A/N: Alright guys, so starting next week, I will be uploading Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Ive gotten the whole first book written and im starting on the second. :)
Fun Fact: Henrys biggest fear the unknown.
(Harry POV)
The next couple days flew by in a flurry, with the only thing that really happened being the arrival of two large parcels that came in the mail just a couple days after Draco had apologized to us and we all had become friends again.
Each large parcel was being carried by about six screach owls and when one was set in front of me and one in front of Jakoba, knocking our bacon off the tables as they did, I couldn't help but grin as I grabbed the note. I knew exactly what this was.
The note was from Professor Snape and told me that the teachers had pulled some strings, and gotten Jakoba and I Numbus 2000 racing brooms, but he warned us not to open them at the table, so looking at Draco, Henry and Urie, we all got up at once and no longer caring for a morning meal, we raced out of the Great Hall, not stopping to check if Jakoba did the same.
We ran down to The Slytherin Common room and seeing not many people were in here, I sat down and opened the package to reveal the broom that I'd admired in the window shop of Quality Quidditch Supplise just only a few months ago. "It's beautiful." Henry wiped at his face. "I've never seen such a beautiful thing in my life."
"I'm so jealous." Draco admitted but with a grin, I decided that we could share in the fun.
"I'll let you both ride it tonight after I talk with Flint." This seemed to cheer my friends up as we put the broom away, under my bed, then set off now to class. I'd be having a brief run down of the game and such with Flint later tonight, but because Jakoba would be doing the same with Oliver Wood, I wouldn't be out there very long and so afterwards, I'd be able to let my friends fly on my broom with me.
It was all we could do during our classes that day, not to ignore our work and talk about the broom that waited for us upstairs. It was a truly beautiful broom. Draco and Henry were especially excited and were going to barrow school brooms, so we could all practice and though Urie was excited, we vowed to make her love flying if it was the very last thing we ever did.
By the time classes were over, we were all bursting with energy and were so excited that they narrowed their brooms, I went and got mine, then grabbing our supper, we went and ate near the Quidditch field before getting on our brooms and practicing flying.
When Flint came over, the box of Quidditch balls under his arm, my friends went down to watch me from the stands, as we discussed the balls, rules and general game for a bit, then finally, Flint opened the box and the little golden snitch gleamed out.
"We're going to let it go for a bit, and then you're going to try and catch it." Flint said and pulling out a stopwatch, he waited a couple minutes, then pressing the timer, he called for me to go after the ball, which I did with gusto.
Forty minutes later and I had the snitch, then again, it took me thirty and finally, when it only took me eight minutes, Flint cheered along with my classmates as I saw Jakoba coming out with Wood, the first year Gryffindor looking a bit nervous. Everyone knew how intense Wood could be.
"Don't break under the pressure." I teased and rolling his eyes at me, Jakoba stuck out his tongue.
After getting all the information from Flint that I could need about our first official practice, robes and such, I went with my friends and we flew around for a bit before I finally let each of them take a go on my broom.
Draco seemed second best to me in terms of actual flying ability and I told him that next year, he should try out as Chaser for the team. Then He ray was next and he was definitely still good, even if not at the level that Draco and I were at. Lastly, there was Urie, who we then worked with for another two hours, until we finally got her doing loops, which she absolutely loved doing in the end.
Eventually though, it was time to return the barrowed brooms and head inside, where after putting my broom away, I sat with my friends for awhile, while we all talked and did homework, preparing ourselves for whatever fun was next to be had.
(Henry POV)
After our flight, it became tradition that after each Quidditch Practice, which Harry had three times a week before classes, Harry, Draco and I would go out and fly and though Urie didn't come all the time, she came most of the time, meaning that during those times, we were having her learn as much as she could stand.
As September bled into October and Halloween came up far too fast for any of our comfort, we knew that on that day, our classes would be full of an assortment of fun things, from scary charms, to learning the history of Halloween in the wizarding world and much more. Now that we'd seemed to already have learned what felt like an eternity's worth of magic and had the basics mastered, it felt nice to do fun things and simply have a good laugh as a class and even as a house.
While I was excited for all of that however, what I was most excited about was the feast. After our first night's feast, I'd been wanting another like it and I'd heard that Halloween was when we had our next one and I couldn't wait.
When we were finally let out of classes the afternoon of Halloween, with me sporting a rather scary pumpkin face for a few minutes, we knew that after dropping off our things in the common room, we were supposed to go straight to the feast, where the whole school would gather in celebration and the Frog Choir would sing and it would be so lovely.
