Here is the next chapter. I hope you all will enjoy it. Sorry for taking such a time with it, but a death in the family makes it kinda hard to concentrate on the creative parts of once life.
Chapter 8 – Of Brooms and Trolls
The next week went well for Halios, Seren, Neville and Hermione. They were usually the ones who cleared the lessons first, and you could soon see what each of them was good in. Neville was excellent when it came to plants and herbology, while Seren was a wiz at charms. Hermione was a master when it came to research, and helped the other three with their homework, but both Neville and Seren helped her to get a better understanding of the laws and traditions of the Wizarding World. Halios on the other hand, was in he middle when it came to knowledge and spell use, but she was far beyond any student when it came to the ability to manipulate the strength of the spells they had been taught.
Most of the time Halios stayed in her female form, except during potion and DADA. To them she went as a male, as she felt something dark from the DADA professor, Quirrell, and the times Professor Snape had seen her in female form, she had felt a shiver go down her spine, as he had let his eyes roam over her form, with a slight sinister glint in them. Whenever that happened, she felt dirty afterwards.
The next week, it was time for the flying class, and all first-year students were to be in the same class. The day of the flying class, Neville got a package from his grandmother. In it was a glass ball, filled with smoke. Neville explained that it as a Rememberall, and that when the smoke inside turned red, you had forgotten something. The problem was, he could never remember what he had forgotten. Unfortunately, two other persons saw what he got and started bully him for it. From the House of Slytherin there was one Draco Malfoy, the bigot they had met back on the Hogwarts express. He came to them and called them 'mudbloods' and 'blood-traitors', claiming superiority due to his family. The other one was from Gryffindor, and his name was Ronald Weasley. While not looking down on first-generation magicals or those who befriended them, he was just as bigoted as Draco Malfoy. He believed that everyone not sorted into Gryffindor were stupid, and that everyone sorted into Slytherin was evil. The only good thing with Ronald Weasley was his two older brothers, the Twins. They usually reined him in, and made sure he apologized when he had begun ranting.
They introduced themselves as pranksters extraordinaire, and once they found out that Serens' father was part of the Marauders (whom they idolized), they started to help the group, and include them in some of the pranks they played.
After lunch, all the first-years went down to the Quidditch pitch for their flying lesson. As they gathered on the Quidditch pitch, you could hear the students talking about flying. Most, spoke of how they were excited to be able to fly, while some, namely one red-headed Gryffindor and one snobbish Slytherin, bragged about their achievements on a broom, becoming more and more preposterous the more they spoke. Seren, on the other hand, spent her time guiding Hermione and Neville in how to stay safe on a broom. Soon, the flying instructor arrived. She introduced herself as Rolanda Hooch, and told them to follow her to the other side of the pitch, where she had laid out the brooms they would be using.
She told them to stand next to the brooms, hold their right hand over it, and order it 'up'. They did as she told them, with mixed results. Serens' broom went straight to her hand, as if fired from a canon, while Halios' rose with a sort of dignity. Nevilles' broom slowly rose, as did Hermiones', but others weren't so successful. Most brooms just rolled around on the ground, but some acted strange. One circled its student as a dog would, and another brushed up to its student like a cat. And the broom used by the Weasley reared up and smacked him in the face, to the amusement of the Slytherins.
Once everyone had a broom in their hand, Madam Hooch instructed them on how to mount the broom and hold it correctly. She then told them mount up, and wait for her signal before taking off. Soon, everyone was flying, some higher and faster than others. Seren, having flown before, spent her time guiding Hermione and Neville, as they flew slowly a few feet over the ground. Halios also took it slow, albeit due to different circumstances. While she had never flown on a broom before, she had flown using her own powers. She idly wondered if she could do the same outside her realm and decided to try it out another time.
As the lesson went on, some of the students became more and more daring. It ended with a mid-air collision between the Weasley and Malfoy, causing both of them to crash into the ground. Rushing over, Madam Hooch looked them over. They had a few broken bones, but nothing life-threatening. Dismissing the rest of the class, she took the two injured to the hospital wing to get fixed up. After leaving their brooms at the designated place, Halios, Neville, Seren and Hermione went down to the lake, since they didn't have any more classes that day, and they wanted to ask Halios some more questions about how the magic she used worked. They spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner learning about the magic used amongst the Oblivion planes and Mundus. Halios also explained the concept of Daedra and Aedra, and some of the different aspects they represented. Like how her father, Sheogorath, was madness incarnate, and her mother, Meridia, represented Life and Magic.
This shocked Neville and Hermione, since they just thought that Halios was a metamorphmagus, a rare ability, true, but still human. Not some godlike being that could travel to different planes of existence. They were a bit weary for a few days, but soon things returned to normal.
The weeks slowly went on, and soon they came upon the time of year known as Halloween. Halios, having never experienced Halloween before, asked numerous questions to both Seren and Hermione. Seren gave her a good insight on how the magical population celebrated Halloween, both due to the traditional part that was Samhain, and the new part that was the defeat of Voldemort ten years prior. Hermione, on the other hand, told her how the non-magicals celebrated (though her version didn't have the amount of sugar that others had, due to her parents being dentists), and that the tradition that was 'trick-or-treat' were annoying the hell out of her parents every year. The only good thing was that their dentistry did get more customers over the next few months, due to the high amount of sugar being consumed by both the kids and the adults.
As dawn broke on Thursday, October 31st, the weather was clear, and the first frost of the year lay on the ground. As the day went on, the different professors could be seen decorating the castle. Professor McGonagall had transfigured leafs into bats that flew around the great hall, and Hagrid, the grounds-keeper, could be seen moving giant pumpkins from his patch into the castle, where they were charmed by professor Flitwick to sing haunting songs whenever a group of students passed.
