9. Bridge

Harry and Ron dashed from their group of first years. They needed to find Hermione.

Ron and Hermione had clashed earlier that day over spell pronunciation. When she pointed out, quite insistently, that he wasn't pronouncing the Levitation chant correctly. Ron had rejected her advice with the addition of some cutting words. Words that had her pacing swiftly away.

Harry had thought she needed her space to collect herself. That had always worked on Harry himself, but the situation had changed. There was a troll in the halls of Hogwarts.

"The last place anyone saw her was in the girl's bathroom."

Ron bulked at the very notion of entering such a no man's land. "Let's get this over with." And they were off. Reaching the appropriate bathroom, Harry tucked on Ron's robe to stop him from entering.

He looked at him in confusion. Placing his finger on his lips, he warned him to be silent. When he quieted down, Ron could hear the haggard breathing of the troll. Luckily, its back was turned towards them. Tiptoeing past the beast, they began their frantic search for the missing girl.

"Hermione", the pair whispered in a panic. As they received no answer, they began to fear for the worst.

"Hello?" A timid voice called back to them. Pushing the door open, they saw the trembling girl they were looking for.

"Why are you two here?" Despite her obvious fear, there was wariness laced in her voice.

"Don't be daft, we need to get out of here." Ron said impatiently.

Harry could almost see steam puffing from her nose. With narrowed eyes, she did so much as poke, but stabbed Ron on the chest, "No listen here Weasley, I will not be spoken to like that from the likes of you!"

"What's that supposed to mean? We didn't come all this way to be lectured."

Harry tried to get their attention, but the pair were too far gone in their argument. A foul smell assaulted his nose and he leapt into action. "Down!" He was screaming as he dived into the pair as a thick club tore down the stall like wet paper.

Towering and equally ugly, the beast furrowed its brows and grunted in achievement. Licking its tongue, swung again and the children ran like a group of mice.

"It's blocking the exit!" Hermione cried out.

Ron swallowed thickly.

"The back wall." Without further explanation, the trio ran to the wall. Harry pulled out his wand and screamed, "Diffindo!" A blast of green shot out of his wand and began to cut through the stone of the wall.

As Harry worked on the wall, the troll lumbered towards them. "Harry, you might want to put a hurry on that." Ron whimpered.

"Working on it." Harry dismissed readily.

Shakily, he pointed his wand at a sink, "Wingardium Leviosa." It shot up and slammed into the troll's head, knocking it off its feet. In the nick of time, Harry finished cutting through the side.

"Run!"

Ron and Hermione weren't about to disobey the order. Outside of the wall was a single stairway that lead upwards. The group of children took to the stairs and ran with all their might.

"When did you learn the Severing Charm? That's a 2nd year spell." Hermione said in between her huffing for air.

"Blimey, you're mad. We're being chased by an honest to goodness troll and you're worried about falling behind in classwork?" Ron grunted as he moaned from his burning knees.

Young Harry couldn't find it in himself to disagree with his friend. Just beneath them, the troll crashed through the wall and began chasing them up the stairways. With every step it was able to travel flights of stairs.

By now the wizards and witch in training were running out of stamina. Reaching the top, the group realized that they were trapped high in the tower with no obvious escape route and no broomsticks.

Harry's companions were beginning to lose it. Hermione began crying, while Ron lamented about never becoming a professional Quidditch player. Worried as he was, Harry did the smart thing and began flipping through his gifted book.

"Don't tell me you caught some of Hermione's madness. Now is not the time to study." Ron yelled.

"I disagree", Harry retorted as he found a lighted page. "For the one left behind, I must go forth (Terabithia's Bridge). An enchanted, almost golden, bridge connected their tower to the nearest Hogwarts tower. Ron and Hermione stared dumbfounded.

They were shaken out of their stupor by their mutual friend storming the tower top. All three of hem ran as the troll began speeding up to catch them.

"Not all that moves must be pushed (Irregular Displacement)", Harry exclaimed aiming towards the beast. A light glow surrounded the troll and it was push back several feet. "We need to get off the bridge right now."

Reaching the end, the team fell to floor of the tower roof. The grotesque and foreboding troll got back on its feet and moved its bulbous body to attack them again. If the creature had access to higher thinking, it would've have found Harry's smile to be most ominous.

"Seeing as we don't get along too well, I think it's best we end this." Harry closed the book and the bridge disappeared. For that split second a look of terror etched on the troll's face.

But Harry didn't sympathize with it.

"We are actually alive. We did it." Ron stayed on the ground. Slowly, he turned his body towards the girl of the group. "Hermione, I just wanted to say… well… I'm sorry." It sounded as if the boy was swallowing lemons.

"I forgive you", she said in sincerity.

"Alright, let's go back. The professors probably know we're missing", Harry said.

Like that Harry, Ron, and Hermione became true friends.