Author's Note: This next chapter is now fully finished. Please read and review.


Chapter 13

Trolling The Castle

Year 1 - Hogwarts Castle - Earth

Ron slowly turned around just enough to look at Harry with absolute terror on his face: there was a gigantic three-headed beast in the guise of a dog which was lying on the floor sound asleep only but a few feet away from them.

Harry, although a bit stunned at first by the mere presence of the creature, took a deep breath in before very slowly as well as quietly stepping ever so lightly past his friends and motioned towards the central head of monstrously large creature. The little boy didn't know why, but something inside was telling him to approach the humongous animal, yet to the immediate viewpoint of the other three students present, it seemed as though Potter had gone mad and was trying to get himself eaten alive.

Neville wanted so rather desperately to tell Harry not to move even a single step closer towards the monstrous canine-like beast, and to say that he was totally plumb crazy for even thinking of doing such a colossally stupid thing at all in the first place, but he dared not utter even the tiniest sound, lest he cause the immensely large creature in front of them all to promptly wake up, then they'd be kibble.

Upon reaching the middle head of the gigantic monstrosity before him, Potter immediately placed one hand on his forehead, while at the same time, leaning forward slightly and placing his other hand on the animal's furry brow.

Ron, Neville, and Parvati all stared a one another in genuine and complete horror upon all three of them witnessing whatever it was that Harry was doing, of which none of them could clearing make out, let alone understand what it was that the young Padawan Learner was trying to accomplish. Although, the only thing they did understand was that whatever it was that Potter was doing just now, it was sure to get them all killed within the next few seconds.

After several tense and heart-pounding moments, the ginormous canine-like animal slowly began to stir from it's deep slumber and it opened all six of it's eyes, just as Harry steadily removed his hand from the creature's forehead while gently lowering his other hand down to his side and quietly taking several steps backward to rejoin his friends, who all immediately gasped in utter fright at the sight of the now awakened monster. This was it, they were all going to die here within seconds; both quickly as well as painfully. What had they been thinking, going up to the third floor corridor, of which they were strictly forbidden not to do. And now they knew, albeit too late, why that was.

The dog slowly lifted up all three of it's heads at once, and quite unexpectedly to the sudden and downright shock and confusion of Ron, Neville, and Parvati, simply eyed all four of the children in both wonder and curiosity, instead of swiftly lunging forward with all three of it's fang-covered mouths wide-open and ready to gorge the children to bloody shreds, as the three of them (apart from Harry) had been expecting it to do.

Ron very slowly shifted his gaze just a little over toward Harry. "Uh, Harry? What's going on?" he whispered nervously, looking quite rather bewildered.

Before the students could say or do anything more, they promptly heard very distant but loud footsteps slowly approached their precise location, as well as a familiar voice calling out at them from the other side of the door, which seemed to get louder and clearer with each sound of a step that was heard.

"I know you're in there!" the voice declared sharply. It was Filch. He must have figured out where the four students were hiding. "This is the end of Hogwarts for you lot!"

Harry briefly turned his attention to the three-headed dog, before gesturing to the others for them to hide just as they could all clearly hear the handle on the opposite side of the door being jiggled. And almost immediately thereafter, the large wooden door slowly creaked open, with Mrs. Norris rather nimbly stepping through the tiny crack in the doorway.

Upon lightly pushing the door fully open the rest of the way, Filch lifted up his lantern in order to see out in front of him; clearly expecting to find all four of the students standing just a few feet away, only to come face-to-face with a gigantic three-headed monster with eyes that seemed to glow in the dim light, and three sets of dripping white fangs which were salivating profusely once the massive animal had noticed both the caretaker and his pet cat.

**GRRR! … BARK BARK BARK … GRR! … BARK BARK**

Mrs. Norris instantly screeched in terror as all the fur on her body shot straight up and she promptly turned and bolted out of the chamber, with Filch literally screaming at the top of his lungs in bloody murder as he spun on his heels and flew out of the room himself, not even bothering to shut the door behind him. What both of them failed to notice in their haste was that all four of the students had huddled together up against the corner wall within the shadows to avoid detection.

Ron promptly covered his mouth with his hand; trying desperately to keep himself from bursting out into a hysterical fit of laughter upon catching a glimpse of Filch's terrified expression, right before the caretaker ran screaming out of the room.

Harry once more reached out with the Force telepathically to the dog, and after a moment or so, the great three-headed beast finally calmed right down, thus allowing the four Hogwarts students to then exit both the chamber as well as the forbidden corridor, though not before they distinctly heard the sound of loud whimpers and growls coming from the creature directly behind them, right before closing and re-locking the door. Potter had briefly poked his head through a crack in it: promising the humongous animal that's he come back as soon as he could with something for the creature to eat, before softly shutting the door behind him.

