The second week of term was the beginning of Quidditch practice for Harry.
Four o'clock every morning Harry had to rise and get ready to go down to
the Pitch. He always allowed himself an hour to get rid of sleepiness, take
a shower, and trudge down with his Nimbus Two Thousand. The other players
on the team were more than a little reluctant to have him play; however,
once they scrimmaged and Harry caught the snitch in no more than five
minutes, they changed their tune.
It was amazing to Harry how the time flew when good company surrounded him. Cepheus had been adopted into their little group, and he added a sense of contentment that hadn't been there before. The boy ate at almost every meal now. He spoke with Blaise, Harry, Draco, and Hermione but not much to anybody else. Hermione delighted in talking with him; only the Gryffindor girl topped Cepheus' devotion to his studies.
Halloween was nearly upon them. Blaise kept trying to tell Harry that there would be vampires and skeletons and trolls roaming the school that day, and perhaps a murderer with an ax to knock on the dormitory door at night, but Hermione had ruled that train of thought out with plenty of supporting facts from Hogwarts, A History. Blaise pouted for a while, saying she was going to knock on Harry's dorm door and see if he believed her during the night, but now Hermione had ruined it for her. Harry had been the one to fix her with a glare that time, and she'd immediately struck up a conversation with her plate.
In Charms on Halloween, Professor Flitwick had announced that he felt it was time to have them start making things fly. Harry was delighted; he had wanted to do that since they saw Flitwick levitate his own chair while the tiny professor was still on it. Then again, Draco reminded him, he knew how to do self-levitation. Not consciously, however.
Harry and Blaise tried to levitate their feather for about five minutes before Draco took pity and left Cepheus alone for a moment to correct them.
"You're saying the incantation wrong, you dolts. It's Win-/gar/-dium Levi- /o/-sa, not Wingardium Levio-/sa/!"
"Oops." Blaise said cheerfully. Before she could do it correctly, Harry tried it.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose into the air little by little. Harry moved his wand up a little and it floated up more. Harry grinned before bringing it back down and letting Blaise try. Draco had to correct her one more time and show her how to do it before she got it right.
The day dragged by and finally the four of them were walking down to the Great Hall, hoping to run into Hermione. They didn't see her until they were seated, though; she hurried in and sat down next to Harry as quickly as she could, hugging her books to her chest, eyes a little red.
"Mione?" Blaise asked.
"Oh, I hate Ron Weasley!" She burst out. Her eyes were wet with tears and she looked like she was trying not to cry.
"What did he do?" Draco said, a little savagely. Harry shot him a slightly surprised look.
"You — you wouldn't believe what he said — I was the first one to levitate my feather in Charms and he was working with me, and he got mad — I was walking here and I heard him telling Seamus and Dean that I was a nightmare and I only was friends with you guys because I'm desperate to feel wanted — I hate him! Just because I don't base my thoughts on stupid House rivalry! Just because I can levitate a feather and he can't! Oh, I hate him!"
Harry narrowed his eyes in the direction of the Gryffindor table. Before he could say something to Hermione she had stood up, tears running down her face.
"Oh, I can't eat now, I'm going to the bathroom, I'll back in a while." And she nearly ran out of the Great Hall.
"I am going to /kill/ Ron Weasley!" Blaise spat just as the food appeared on their plates.
"I'll beat you to it." Harry said and half-rose to go to the Gryffindor table. He sat back down, however, when the door flew open and Professor Quirrell, the Defense teacher who wore a strange turban, came sprinting into the Hall, terror written on his face. Everyone stared at him as he reached Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — though you ought to know — "
Everyone continued staring as he sank to the floor in a dead faint.
Then all hell broke loose.
It took several violently purple firecrackers from Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects will lead their Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" he rumbled.
As the Slytherin prefects started leading the House out of the Great Hall, Harry turned to his friends.
"A troll?"
"Yeah, you know, a troll!" Blaise said, looking slightly panicked.
"How did it get in?" Draco wondered.
"Peeves probably let it in for a Halloween joke." Cepheus suggested. Peeves was the resident poltergeist; you did not want to cross him if you were nearly late for class.
They passed groups of people heading different directions on their way downstairs. In the middle of a group of confused Hufflepuffs, Blaise grabbed Harry's arm.
"Hermione!"
