Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K Rowling
Chapter 8: Hallowe´en
AN: Hope you enjoy the chapter
The next day Jen, who was sore and bruised from her fall from the broom, and Hermione walked down to breakfast much earlier than Ron and Harry and saw Draco Malfoy sitting at the Slytherin table looking unusually happy. But when Harry and Ron finally walked into the Great Hall, Malfoy´s face fell, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
During the day Jen and Hermione talked about what they thought the Cerberus was guarding. But after having talked about it for awhile they let the matter go, because Dumbledore had warned them about the third floor corridor at the start of term feast so he had to know about the Cerberus and if Dumbledore knew about it they didn´t have to worry.
Hermione and Jen were also refusing to talk to Harry and Ron at all, if they didn't have to during lessons. They had decided that if they kept away from Harry and Ron the encounter with the Cerberus would be their last adventure that year and they could focus on their schoolwork.
It was about a week after their encounter with the Cerberus when something happened at breakfast. When the owls came to deliver mail as usual, everyone's attention were caught at once by a long thin package carried by six large screech owls. Jen was as curious as everyone else to see what was in the package and to whom it was sent to. She got quite chocked when the owls dropped the package and a letter in front of Harry, who usually never got any mail.
She watched curiously as Harry opened the letter and read it with Ron reading over his shoulder.
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Jen heard Ron say after he and Harry had finished reading the letter. "I´ve never even touched one."
Jen stared at the package in front of Harry with big round eyes and slightly open mouth. Peter had said that the Nimbus Two Thousand was the best broom in the market and Harry had just gotten one. Jen looked at the long thin package again, her feelings a mix between excitement and anger. She was excited because with a Nimbus Two Thousand they would be sure to win the Quidditch Cup this year and angry because he had gotten the broom as a reward for breaking the rules.
Harry and Ron left quickly after they had finished reading the letter and Hermione, who was as angry as Jen at them for being rewarded for breaking the rules, stood up and followed them, with Jen right behind her.
When Hermione and Jen had come out in the Entrance Hall, they saw Harry and Ron talking with Malfoy and his cronies. They walked closer and Jen heard Ron say:
"It´s not any broomstick, it´s a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you´ve got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they´re not in the same league as the Nimbus."
"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn´t afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped back. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up, twig by twig."
Jen clenched her fists in anger at Malfoy as he wasn´t only mocking Ron but also Fred and George. She might not like Ron that much, but she definitely liked Fred and George and that was why she was so happy when she remembered how angry and chocked Malfoy had looked when Ron told him that it was a Nimbus Two Thousand Harry had gotten.
"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" Jen heard Professor Flitwick, who had just popped up at Malfoy´s elbow, squeak.
"Potter´s been sent a broomstick, Professor," Malfoy said quickly.
"Yes, yes, that´s right," Professor Flitwick said, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"
Jen smiled as she saw Malfoy´s shocked and angry expression but at the same time she was furious because Harry was allowed to have a broomstick even if he was only a first-year.
"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," Harry said. "And it´s really thanks to Malfoy here that I´ve got it," he added.
With that Harry and Ron headed upstairs and as Jen followed them together with Hermione, she could hear them smothering their laughter. Jen was also trying to not laugh at Malfoy´s chocked and angry expression but failed which earned her a sharp glare from Hermione. At Hermione´s glare Jen´s sniggering stopped, and the amusement disappeared and the anger returned.
"Well, it´s true," Harry chortled when he and Ron reached the top of the marble staircase. "If he hadn´t stolen Neville´s Rememberall I wouldn´t be on the team..."
"So I suppose you think that´s a reward for breaking rules?" Hermione, who couldn´t hold her rage back anymore, said.
Jen was only a step behind Hermione, glaring at Harry and Ron.
"I thought you two weren´t speaking to us?" Harry said.
"Yes, don´t stop now," Ron said. "It´s doing us so much good."
Jen´s glare intensified as Hermione huffed and marched away.
"You know, it doesn´t hurt to be nice," she said.
Ron glared back at her and then said:
"The not speaking part was for you too."
Jen threw a last glare at Ron before turning and marching after Hermione.
She caught up with Hermione when they were nearly back at the common room.
"Those two are so rude," Jen said to Hermione.
"I know," Hermione said. "I don´t understand how the teachers could´ve rewarded Harry for breaking the rules. It's so infuriating!"
"I know," Jen said equally annoyed. "But it doesn´t seem like we can do anything."
Hermione nodded and they both sighed in annoyance before climbing into the common room.
((&))
Jen didn´t know what it was, maybe it was all the lessons and homework, but she could hardly believe that she already had been two months at Hogwarts. It had become her second home with most of her house mates as her second family. The lessons had also become more interesting as they had mastered the basics.