"Did any of you see that look on Filch's face?" asked Ron, who immediately fell over backwards onto a soda; laughing uncontrollably, the moment that all four of the children had gotten back to the Common Room in the Gryffindor Tower, with Harry, Neville, and Parvati also joining in the hysterics. Though, nowhere near as much as Weasley was. "That was absolutely priceless!"

"Not to mention the way his cat looked the moment she saw that thing!" added Parvati with a chuckle.

Potter almost fell over backwards with laughter upon him remembering that he had just barely caught a glimpse of Filch's cat, and the mere sight of the feline shooting several inches up off the floor while the fur all over her body straightened-up like pin needles, was positively hilarious. But he also then momentarily recalled seeing that the giant three-headed black dog had apparently been standing on top of something when it stood-up on all fours: immediately lunging for Fitch and Mrs. Norris to try and attack them. And to Harry, the thing which the dog was standing on looked to be something very much like a trap door.

As the four friends went up to their respective dormitories to get ready for bed, Harry wondered just what it was that the three-headed dog was perhaps guarding, if indeed the thing that it was standing on was a trap door. And if that was so, where did the trap door lead to, and what could be so important that it required a gigantic three-headed beast to safeguard it at all times within the castle?

Harry immediately climbed into bed and slid himself beneath the warm covers and sheets: his mind continuously swirling with questions regarding both the presence of the three-head dog as well as the possibility of there being a rather mysterious trap door underneath it's paws and what lay beneath it.

On Halloween, the whole student-body had gone outside to decorate pumpkins and make jack-o-lanterns out of them after classes, which would then be charmed and put on display in the Great Hall: each and every one of them flowing high above the House tables, just in time for the upcoming feast on Halloween Night.

When everyone had entered into the Great Hall that evening to partake in the feast, Harry glanced up and immediately noticed that approximately a thousand live bats fluttered off the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, thus making the candles inside the pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns stutter. Potter looked around until he'd found the lantern that he'd made, along with the ones that Ron, Neville, and Parvati had carved-out also.

Soon after everyone had found their seats around each of the four tables, the feast appeared quite suddenly on the golden plates that were neatly placed across both rows on each table along with the golden utensils and crystal goblets, just as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

A few minutes later, Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know." He then immediately passed out and sank to the floor.

There was an instantaneous uproar as the first-year students (except for Harry) began screaming and yelling in complete fear at the sight of Quirrell: many of them thinking to themselves all at once that he must be ether gravely injured… or worse.

Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the High Table at once as he pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the ceiling. "SILENCE!" he bellowed loudly, as several purple firecrackers exploded from the tip of his wand.

The massive chamber instantly fell quiet like a tomb as everyone promptly stopped what they were doing, thus allowing the Headmaster to lower his voice a bit.

"Everyone will please not panic," said Dumbledore in a calm but stern manner, before lowering his voice even more after a brief pause. "Now… Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately. Teachers, follow me to the dungeons at once."

Percy immediately beamed upon hearing this, as he was in his element now. And he very much enjoyed nothing more or less than to give orders and be in charge.

"Follow me! Stick together, first-years!" he instructed the Gryffindor students quite clearly as he lead all of them out of the Great Hall. "No need to fear the troll if you all follow my orders!"

Ron immediately rolled his eyes and sighed heavily in disgust, as his dear older brother was coming off as little more than a rather obnoxiously and often embarrassingly rude prat more and more as the school-year dragged on. And as the group entered into a corridor, with Percy not even bothering to shut his yap for just one freakin' second about how important it was that everyone stay close to him because he was a Prefect and they should do as he told them to, the students all of a sudden found themselves confronted by the twelve-foot high mountain troll.

"Everyone stay back. I've got this," declared Percy quite confidently as he momentarily turned around to look at the students, "Now, let me show you all how to properly deal with a troll. Watch closely."

**WHAM**

Nearly everyone shrieked in terror as Percy was instantly knocked off his feet and flung across to the opposite end of the corridor the moment that the troll's huge wooden club made direct physical contact with his body, and the redhead landed unconscious with a thud onto the stone floor near to a wall.

"I'm watching," Ron responded sarcastically to his brother's prideful comment with an irritated expression on his face while shaking his head, before quickly swerving and then diving out of the way of the troll's massive club just in time as it came down, while everyone else (excluding Harry, Neville, and Parvati) immediately scattered in a panic.

"What do we do?" asked Parvati, looking at her friends with utter confusion as she continuously ducked and dodged the troll's weapon over and over again.

Neville all of a sudden realized that his feet were no longer touching the ground, as the troll had grabbed ahold of him, and lifted the little boy into the air: holding him aloft by his ankles. "Whoa!" he cried in alarm. "Do something!"

The troll immediately went for Longbottom's head with it's enormous club, but missed hitting it's target by a mere few inches.

"What?" Ron asked in utter confusion, not knowing what to do at all in this current predicament.

