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After the Dawn: The Philosopher's Stone
Chapter Ten: Halloween
The morning of Halloween dawned bright and clear. Harry got up in the early morning, as was his want, and wandered the castle with Sirius until breakfast time came.
Lessons began, and in Charms Professor Flitwick made everyone ecstatic, by declaring that he thought they were ready to make objects fly, something they'd all be dying to do learn, ever since Flitwick had made Neville's toad, Trevor, zoom around the classroom.
Flitwick divided the class into pairs. Harry was put with Seamus Finnigan, and Harry was privately glad that it wasn't Neville. While he had begun to like the boy, there was no denying that in practical application of spells the boy was a disaster waiting to happen.
Harry gave a private smile when Ron was paired with Hermione Granger – he wondered if either of them would manage to survive the lesson, they argued that much.
"Now, don't forget our nice wrist movement," Professor Flitwick squeaked, perched on top of his pile of books, as usual. "Swish and flick! Remember, swish and flick! And make sure you say the words right – never forget old Wizard Buraffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest!"
Harry allowed Seamus to practice first, as he looked around the room to see what was going on with the other pairs. It seemed to be very hard for most of them. Turning back to his partner to see if anything had happened, he saw Seamus prod the feather they'd been given to practice on. It immediately burst into fire, and Harry quickly put it out, but not before it had pretty much destroyed the feather.
"Go and ask for another one," he advised Seamus, who stood up, a little shame faced and went to do as he was bidden.
The only difference, Harry noted, between Seamus and Ron was that Ron hadn't managed to set his feather on fire. Apart from that, their successes, or failures, were fairly similar.
"Wingardium leviosa," Ron shouted, waving his long arms around, doing a fairly good impersonation of a windmill. He was the saying the words wrong, Harry noted as Seamus set a feather on the desk before Harry.
Harry raised his own wand, feeling the throbbing power of magic that was laid within it, and spoke the words in a quiet, no-nonsense sort of voice, "Wingardium leviosa," as he swished and flicked his wand.
Beside him, though he did not realise it, Hermione had given up on her lecture on how to pronounce the words and was demonstrating to show that she did know best.
Both feathers, under the influence of Harry's and Hermione's spells rose into the air. "Oh well done! Everyone, see here! Mr. Protectium and Miss Granger have managed it!"
Ron and Seamus were both in bad tempers by the end of the class, as neither of them had managed to get the feather into the air without the aid of their partners.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her," Ron grumbled at Seamus as they left the classroom. "She's a nightmare, honestly."
Harry watched as Seamus stumbled and a figure dashed passed him. Harry recognised it as Hermione immediately, and she was crying. "I think she heard you," Seamus remarked.
"So?" Ron shrugged, continuing on his way. Harry hesitated, wondering if he should go after the girl, after all, if he was honest with himself, he did owe her a favour.
He put it off, deciding to go after the next class, after all, he didn't want to be in trouble. If Hermione didn't come then, Harry would search for the girl, he supposed.
Hermione didn't turn up for the next class – Harry hadn't really expected that she would, though he wasn't sure why this was, and after this, Harry went up to the Gryffindor tower. Hermione wasn't there either.
With a sigh, Harry headed up to the dormitory and dug out the Marauders map. He knew that the rest of the school would be enjoying the Halloween feast at present, but it did not sadden him in the least to know that he was missing it.
Finding the map, he tapped it with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he murmured.
Immediately lines wandered from his wand tip across the page, coming up with a perfect map of Hogwarts. Since most of the people in the school were at the feast, Harry was able to locate Hermione immediately in one of the girls' toilets.
He was about to wipe the map when he noticed another figure, racing from the dungeons at top speed, and marked 'Quirrel'. Behind the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor was … Harry cursed when he saw the label, which was merely, 'troll'.
"Come on Sirius, we gotta get a move on! There's a troll in the dungeons, and I doubt Hermione is going to find out about it," Harry was racing down the stairs in seconds, the huge black dog at his side.
"No need to hurry, dear!" The Fat Lady shouted from her portrait. Harry didn't have the time to correct her mistake, and was already darting around the corner and into a secret passageway.
When he emerged near the toilets that Hermione was in, Harry cursed himself for leaving the map behind – now he would have no way of finding out where the troll was.
Oh well, no time for that now, Harry went to run again, but Sirius gave a warning whine, and slunk behind a statue. Harry followed, wondering what was going on.
