I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 6 – Trolling

"Harry!"

Harry turned at the shout, only jumping a little bit at the sudden noise. After all the weeks spent at Hogwarts, he was starting to not expect being attacked at random, not being screamed at for anything at an instant's notice. He was beginning to feel more comfortable while walking around the castle.

That did not mean he was completely at ease. Loud noises still startled him, not to mention if someone touched him when he did not seem them coming. The way most people loomed over him still made him nervous.

He could be forgiven for being a little jumpier today. The day before was Halloween and he was still a little shaken up from his encounter with the troll. It was not until much later at night, when he was curled up in bed, he realized just what could have happened to him. The girl's bathroom had been wrecked, wood and porcelain shattered and broken. That could have easily happened to him.

It also could have easily happened to Hermione. To Ron.

He did not regret what he did, even when he was lying in bed and shivering. He knew it was the right thing to do. If anything, he was surprised he had literally leapt into action. Normally he tried to avoid conflict and confrontation. He never volunteered for anything, usually opting to be inconspicuous and hide.

He could not leave Hermione alone against the troll however.

I don't know why the troll didn't make me as nervous as when people yell my name, he thought wryly as he waited for Katie and Angelina to rush up to him.

Angelina knelt before him, her hands came out to grab Harry but she saw him flinch back a little and she stopped herself. "Harry, are you okay?!"

He looked confused. "I'm okay." He nervously shifted from foot to foot. "Are…are you okay? You look upset."

You could have knocked Angelina with a feather. Shock ran rampant over her face and she and Katie shared an incredulous look.

"Am I okay? I look upset?" Angelina shook her head with disbelief. "I've been out of my mind with worry since I heard what happened last night. You fought a fully grown mountain troll?!"

Harry nodded.

"Why did you do that?!"

"It was locked in the girls' bathroom with Hermione." He left out the part that he and Ron had inadvertently locked Hermione in with the troll.

"Why didn't you run and find a teacher?" Katie asked, wringing her hands. "Why did you jump in like that?"

Harry's face twisted. "Hermione screamed. She sounded scared. I couldn't let her face it alone."

The girls shared another look.

"That was very good of you Harry but please don't do that again," Angelina said. Her voice was shaky and her hands trembled. "Adults have problems dealing with trolls. You and Ron and Hermione were so lucky that you three weren't hurt."

"That's what Professor McGonagall said. Something about 'sheer dumb luck'." He frowned slightly as Angelina and Katie snorted. "It was the right thing to do, right?" He looked at them with wide eyes. "I couldn't have left Hermione alone like that."

Katie knelt beside Angelina to look Harry in the eye. "Yes, it was the right thing to do. It was very brave of you to do that. But you have to be careful Harry. You could have gotten very hurt. We care about you."

It was Harry's turn to be shocked. He looked at the girls in plain disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Katie asked, her concern growing. "Harry?"

He gulped. "You care about me?"

Angelina and Katie looked at each other again. Katie saw a flash of pain on the older girl's face and she imagined Angelina could see one on her own face. They turned back to face Harry.

"Of course we do," Katie said.

"Why?" he whispered. He looked down at the stone floor.

"Because we do Harry." For those that knew Angelina, they could tell she was trying very hard to keep her voice calm. Her entire body shook with obvious effort, her hands inched closer to Harry but she kept from touching him. She tried to keep her voice warm and comforting. "You're in our House and you're on the team. We care about you a lot."

"Oh." Harry sniffled.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Katie asked trying hard to not sniffle herself. Seeing Harry like this, so small, so unsure physically hurt her. If it were any other, they would be strutting about bragging how they fought a troll and survived. Others would be showing off how they did it for someone else. Here was a boy that was in pain beyond physical, a pain that was obvious but not many had seen it.

"No one's ever said that before."

Katie almost keeled over but Angelina kept her from falling. If felt like Angelina needed the support as well, the taller girl gripped Katie's hand tightly. "Say what?" Katie asked dreading the answer.

"That they care about me," Harry confessed in a whisper. The tears that fell on the stones were louder than his confession.

Angelina fished out a handkerchief with her other hand and gently lifted Harry's chin. She was heartened that the boy did not flinch this time when she touched him. She carefully wiped away the tears that flowed down his cheeks.

"Harry," she said softly but her voice trembled, "we care about you. Okay? We care about how you're doing and feeling. Trust us."

Harry had never had anyone look at him quite like how Angelina and Katie were. It made him feel terribly embarrassed. It made him feel strangely warm inside. Then he felt somehow even more lonely, having a feeling that he did not know he was missing, something he craved desperately. The way they looked at him, the way Angelina was wiping his tears away.

"Even if I'm a…" he began to say. He could not bear to finish the sentence.

"A what?" Angelina asked in that same calm but shaky voice.

Harry shook his head, clamping his mouth shut. He did not want to say it. He was afraid of how the girls would respond.

"You are Harry Potter," Katie said firmly. "You are a Gryffindor. You are a Seeker. Our Seeker." She looked into startled emerald green eyes. "And you're our friend. That's what you are."

The tears flowed harder down his cheeks. "You're my friends?" he whispered.