On Hallowe´en morning when Jen woke up, she was met with the delicious smell of baking pumpkin. But even better than that was that Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something Jen had been dying to try since she had seen Professor Flitwick make Neville´s toad zoom around the classroom.
Professor Flitwick had put them all into pairs to practise. Jen and Harry were partnered together, which neither of them liked but was glad for anyway as Neville had tried to catch each of their eyes in turn in the hope that he could work with ether of them. Ron and Hermione had also, unfortunately, been partnered together and it was hard to tell which of them was angrier about it.
Jen hadn´t spoken to neither Harry nor Ron since the day Harry´s broom had arrived, so the lesson begun in an awkward silence.
"Now, don´t forget that nice wrist movement we´ve been practising!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, 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 Jen swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skywards just lay on their desktop. Seamus, who was working with Neville at the table beside them, got so impatient that he prodded his feather with the tip of his wand and set fire to it – Harry and Jen had to help them put it out with their hats.
Ron, at the table at the other side of Harry and Jen, wasn´t having much more luck either.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.
Jen had to duck to avoid getting her eye taken out with his wand.
"You´re saying it wrong," Hermione snapped, while Jen glared at Ron. "It´s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the `gar´ nice and long."
"You do it, if you´re so clever," Ron snarled.
Jen glared more viciously at him, but Hermione only rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand and said: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet in the air.
"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick cried, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
The classroom became quiet as everyone was looking at Hermione's feather. Ron looked liked someone had slapped him and Jen smirked as she thought he deserved it.
Jen looked back at her own feather when she heard Harry trying the incantation again. She lifted her own wand and tried the spell again, following Hermione's instructions.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said but nothing happened.
After five more tries Jen´s feather, to her great surprise, rose up in the air and joined Hermione´s.
((&))
When the lesson ended Hermione and Jen walked out of the classroom and into the bustling halls just behind Harry and Ron.
Ron was in an awful mood and was ranting to Harry.
"It´s no wonder no one can stand her," Jen heard him say to Harry and she immediately felt anger rise inside her on Hermione´s behalf. "She´s a nightmare, honestly."
Jen heard a strangled sob beside her before Hermione walked past her and pushed past Harry and Ron. Jen was fuming when she saw her friend crying.
"I think she heard you," Harry said startled.
"So?" Ron said, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must´ve noticed she´s got no friends."
"Just so you know, Ron, I´m her friend," Jen spat at him as she walked up to them. "But, maybe, I´m not a good enough person to be reckoned to be anyone´s friend."
"I never said..." Ron started but Jen cut him off.
"No, but it was so it sounded," Jen said. "And Ron, just so you know, it´s actually a wonder that you have any friends with how rude you are."
With that Jen walked away from them in search for Hermione.
It took some time before Jen could find Hermione and it actually wasn´t until Parvati told her she had heard her crying in the bathroom that Jen found her.
When Jen walked into the bathroom, she could hear crying coming from one of the stalls and walked up to it.
"Hermione, it´s Jen," she said.
Hermione stopped crying and were quiet in a couple of seconds before she answered.
"Go away!"
"No, I won´t!" Jen said firmly and sat down against the wall opposite the stall Hermione was in. "I will sit here until you come out."
It was about fifteen minutes before Hermione finally came out off the stall. Her eyes were red from all the crying, but she gave Jen a sad smile before sitting down beside her.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," Jen answered.
They were both silent in a couple of minutes.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione eventually said. "You´re missing the rest of the lessons and the Hallowe´en feast."
"I don´t care, my friend was crying, and I wanted to be there for her," Jen said and smiled at Hermione.
Hermione didn´t say anything at first, but then she wrapped her arms around Jen in a hug.
"You´re a really good friend, do you know that?" she said and released Jen.
Jen giggled before standing up.
"Shall we go to the feast? It should have started by now."
"Okay," Hermione said and stood up.
They had just started to walk towards the door when Jen felt a disgusting smell; she thought it smelled like a combination of her brother's unwashed socks and a public toilet.
"What´s that for smell?" she said as she drew the sleeve of her robe over her nose.
A minute later her question was answered by a giant troll walking into the room. Jen stared in horror at the troll as it lumbered in through the door, it was about twelve feet tall and had a coconut like head with big ears. It lumbered into the middle of the room where it stopped and looked around. Luckily it didn´t seemed to have seen either of the two girls so the both of them, terrified, tried to quietly sneak along the wall towards the door. They would have succeeded in sneaking through the door without the troll noticing them if someone hadn´t slammed it shut with a deafening bang.
When the troll heard the bang it slowly turned towards the door and immediately noticed Hermione and Jen, who stood just a few feet from the door, it stared at them for a couple of seconds before roaring loudly and walking towards them while swinging its giant club.
