CHAPTER TWELVE: Halloween, Part Two
Mum,
I don't know if they told you, but I randomly changed into a dog a few weeks ago. Turns out I can do it at will. They think it might be because of a disguise spell Dad put on me. Do you know anything about that?
I keep finding out things about him that don't make sense. Like the Sorting Hat telling me he was in Gryffindor, or Ollivander saying he'd never heard of my family name. And then Snape—that's one of my professors—said that Dad wasn't a Death Eater. Didn't you always say that he was?
They also mentioned a Perelli Charm, though I'm not sure if that one stuck or not. Surely you'd know if he put spells like this on me, right? He would have told you?
It's my birthday, by the way—just in case you'd forgotten. I know you're disappointed that I came here, but I wish you'd still write me, even just a little. I miss you.
Love,
Ellie
She had breakfast with Oliver that day to thank him for the gift, then spent the rest of the day with Fred and George, who treated her like royalty, escorting her to all of her classes and even warning Snape that it was her birthday and he had better be nice to her (nice was stretching it, but he was vaguely polite).
About an hour before dinner, Oliver caught her in the common room and brought her out to Hagrid's hut.
"Just a little surprise for you," he explained mysteriously as he knocked on Hagrid's door. "You'll see."
"Ah—right, right," Hagrid said when he saw Wood. "The unicorn. Got her right out back."
Ellie's eyes bulged with disbelief as she followed Hagrid and Oliver around the back, where a gorgeous, pure white, real-life unicorn grazed contentedly at the grass.
"Figured if you grew up in the Muggle world, you probably hadn't seen one," Oliver explained cheerfully to her as she cautiously made her way over to pet the beast. "They're quite friendly, right, Hagrid?"
"Quite, indeed." He glanced at Ellie and asked, "I met yeh when yeh first arrived, right? Friend of Harry's?"
"Good friends," she confirmed, smiling pleasantly at him as she stroked the unicorn's silky coat. "He talks about you often. I'm Ellie."
"Right. Hi again, Ellie. Just do me a favor and tell those friends of yehr's to lay off the Philosopher's Stone talk, would yeh? They're gonna get me in trouble, I swear."
She glanced at Oliver, who looked as confused as her. "The what?"
Hagrid's ears turned pink as he muttered, "I shouldn't'a said that."
She could sense that she wouldn't get any more out of Hagrid, but she was curious what the Philosopher's Stone was. Could it be the thing that the three-headed beast was guarding—the thing that Harry had been hesitant to tell her about?
She and Oliver strolled back to the castle a bit later, and at his request, she filled him in on what it had been like to grow up in the Muggle world while knowing about magic. She tried not to sound too self-pitying, but it was hard not to sound resentful of the bullying and prejudice she had faced for being "different," and she could tell Oliver felt for her. He seemed genuinely interested in learning more about her, though she still couldn't quite figure out why.
They parted ways with a hug in the common room, where she found herself thrown into the midst of a heated argument between Harry and Ron.
"It was just the truth!" Ron was shouting. "She is mental, isn't she?"
Fred, who she hadn't even seen yet, laughed from the corner of the room. "Can't say that to a girl, mate. No wonder you're single."
"Also, he's eleven," she pointed out, thinking again of the fifteen-year-old dreamboat who seemed to be developing some degree of interest in her. She thought she caught a spark of curiosity in Fred's gaze at that, but he didn't mention it.
"He made Hermione cry," Harry explained to Ellie. "I tried to catch up to her, but I couldn't find her. Have you seen her?"
"No, but I'll find her." The last thing poor Hermione needed was to miss the Halloween feast because of some immature comment Ron hadn't even meant. She shot Ron a glare and added, "Be nice. She means well."
Ron stared sheepishly down at the ground as Ellie headed off in search of Hermione.
It took nearly an hour, but finally she found Hermione in the stall of a girls' bathroom near the Great Hall, still crying.
"Hermione," she said gently through the door. "D'you think you could open the door? I just want to talk."
There was another sniff, and then, "I'm fine. I don't want to ruin your birthday, Ellie. Go and have fun at the feast!"
But Ellie wasn't having it. "It would ruin my birthday knowing that you were in here crying. Come on—open the door. Just to talk."
It took Hermione another second, but, finally, she opened the door. She looked as bad as she sounded—puffy eyes and red cheeks.
"Hermione," Ellie said gently, stooping to her knees to get more eye level with her friend, who was sitting on the closed toilet. "He didn't mean it."
"The part about me being a mental case, or the part about me not having any friends?"
Ouch. She hadn't heard that last bit yet. "Any of it. Come on, Hermione—he and Harry are both your friends, and everyone knows it. And what about me and the girls from the dorm? We're all your friends, aren't we?"
Hermione wiped the tears from under her eyes, still looking morose. "Those girls don't like me. I've heard them whispering about me. And Harry and Ron just keep me around so I can help them brainstorm their conspiracy theories."
"They care about you for more than what you know about the Philosopher's Stone," Ellie assured her. "If you just—"
"Hold on." Hermione went from looking miserable to puzzled. "The what?"
"You know—the Stone. Hagrid told me you'd been hounding him about it."
For a second, Hermione still didn't seem to understand. Then, suddenly, she gasped. "Of course! Nicholas Flamel! It all makes—"
But she was cut off by the sudden, jarring sound of a giant, hulking troll creeping its way into the bathroom with them.
