The Troll Incident
Petunia glared at the headmaster, her ire barely held in check. As far as she was concerned, regardless of what his explanation was, this was Albus Dumbledore's fault. The matron walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ma'am," The matron said politely as she leaned over to observe Harry, "I'm Poppy Pomfrey, the Hospital Matron. I need to wake Mister Potter up for a moment to verify that the procedure worked. As I said, if it did not then he'll have to be transferred to St. Mungo's." Dumbldore winced at her repetition of that threat.
Petunia and Remus each took a step back as Pomfrey cast a spell that caused Harry to gently return to consciousness. Taking note that Hermione seemed on the verge of tears, Petunia gestured for her to join them near Harry's bedside. She noticed that the young girl's right hand was bandaged up, but didn't say anything about it yet. In that time, Harry's eyes had fluttered open and he tried to turn his head to face Petunia and Hermione, but found he couldn't move anything.
Seeing his distress, Pomfrey spoke before he could become agitated, "Mister Potter, you are still attached to the bed with sticking charms, you can't move right now. How do you feel?"
"Alright I guess. Aunt Petunia? Is that you?" Pomfrey nodded and began casting diagnostic charms. Harry's voice was weak, but not as faint as it was before. A few spells confirmed that his core was stabilized properly.
"Can you feel anything odd? Itching anywhere?" The matron pressed.
"Uh, my legs itch, I think… it feels weird. But it doesn't hurt, I guess" He replied, much clearer.
"Good, that's the Skele-gro working. You have about an hour before I'll need to give you a Sleeping Draught to sleep through the process."
Skele-gro? Harry pondered. Wait, the reason why he was in the hospital came back to him as his eyes moved back to focus on his aunt, "Aunt Petunia! I'm gonna be okay, it's not as bad as it looks."
Petunia took a finger and gently pushed it against Harry's mouth to shush him, speaking softly to calm him down, "It's alright Harry. Apparently you have an hour to tell me all about it, so there's no reason to rush." She smiled at him and kissed his forehead before turning back to the headmaster, her voice becoming much harsher, "But I like hearing stories from the beginning, and the beginning of this one is how a troll found its way into the school. I was led to believe this was the safest place in the world."
"Yes, well…" Dumbledore stumbled over his words for a moment as he tried to answer, "I did discover how the troll got through the wards. Earlier in the year a professor brought one in for a special class," Mcgonagall raised her eyebrow at that, "and apparently he failed to reset the ward properly after he was done. This one wandered in along the same path the first one was brought."
"Ridiculous! Special class in what?" Hermione hissed from Petunia's side, "I bet there's a troll under that trapdoor!"
"What?" Petunia asked as she tightened her hold on Hermione, "What trapdoor?"
Hermione looked apologetically at Harry, who smiled to try and communicate that it was alright, "Last month Harry tried breaking into the third floor, where the headmaster said we weren't allowed." Petunia gasped and glanced at Harry before squeezing Hermoine's arm to bid her to continue, "There's a giant cerberus in the room, but Harry said it was standing on a trapdoor."
"A cerberus, are you kidding me?" The redheaded boy asked from behind them where he was sitting up on his bed.
"Why am I only hearing about this now?" Petunia asked, keeping any hint of anger out of her voice as she locked eyes with Hermione.
"Harry didn't want you to be mad. It was the day he got his Nimbus." The brown-haired girl hesitantly answered, "Plus, he promised he wouldn't go back after the dog scared him half to death."
"I'm really sorry-" Harry began, only for Petunia to shake her head to silence him.
"Harry, it's alright." She chided, "So, headmaster. Giant dogs guarding trapdoors aside, how is this negligent professor being punished?"
"I have placed him on probation and he will be fired at the end of the year, but it's not possible to replace him at this time, so I can't exactly fire him right now." Dumbledore responded.
Before Petunia could go on a tirade, Minerva stepped in an explained, "If he were fired then no one would replace him and a core class would become a self study for lower years. Especially this early in the year, no one would risk it." The squib looked at her incredulously so she continued, "No Defense professor has lasted more than one school year since before your sister attended here. Though there's no proof, many students, and even some prominent adults in our society, believe the position is somehow cursed."
"I can confirm that that is the case. The belief, I mean." Remus added, "Though the whole 'trying to get fired' thing is new, James and I speculated about the supposed curse while we were still in school as well. We had seven years and seven Defense instructors."
"Quirell confided to me that he hoped the hole in the wards would be found by Christmas. Then he would be fired at the end of the year for negligence and the supposed curse wouldn't remove him in a more violent manner." Dumbledore confirmed. "It was obviously his belief that no troll would be intelligent enough to find its way into the castle alone. Clearly this one was smarter than average. Also, so you're aware, he was one of only two to offer their services for the position at all this year, which is how I know that replacing him would be nearly impossible."
"That doesn't instill much confidence, headmaster." Petunia deadpanned while Harry, Dudley, and Hermione were gawking at the man, "Why should I trust my children to a place like that? The man's negligence has Harry in the hospital and put the lives of four children in danger!"
