A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
Just how close to midnight was it?
Hailey wondered, as she and the boy stumbled back.
But that couldn't be right. Surely, surely, they wouldn't keep a whole school up that late, several hours past the strict curfew.
But, here was a Bastet, staring them down, stalking toward them even as they took correlating steps backward, the boy threw an arm out in front of Hailey, even as she still held on to his sleeve.
The Bastet crouched down, similar to a cat about to pounce, it's attention solely on the boy as he pushed Hailey back with him, a role reversal from when Hailey had been pulling him back. A low growl rumbled in the Bastet's throat, slowly getting louder.
Hailey stared into the beasts yellow-green eyes.
Even bloodthirsty as they were now, Hailey would recognize the intelligence in those eyes anywhere.
She whispered the name that came to mind, a name she should not even know. She whispered it, even as she knew it was not possible. "Freya?"
The corridor went silent, almost eerily so. The rumbling growl cutting off abruptly, as the beast's head turned to look at her.
"Do you smell that?" Hailey heard Weasley's voice from down the corridor.
And the Bastet's head snapped to the side, directly at the two boys coming down the corridor, a growl in its throat, and snarl on its lips.
xXx
"Do you smell that?" Ron asked Neville, nose wrinkling against the smell.
They had been distracted in their quest to find Hermione, by Snape who had been headed to the third floor, instead of the dungeons like the other professors. They suspected he might be headed toward the third floor corridor with the giant three headed dog, they and Hermione had stumbled upon one night.
Their side quest to follow Snape was interrupted by the wall of stench, one that reminded Ron of the smell of Charlie's dirty socks and that failed experiment of Fred and George's, where they had been trying to combine fireworks with a dung bomb.
The large shadow moved slowly, coming to loom over the two Gryffindor boys. The smell getting worse, the closer the shadow came to them.
But that wasn't what they were focused on.
They were focused on the large black panther staring them down from several feet away, it had been in the process of cornering a Hufflepuff boy, and a Slytherin girl, but Ron's question had drawn its attention to them. Its yellow-green eyes glowing ominously against its dark fur. The light from the torches lining the walls glinted of the creatures very white, very sharp teeth as it snarled at them.
Ron turned, intending to flee, just to whimper, when he came face to belly with a giant mountain troll.
Neville kept wide eyes on the panther, as it crouched, ready to pounce.
"No!" The two Gryffindor boys heard Potter shout, when the panther did pounce, Neville flinched back, nearly stumbling into the mountain troll.
The panther didn't stop, though, large, bat-like wing unfurling as it came closer and closer, running straight at the two boys.
Running straight past the two boys.
Running into the mountain troll, making said troll stumble at the unexpected assault.
It bit at the troll, snapped at the troll, it snarled and growled.
The troll swung the bat it had been carrying around.
The Hufflepuff boy, Ron recognized him as they lived in the same area, but couldn't place his name, he ran forward, grabbing Ron and Neville by the wrists, and pulled them back and away from the tussle, toward the Slytherin girl who as soon as the three boys were near her, she threw a hand up, determination on her face.
Ron quickly pulled his wand out, glancing warily at the Slytherin, as she mouthed words to herself as she thought. With a swish and a flick, he shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
xXx
Hailey watched as the Hufflepuff dragged the two Gryffindors toward her.
She threw her hand up, knowing she could do something, but not knowing what. She barely knew the magic that everyone here used, and the strange magic that she used in those memories, and on the quidditch pitch the other day, it might be like another limb to her, but that didn't mean she knew how to use it! She felt almost like an injured person trying to learn to walk again. She knew, in the back of her mind how to do it, but she couldn't get the magic to work for her.
Just as she thought of something that might work, and she felt the warm burn start to build behind her eyes, she heard Weasley shout, "Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa!" from beside her. He had even enunciated it exactly as Granger had instructed him to earlier that day.
The troll's club flew out of its hand, above its head, nearly hitting the ceiling, and down again, heading the troll right on the top of its head.
Hailey felt the warmth behind her eyes, and she watched as the troll fell in slow motion, hitting the floor with a loud, drawn out thud!
Ron stared at his wand in astonishment.
The last thing the troll would've seen before darkness, was the Bastet jumping it, its jaws locking around its face.
xXx
"-o wonder no one can stand her!" Hermione had heard Ron complaining to Neville as they left Charms class.
How dare he? Hermione internally snarled, glaring daggers at the redhead.
"-a real nightmare, honestly." Ron continued, and Hermione didn't want to, couldn't, listen to anymore, she pushed her way past the two boys.
"I- I think she might have heard you." Hermione heard Neville tell Ron hesitantly.
"So?" Ron scoffed, "She must have just realized she has no friends."
How dare he?! All Hermione had been trying to do, was help the jerk. And this was the thanks she got?
She found herself in the girls' bathroom as she tried to calm herself down. This was unlike her, getting this worked up over something someone like Ron had said.
"It's no wonder there was a bounty on the girl's head." She heard the bounty hunter speaking from her spot in the tiny cage. "With the nightmare she turns into every night."
