Ch 18. Halloween.
The weeks passed excruciatingly slowly for Harry. Sure he had Draco to taunt and it got to the point that the boy would throw hexes at Harry the moment he saw him. Harry didn't mind, it gave him wonderful practice at dodging unexpected attacks. Every week Draco would also try to challenge Harry to a duel and Harry always refused with a smirk on his face and responses designed to enrage. It made him proud to know that he could instill such a rage in the pale boy that Draco would completely forget magic and instinctively throw himself at Harry.
Harry also had to deal with hero warship coming from Neville. It was annoying because the boy would follow him around almost everywhere and started helping with his English lessons. The boy had absolutely no self-confidence and usually cowered behind Harry if he saw something even remotely dangerous. Harry decided that he'd have to do something about it. Maybe he could teach the boy a little, not formally as he didn't have a teaching certificate.
It was Halloween and he was running a little late, his meditation while doing his early morning kata's had run over a bit. He smiled slightly as he remembered visiting Rlocky last night, the three headed dog had started to accept him as more than a sparing partner and would often demand to be scratched behind the ears and on the stomach. It was really funny to watch the jealousy between the heads. Harry wouldn't tell anyone, but in a way the friendship with the monestrous dog made him feel a little more at home.
Harry raced into the charms classroom with just enough time to slip into a seat by Seamus. It turned out that they were doing their first practical charms lesson today, they had to float a feather.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" Professor Flitwick squeaked from atop his pile of texts. "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."
Harry gulped nervously and wondered why the professor was letting him try this if pronunciation was so important. He knew for a fact that he couldn't say the 'v's.
As they started Harry noticed Professor Flitwick subtly put a couple extra feathers near where Seamus and he were sitting. Harry let Seamus go at it for a while, he wasn't to sure if he was happy for the foresight of the professor, or insulted.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA" Ron's shout brought Harry's attention to the two sitting by them. The redhead was pin-wheeling his lanky arms trying to get the feather to move. Even Harry could see that would never work.
"You're saying it wrong." Harry was glad that snappish voice wasn't aimed at him this time. Hermione's better-than-thou temperament was really hard to deal with all the time. He was regretting accepting her help as his English teacher. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."
Harry watched as she rolled up her sleeve and said, "Wingardium leviosa."
The feather lifted off the desk and hovered around. Harry turned back to Seamus as he heard a loud poof. Their feather was on fire. He quickly put it out while smirking to himself because this time the fire wasn't his fault.
"Oh, Well done!" the professor cried, "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!" The then turned to Harry, "And you haven't even tried. Go on," Professor Flitwick floated a new feather to Harry, "Try it." Harry nearly glared, the professor had brought all eyes on him.
Harry took a deep breath and tried to remember the movement of the aura he'd seen with both Hermione's successful attempt and professor Flitwick's demonstrations.
"Uin-gaaa-jiun Rebi-oo-saa" he attempted to push his energy in the same pattern, and to his surprise the feather floated a couple centimeters before spontaneously combusting, the ashes flew to the ceiling and scattered over the room.
Professor Flitwick jumped a bit.
"Ohh, I've never seen it do that," Harry just sighed, still blowing things up, but at least it started to float before it got to the combusting. The class went on swiftly after that and he and Seamus went through the pile of feathers that Professor Flitwick had given them.
Harry hung to the back of the crowd and heard Ron loudly talking to Dean.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione tear up and roughly shoving Dean as she ran by.
"I think she heard you." Dean said.
"So? She must've noticed she's got no friends." Harry was amazed at how thick headed the boy seamed. He'd learned in some of the temples that girls were far more sensitive then boys and would get worse payback. He'd remembered some of the things he'd seen girls do as revenge and shuddered. A guy was strait forward and just tried to pound the dirt out of you.
Hermione didn't show up for the next class and by that time Harry was hoping that she'd let him skip out on English lessons this afternoon. As it was he got out of it and spent the time doing kata's by the lake. Neville was watching him and it unnerved him, but he still needed to keep up his form.
On his way to the great hall, his pendant translated a quiet conversation between a couple of the girls in his classes, one was telling the other that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. He only payed this tidbit minor attention as he entered the Great Hall and ducked a random curse and the bats that were swooping by the door. There were quite a few more swooping about the place causing candles to stutter. Harry paid this no mind as he wanted to wail when he realized that the food wasn't on the tables yet.
He was mollified when the food appeared. He only managed to clear half of the nearest serving tray before Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew, smelly, and terror on his face. Harry finished off some more while other's started at the way the professor reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know."
The skewed man then slumped off the table in a dead faint.
Harry's eyes gleamed, finally some action. The smirk that crossed his face caused Neville, the only one willing to venture within two seats of Harry, to back off.
There was a loud uproar in the hall, the students all stood and started to freak out. Harry took this distraction to slip away.
Harry cursed silently as he realized that all the ways to the dungeon were being used and slipped down a side corridor.