Frightening as it was, the troll looked incredibly stupid. Its head was too small for its giant body, and the heavy, spiked club it carried made the ones the twins used at Beating look like toys.
"Ellie!" Hermione shrieked. "What do we do?"
Ellie glanced around, trying not to panic. "Uh… transfigure something? The sink into a shield?"
"I don't know how!"
"The one time you don't know something!" Ellie shouted back, unable to help herself. She tried to think back on all the lessons she had learned over the course of the year. What could help her now?
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione shouted suddenly, pointing her wand at the troll. But it didn't work, and now the troll seemed even more agitated.
"Make a break for the door?" Ellie suggested weakly. But it was no good; they'd never make it past the troll.
Before Hermione could answer her, two new figures appeared in the doorway: Ron and Harry. Then, just behind them, two more: Fred and George.
"'Mione!" Ron shouted just as Fred yelped, "El! Are you okay?"
"Define 'okay,'" Ellie joked weakly as she clutched at the frame of the bathroom stall. But she was hugely relieved to see him—and the others, of course.
"Trachiato!" George shouted, pointing his wand at one of the sinks. The sink came out of the wall and changed into a large, metal shield. "Grab on!"
Ellie and Hermione grabbed onto the shield just in time to save themselves from a swing of the troll's club. It survived the first hit, and even the second, but splintered apart for the third.
Fred lifted his wand to perform a spell, but before he could, Harry launched himself up onto the club and grabbed hold of it for all he was worth. The troll swung the club up in the air, confused, and Harry ended up falling onto its shoulders.
"I can't decide if he's incredibly brave or incredibly stupid," Ellie whispered to Hermione as they watched Harry stick his wand up the troll's nose.
But the humor didn't last long. The troll grabbed Harry by the feet, held him out, and readied to swing at him with its club.
"Wingardium Leviosa again!" Ellie shouted to them as she readied her wand. "If all of us point it at the club, it should be strong enough!"
Everyone in the room performed the spell at the same time, and, sure enough, the club worked its way out of the troll's grip.
"Careful," shouted Hermione. "All together now. Swing left first, then back towards its head."
It worked. The rightward swing toward the troll's head caused a hard hit, and the troll took a few dazed steps before falling, unconscious, to the ground.
"Bloody hell," muttered Harry as he crawled out from under the fallen troll. "Everyone okay?"
"Better than you, I'd wager," said Ellie, shaking her head. "What were you thinking, jumping at its club like that?"
"I was thinking that if one of us didn't do something, that club was going to kill the both of you," he pointed out. "Worked, didn't it?"
"Define 'worked,'" Fred joked weakly, bringing Ellie's previous joke full-circle.
At that, the teachers burst in—first McGonagall, then Snape, Quirrell, Flitwick, and Dumbledore.
"Wh—I—explain yourselves!" stammered McGonagall, who Ellie had never seen so flustered.
"It was my fault," Hermione said. "I—"
"It was no one's fault," Ellie interrupted sharply. "Hermione was having a bad day and needed some privacy, which, as we all know, is a bit hard to find at this otherwise delightful school. I came here to check on her, and that's when the troll came."
"And we came to check on them," added Ron and Harry. "Once we heard about the troll."
"And we came to check on her," added Fred, nodding toward Ellie. "Er—I mean, them."
Ellie tried not to grin at that.
McGonagall scanned the fallen troll suspiciously. "And how, exactly, did a group of first years—"
"Not just first years!" interrupted George.
"—manage to take out a fully grown cave troll?"
"Wingardium Leviosa," Ellie and Hermione said in unison. Flitwick beamed.
"We charmed his club," Ellie explained. "Between all of us, there was enough power."
McGonagall cleared her throat, glanced at the other professors, and, finally, nodded. "Well, relieved as I am that you are all safe, I must urge you to look at this as a lesson learned. The next time any of you hear of a troll lurking about the castle and worry that your friends might be unsafe, come and tell a teacher."
"Yes, Professor," they all echoed.
Miraculously, at that, they were allowed to leave.
Ron bragged about the experience to all the wide-eyed Gryffindors the moment they got back to the common room. As Percy stepped in to question the legitimacy of his brother's claims, Oliver stepped in to congratulate Ellie.
"You really are full of surprises, aren't you?" he asked her with that handsome grin of his. "Taking out a troll in your first year at Hogwarts? Quite impressive."
She blushed and thanked him, but she slinked off to rejoin the twins shortly after. If there was one thing the near-death experience had taught her, it was that those two made her feel safe. And safe was what she needed to feel right now.
"I could've handled it, you know," she told them as they sunk onto the sofa in front of the fireplace together.
"You were nearly smashed to smithereens," George pointed out.
"We didn't mind," Fred added easily. "Coming to the rescue and all. Like we told Harry before, we're your protectors—on and off the field."
She smiled at that. She liked knowing she had protectors like them.
"So?" George asked as he yawned. "Did the troll ruin your birthday, or did the rest of the day still outweigh it?"
"You kidding?" She laughed. "Best birthday ever—troll included."
Similar to the original version of the troll goings-on, but with a few Ellie-inspired twists! How did you enjoy Ellie's birthday-slash-Halloween? Please remember to leave a review if you liked it, and thanks for reading!