Harry stared at her for an instant before comprehending what she said.
"She doesn't know!" Blaise squealed.
"Come on!" Harry grabbed Cepheus and Draco and they merged with the Hufflepuffs.
"If we're caught we're dead!" Draco said angrily.
"We won't!" said Harry.
Cepheus grabbed the three of them and pulled them away from the Hufflepuffs, down a deserted side corridor.
"She's in the bathroom, right?" Cepheus whispered as he led them to it. They had just turned the corridor when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
"It's a prefect!" Blaise hissed and the four of them hid themselves behind a stone griffin.
Peering around it, Harry saw not a prefect, but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.
"What's he doing? Why isn't he in the dungeons with the other teachers?" Blaise asked as they piled out.
"No idea." Harry replied, just as lost as her. They crept as quietly as they could along the next corridor after Snape.
"He's heading for the third floor!" Cepheus said.
"Do you smell something?"
Harry sniffed. A foul stench met his nostrils, something like a mix of unwashed socks and the kind of public toilet no one cleans. He could hear Blaise moaning and holding her nose behind him.
"Hide!" Draco muttered and they tried to mold against the wall. Something very large and smelly was moving toward them from behind. A patch of moonlight fell across it as it passed them; Blaise gasped audibly.
It was the troll. Twelve feet high, skin a dull granite gray, great lumpy body like a boulder, tiny bald head perched on top like a coconut, it was a horrible sight. Its short legs were as thick as tree trunks, with flat, horny feet. The foul stench was coming from the troll. It was holding a huge wooden club that dragged on the floor because of its long arms.
The troll stopped next to the doorway and peered inside, waggling its long ears. It appeared to make up its mind, and slouched slowly into the room.
"No!" Cepheus gasped and lunged after it.
"That's the girls' bathroom!" Blaise moaned.
Harry took off after Cepheus, Blaise and Draco at his heels. Just as Cepheus disappeared into the room, a high, petrified squeal emitted from it — Hermione had seen the troll.
"Hermione!" Harry gasped as he emerged into the girls' lavatory. The Gryffindor girl was shrinking against the opposite wall, in tears as she gazed up at the troll. The troll was advancing on her, knocking sinks off the walls as it went.
"Help me!" came Cepheus' voice, and Harry looked to the left; Cepheus was throwing splintered boards at the troll — it had apparently bashed in a few stalls — to try and get its attention away from Hermione. As Draco and Blaise nearly ran into him, he dashed over to the wall near Hermione and seized a tap. He threw it against the wall. The spectacular crashing noise froze the troll. It lumbered around, a few feet away from Hermione, to see what had made the commotion. Its mean little eyes spotted Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club up high.
"Oy, pea-brain!" Draco yelled from the other side of the chamber as he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning toward Draco instead, giving Harry time to run around it.
"Come on, run, /run/, Hermione!" Harry yelled at the girl, trying to pull her toward the door; Hermione however was flat against the wall, mouth open in terror.
The shouting from Draco and Blaise seemed to be driving the troll crazy. It roared 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 took a great running leap and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't seem to feel Harry hanging behind him, but even a troll will noticed if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose; Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he jumped — it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.
Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry hanging on for dear life; any second now the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.
Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright. Blaise pulled out her wand, aimed it at the troll, and shouted the first spell that came to mind —
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club suddenly flew out of the troll's hand; it rose high, high, turned over slowly — and dropped, with a sickening crack onto the owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot before tumbling over, head turned to the side, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.
Harry got to his feet shakily, dusting himself off, and thanked whatever was listening that his wand had not been broken. He pulled it out of the troll's nose — it was covered in a lumpy, gray, glue-like substance. He wiped it on the troll's trousers, muttering "Troll bogies."
"Did you kill it Blaise?" Draco spoke up into the silence.
"No, I think it's knocked out," Harry answered.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the five look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they'd been making; but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the loud crashes and troll roars. A moment later, McGonagall burst into the room, followed by Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell took one look at the troll and sank onto a toilet, clutching his heart.
Snape bent over the troll. McGonagall was watching Harry, lips pursed. He looked back, expression blank.
"What one earth were you four thinking?" she said, fury evident in her voice. Harry jumped a little. There were five of them, not four.
"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Snape straightened up and gave them each searching looks.
"Please, Professor, they were looking for me."