A few steps later he ducked into a nook in the wall and watched as Professor Snape passed by. He shrugged and waited for the man to clear off before making his own way, hopefully toward the dungeon. The next corridor over a horrible stench filled his nose just before he heard a low grunting. He made his toward the heavy shuffling footfalls.
Harry grinned as he saw the dull granite grey thing. It was twelve foot tall and had a lot of muscle mass. Harry was sure that if that thing hit, it'd hurt. A lot. It was dragging a large wooden club.
It stopped next to a door way and peered inside. It waggled its long ears as if making up its mind and slowly started to slouch into the room.
"Hey Big and Ugly" Harry's shout stopped the thing from getting into the room. It's head shot up, through the doorway but it didn't seem effected by the stone barrier.
"Yeah you." Harry grinned as it backed fully into the corridor, a stupid grin on its face. It raised its club as if the thirty foot distance meant nothing and it would be able to hit him. Harry grinned and launched himself at the large form. He ducked its surprisingly fast swings and kicked its knee from under it.
The beast roared in anger and started swinging faster. Harry was momentarily distracted when he noticed Hermione's face pier at him from the door the troll had been about to enter. The distraction was enough for the troll and Harry met the business end of the club. He felt a rib crack and although he was in pain, it was familiar and he smirked as he rightened himself for landing on the far wall.
Harry sprung from his perch and smacked a knee into the troll's ear with all his weight and quite a bit of speed behind it. The troll swayed slightly, grunted and continued flailing after Harry with its club. The next few minutes passed in a cat and mouse game where Harry dodged all the strikes but his counters didn't seem to effect the troll.
Soon however Harry realized if he didn't end this quickly, he'd run out of energy. Sure he could last a long time, but not at his current speed. He grinned maniacally when he came up with an idea, he just hoped he wouldn't have nightmares about this.
He sprung onto the things's shoulder and to the roof where he kicked off it to the floor, gathering momentum the entire time and re-directed all of it into a powerful, well aimed strike to the Troll's groin. The troll reacted just like he expected, it dropped the club, grumbled what had to be a squeak for its kind and collapsed.
Harry waited for a moment to make sure it was down before panting and examining his ribs.
"What On Earth Were You Thinking Of?" Professor McGonagall's voice nearly shrieked. Hermione ran from the bathroom. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?" Harry looked up and noticed that Professor Snape was examining the troll, Professor Quirrell was leaning against the wall looking rather pale and Professor McGonagall was red faced.
Harry was about to respond with a curt "training" but Hermione spoke up.
"Please, Professor McGonagall – He was looking for me."
Harry nearly snorted, that was a little presumptuous of the girl.
"Mrs. Granger!" But then again, Harry wasn't going to interrupt the girl willingly getting herself into trouble.
"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."
Harry stopped paying a lot of attention because he needed to bind his ribs soon, otherwise it'd be a real pain. He was gathering his shirt tightly in hopes that it would help and he wouldn't do too much before he could get it properly bound. He looked up when he realized that Professor McGonagall addressed him.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You've won Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."
Harry bowed slightly and took off for his common room. When he entered through the portrait he could see that the rest of his house was eating away. He grimaced as he realized he had to wait until he could finish dinner. Hermione was standing by the door and looked at him.
"Thanks, if you hadn't come. . ." she trailed off and joined the rest.
AN:
Vell, here's this little bit, the next one's going to include a back log of letters.
Yess. Yes. I know that part with Ron insulting Hermione wasn't original, but I feel as a the complete prat he starts out to be, he'd continue it even if he wasn't jabbering to Harry. And thus Harry gets to deal with a tad bit more hero warship seeing as he doesn't feel indebted to Hermione this time around. I'm feeling bad about this because it seems so cliche, but then again, I'm over-worked and tired so if you want more, you'll get it that way.
now the fun part :-) responses to posed questions
EAV, Magic is a learned thing, and so when Harry manages to make Draco that mad, the boy forgets all sensible thought (aka is so angry he can't even think of a spell to use) and attacks as is instinctive.
Akua, Well his pendant is spelled against breaking, otherwise it'd be long gone by now, but he often removes it and it could get lost, but then the story wouldn't be very interesting because he couldn't really interact. He is in the process of learning English and so by third year or so should be able to understand the words, if not the connotations but will still have a bugger of a time with pronunciation.
Nytingale, Yes there has been a response, but me in my infinite laziness have neglected to write them, there's going to be a "letter backlog" chapter every once in a while.
SimpleInsanity, yeah, I know it's short, but blame my muse whom has run off to live with the LOTR peps for a while. Maybe she'll get bored and come home soon. I'm horrible at action which I think is why I'm avoiding it a bit, but I did have the ork, no, troll? Yes. . . Troll fight this time. I am leaving Ranma and Genma out of this for most of the time being because in their time line they don't reach Jusenkyou until the summer before Harry's first year, so it's pre-manga time and rather boring. Don't worry, I'll try to throw some in the letters. Ukyo is mentioned in the letters, and yes Harry thinks she's a boy as well.
Internet weaver: (if you're still reading) I got bettter.