Chapter 6: Trolls don't like swords
Spending their first night exploring the castle turned out to be a good plan. The five first years seemed to know the castle better than Dumbledore himself from their first full day at the school. The map was useful for advoiding teachers and prefects at night but after the first week it wasn't needed for directions. Harry, Neville, Draco, Ron and Hermione had become pretty inseparable after that first night of exploration.
Hermione had been nervous about learning to fly but with her friends help she found that as soon as she could forget her nerves she was quite a good flyer. The five friends spent as much free time as they could playing 2-on-2 quidditch with the fifth person playing keeper.
The first month and a half passed before they knew it. The mystery of the third floor corridor had been playing on Harry's mind. One night in October he met his friends in the common room and, having checked the coast was clear using the marauder's map, they snuck off to the third floor to investigate. The three-headed dog they found was not what any of them had expected. Hermione, in typical fashion, was the only one who noticed the trapdoor under the dog.
The next day was Halloween. The day was nothing special but the house elves had prepared an extra special feast for the evening meal. Half-way through the feast, Hermione, who had had an awful lot of pumpkin juice, found she needed a trip to the bathroom. Whispering her intent to Draco, who was sat on her left, she slipped out her seat and out of the hall.
Five minutes after Hermione left the feast the doors of the Great Hall burst open and Professor Quirrel ran in yelling about a troll before fainting forwards. Harry narrowed his eyes in suspicion, fully aware that people don't actually faint forward, not noticing the panic around him and Dumbledore's voice calling for calm. Ron had to shake Harry to bring him out of his thoughts.
"Hermione!" Draco suddenly realised their friend didn't know about the troll. "She's in the bathroom."
"Let's go." Harry took charge leading his friends towards the girls' bathroom closest to the Great Hall. They arrived in time to see the troll enter the bathroom. A short scream caused Harry to run forwards, drawing his sword as he went. Ron, Draco and Neville stared at the sword in shock. They hadn't realised he had it since Lady Viola had given Harry a magical sheath for his sword. The sheath itself was invisible and when the sword was in its sheath it could not be seen. Also Harry, despite his promise to his godfather, had not been keeping up his training.
The troll turned as Harry entered the bathroom. It was apparently rather confused by the sword. It's confusion lasted until Harry hit the troll with the flat of the blade, unwilling to hurt it without provocation. The troll angrily swung his club at Harry.
"Get out of here," Harry instructed Hermione as he began to battle the troll in earnest. The other boys entered the bathroom. The troll was getting angrier and angrier as Harry evaded its club and hit the troll with his sword again and again.
"I have an idea." Ron drew his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa." The troll's club flew out of its hand into the air. Releasing the levitation charm, Ron let the club fall onto the troll's head."
"By the lion, Ron. That was brilliant." Ron's cheeks coloured to match his hair at the praise.
"Oh my word." Professor McGonagall's voice came from the doorway and the five friends turned to see a group of teachers clustered there. After a short interrogation to get the facts, McGonagall took 5 points for foolishly going after the troll themselves and 10 points for successfully defeating the troll by themselves.
