Rose watched the feast with impassive eyes. The decorations looked a bit tacky. Rose was sure that there could be something more authentic to a Halloween something, but that might be too scary to be enjoyable then. Deciding that the decorations were alright for the setting and audience, Rose turned her attention back to the feast. There was even more food than normal, and there was a cake for each table.
Looking around her, Rose was satisfied by her spot. Dudley sat at her side, always willing to do whatever Rose decided that the two of them should do. Rose was glad that she had bothered to befriend and look out for him after what happened to his mother. Neville, sitting across the table from her in a feeble attempt to put distance between them, was watching Rose warily. He was starting to get used to fallowing Rose's lead, but he still had a tendency to tattle and was near-constantly terrified of something or other. Rose thought it was nice to have friends.
There were also a few people that Rose didn't quite count as friends but still liked regardless. Draco was a nice sometimes presence. Rose was never sure whether he was really around, but he was never unpleasant when he was near. Rose rather liked the prefect Percy whom she met on the train. He was there most of the times that Rose had a little accident, and he was always very understanding about them. Still, Rose wouldn't want to take him with her on any adventures, not unless it was a matter of him or someone else discovering her. Hermione wasn't so well liked. She was infuriating whenever she managed to win any score better than Rose, but she was almost tolerable otherwise. It would take a lot of convincing for Rose to let Hermione join anything, but Rose thought she was nice enough when embarrassed by a less than perfect score and put in her place. Speaking of her, where was Hermione?
The question became more pressing when Quirrell, a rather stupid teacher who always seemed to have a headache when Rose was in the same room as her, rushed into the room. "Troll, troll in the dungeon, thought that you should know" he shouted before falling forward.
"Is he going to be alright?" Dudley asked innocently. Rose and Neville just looked at him for a second before remembering that he hadn't had their training and couldn't tell.
"He's faking fainting" Neville said, berating Dudley for the stupidity. How was Neville supposed to match up and step up without knowing those basics? Realizing that he had just thought about someone in terms of their use for Rose, Neville was horrified and stopped speaking abruptly. Didn't he want Rose to stop harassing him?
"Oh" Dudley said rather stupidly. He really had no way of knowing that.
"Wait, I still don't know where Hermione is" Rose said. "I saw her run off after Ron insulted her, but I'm not sure where she went"
"I heard some of the girls say that she was crying in a bathroom" Dudley spoke up. "She was very upset when Ron said that about her"
"Someone needs thicker skin" Rose mumbled, not understanding the big deal.
"Being upset is a reasonable response for being told that you're a menace and no one would be your friend!" Neville said, standing up for her.
Rose just looked at him. "You really think that?" She questioned, a blank look in her eyes. Was that really thought to be a correct response? Was that truly something that someone would get up to arms about?
Feeling her question, Neville started hunching inwards. She was upset at him. She thought that he was being hypocritical somehow. Neville knew that she was going to chew him out later. Still, her scrutiny of him was interrupted.
"I think that he might be right" Dudley said. "She isn't very nice, but she still is kind of a friend"
"Do you mean acquaintance?" Rose asked, understanding that part. "Because that's all that she is. It's somewhat nice to have her as academic rival, but I don't think that she's someone that I'd want to have constantly hanging around"
"Still, it wouldn't be right to leave her feeling like that, especially not when she had some almost friends" Dudley continued. It would just be wrong to do that.
"Fine. We are going to go to her, I'll drag her out, and you can tell her how you feel" Rose said sardonically to him, getting out of her feet. "And just because you think that that is an appropriate response to that type of treatment, you can go with us and be on guard duty before being a nice person and comforting someone in that state" Rose added, glaring at Neville.
Now Neville understood why Rose was upset at him. She had been told a lot of nastier things, and Neville had never gone to comfort or befriend her. How could Neville say that that behavior was normal and do nothing to help her when she struggled with that? How dare anyone say that and not do anything to help them? Guilty, Neville didn't even try to fight her order.
Quickly making their way to the bathroom, none of them expected what they saw. A troll was making its way down the corridor! Rose hadn't even known that trolls were real yesterday! Still, with it in close proximity, instincts came out. Neville flinched back and backtracked a few steps. Dudley took a step closer to better see what it was without the instinctive fear reaction. Rose didn't stop to think about it one way or another and growled. That was enough to get everyone to look at her weird.
Rose wasn't sure what came over her. The sight of a threat so close was enough to trigger aggression. She wasn't sure exactly why, but it was threatening and Rose felt that she needed to assert that she was strong to. Growling seemed like the perfect solution. Stranger than that, it seemed to work. The troll half raised its club, but then it seemed to think better and backed away. Rose was satisfied, it knew who was dominant between them.
Ignoring the troll, Rose carried on with her action. Dragging Neville back to the doorway, Rose planted him right there with a strict glare scaring off thoughts of fleeing. Ignoring her cousin's continual attempts to get closer to the troll, Rose marched into the bathroom. "Hermione" she called.
