Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. They belong to J. K. Rowling. Any quotes from Harry Potter books don't belong to me either. As usual, no profit is meant to be made by this story.

Similarities with other fanfiction stories are not intended

7. Halloween

The next few weeks were the best Harry ever had. Lessons went very well as he didn't have any problems with the school stuff and he had plenty of free time although he had quidditch practice twice a week. Therefore, he had plenty of time to help his two friends, Ron and Neville, and also could invest some in his elemental abilities. It was still extremely difficult as it needed a lot of magical energy to activate the abilities Luckily, the book also told how to draw energy from those elements surrounding you and as you're always surrounded by at least one element, you had a nearly infinite reservoir of energy. However, it was rather difficult to access this reservoir. However, he managed to get a certain amount of control about it and therefore could use some of this energy to do elemental spells. He focused on lightning as he found this the most fascinating of all. He was now able to produce some smaller lightning if he focused enough. He found this rather cool and also very handy as it didn't require a wand as you could shoot the lightning directly out of your hand. The book also told him that he could use the elemental energy for whatever form he could think of. He could shoot fireballs, create walls of ice, everything was possible, if he had enough training. These prospects made Harry even more determined to master the elemental magic.

Time passed very quickly and it soon became the afternoon of Halloween. Rumours leached from the upper years that there would be a huge feast in the Great Hall. They were all looking forward for this and therefore didn't pay a lot of attention to their last class, Charms, in which they were learning the levitation charm.

Professor Flitwick stood on his usual stack of books as he wasn't tall enough to look over his desk otherwise.

"Remember, the incantation is Wingardium Leviosa. And don't forget the wand movement that we learned. Well, teach your feathers how to fly."

Harry worked together with Neville, something they both were glad about. Harry, as usual, was able to do the spell on his first attempt and Neville, with some advice from Harry, managed it fast as well. As they had both finished their job, they watched the other students trying.

Most of the other students had rather big problems with that spell. Ron was especially unlucky as he was partnered with the Gryffindor know-it-all, Hermione Granger. They had just landed in yet another argument on how to spell the spell:

"Wingardium Leviosaaa."

"Ron, you're doing it wrong. It's Levi-o-sa, not Levios-a.

"Well, if you think you know everything better, why don't you do it?"

Challenged by Ron's words, Hermione raised her wand, said the spell and… the feather was levitated at once. Then, in a know-it-all manner, she told him:

"See, Ron, this is the way it is done."

Ron was close to a rather unfriendly answer when the bell ringed and Flitwick dismissed the class. He quickly went over to Harry and Neville and they left the class together. Outside the classroom, Ron let his anger on Hermione go.

"It's Levi-o-sa, not Levios-a. You know, she really is an insufferable know-it-all. No wonder she hasn't got any friends at all."

Having said this, they heard a quiet sob and, when they turned, they saw a head of bushy brown hair running away.

"You know, Ron, I think you were a bit hard," Harry told a Ron who didn't feel alright at all at the moment.

"True," Ron answered," I might have gone too far. Well, I will say I'm sorry once I see her again. Now, enough about that, let's go to the feast."

With these words, the three headed towards the Great Hall where the Halloween feast took place. The Hall was a magnificent sight, pumpkins as big as cars decorated the walls and dozens of living bats flew above their heads and under the sky who looked as if a thunderstorm would soon howl above their heads.

The dinner was even more magnificent than usual and the dessert was the finest that Harry had ever seen in his entire life time. The tables were full with the widest variety of both wizard and muggle sweets. They all enjoyed their food, although with a bit of a bad conscience as Parvati told them during dinner that Hermione was on the girl's toilet on the second floor, still crying.

They had just finished their dinner when Professor Quirrel stormed into the Great Hall and, for once, wasn't stuttering.

"Troll, Troll in the dungeon. I thought you might like to know."

Then, he fainted. For a second, the Great Hall was the quietest place you could think of. However, once the students scared up of their trance, panic broke out. It needed Dumbledore's voice of authority combined with a "Sonorus" charm to be heard by the students.

"Silence. Prefects, escort the students back into their houses. Teachers, we search for the troll."

Percy was in his element as he ordered the students to follow him back to their common room However, his affirmations that they didn't need to fear the troll didn't sound very convincing as Harry wondered what exactly Percy would be doing if the troll attacked them. Then it struck him. He grabbed Ron and Neville and quickly pulled them into an empty classroom.

"Guys, we need to warn Hermione. It's our fault she doesn't know what's going on."

Although they were not looking forward to leave the rest of their house, Ron and Neville agreed with Harry and followed him to the girl's toilet. However, as they were up to open the door, they heard a high-pitched shriek followed by a low grunt. All of them recognised the voice at once and shouted together.

"HERMIONE."¨

They hurried in and saw Hermione cornered by the troll who was swinging his club, preparing to hit her. The troll had his back turned towards them. As Ron and Neville were stunned, Harry had to get them back into action.