A moment later, his questions were answered as Snape hurried around the corner. What's he doing here, Harry wondered, though he kept silent. The troll is in the dungeons, not the third floor.
A sudden thought wormed its way into Harry's mind, but he had no time to think about it. He just wanted to get to the toilets and get Hermione out of there and back to the Gryffindor tower, before doing his best to slip back into the background at Hogwarts again.
He and Sirius nearly flew as they headed for the toilets. Sirius was picking up a disgusting odour, which he knew must be troll, but had no way of conveying this to Harry, and anyway, it was against Sirius's morals to leave a girl in danger. At least, a young, innocent one like Hermione. If it had been his cousin … Sirius dragged his mind away from Bellatrix, to better concentrate on the situation at hand.
Together they barged into the girls toilets. Only one of the cubicles seemed to be in use, and Harry took this as being Hermione's hiding place. "Hermione?" he asked.
"Go away, this is a girls' toilets, you aren't allowed in here," Hermione sniffled from behind the door.
"Hermione, why are you here?" Harry asked, though he already knew.
Hermione started sobbing. "R-Ron Weasley s-said that I d-don't have any f-friends," she explained between her sobs.
"Why listen to anything he says?" Harry wondered, knowing that Ron got very angry and insulting over the slightest thing, and usually didn't get anything right.
"B-because h-he's right," Hermione sobbed louder.
"What makes you think that?"
"N-no one l-likes me!" Hermione replied.
"They're just stupid," Harry assured her.
"S-so y-you're stupid t-to?" Hermione asked.
"No – I just don't want friends. If I did, I'd probably be friends with you," Harry replied calmly.
"Why wouldn't you want friends?" Hermione asked, having been surprised by Harry's response, she'd managed to stop crying.
"Because my best friend and his mum were killed because of me. I don't want anyone else to get hurt," Harry stated matter-of-factly, wondering why on earth he was telling her this. "But if you don't mind, I'd rather you came out of that toilet and came back to the Gryffindor tower with me – now."
"Why the rush?" Hermione asked, unlocking the toilet door.
"Because there's a troll loose in the castle," Harry stated calmly. "I'm not to sure where it i-" he was interrupted by the door crashing open. "Scratch that, I know exactly where it is," he said, eyes wide with fear as he saw the huge troll enter the room.
It was a horrible sight – twelve feet tall, a dull granite-grey in colour, the troll lumbered into the room. Hermione saw it and screamed, stepping back towards the toilet she'd previously locked herself in.
Harry glanced at her and easily read the terror on her face. She wasn't ready to overcome her fear and face the troll … Not yet. That meant that he and Sirius were alone.
Darting away from the toilet entrance, as the troll turned its dim eyes in that direction, Harry motioned wildly for Sirius to take the other direction. Sirius seemed to grasp Harry's plan, and bounded away.
Harry seized the first thing that came to his hand, a piece of pipe, and hurled it at the trolls head. It bounced off and hit the ceiling, causing a loud ringing noise. The troll stopped, momentarily confused by the new noise, though it was doubtful that the pipe had hit hard enough to even make the creature notice.
Sirius, from the other side of the bathroom, barked loudly. The sound rang deafeningly around the room, echoing and growing louder and louder. Harry held his hands to his ears as the troll stopped, blinked, and lumbered around in a circle to try and find where the noise was coming from.
Eventually it decided to head for Sirius, and started dragging itself in that direction, swinging its club almost absently. The echoes seemed to be driving the troll into a berserk rage.
It roared, and started towards Hermione, who had no means of escape. The girl looked up at the creature looming in front of her, still unable to move, she was so afraid.
With a sigh, Harry ran forward and leaped. He did not notice the door to the bathroom behind him opening and nearly all of the teachers in the school starting into the room.
Landing, he was balancing precariously with one foot on either of the troll's shoulders, rocking gently with the creature's movements. He praised his Sensei as he managed to keep himself poised without falling off – if it wasn't for his training in Tae-Kwon-Do he wouldn't be able to do this.
The troll stopped over Hermione, and raised its club. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry cried, pointing his wand at the club. It jerked out of the trolls hand and Harry directed it around behind the trolls back.
Confused, the creature turned and tried to reach its club. It was then that Harry noticed he had an audience. Thinking that the teachers would probably get him in trouble if he risked his life any more than he already was up here, Harry pushed himself backwards off the trolls shoulders, flipping his body neatly and landing lightly on his feet, at the same time lifting the spell on the troll's club, which turned over in the air and dropped down with tremendous force on its owners head, even as most of the teachers shouted 'stupefy'.