Jen and Hermione screamed at the top of their lungs and then bolted with the troll´s club smashing down just behind them. Jen thought her heart would stop as the club smashed into the ground less than a foot behind her. They ran to the opposite side of the room from the door where they froze in fear, hugging each other.
The troll was first confused as it realised that it hadn´t hit anything with the club but then it turned and noticed them huddled at the opposite side of the room. It roared once again before walking towards them. It was advancing on them, smashing down sinks as it went, when, suddenly, Harry and Ron barged into the room.
Harry said something that Jen couldn´t hear with how much noise the troll was making and then he threw a tap at the wall.
The tap made a clinking sound and the troll stopped a few feet from Hermione and Jen and then turned around to see what had made the noise. First it only stared dumbly at Harry before it roared again and started to lumber towards him while swinging the club over its head.
"Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled at the troll from the other side of the chamber, and then threw a metal pipe at it.
The troll didn´t seem to notice the metal pipe hitting it but at Ron´s loud shout it turned to stare dumbly at him.
As the troll was distracted Harry ran around it and shouted at Jen and Hermione to run, but neither of them could move. Jen was so scared that even when Harry tried to pull her away, she couldn´t move, and neither could Hermione.
The troll roared and Jen squeaked in fear as it started towards Ron who had no way to escape.
At that moment Harry did something Jen thought was incredibly stupid but also incredibly brave: he jumped up on the trolls back and stuck his wand up in its nose.
The troll howled in pain as it twisted and flailed with its club, nearly hitting Jen and Hermione, with Harry clinging to its back.
Hermione sunk the floor in fright at the near miss of the club, but Jen was too terrified to move and just stood there looking at the horrifying scene.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Jen suddenly heard Ron yell and her head whipped in his direction to see that he had pulled out his wand and pointed it at the troll. Her head whipped back to the troll just in time to see its club, which Ron had levitated in the air, fall back on its head with a sickening crack.
The troll swayed and then fell face first to the ground. The thud when the troll hit the ground made the whole room tremble.
The room became deathly quiet as all four of them stared at the motionless troll. Jen wondering if it was dead as it didn´t seem to be breathing.
Hermione seemed to have thought the same thing as she was the first to break the silence.
"Is it – dead?"
"I don´t think so," Harry said. "I think it´s just been knocked out."
He then bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll´s nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue. Jen gagged and nearly threw up when she saw it.
"Urgh – troll bogies," Harry said and then wiped the wand on the troll´s trousers.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made all four of them look up. It wasn´t until now that Jen realised 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 came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell only a step behind. 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 while Professor McGonagall was looking at Harry and Ron, looking angrier than Jen ever had seen her.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall said, with cold fury in her voice. Harry was looking at Ron, who still had his wand in the air and Jen wished desperately he would take it down. "You´re lucky you weren´t killed. Why aren´t you in your dormitory?"
Neither Harry nor Ron answered as they were looking horrified at Professor McGonagall.
They´re going to be thrown out of Hogwarts, Jen thought as she tried desperately coming up with an idea to save them.
As Jen stood frozen desperately trying to come up with a plan to save Harry and Ron a small voice came from beside her.
"Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me and Jen."
"Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity!"
Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last and when Jen heard her voice she finally unfroze.
"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," Hermione continued.
"Yeah, and when I found out what she was going to do I went with her. I – I thought we had a better chance to defeat the troll if we were two," Jen said shakily immediately joining in on Hermione's plan.
Ron´s wand clattered down on the floor as he and Harry stared at Jen and Hermione looking as if they had just been hit by lightning.
"If they hadn´t found us, we´d be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club," Hermione said and then stopped uncertain how to continue.
"They didn´t have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish us off when they arrived," Jen finished for her.
"Well – in that case..." Professor McGonagall said, staring at the four of them. "Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity, you foolish girls, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Jen hung her head. She was dreading the punishment that McGonagall was going to give them. Thoughts of detention and losing House Points were flying through her head as she was looking down at her feet.
"Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity, five points each will be taken from Gryffindor for this," Professor McGonagall said. "I´m very disappointed in you both. If neither of you is hurt at all, you´d better get off to the Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."
Jen and Hermione hurried out of the chamber.
They walked in silence up to the Gryffindor Tower where they stopped outside the Fat Lady´s portrait.
"Pig Snout," Jen said.
When they climbed into the common room, they saw that the feast had already started. They didn´t join it, instead they stayed beside the portrait hole.
"Are you okay?" Jen asked Hermione.
"Yeah, you?"
Jen nodded and a minute later Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, without any of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks", and hurried off to get plates.
From that day Jennifer MacAvity and Hermione Granger were friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.