"Is the troll gone" a voice called from one of the stalls.
"Get out of there right now" Rose ordered bossily. "Dudley said that he thought that you two were friends, so he had me come here to stop you from crying about nothing"
"He really said that?" Hermione asked, wondering at the thought that she did have a friend.
"Not exactly" Rose admitted, "but that was what he meant. He's out there right now, and he wants you to come out so he can ask to officially be your friend. Still" Rose said, getting in Hermione's face, "He was my friend first, so don't expect him to start taking your word above mine"
"You really think that he likes me that much?" Hermione asked.
"No, that's why I told you not to get ahead of yourself" Rose clarified, annoyed. "You are my rival, and I don't want you to get him caught between our arguments or expect him to start cheering for you in and when you do something better than me"
"You think that I could do that well against you?" Hermione asked.
"There was that one quiz a few months ago" Rose muttered, "but the way that you gloated about it was annoying. That's the sort of behavior that stops you from having more friends, not the part where you're smart"
"You really think that?" Hermione asked.
"Well, not as many people want to hang out with me when my study group is busy, but some people still come to me for help if they feel stumped. The reason that they don't come to you for those answers is your habit of making others look stupid with your explanations" Rose explained. "I wouldn't be so irritated when you did something better if you weren't so predisposed to bragging. That doesn't mean that I would stop trying, but I wouldn't be so cross at you when that happened if you stopped that behavior"
"I'm still not sure if I believe you" Hermione said, still uncertain.
"Then just get out of the bathroom and see what Dudley has to say for himself" Rose countered.
Letting Hermione exit the door herself, Rose escorted her out of the room certainly. Hermione immediately tried to go back in when she saw the troll still a few feet away. Rose blocked the way, and Hermione was forced to look at the creature. Dudley was crawling all over it, uncaring of the dangers that the creature possessed. The troll looked annoyed itself, but it didn't do anything to stop the investigation. Neville, on the other hand, was just standing awkwardly by the doorway, looking terrified as ever. Hermione was not much better for a bit, but then she was distracted as well.
"I thought that trolls were dangerous" Hermione said. "At least, that's the general impression that I got from the various books on the subject"
"Oh, the books weren't wrong about that" Neville said, not very assured by the troll's tolerant behavior. "I really should be running right about now" he added.
"This nice fellow?" Dudley asked skeptically, not even holding off of his inspection of troll skin. "I doubt that"
"No, trolls are dangerous" Neville contradicted. "It's just far more logical than previously assumed and is far to terrified of Rose to do anything stupid. You don't have anything to fear, but I'm not sure about the rest of us"
"I think that I should get going about now" Hermione nearly squeaked. She wasn't used to information being so blatantly wrong.
"No!" Rose exclaimed. "We come here for a reason, and I say that we are going to do it, so you get back here now Dudley"
"Oh, sorry" Dudley agreed, apologetic. "Hermorine, I think that it was mean of Ron to say that about you. I would like to be your friend"
"Now it's your turn, Hermorine" Rose said, fed up of the delays.
"I would like to be friends to, Dudley" Hermoine agreed, "and not just because Rose said for me to say that"
"Now we are done" Rose said. "Now can we get back to our dorm. I think that we were supposed to go there to avoid him" she gestured to the troll.
"No way" Dudley said, "I'm not missing the chance to study a real troll" He immediately went back to observing the troll, uncaring about Hermione's gasp.
"You know what, I think that I'm going to take this opportunity to" Hermione said, getting a bit closer to look at it.
"Can I go back to the dorm?" Neville asked. "I would rather not risk detention"
"Sure, you can go if you want to, Neville. I'll stay and make sure that the troll here doesn't try anything" Rose said, letting Neville scramble off.
She stayed, leaning agenst the wall as Hermione and Neville solidified their friendship over observations of a troll. Rose decided that she liked the new friendship that her cousin had formed. Both of them seemed happy enough. Hermione wasn't rubbing her knowledge in Dudley's face, and Dudley was understanding his observations better. All in all, both of them were getting something out of the friendship already.
That was the way the teachers found them. "Miss Potter, what are you doing?" Professor Snape asked, horrified to see the children being so careless around a troll of all creatures.
"I would like to know that as well, Mr. Dursley and Miss. Granger" Professor McGonnell added.
"Miss Potter goes first" Snape added, looking to her for an answer.
Seeing all the eyes on her, Rose didn't hesitate to say what she was doing. "Dudley thought that it wasn't nice of Ron to make Hermione cry, so I agreed to take him to see her and tell Hermione his feelings"
"And you just did that with a troll out in the dungeons?" McGonnell asked incredulously.
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor apiece for your carelessness" Snape snapped, warry of what could have happened, and technically still could, seeing as the troll was still right there. "Now who knows how to get that safely out of the castle?" he asked, sneering at the creature.