Wingardium Leviosa

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try.

Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry's partner was Draco Malfoy (which was a relief, because Millicent Bulstrode had been trying to catch his eye).

Ron Weasley, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual.

"Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. 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."

It was very difficult. Harry and Draco swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop.

Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap.

"It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Harry overheard Ron say to Seamus as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face — and was startled to see that she was in tears. His voice came out sharp when he spoke to Ron. "She heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends." Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon, even though Harry looked despite himself.

Troll Boogers

As Harry walked with his group of Slytherins on their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone.

Harry thought about the rules as he sat next to Draco, twirling his wand watching Ron who was blithely stuffing his face at the Gryffindor table.

Stay. Away. From. That. Girl.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Harry finally given up glaring at Ron to help himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.

Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

The Slytherin prefect Gemma Farley had her perpetual bored expression on her face, her one concession, the small bit of urgency she put in her tone. "Follow me or risk death. First years would probably be the first to get stomped on. Hurry it up, sluggards."

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they went down the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Draco. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Draco's arm. "I've just thought —the Ravenclaw girl, Hermione."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Who cares about a m-," he cut himself off, not needing a warning from Harry this time.

"I'm going to go tell her, if you're too scared, then fine."

"I'm not scared, I'm just not so witless as to go where a troll might be."

"Yeah, if something happened to you, who'd tell your daddy about this?" Harry's voice emerged in the perfect sneering Slytherin tone.

"My father would be very interested to know how inept this school is that they allowed a troll to enter."

Harry rolled his eyes and turned away, he was about four steps away when he heard Draco huff and start after him. "Fine, Potter. Let's go."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

Draco yanked Harry behind a large stone griffin. Peering around it they saw Snape, he crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

"I'll ask him next time I'm alone with him." Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said, but Draco held up his hand.

"Can you smell something?" Harry sniffed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. And then they heard it — a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet.

Draco pointed — at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them.

They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet.

The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The key's in the lock," Harry muttered. "We could lock it in."

"Good idea," said Draco nervously. They edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn't about to come out of it. With one great leap, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.

"Yes!" Flushed with their victory, they started to run back up the passage, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made Harry's hearts stop — a high, petrified scream — and it was coming from the chamber they'd just chained up.

"It's the girls' bathroom!" Harry gasped. "Hermione's in it."

Draco gave him a look like he was crazy, but what choice did Harry have? Wheeling around, he sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in his panic. Harry pulled the door open and ran inside. Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she was about to faint. The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.

"Hey ugly!" Harry said desperately, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall. The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Hey! You dull witted slug!" Draco's yell surprised Harry, he was sure Draco had run back to the Slytherin Dungeon. Draco threw a metal pipe at it from the other side of the chamber. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Draco instead, giving Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, whose dual colored eyes looked almost blind with fright, she grabbed his hand tight, moving with him towards the door.

However, the shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Draco, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid, he let go of Hermione's hand and took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind.

The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped — it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils. Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Hermione pulled out her own wand intent on helping him, her hand quivering and she cried out the first spell that came into her head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over — and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Hermione was standing there with her wand still raised, looking at Harry like she couldn't believe he was okay.

It was Hermione who spoke first. "Is it — dead?"

"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out." He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

"Urgh – troll boogers." He wiped it on the troll's trousers. A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars.

A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Draco and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry looked at Draco, who was still mid-cower against the wall.

"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?" Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look. Harry looked at the floor. He wished Draco would stand normally and not like he expected the troll to jump up and take another swing at him. Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!" Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last. "I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on my own — you know, because I've read all about them."

Draco nearly dropped his wand. Hermione Granger was lying for Slytherins?

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

Harry and Draco tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them, Draco was much more successful, finally coming out of his cowering crouch and puffing out his chest like he was a hero.

"Well — in that case . . ." said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Hermione hung her head. Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Ravenclaw for this," said Professor McGonagall.

"I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Ravenclaw Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses." Hermione left. Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Draco.

"Since your Head of house is here, I'll let him decide your punishment." She stepped aside to allow Snape to talk to them.

"I thought you were smarter than this Draco, what are you letting Potter talk you into?"

"Sir I-"

"Save it, we'll speak more about this privately." Snape glared at Harry. "Five points to each of you, for surviving despite your stupidity. Congratulations. Now get to the Slytherin Dungeon."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed down the stairs down to the Slytherin dungeon. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

"We should have gotten more than ten points," Draco grumbled.

"I'm surprised he gave us points at all, I think it's only because you were with me, and we're both in Slytherin."

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Draco admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him. They had reached the dungeon entrance.

"Purity," they said and entered. The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent down.

When Draco watched him curiously as they hurried to get their plates, Harry felt the difference between the two of them. Knocking out a twelve foot mountain troll together had won him Draco's allegiance.

We have to gather our knights, our bishops and pawns so that we may win against the bad wizard.

Harry had obtained a valuable piece.