the steps and to the flight below. In the back of his mind he hoped no one saw him transform but the forefront was more concerned and prayed to God that the troll hadn't gotten to any of those kids.
Within moments he was almost to the correct level. From the staircase he could see from a balcony opening one black haired Harry Potter streaking down the hallway, a troll bounding after him. Night tried not to wince at each of the troll's steps and idly wondered what happened to the other two children.
Backing up several steps, Night rushed forward, bounding over the distance between the stair flight and the balcony of the floor below. He landed roughly in his haste, nearly sliding into the opposite wall. Quickly regaining his footing, he charged around the corner in time to see the beast making a move for Harry.
Harry moved towards the corner in attempt to get farther from the troll. He swallowed thickly as it lumbered towards him. Squinting his eyes shut, he tried to prepare for the pain.
Night leapt atop the troll's extended arm, sinking his teeth and claws into the pungent flesh. The troll yelped in pain, releasing his club as he was pushed into the wall by the wolf's momentum. The troll wildly waved his injured arm, gurgling and roaring as the animal refused to be dislodged.
Finally, by banging his arm against the wall, Night was sent flying towards Harry's huddled figure. The large wolf inserted itself between the boy and the troll, ears flattened against his skull and teeth in full view as he snarled and growled at the beast.
The big monster looked confusedly at the animal, purple blood trickling from its arm. It backed up a few steps before roaring at Night and charging upon the smaller creature trying to steal its dinner.
After checking on Ron and doing her best to uncover him as much as possible, Hermione ran to find Harry. She came upon the trolls back, her eyes widening at the sight of a wolf nearly a third as big as the troll guarding Harry.
The troll swung his large uninjured arm towards Night who hopped onto it, curling around the meaty fist and doing his best to mangle the appendage. Harry stared disbelievingly at the scene before getting up to run past the troll while it was distracted.
His plan was thwarted as the troll banged Night into the wall across him and directly into Harry's path and partially atop him. The boy bit his tongue as the weight of the large animal fell atop his foot. Regaining his ground once again, Night promptly rose up and lunged for the troll's neck, snapping the weak area with his powerful jaws.
The beast fell the ground with a large thud. Harry attempted standing but was quickly discouraged by the needles shooting up from his ankle. The wolf approached the boy, licking his ankle and then his face.
"Night?" Harry asked uncertainly, a note of fear filtering into his voice. Night nudged Harry's chest, before looking into the boy's eyes, green meeting a now familiar looking black.
"He's through here, hurry!" Hermione's voice was heard. The wolf startled back and sprinted across the corridor, turning the corner just as the teacher's came into view.
Harry started feeling dizzy and barely heard the headmaster's inquiries before falling unconscious.
Severus transformed once he was out of view. Circling back he came up at the tail of the throng of teachers, no one seemed to notice his absence or presence. Pomfrey was already gone, having whisked away the three first years.
Dumbledore was bent over the creature, "Severus, come here for a moment please." The vampire thanked good timing.
He approached the body of the troll he'd just killed. He regretted only taking the time to spell his outward appearance clean of blood and not the inside of his mouth as well. He knelt to one knee opposite Dumbledore, leaning over the creature's neck with the headmaster.
"I was wondering where you'd gone off to. Gruesome isn't it, dear boy?" the headmaster asked tiredly, looking up toward Severus. "Miss Granger swears there was a large animal fighting the troll on Harry's behalf."
Severus inwardly cursed the know it all but didn't allow any emotion to show through his mask, "And the others?"
"Mr. Weasaly was buried under a bathroom stall with a broken leg, he saw nothing outside the bathroom down the hall. Mr. Potter became unconscious before we were able to ask him anything. Your thoughts?"
"Looks like its neck was broken," Severus looked up into the old wizard's eyes.
"And torn out rather viciously," Dumbledore steadily kept the vampire's gaze, "What else do you know Severus?"
The vampire weighed his options carefully, "Perhaps we shou-"
"H-Headmaster, I apologize for m-my absence, Minerva just enervated me, I cccan't believe I left you in a situation like this. I-" Quirrel tapered off, meeting Severus' gaze and becoming quite unnerved by the darkness he saw swimming in too pitch to pass as brown eyes.
"You cannot hold yourself responsible for that, Professor. No one was seriously injured, thank heavens, and the beast was put down. Perhaps you could help the others clean up here while the heads of houses attend to the students?"
The heads were never more grateful for their seniority as they were at that moment.
Finally breaking the trembling professor's stare, Severus rose from his kneeling position and offered a hand up to Albus, "Filius, I hope you don't mind, but I sent my students to your commons. I didn't think it wise to send them into the area where the troll was last spotted."
"No problem, Severus," Flitwick responded cheerily.
"Yes professor, would you mind including the slytherins in whatever discussion you have with your own house before sending them back to the dungeons, there are some things I need to discuss with Severus?" The headmaster requested.
"Of course, of course."
"Good then. Heads see to the students. Professors please deal with the remains, save any other evidence found. Tomorrow morning we will have a staff meeting before breakfast, but if my heads of houses will meet with me tonight, I'd like a progress report on how our students are faring."
The staff headed their different ways to accomplish Dumbledore's directives.
The vampire and wizard departed for the headmaster's office.
AN: AHHHH Exam time. :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Less than a week left of classes and a week left of the semester and I wanted to get this chapter up before I banned myself from fanfiction in favor of studying. Wish me luck.
As always, please review and give me your feedback :)