"And you're ours," Angelina replied firmly, starting to cry herself. She let her own tears run as she wiped his away.

"There you are!"

Fred and George came running up to them, followed closely by Alicia and Oliver. Harry hurriedly rubbed at his eyes. He did not want the rest of the team to see him like this. Angelina half rose to block the others from seeing him for a moment while Katie stood to face them.

"Is everything okay?" Alicia asked worriedly. She noticed how Katie looked. However she did not press when Katie subtly shook her head.

"Yeah, things are okay thankfully," Katie said, trying to muster false levity. "We were just talking to Harry here."

"So it's true then?" Fred asked.

Alicia looked at him exasperated. "Wasn't your little brother there when it happened?"

George waved the protest away. "Ahh Ron will say all sorts of things. He said he knocked out the troll himself if you can believe it."

"He did," Harry said. His eyes were still a little red but he smiled a little. "He casted a Levitation Charm and dropped the troll's club on his head."

"Huh, well color me surprised," George said, impressed.

"Didn't know Ron had it in him," Fred said, impressed as well.

"What, telling the truth?" Angelina smiled easily but her eyes were a bit red as well, and she stood by Harry protectively, tucking the handkerchief into her bag.

"Most of the Weasleys tell the truth," Fred said, looking insulted. His grin marred the expression however.

Oliver snorted then looked down at Harry. "You alright then?"

Harry nodded.

"Good to hear it. If you need a break, we can push practice to tomorrow night." He flushed when all the other players stared at him. "What? What're you looking at?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Wood?" Alicia asked.

"You never push practice back," Katie said.

"For any reason." Angelina frowned at him.

"I, uh, well, I would think fighting a fully grown mountain troll is reason enough," Wood protested, flustered. "It's only for a day, we still have time before our first game."

"Oh I see, it's for Harry's sake and not ours then." Alicia stuck her tongue out at him making the others giggle. "Not us who have been on the team longer or known you longer."

Wood crossed his arms. "Have any of you fought a mountain troll before? No? Well when you do or face something of equal or greater difficulty, I'll push practice back for you."

"Harry, do not listen to him," Katie said fiercely. "Do not go after anything else."

"No matter what anyone says. That includes the Twins," Angelina said with equal fervor.

"I wasn't suggesting he does," Wood exclaimed, throwing his arms up.

Harry giggled. "No it's okay. I'm fine really. I want to practice."

"You sure?" Wood asked kindly. He sighed when the boy nodded. "Alright then. Let's start a bit earlier then so we can finish earlier. But you let me know if you need to stop."

"Now that's finally out of the way, can we please talk about what's really important?" George asked, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"What's really important?" Katie repeated, clearly confused.

"Extremely important one might say," Fred said, his tone and features solemn.

The twins looked astonished at the collective confusion from the rest of the team. "We have a genuine TROLL SLAYER on the team!" they cried out in unison.

"Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the youngest Seeker in a century, and now the troll slayer!" George said with glee.

"Don't call him that!" Katie said.

"I think Ron technically did the slaying," Harry piped up.

"Modest to boot!" Fred said, fanning himself. "However, troll slayer adjacent doesn't roll off the tongue as well as titles go."

"Master of trolls maybe?" George suggested. "Oh wait, Ron must have been telling the truth then so perhaps we can call you the troll stabber!"

"Troll poker!"

"Troll bogey extractor!"

Harry was dissolving into uncontrolled laughter the more the twins spoke, the titles becoming grander and sillier. Their arm motions becoming more exuberant.

"Absolutely not!" Angelina shook her fist at the grinning redheads. "Harry doesn't need to be saddled with something ridiculous you tossers come up with."

"Wood," George said, deliberately ignoring Angelina. "Just imagine how this would be on the pitch. All the other Seekers would be shaking in their robes when they see Harry Potter "the troll something or another" coming right at them! We'd have the Cup in the bag!"

Alicia glared up at the captain. "Don't you dare Oliver! This would be crossing the line!"

He held his hands up in supplication. "How about we just get to practice and talk about this another time."

"Jolly good," Fred said and took one of Harry's arms.

"Positively smashing," George said, taking the other.

"Come along, old bean. Let's pop off to the pitch and chinwag over appropriate titles that accurately describe your magnificence."

"Quite, away from those that are far too judgmental." George made a snooty hand gesture.

The twins walked down the corridor with their noses up and speaking in haughty tones to a laughing Harry, followed closely behind by an irate Alicia and a resigned Oliver.

"I'm going to kill those two," Angelina said between gritted teeth. "One of these days I'm going to beat them silly with their own bats."

"They're helping in their way," Katie said wryly. She sighed, the amusement the twins inspired leached out of her. "Angelina, I feel really bad about this. It's worse than I thought."

Angelina hugged her, wrapping her arms tightly around the shorter girl. "I know. What scares me is that it's worse than we think it is now." She hesitated before speaking. "What do we do?"

"We help in our way." Katie said, her voice muffled by Angelina's robes. She squeezed the other girl with her arms. "Whatever it takes."

"Whatever it takes," Angelina agreed.