I heard the choir first and as I moved toward the great Hall, I could see a thousand live bats fluttering from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet as as I looked at everything, I grinned broadly.
I was just having some Turkey and Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from
the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories, immediately!"
A fifth year Prefect stood and began shepherding us back to our common room, but as it did, I suddenly saw Ron slink away from his line of housemates and nudging Harry, I pointed at him.
"What's he up to?"
"I don't know…"
We looked to see if Draco or Urie had noticed, but they were too busy talking to each other and asking questions, so looking to make sure that no one noticed, I too slipped from the crowd.
"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as we climbed the stairs, looking for Ron and teachers as we went.
"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid,"I said. "Maybe
Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke." We had just turned a corner when we heard quick footsteps coming from behind us. "Ron?!" hissed Harry, as he pulled me behind a large stone griffin.
Peering around it, however, I saw not Ron, but Professor Snape. He crossed the
corridor and disappeared from view.
"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the
dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
I shrugged and quietly as possible, we crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.
"He's heading for the third floor," I said, and after a moment, Harry held up his hand.
"Can you smell something?"
I sniffed and a foul stench reached my nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.
And then we heard it — a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. I pointed — at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.
It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, it's 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 coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.
Then we saw Ron sneaking down the corridor we'd just come from and gesturing wildly, he joined us as we pointed to the Troll, who'd now stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.
"The keys in the lock," Harry muttered. "We could lock it in."
"Good idea," said Ron nervously.
Deciding to take the lead, I edged toward the open door, mouth dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, I managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.
"Yes!"
Flushed with victory, we started to run back up the passage, but as we reached the corner we heard something that made all our hearts stop — a high, petrified scream — and it was coming from the chamber we'd just chained up.
"Oh, no," said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron. "It's the girls' bathroom!"
"What? What about the girls bathroom? Who's in there!?" I looked from Harry to Ron and as soon as her name left his mouth, we turned.
"Hermione."
It was the last thing any of us wanted to do, but what choice did we have? Wheeling around, all three of us sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in his panic. Harry pulled the door open and led the way as we ran inside.
Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she was about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.
"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 from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.
"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.
"Come on, run, run!" I yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn't move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror. I looked at Harry, who was yelling at the troll, still trying to confuse it.
The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape. Harry then did something that was in my opinion both very brave and very stupid: He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind.
The troll probably couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped – it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.
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.
Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; and I went with her in horror as I watched my cousin, my heart pounding in my chest. He was going to die! I was so sure of it, but Ron, also apparently much braver than I, pulled out his own wand — and seemed to cry the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
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.
Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done and I was sat there, crying like a baby after having wet myself a little.
It was Hermione who spoke first.
"Is it — dead?"
"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. "Urgh — troll boogers." He wiped it on the troll's trousers.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, 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. Snape bent over the troll.
Professor McGonagall was looking at Harry and Ron, then at me as I stood up fast and stood beside them on shaking legs that felt as if they couldn't hold up a fly. I'd never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white and hopes of winning fifty points for Slytherin faded quickly from my mind.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air and who looked at me, while I looked back at Harry, "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?"
Snape gave Harry and I a swift, piercing look, but we didn't let him in, not even a little. I looked at the floor, wishing Ron would put his wand down. I had no idea why we were here, because honestly, we'd just followed Ron, so saying nothing, I screwed up my face, to try and not cry.
Then a small voice came out of the shadows.
"Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for me."
"Miss Granger!"
Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.
"I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on
my own — you know, because I've read all about them." Ron dropped his wand.
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Henry was trying to get me out, while Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."
All three of us tried to look as though this story wasn't new. "Well — in that case ..." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
There was a moment of silence. "Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," 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." Hermione left.
Professor McGonagall turned to us now. "Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win your houses five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go." Turning, we hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until were several corridors away. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.
"We should have gotten more than fifteen points," Ron grumbled. "Ten, you mean, for Slytherin and none for Gryffindor, once she's taken off Hermione Granger's."
"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."
"What even happened? How did you know she was in the girls bathroom?"
"She might have been crying in there." Ron suddenly looked very embarrassed and at this, Harry and I crossed our arms, waiting for him to continue. "I got frustrated in Charms class and she overheard me saying something about her to Dean Thomas and it got her upset."
I shook my head, "Man, you're just as bad as Draco, I swear."
"Don't compare me to Malfoy."
"Don't make girls cry." With that, it was time to say goodbye to Ton and after doing so, we parted ways, and Harry and I headed for Slytherin.