On Halloween they had Charms class, and Professor Flitwick announced they would be learning to make things fly, which they were all eager to do. They were put into pairs. Harry and Calvin were together, which was fortunate for Harry because he'd nearly ended up with either Neville or Seamus, who had an unfortunate tendency to set things on fire. Instead, Neville and Seamus had ended up together, which meant there was almost sure to be an accident. Ron and Hermione had also been paired together, which they were both angry about.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing! Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick." Professor Flitwick told them. "And saying the magic words properly is very important, too – never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
Calvin couldn't help but laugh at that.
It was a tricky spell, Harry tried but the feather they were supposed to make rise just lay there. When Calvin tried he got the feather in the air, but instead of just hovering like it was supposed to it zoomed uncontrollably around the room. Several people had to duck, Professor Flitwick fell off the pile of books he stood on to see over his desk, finally the feather stuck in a portrait on the wall, much to the annoyance of its occupant.
"Good first attempt, Mr. Campbell." Said Flitwick as he picked himself up. "But in the future, try a bit more restraint."
Meanwhile, Neville and Seamus's feather had caught fire, and they were trying to put it out.
Ron was having some difficulty as well. He flailed his arm wildly and shouted the words, but nothing happened.
"You're saying it wrong, it's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa," Hermione told him. "Make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever,"
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione said with a flick of her wand, and the feather floated into the air.
Professor Flitwick applauded. "Oh, well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron said later as they left class. "She's a nightmare, honestly."
After that Hermione pushed past them and hurried away in tears.
"I think she heard you." Said Harry.
"So? She must've noticed she's got no friends." Ron replied looking a bit uncomfortable.
Hobbes, who'd been waiting to pounce on Calvin and seen everything, came up to Ron, looking angry. "Great news, Ron! Calvin and I are reforming the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS club, and we want you for the office of Grand High Supreme Idiot!" Then he ran off after Hermione.
"What's the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS club?" Asked Ron, confused.
"It's a club Hobbes and I made up years ago." Calvin explained. "Mostly we just bugged my neighbor Susie, then gave ourselves medals. Looking back, sometimes I was pretty rotten to Susie. Although I did feel like scum if I ever made her cry."
They didn't see Hermione for the rest of the afternoon. On the way to the Halloween feast, they overheard Parvati Patil telling Lavender Brown that Hermione was crying in the girl's bathroom, and Hobbes was outside it, trying to comfort her through the door. Again Ron seemed uncomfortable. But seeing the great hall decorated for the feast made them forget all about Hermione.
There were jack-o-lanterns everywhere, and live bats flying all around. Like it had at the start-of-term banquet, the food appeared out of thin air.
But before the meal could really begin, Professor Quirrell ran in, terrified. He ran up to Professor Dumbledore, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know." Then he fainted.
Everyone started panicking, Professor Dumbledore had to make purple firecrackers appear out of his wand to get everybody's attention. "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
"Follow me! Stick together, first years!" Percy shouted. "No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"
"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they started back for the dorm.
"Don't ask me," Ron replied. "They're supposed to be really stupid, maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."
A moment later Harry stopped short "I've just thought – Hermione."
"What about her?" Asked Ron.
"She doesn't know about the troll."
"And Hobbes is with her!" Calvin realized, horrified. "Ronald Weasley, if anything happens to Hobbes because you had to go and make Hermione cry, I swear I'll –"
"Never mind that," Said Harry. "We have to go warn them!"
"But Percy'd better not see us." Said Ron.
As Harry, Ron, and Calvin were sneaking away Hobbes was still outside the bathroom trying to comfort Hermione. He'd gone over how what Ron said wasn't true, and that he was just jealous of how clever she was, finally he'd landed on how Ron probably hadn't even meant what he said, that boys just acted really stupid around girls. He was illustrating this point with stories about the stupidest-acting boy he knew. It seemed to be helping some, he'd heard a few giggles amid the sounds of crying.
"So Susie said 'I'm Fat.' and Calvin said 'No, I mean in the play.'. Mind you, I was nowhere near them at the time," Hobbes explained. "Calvin told me about it later when I asked why looked like he'd been hit by a truck."
Just then Hobbes noticed a foul stench, like a dirty public toilet mixed with sweaty socks. He looked for the source and saw something that terrified him. "Hermione, don't panic, but there's a large smelly monster with a big club, coming down the corridor. So I'm going to come in and hide, and we'll just have to hope it doesn't come in." As he sneaked through the door he noticed the key was in the lock, and took it with him to lock the door from inside.
Meanwhile, as they were heading for the bathroom the boys heard footsteps behind them.
"Percy!" Ron said, pulling Harry and Calvin behind a stone griffin.
But it wasn't Percy, but Snape who made his way past them.
"What's he doing? Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?" Whispered Harry.
"Who cares? We've got to get to Hobbes and Hermione!" Calvin hissed back.
Yet they followed Snape along the next corridor anyway.
"He's heading for the third floor," Harry noticed.
But Ron had noticed something else "Can you smell something?"
They were all hit by the same stench Hobbes had smelled before. Then they hear grunting, and gigantic feet shuffling towards them. Looking down the hall they saw something huge coming closer. They hid in the shadows as the creature moved into a patch of moonlight.
It was a hulking gray creature, twelve feet tall with a tiny bald head, and a huge lumpy body. Its long arms dragged a great wooden club on the floor.
It stopped in front of a door, apparently interested in whatever was on the other side because it began pounding on it with its club.
"That's the girl's bathroom!" Calvin whispered.
"Do you think they're still in there?" asked Ron.
Just then the troll managed to punch a hole in the door, causing screams that confirmed Hermione and Hobbes were still in there.