"So, you're taking her to Camelot of all places?" another man's voice asked.
The bounty hunter chuckled, "That is where the money is at."
"It wasn't Cenred who was offering the reward for her arrest?" the man asked.
"Oh, he was." The bounty hunter agreed, "But Uther is offering double."
xXx
It was storming as they, the bounty hunter and the girl trapped in the cage, crossed Camelot's boarders.
The bounty hunter dismounts and walks into a building.
Footsteps, slow and cautious, approach the cage minutes later. The girl jumps, looking up, shaking in fear, as another, barely older, girl crouches just outside the bars
of the cage, her blue eyes studying the girl in the cage.
"It's okay," The older girl reassures with honest blue eyes, "I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?"
The girl looked the older girl over, judging whether or not she was safe. She had magic too. "Freya."
"Merlyn." The older girl introduced herself, studying the lock on the cage. "Tospringe." Freya watched as Merlyn's eyes shone a bright gold in the darkness of night. The lock on the cage sprung open.
Before Hermione knew it, it was night, and the Halloween feast had already started. She had spent the whole day sitting on the bathroom floor, in her own mind.
As Hermione stood to leave the bathroom, the clock struck twelve. They had been allowed to stay out so far past curfew due to the holiday. She really had spent the entire day in the bathroom, hadn't she?
Before she could take a step, pain, the worst she had ever felt, washed over her body. She doubled over wrapping her arms around herself as she screamed, in both pain and fear. She fell to her knees, her vision darkened and blurred, her body contorted, arms and legs becoming shorter, hairier, wings sprouting out of her shoulder blades. An animalistic urge to hunt started taking over.
And next thing she knew, she was in the corridor several feet down from the bathroom door. Beside the body of a great mountain troll.
She looked around, seeing Ron, Neville, Hailey Potter, and a third year Hufflepuff boy looking at her.
She shivered, suddenly very aware of her state of undress.
Ron and Neville quickly adverted their gazes, and the Hufflepuff boy slipped out of his own robes, leaving him in the slacks and button up the school required male students to wear under their robes, as he handed his robes to her to slip on. They may have been a bit big on her, but they were better than nothing.
Loud footsteps drew the attention of all five students to the three professors that stormed the hall, Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell.
Professor Snape bent over the troll, studying the bite mark it had covering its face.
Professor Quirrell glanced over at the troll, and suddenly look very queasy, crumbling to sit on the floor.
Professor McGonagall stared the five students down.
"Just what were you thinking?" She asked, voice icy cold with fury, "You're lucky none of you were killed! Why weren't you in your dormitories?"
Snape glanced up, raising an eyebrow at his first year Slytherin, interested in the answer himself.
"I expected better of you," Professor McGonagall exclaimed, "All of you! Especially you, Mr. Diggory!"
"Please, Professor." Hermione started, voice wobbling, "They were looking for me."
McGonagall looked Hermione up and down, confusion coloring her features at seeing the first year Gryffindor wearing Hufflepuff robes. "Miss Granger?"
"I- Well- I went looking for the troll." Hermione lied outright, she may not remember a pretty good chunk of the day, but she was pretty sure she hadn't gone looking for a troll she hadn't even known about. "I've read all about them. I thought I could deal with it on my own."
McGonagall eyed her skeptically, trying to decide whether or not to believe her.
"I would probably be dead now, had they not found me." Hermione said, lifting her chin, "Neville stuck his wand up its nose. Ron knocked it out with its own club.
Those two," she gestured at the Slytherin and Hufflepuff. "They tried to find help, but I guess they couldn't find anyone and came back to help."
There was a moment of contemplative silence.
"What!" Weasley exclaimed in shock. None of that! None of that had happened. Well, he had knocked it out with its own club, but nothing else of that had happened! "That's not what-"
Hailey's eye flashed gold, and Weasley's lips stuck together, preventing him from talking. Longbottom stared at the Slytherin girl wide eyed, having seen the unnatural color of her eyes, just before Ron was forced to stop talking.
Hailey's breathing hitched, she hadn't meant to do that, she had just wanted him to shut up. She especially hadn't wanted him to see it happen.
She took a deep breath, her magic telling her to trust the Gryffindor boy. Longbottom wouldn't tell anyone about what he had seen. Would he?
"What are they doing?" Merlyn asked, coming to stand next to a tall, brown haired, brown eyed man.
"Deciding my fate." The man answered, rather dramatically.
"They'll restore your knighthood." Merlyn reassured him, he shook his head slightly, Merlyn continued, "Or course they will! You killed the griffin!"
"But I didn't kill the griffin, did I?" the man replied, leaning toward her, whispering so that the guards could not hear, "You did."
"That- That's ridiculous." Merlyn scoffed weakly.
"Bregdan anweald…" the man started, parroting Merlyn's own magic words from earlier, "…I heard you. I saw you." Merlyn could feel the blood rush from her face as she looked at the man in worry. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." He assured her, leaning back slightly, "But I can not take credit for something I did not do. There'll be no more lies. No more deceit."
"What are you going to do then?" Merlyn asked.
"The only thing I can do." The man answered.