Hermione stepped out from behind them.
"Miss Granger!"
"Someone said something that offended me and I came here to sort myself out — they knew where I was, so I guess they came and found me to warn me about the troll, but the troll was already here. Please, Professor, what could they have done? Left the troll to — to kill me?" she finished in a very small voice.
McGonagall softened ever so slightly at the sight of her troubled favorite student.
"Be that as it may, you all were very foolish. Since you did not intend to fight the troll, no points will be taken. Go back to Gryffindor Tower — the feast is being resumed. You four, however," she turned to the Slytherins as Hermione left.
"Now really, Minerva," Snape cut in, his velvety voice overriding any point deductions McGonagall could make. "These four children have just knocked out a fully grown mountain troll, and as Miss Granger said, they did not intend to. If anything, they should be awarded points."
McGonagall was silent for a moment. Then, lips white, she spoke.
"Five points to Slytherin."
Before another word was said, she swept out. Snape paused to give the four of them piercing looks. His eyes landed on Harry.
"Each." He added before he, too, left.
"Yes!" Draco hissed. "Twenty points!"
"I — I guess the f-feast is being f-f-finished in your d-dormitory t-t-too. Y-you'd better g-go." Quirrell stuttered from his toilet seat, eyes fixed on the troll. Harry, Blaise, Draco, and Cepheus hurried out into the corridor.
They did not speak until they were near the Slytherin common room.
"I can't believe that Ron Weasley! The nerve of him to say that to Hermione!" Blaise fumed.
"Twenty points, whoo-hoo!" Draco said, smirking. Harry grinned.
"Unicorn blood," Cepheus spoke the password and they entered to find half the common room staring at them.
"And where've you been?" asked a Slytherin prefect.
"Oh, off knocking out mountain trolls, you know, the usual. I'm rather tired, goodnight!" Blaise said casually and headed up the stairs to her dorm.
"I'm still hungry," Draco said and grabbed a plate. Harry and Cepheus joined him. It wasn't until they were on their second helpings that everyone's eyes had left them.
The three boys shared looks.
And burst into laughter, attracting the attention of the common room once again.
A/N: Only five pages, I know, but this is as good as it gets. All of Halloween. Happy? Sorry, guys, Ron is not gonna be friends with the group in this fic. Sorry to disappoint you. Next Chapter: The Quidditch Match!
It was amazing to Harry how the time flew when good company surrounded him. Cepheus had been adopted into their little group, and he added a sense of contentment that hadn't been there before. The boy ate at almost every meal now. He spoke with Blaise, Harry, Draco, and Hermione but not much to anybody else. Hermione delighted in talking with him; only the Gryffindor girl topped Cepheus' devotion to his studies.
Halloween was nearly upon them. Blaise kept trying to tell Harry that there would be vampires and skeletons and trolls roaming the school that day, and perhaps a murderer with an ax to knock on the dormitory door at night, but Hermione had ruled that train of thought out with plenty of supporting facts from Hogwarts, A History. Blaise pouted for a while, saying she was going to knock on Harry's dorm door and see if he believed her during the night, but now Hermione had ruined it for her. Harry had been the one to fix her with a glare that time, and she'd immediately struck up a conversation with her plate.
In Charms on Halloween, Professor Flitwick had announced that he felt it was time to have them start making things fly. Harry was delighted; he had wanted to do that since they saw Flitwick levitate his own chair while the tiny professor was still on it. Then again, Draco reminded him, he knew how to do self-levitation. Not consciously, however.
Harry and Blaise tried to levitate their feather for about five minutes before Draco took pity and left Cepheus alone for a moment to correct them.
"You're saying the incantation wrong, you dolts. It's Win-/gar/-dium Levi- /o/-sa, not Wingardium Levio-/sa/!"
"Oops." Blaise said cheerfully. Before she could do it correctly, Harry tried it.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose into the air little by little. Harry moved his wand up a little and it floated up more. Harry grinned before bringing it back down and letting Blaise try. Draco had to correct her one more time and show her how to do it before she got it right.
The day dragged by and finally the four of them were walking down to the Great Hall, hoping to run into Hermione. They didn't see her until they were seated, though; she hurried in and sat down next to Harry as quickly as she could, hugging her books to her chest, eyes a little red.