With these two combined occurrences, the troll made a half step forwards towards its new assailants, then keeled over forwards, narrowly missing Sirius, who jumped out of the way just in time.
Harry helped Hermione to her feet – the girl seemed to be a bit dazed. "Protectium, what exactly happened here?" McGonagall asked, eyes flashing dangerously.
"I didn't go to the feast," Harry replied. "I wasn't in the mood for it," here Snape snorted derisively, "and I was wandering around near the Library when I saw one of the portraits fleeing and yelling something about a troll heading towards the girls' toilets."
"And this concerned you why?" Snape sneered at him.
"Because I heard one of the Gryffindor girls, I think her name is Parvati, saying that Hermione was crying in the toilets because Ron Weasley said that she didn't have any friends," Harry replied. "I thought it would be reasonable to assume that Hermione hadn't heard that there was a troll loose, and that I should probably come and get her back to the Common Room.
"I was trying to get her to come out, when the troll walked into the room, Hermione froze, and the troll was coming towards her. I couldn't just let her get killed and save myself, so me and Ardeo tried to confuse it. It had just decided to ignore us and head for Hermione when I jumped on its shoulders, and that's where you came in," Harry finished his explanation calmly.
"Well … That, without a doubt, is one of the oddest tales I have ever heard from a student, first year or otherwise," Professor Dumbledore, who'd been standing behind the rest of the teachers remarked. "Made all the more odd because I believe it to be true. Without a doubt, that was a very brave thing you did, Mr. Protectium. It showed selflessness that is quite admirable in one so young, and a bravery far beyond your years … But then, bravery is one of the Gryffindor Houses most outstanding traits. For your actions, I award you twenty points to Gryffindor … and I may have to speak with Mr. Weasley on the account of insulting another student … You may as well go back to your common room, both of you, and let the teachers clean this up. The feast is being continued there."
"Yes Sir!" Harry and Hermione replied and hurried out, Harry was glad to be away from the smell of the troll, and so, evidently, was Sirius.
"Um … thanks Nemo, for saving me," Hermione said as they walked.
"You helped me before," Harry said, voice somewhat cold. "I was only repaying the favour."
"I'm sorry that your friend died," Hermione offered.
"Your being sorry won't bring him back to life," Harry replied acidly. "Nothing will."
He walked ahead of her, disappearing down a secret passageway, leaving Hermione looking sadly after him.
***
End Chapter.
Just to make the point – Harry isn't going to make friends with Hermione as easily as he did in the books, but will probably do so in the near future. Please review!
Thanks:
Sorrow1, athenakitty, pamela, solar, kraeg001, Xyverz, jeangab057, Mike Potter 2002, Nasser Himura, torifire126, Raphaelle, Maxx77, Lord of Darkness13, HecateDeMort, Wynjara, deb-sampson, gaia, Prongs4, MikiBaby, Jeni Black, BeastialSunStormDragon, pen, ananova, munch, Destined Enchantress, Raven Potter Weasley, azntgr01, Songbreeze Swifteye, JeanieBeanie33, Cyblade Silver, Jeanne2, Creative Name, gaul1, Empress Sarah-sama, Calimora, futagoakuma-tenshi01, Fate, Butler, uNoeWho, bigstu, hp4all, GY, Musicstarlover, Konri Koneko (Kitty) Sage, ping*pong5, JerseyPike, cantfindagoodname, dweem-angel, Kemenran, Persephone, Miya-chan3, Schnuff, PhoenixTearsp322, Lil Ole Me 97, Jaded Angel8, HyperCaz, howling wolf1, Morianie, cyress, jbfritz, Numba1, DragonSlayer01.
Hp4all – I fixed up the errors that you reported – thanks for putting those in. As for the other comment, Wood said that they would have to get Harry a good broom, and I don't think that Minerva knowing what Harry was would change things at all. She wants to get Harry to make friends with people, and though I haven't put it in the story yet, she wants him to get into Quidditch and make friends with the people on the team.
Well, 63 reviews, not too bad at all! And now I nearly have 600 reviews! Wow, this is probably my most popular story to date! In Every Darkness gets an average of 43 reviews per chapter, After the Dawn: The First Years an average of 51, this an average of 66. Pretty good, huh? REVIEW PLEASE.
~WolfMoon~