"Guys, distract him. He must face me."

Having heard these words, Ron and Neville took some of the debris from one of the destroyed cubicles and threw them on the troll. Although they hadn't much effect on the troll, it made him turned around; therefore Hermione was out of danger.

While Ron and Neville threw their pieces of wood, Harry focused on his elemental abilities and connected to the elements surrounding him, drawing energy from them and gathering it a lightning. Once the troll faced them, he unleashed the magical energy he had gathered in a lightning and shot it right into the troll's throat. This knocked the troll down, it was dead.

Once the others had come back to their senses, Harry was leading them out of the room towards their Common Room. However just as they had left the room, they were intercepted by the Professors Snape, McGonagall and Flitwick. It was a clearly infuriated Professor McGonagall that questioned them.

"What are you three doing here? Don't you know that there is a troll on the loose?"

As the others did not know what to say and were scared by their Head of House being so furious, it was Harry who answered.

"The troll you're looking for is in there. He is dead."

This was the moment when Hermione joined in the conversation.

"I was in there, if they wouldn't have come for me, I would be dead by now if Harry didn't kill it. I was so afraid. It was stupid from me to be upset because of such a detail. I could be dead by now."

McGonagall was surprised by this as she had heard about the incident and was worried on what happened with one of her two best students.

"Well, I cannot punish you, Mrs. Granger, as you didn't break any rule and hadn't any knowledge of the order to return to the Common Rooms. However, I hope you understand that you had a lot of luck today."

"I know, Professor, I w as very lucky that Harry, Ron and Neville came for me."

Then McGonagall turned to the three boys.

"Well, I hope you three know how lucky you were. Not many first years can kill a fully grown mountain troll. Thirty points to Gryffindor. However, ten points will be taken away as you broke the rule to return to you Common Room. Longbottom, Weasley, Granger, you may leave. Mr. Potter, follow me to my office."

Harry followed McGonagall to her office, once again.

"So, Mr. Potter, how did you manage to kill this troll?"

"First of all, why do you think that I killed it?"

"Hermione told it a few moments before and as you were the only one who wasn't in some kind of shock it's rather obvious. Am I right?"

"Well, Ron and Neville distracted the troll while I struck it down with a lightning aimed at his throat. It did not survive this."

"I don't know such spell that has such an effect, Mr. Potter."

"Well, I can't explain it to you either. I just gathered some energy and then unleashed in a concentrated form. That's all I know. May I go now?"

Although she did not entirely understand what Harry was talking about, she saw that it would be useless to question Harry more right now as he wouldn't tell her anyway. She decided to talk this over with Professor Dumbledore and therefore allowed Harry to leave.

While leaving the office, Harry wondered if McGonagall bought his excuse of not exactly knowing how he killed the troll. He had lied but he didn't find it a good idea to reveal his elemental abilities to the professor right then as they might become handy in the future. With these thoughts, he went back towards Gryffindor tower.

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Minerva did not believe what Harry told her. She knew that Harry hadn't told her anything, that he held something back. She decided to ask Albus what he thought of how an eleven-year-old managed to kill a troll.

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Harry arrived back in Gryffindor tower where he was greeted by Ron, Neville and Hermione. They all congratulated him how he killed that beast and especially Hermione was very curious how he had managed to cast a lightning without using a wand. However, she soon saw that she wouldn't get an answer out of Harry, therefore left it.

But something changed that afternoon. There were some things that you couldn't do without becoming friends and one of them was slaying a fully grown mountain troll. Therefore, the three Gryffindor friends got a fourth member as they had all seen that behind the façade of the know-it-all was a person whose friendship should be treasured.

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The four Gryffindors weren't the only one who had a long evening. Minerva headed towards Dumbledore's office intending to ask him about his opinion of tonight's incident. When she was standing in front of the Gargoyle marking Dumbledore's office, it opened without her saying the password. She obviously was expected. Once inside, she was greeted by Albus.

"Good evening, Minerva. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Have you heard about this afternoon's incident?"

"I have. It was remarkable how Harry killed that troll with a lightning. There's only one way, he had to use

This was when McGonagall interrupted him.

"Elemental magic. But how is this possible? The last mention of elemental magic is centuries ago."

"True, Minerva. It looks as if Mr. Potter has a lot of surprises up his sleeve. First his impressive knowledge, now also elemental magic. I wonder what comes next. Sure is that we need to keep a close watch on Mr. Potter. I'm sure that I can trust you with this mission."

"Of course, Headmaster, you may count on me."

"Thank you, Minerva, is there anything else'"

"Nothing, Sir. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Professor."

With these words, she left the office and went back to her own while at the same time; Harry went to sleep, not knowing that he left two curious professors sunken in their thoughts, trying to understand what exactly happened this day.

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Another chapter done. Sorry that it took me so long, but university has just started. Hope you enjoyed it. As usual, please read and review.

Many thanks to the reviewers of chapter 6, Anna Evans and Hunter-Harrington1982