After the last lesson that day, Halios, Hermione, Neville and Seren were making their way down to the great hall for the Halloween feast. Hermione, having been feeling a bit under the weather that day, told her friends that she had to use the bathroom, and that they could go down to the hall without her, but she would join them as soon as she felt okay again. Wishing her a speedy recovery, the three of them went down to the hall and sat down, waiting for the feast to begin and Hermione to join them. About 45 minutes later, the feast had begun, but Hermione had still not joined them. That was when the doors to the great hall was slammed open, and professor Quirrell ran in, looking scared to death.
He started to shout; "Troll! Troll, in the basement!", drawing all attention. Stopping in front of the teachers' table, he pressed out; "I thought you all should know.", before fainting on the spot.
This led to chaos amongst the students. Almost all of the students were in full panic mode, when a loud bang was heard from the direction of the teachers' table. As everyone looked over there, they could see Dumbledore standing up, wand in hand.
"Everyone, calm down. Prefects, could you please take the students back to their dorms, while we teachers take care of this troll."
As the prefects rounded everyone up, Seren realized that Hermione was still in the bathroom, not knowing about the troll. She made Halios and Neville aware of this, and the three of them left the great hall, making their way towards the bathroom Hermione had entered. As they got closer to the bathroom, they started to smell a foul odour. Turning the last corner, they entered the hallway the bathroom was located in. Unfortunately, in the other end of the hallway, they could see the troll approaching.
Taking in the scene in front of her, Halios turns towards Seren and Neville.
"I believe I can stop the troll for some time. How long, I do not know exactly, but a few minutes at least. Seren, while I stop the troll, could you enter the bathroom and take Hermione and get away?"
Seren nods and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself.
"Neville." Neville looks at Halios. "Neville, can you run back to the great hall and gather some of the teachers and come back here?"
Neville looked like he was about to be sick, but he slowly nodded and started to back away, as to not alert the troll. Once he had moved beyond the corner, they could hear how his footsteps increased in pace. Asking Seren if she was ready, Halios started to move towards the troll as soon as Seren had nodded. Moving past the bathroom door, she began charge up a paralyse spell, which she let fly once she was ten feet from the troll. The spell connected, and the troll slowed down, but didn't become paralysed due to its inherent magic resistance.
Halios continued to fling paralytic spells at the troll, whilst slowly walking backwards. As she came up alongside the bathroom door, the spells finally worked and the troll froze mid-step. Relaxing a bit as the spells now worked, Halios now heard movement from inside the bathroom. Turning towards the door while throwing a spell at the troll every twenty seconds (to keep it paralysed), she saw Seren and Hermione exiting the bathroom. They both looked scared, and Hermione paled when she saw the troll, the only thing keeping her from screaming was the presence of Seren and Halios. Keeping their eyes on the troll, they slowly made their way away from the bathroom.
When they came to the end of the hallway, they were met by Neville, leading a group of professors consisting of professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape. The professors immediately took out their wands and made sure to secure the troll. Once it was done, Dumbledore turned to the four students and asked what they were doing there.
"Well, professor" Seren began. "After our last class today, Hermione didn't feel all to well, so she told us she had to go to the bathroom, and that we should continue down to the feast and she would join us once she felt better. But professor Quirrell came running in before she came down, so we though we should go get her, since she didn't know about the troll."
Dumbledore nodded, and asked; "What happened here, the?"
Halios took over telling what had happened. "When we got here, we saw the troll in the other end of the hallway, and since the bathroom was about halfway between us and the troll, I asked Seren to make sure Hermione was all right, and to make sure she could leave the bathroom. Then I asked Neville to run back and get you, or any professor for that matter, while I tried to stop the troll."
At that, Dumbledore frowned and chastised her for taking such a risk.
"Um, well you see, professor. I was quite sure I could stop the troll, and even if I couldn't, if worst came to worst, I would still have been able to distract it long enough for Seren and Hermione to get away."
"But what if you had been injured or killed?" Dumbledore asked.
"An injury can be healed, and even if my physical body had been killed, my essence would just have returned to the heart of my realm, where I would have been reborn after some time."
This statement shocked all of them. They knew Halios wasn't just a human, but to be, in essence, immortal? They had not been expecting that. Since they all were focused on Halios, no-one saw the brief glint of malice in Quirrells eyes, when he heard she was immortal. Gathering his thoughts, Dumbledore quickly took control once again.
"Well, since there was no injuries, and you were able to both save your friend and stop the troll, I think a reward is in order. Let's see... Ah, thirty points to each of you, for bravery and inter-house friendship. Now, please return to you common-rooms. Food has been sent there, and the feast can be continued."
They gave the professors a small bow, and turned around to leave when professor McGonagall stopped them.
"Miss Granger, they said you didn't feel very good earlier, do feel better now, or do you have to visit the hospital wing?"
Blushing, Hermione answered; "No, professor. It was just that which happens to all females once a month after they have reached a certain point."
Professor McGonagall nodded. "I see. Well, I'll inform Pomona, and make sure you have the items you'll need to take care of it being placed in your trunk by one of the house-elfs."
"Thank you, professor." And with that, they left. Hermione and Neville towards the Hufflepuff common-room, and Seren and Halios towards the Ravenclaw tower.
Well, now that this chapter is done, the next one should be up in late July or early August, and will contain what happens in Hogwarts during Christmas. Have fun.
- Baleygr