"We have to stop it before it breaks through completely!" Harry said. "But how?"
Calvin was rapidly going over every spell he'd learned or read about in his head, trying to think what might be most useful against a troll. The troll punching another hole in the door and another scream from Hobbes and Hermione caused him to panic and randomly use the spell he was thinking of in that second.
"Incendio!" He shouted, causing the troll's trousers to burst into flame. Too late it occurred to him that setting a troll's backside on fire might not be the best way to prevent it from going on a rampage.
The troll roared with pain and started thrashing about wildly, knocking down the rest of the door without even trying.
"Oops." Declared Calvin.
Inside the bathroom, Hermione was cowering against the far wall, Hobbes in front of her like a human(or rather, tiger) shield, but looking no less terrified.
"We've got to put out the fire!" Harry shouted as the troll flailed around.
"Calvin!" Yelled Hobbes. "Remember the time you tried to fix that leaky sink?"
"Right!" Calvin grinned. A quick spell later and one of the sinks blew up spewing water everywhere.
Soon instead of a troll on fire, they had a wet, still very angry troll to deal with. It decided to take its rage out on the first people it saw, Hermione and Hobbes. It lumbered towards them, tearing apart more of the bathroom as it moved.
"Confuse it!" Shouted Harry grabbing a broken sink tap and throwing it hard against the wall.
The troll stopped and turned to find the source of the noise, sighting Harry, it moved towards him.
Ron, who'd run to another part of the room then chucked a pipe at the troll and shouted, "Oy, pea-brain!" Causing the troll to turn on him.
While Ron distracted the troll Harry ran past, to Hermione and Hobbes. "Come on, run, run!" He shouted. But Hermione was too scared to move, Harry and Hobbes each had to take her by an arm and carry her to the door.
Meanwhile, the troll was still advancing on Ron.
Calvin sprang into action "Over here, tall, dumb, and ugly!" he shouted, shooting sparks from his wand to annoy the troll.
The troll roared and turned towards Calvin, swinging to crush him with its club.
Ron took out his own wand and without even thinking about it shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club flew out of the troll's hand up into the air, flipped over, and dropped, cracking the beast over the head. The troll wobbled for a moment and fell on its face with a crash. Calvin had to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed.
Everyone stopped and stared, Calvin on the floor next to the troll's head, Ron standing with his wand still raised, Harry, Hobbes, and Hermione frozen by the doorway.
"Is it – dead?" Asked Hermione.
"It's still breathing," Calvin said, looking closer at the troll. "It's just out cold."
Loud footsteps approaching made them all look up, obviously, someone had heard the troll crashing around. A moment later, In burst Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell. Seeing the troll Quirrell practically collapsed onto the nearest toilet clutching his heart and whimpering. Snape bent over to get a closer look at the troll, while McGonagall Scowled at the children and Hobbes, angrier than they'd ever seen her.
"What on earth were you thinking of? You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
"Please, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said, breaking away from Harry and Hobbes. "It's all my fault."
"Miss Granger!"
"I went looking for the troll because I –"
"Hermione, don't!" Hobbes cut her off.
Calvin tensed up, for a moment it had seemed Hermione was going to lie and take all the blame. Was Hobbes going to tell the truth and spoil it?
"I can't let you make up some ridiculous story to protect me." The tiger continued, to everyone's surprise. "The truth is, Hermione and I didn't even know about the troll. I was in here stealing toilet paper for a Halloween prank, and she was trying to talk me out of it. I guess when Harry, Ron, and Calvin realized we were missing and didn't know about the troll, they came looking for us."
"And it's a good thing they did, too." added Hermione, jumping onboard with this new lie. "If they hadn't found us, we'd be dead by now. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish us off when they arrived."
The boys tried not to look shocked by the lies Hobbes and Hermione were telling.
Professor McGonagall stared at them. "Well – in that case... Miss Granger, it's admirable of you to try to prevent Hobbes from doing something foolish, and so is your desire to protect him, five points for Gryffindor. As for you three," She said to Harry, Ron, and Calvin, "I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. And you," She turned to Hobbes, "In addition to this incident, I've heard several complaints about you from Mr. Filch, and some of our prefects. Apparently, you're under the impression that because you're not a student, the rules don't apply to you, that ends here. From now on any further misbehavior on your part shall be met with the appropriate punishment, starting with detention tomorrow evening."
"Yes, Professor." Replied Hobbes.
"Now, If none of you are hurt, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses."
They hurried out and didn't speak until they'd gone up two floors.
"You were really going to do it, weren't you?" Said Harry to Hermione. "Let her think it was all your fault."
"It seemed like the least I could do." Hermione replied. "I hate to think what might've happened if you hadn't shown up when you did."
"Of course, we wouldn't have been in that bathroom at all if it weren't for someone." said Hobbes.
"Hobbes, there's no need –"
"No, he's right." Interjected Ron. "Sorry, Hermione."
"Thank you." She said "And I'm sorry if I've been a bit bossy."
"All right, enough mushy stuff!" Said Calvin "Can you believe we just took down a troll, and we only got twenty House points?"
"It probably would have been less if Hobbes hadn't taken the blame." Harry pointed out.
"I always knew this 'I'm not a student' dodge couldn't last." Hobbes said. "I'm just glad I blew it on something important."
By now they'd reached the Fat Lady. Giving the password they went into a packed noisy common room, where everyone was enjoying the feast that had been sent up. They all grabbed plates and joined in.
After that things were different, they all couldn't help but be friends. Hermione became much more relaxed about rules, and it made her much more pleasant to be around. She never did stop thinking Calvin was mad, but she learned not to be bothered by it... as much.