"Mione?" Blaise asked.
"Oh, I hate Ron Weasley!" She burst out. Her eyes were wet with tears and she looked like she was trying not to cry.
"What did he do?" Draco said, a little savagely. Harry shot him a slightly surprised look.
"You — you wouldn't believe what he said — I was the first one to levitate my feather in Charms and he was working with me, and he got mad — I was walking here and I heard him telling Seamus and Dean that I was a nightmare and I only was friends with you guys because I'm desperate to feel wanted — I hate him! Just because I don't base my thoughts on stupid House rivalry! Just because I can levitate a feather and he can't! Oh, I hate him!"
Harry narrowed his eyes in the direction of the Gryffindor table. Before he could say something to Hermione she had stood up, tears running down her face.
"Oh, I can't eat now, I'm going to the bathroom, I'll back in a while." And she nearly ran out of the Great Hall.
"I am going to /kill/ Ron Weasley!" Blaise spat just as the food appeared on their plates.
"I'll beat you to it." Harry said and half-rose to go to the Gryffindor table. He sat back down, however, when the door flew open and Professor Quirrell, the Defense teacher who wore a strange turban, came sprinting into the Hall, terror written on his face. Everyone stared at him as he reached Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — though you ought to know — "
Everyone continued staring as he sank to the floor in a dead faint.
Then all hell broke loose.
It took several violently purple firecrackers from Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects will lead their Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" he rumbled.
As the Slytherin prefects started leading the House out of the Great Hall, Harry turned to his friends.
"A troll?"
"Yeah, you know, a troll!" Blaise said, looking slightly panicked.
"How did it get in?" Draco wondered.
"Peeves probably let it in for a Halloween joke." Cepheus suggested. Peeves was the resident poltergeist; you did not want to cross him if you were nearly late for class.
They passed groups of people heading different directions on their way downstairs. In the middle of a group of confused Hufflepuffs, Blaise grabbed Harry's arm.
"Hermione!"
Harry stared at her for an instant before comprehending what she said.
"She doesn't know!" Blaise squealed.
"Come on!" Harry grabbed Cepheus and Draco and they merged with the Hufflepuffs.
"If we're caught we're dead!" Draco said angrily.
"We won't!" said Harry.
Cepheus grabbed the three of them and pulled them away from the Hufflepuffs, down a deserted side corridor.
"She's in the bathroom, right?" Cepheus whispered as he led them to it. They had just turned the corridor when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
"It's a prefect!" Blaise hissed and the four of them hid themselves behind a stone griffin.
Peering around it, Harry saw not a prefect, but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.
"What's he doing? Why isn't he in the dungeons with the other teachers?" Blaise asked as they piled out.
"No idea." Harry replied, just as lost as her. They crept as quietly as they could along the next corridor after Snape.
"He's heading for the third floor!" Cepheus said.
"Do you smell something?"
Harry sniffed. A foul stench met his nostrils, something like a mix of unwashed socks and the kind of public toilet no one cleans. He could hear Blaise moaning and holding her nose behind him.
"Hide!" Draco muttered and they tried to mold against the wall. Something very large and smelly was moving toward them from behind. A patch of moonlight fell across it as it passed them; Blaise gasped audibly.
It was the troll. Twelve feet high, skin a dull granite gray, great lumpy body like a boulder, tiny bald head perched on top like a coconut, it was a horrible sight. Its short legs were as thick as tree trunks, with flat, horny feet. The foul stench was coming from the troll. It was holding a huge wooden club that dragged on the floor because of its long arms.
The troll stopped next to the doorway and peered inside, waggling its long ears. It appeared to make up its mind, and slouched slowly into the room.
"No!" Cepheus gasped and lunged after it.
"That's the girls' bathroom!" Blaise moaned.
Harry took off after Cepheus, Blaise and Draco at his heels. Just as Cepheus disappeared into the room, a high, petrified squeal emitted from it — Hermione had seen the troll.
"Hermione!" Harry gasped as he emerged into the girls' lavatory. The Gryffindor girl was shrinking against the opposite wall, in tears as she gazed up at the troll. The troll was advancing on her, knocking sinks off the walls as it went.