Immediately remembering the spell that Professor Flitwick had taught in Charms Class, Harry pulled out his wand, did the "swish and flick" movement with his wrist, and spoke the incantation of the Levitation Charm.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, and the troll's heavy wooden club was instantaneously yanked from it's grasp, just as the weapon was about to be brought to bear down upon Neville's head.

Upon realizing that it no longer had it's weapon in-hand, the troll slowly looked around in confusion before glancing upwards; noticing immediately that it's rather large club was somehow floating about aimlessly above it's small head.

**BONK!**

The wooden club immediately fell with a loud thud onto its owner's skull, and the troll began to sway back and forth on the spot in a daze, before falling forwards heavily onto it's face with a loud rumble that caused the entire hallway to momentarily quake.

"Neville!" exclaimed Parvati in a worried tone upon seeing the little boy being dropped to the ground by the troll, right before the ugly creature had fainted, and tumbled over onto his back. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine," answered Longbottom while getting to his feet and dusting himself off, appearing to not have sustained any injuries.

An instant or two later, Professor McGonagall came running through the corridor as fast as she could go, who in turn was closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.

Snape bent over the troll, while Quirrell took one glance at the foul creature and stumbled back up against the wall behind him as he let out a faint whimper: clutching at his heart. Minerva, on the other hand, was looking squarely at the four students standing before her, who in turn were all glancing about at one another nervously.

Harry, in particular, had never once seen Professor McGonagall appear so angry before. Her lips were white, her face bright red, and she appeared to be slightly shaking.

"Explain yourselves!" she immediately bellowed with a fiery edge to her voice. "NOW!"

"W- We were all heading back to the Gryffindor Tower and to the Common Room as Professor Dumbledore had instructed," remarked Ron with a brief stammer. "Percy was at the front of our group when we all of a sudden came face-to-face with the troll, as it was blocking our way toward the staircases and up to the tower. He wouldn't shut up about how we had nothing to fear if we did what he said. And when we were confronted by the troll, he stupidly claimed that he could deal with this situation all by himself."

"Harry was the one who managed to knock the troll out by using the Levitation Charm on it, though, Professor," added Parvati.

McGonagall looked over at Harry immediately for conformation of the girl's calm. "Is this true, Potter?" she inquired.

The little boy nodded his head at once in response. "Yes, it's true, Professor," he stated instantaneously with a firm and direct tone of voice.

All three Professors glanced at one another in total amazement, though Snape himself seemed be the least bit impressed out of all of them by the fact that Harry was the one to accomplish what no other first-year student in the whole history of Hogwarts could possibly hope to do, and still be alive to tell about it.

"Humph!" grumbled Snape most irritably. "Already taking credit for being the first ever student to have bested a fully-grown mountain troll, are you? You're nothing more than a pompous and arrogantly selfish prat, just like your father was, boy!"

Harry's face instantly turned red with anger. "I'm not a prat!" he spat bitterly at the greasy-haired Professor. "And don't you dare talk about my father that way!"

"Enough!" snapped Minerva in a voice of fury. "Both of you!"

Without so much as even acknowledging either McGonagall or Quirrell, Snap turned at once on the spot in a huff and madly stomped off down the corridor and was out of sight within moments.

After checking on Percy Weasley's condition, and seeing that the boy was greatly injured due to the impact of the blow from the mountain troll's club (wherein he had several broken bones and lacerations, busted up ribs, a concussion, as well as many other varying injuries throughout his body), Professor McGonagall immediately sent word of the situation to Madam Pomfrey at the school's Hospital Wing. A moment later, a small band of House-elves appeared and promptly levitated the older Weasley boy up off the stone floor: vanishing just as suddenly as they had appeared with the fifth-year Prefect in tow.

"Now, as for the rest of you," Professor McGonagall said as she turned to address Harry, Ron, Neville, and Parvati once more, "the four of you had best get yourselves back up to the Gryffindor Tower immediately. I will not have any of my students wandering aimlessly about the castle this late at night looking for trouble. Am I understood?"

All four students instantly nodded their heads at her in obedient replies while also glancing at each other assuredly, hoping that she wasn't about to remove House points because of this incident.

"Good," said McGonagall, and she turned to leave, before promptly turning around to face Harry again. "Oh, before I forget - five points with be awarded to you, Mr. Potter. For sheer dumb luck."

The expressions on the faces of all four students immediately lit-up and they looked at one another with unsustainable excitement at what they had just heard the Gryffindor Head of House say to them. And while passing by Quirrell as they were walking back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry all of a sudden heard the pained small voice of the baby crying inside his head again the minute that the Professor turned his back to the children.

By now, Potter was very much wanting to find out exactly what was going on whenever he was anywhere within the general proximity of Professor Quirrell, and why he was hearing the distressed voice of some baby inside his mind whenever the Professor's back was turned to him, as it was starting to get a bit old, frankly. Harry needed to find answers to these and so many other lingering questions now more than ever.