"Help me!" came Cepheus' voice, and Harry looked to the left; Cepheus was throwing splintered boards at the troll — it had apparently bashed in a few stalls — to try and get its attention away from Hermione. As Draco and Blaise nearly ran into him, he dashed over to the wall near Hermione and seized a tap. He threw it against the wall. The spectacular crashing noise froze the troll. It lumbered around, a few feet away from Hermione, to see what had made the commotion. Its mean little eyes spotted Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club up high.
"Oy, pea-brain!" Draco yelled from the other side of the chamber as he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning toward Draco instead, giving Harry time to run around it.
"Come on, run, /run/, Hermione!" Harry yelled at the girl, trying to pull her toward the door; Hermione however was flat against the wall, mouth open in terror.
The shouting from Draco and Blaise seemed to be driving the troll crazy. It roared 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 took a great running leap and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't seem to feel Harry hanging behind him, but even a troll will noticed if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose; Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he jumped — it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.
Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry hanging on for dear life; any second now the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.
Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright. Blaise pulled out her wand, aimed it at the troll, and shouted the first spell that came to mind —
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club suddenly flew out of the troll's hand; it rose high, high, turned over slowly — and dropped, with a sickening crack onto the owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot before tumbling over, head turned to the side, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.
Harry got to his feet shakily, dusting himself off, and thanked whatever was listening that his wand had not been broken. He pulled it out of the troll's nose — it was covered in a lumpy, gray, glue-like substance. He wiped it on the troll's trousers, muttering "Troll bogies."
"Did you kill it Blaise?" Draco spoke up into the silence.
"No, I think it's knocked out," Harry answered.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the five look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they'd been making; but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the loud crashes and troll roars. A moment later, McGonagall burst into the room, followed by Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell took one look at the troll and sank onto a toilet, clutching his heart.
Snape bent over the troll. McGonagall was watching Harry, lips pursed. He looked back, expression blank.
"What one earth were you four thinking?" she said, fury evident in her voice. Harry jumped a little. There were five of them, not four.
"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Snape straightened up and gave them each searching looks.
"Please, Professor, they were looking for me."
Hermione stepped out from behind them.
"Miss Granger!"
"Someone said something that offended me and I came here to sort myself out — they knew where I was, so I guess they came and found me to warn me about the troll, but the troll was already here. Please, Professor, what could they have done? Left the troll to — to kill me?" she finished in a very small voice.
McGonagall softened ever so slightly at the sight of her troubled favorite student.
"Be that as it may, you all were very foolish. Since you did not intend to fight the troll, no points will be taken. Go back to Gryffindor Tower — the feast is being resumed. You four, however," she turned to the Slytherins as Hermione left.
"Now really, Minerva," Snape cut in, his velvety voice overriding any point deductions McGonagall could make. "These four children have just knocked out a fully grown mountain troll, and as Miss Granger said, they did not intend to. If anything, they should be awarded points."
McGonagall was silent for a moment. Then, lips white, she spoke.
"Five points to Slytherin."
Before another word was said, she swept out. Snape paused to give the four of them piercing looks. His eyes landed on Harry.
"Each." He added before he, too, left.
"Yes!" Draco hissed. "Twenty points!"
"I — I guess the f-feast is being f-f-finished in your d-dormitory t-t-too. Y-you'd better g-go." Quirrell stuttered from his toilet seat, eyes fixed on the troll. Harry, Blaise, Draco, and Cepheus hurried out into the corridor.
They did not speak until they were near the Slytherin common room.
"I can't believe that Ron Weasley! The nerve of him to say that to Hermione!" Blaise fumed.
"Twenty points, whoo-hoo!" Draco said, smirking. Harry grinned.
"Unicorn blood," Cepheus spoke the password and they entered to find half the common room staring at them.
"And where've you been?" asked a Slytherin prefect.
"Oh, off knocking out mountain trolls, you know, the usual. I'm rather tired, goodnight!" Blaise said casually and headed up the stairs to her dorm.
"I'm still hungry," Draco said and grabbed a plate. Harry and Cepheus joined him. It wasn't until they were on their second helpings that everyone's eyes had left them.
The three boys shared looks.
And burst into laughter, attracting the attention of the common room once again.
A/N: Only five pages, I know, but this is as good as it gets. All of Halloween. Happy? Sorry, guys, Ron is not gonna be friends with the group in this fic. Sorry to disappoint you. Next Chapter: The Quidditch Match!