"Usually the defense professor suffers some accident at the end of the year," Mcgonagall added, "or some compromising information about their past comes out that forces them to leave. I've never heard of a student being injured like this due to the supposed curse, but arranging for themselves to be fired isn't unheard of."
"We're wasting time, I suppose. The hole is closed I presume." The squib huffed, she was beginning to remember that magicals tended to lack common sense, "Why don't you kids tell us what happened. How did you come to be saving a missing student to get yourselves in this mess in the first place?" She glanced back at the redheaded boy whose name she still hadn't asked, though she was pretty sure she knew based on his appearance, "I assume that was you? Ronald Weasley, yes? Slytherin?"
The boy nodded, "Yeah that's me." He glanced away in shame after the admission.
"When the teachers sent us all to our dorms I remembered that he had been… uh… sick today." Dudley said, stumbling over an acceptable lie to cover for Ron, "He'd been in a bathroom since lunch today, so I went to warn him since I'd heard he was on the first floor and that was on the way to my dorm anyways. But I couldn't remember where the bathroom was, so I ran to the kitchen to get Harry since he knows where everything is."
Petunia thought for a moment before looking back to Ronald, something about the way Dudley explained the boy's presence bothered her, "It sounds like you should start, then let the others pick up where they come in. How does that sound? Would you begin with why you stayed in the bathroom if you were that sick for an entire afternoon instead of coming here?"
Ron fought to keep the embarrassment off his face, "That started in Defense class today before lunch, I have that class with Harry and Hermione so they can help me with what happened there… I spent the end of that class with a headache."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
Ron sighed as he got to his seat, barely making it in time since he spent too long eating breakfast again, and glanced around to make sure he wasn't going to get in trouble with Professor Quirrell. Nott and Zabini scoffed at him as he sat down, but Ron did his best to ignore them. He sat on the border between Slytherin and Gryffindor students. there was still a visible gap between the two groups, but Harry and Hermione's positions beside him, inside the gap, kept him from worrying. At least he had friends now, and it certainly helped that they were two of the top students in class. Harry was the best and fastest at defensive spells, picking up a lot of them on the first try, and Hermione was no slouch either. Thankfully they couldn't do the spells wandlessly, Hermione had said she couldn't seem to get almost anything except simple charms to work. Ron wasn't sure he could bear to be that far behind them.
The Slytherin Weasley wasn't alone in groaning when Quirrell informed the first years that they would be practicing their Flipendo spells against each other for that class, four groups of two at a time. The jinx just bumped a person back like they'd been pushed, but it was annoying to constantly be knocked to your bum on the hard floor if you couldn't move out of the way. Sure they were allowed to swat the spells away with their wands if they could, since Flipendo posed no risk to their wands even with their minimal practice, but Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass were the only ones who could do that reliably. Ron had heard that they'd been given a little training before school so they could protect themselves if they needed to. They didn't need it, he thought. What with Greengrass's cold personality having done enough to scare off anyone that thought they could take advantage of her for being a girl, and Davis never being far from her friend's side.
After rotating through a few partners Ron found himself paired against Theordore Nott of all people. He grumbled at his poor luck as he watched Harry, an isle over, repeatedly trounce Malfoy, who insisted on trying to swat at the incoming spells every chance he got trying to make it work. When the next person attempted to have Malfoy move, the blonde ponce threatened them and turned back to face Potter.
"Pay attention, Weasel. There's no point in beating you if you aren't even facing the right way!" Nott called to him from across the dueling isle.
Squaring up to face the boy, Ron brandished his wand and the two began trading knockback jinxes. He tried his best to dodge left and right of the incoming blue spells, and even managed to succeed at it the first few times as he returned fire, but it didn't matter as the other boy's spellcasting was much faster than his own. Sending out only two spells before being knocked back by the fourth incoming one, Ron found himself knocked a bit too far back, tripping over the edge of the isle and falling an extra couple feet off the platform to land hard on the stone floor.
"Idiot." Nott jeered from the isle as he approached the other side. Ron slowly got up, holding his head where he'd cracked it against the floor. It wasn't bleeding, but it really hurt!
"You're worthless without Potter or his mudbloods, a blood-traitor just like your-" Nott didn't get to finish his taunting as a bright blue spell smacked into him from the side, knocking him clean off the platform.
"Sorry, missed cast." Harry called from the next isle over as he sidestepped a spell from Malfoy, causing the other boy's already flushed face to get even redder in anger.
"Potter! Watch where you're-"
"Potter! I'm your oppon-"
"P-p-potter!" The sound of the professor silenced the two Slytherins, "If you w-want to test yourself ag-gainst Mister Nott, do it officially. You t-t-two are the top cast-t-ters in class anyways, it could be a good l-l-l-lesson for the others."
The professor waved all the dueling pairs off the isles and had Harry and Nott square up. Ron stood with the Gryffindors, seeing as the half of Slytherin that weren't glued to the two wizards on the dueling platform were glaring at him for, in their eyes, causing this.
"Flipendos… or s-similar, if you know them." Quirell said as he took a position between the students, "Begin."
Both started out fast and furious, casting as swiftly as they could while still keeping an eye on the incoming spells. Knockback jinxes were about a foot in diameter and the platform was five feet wide, which left room for error. Harry quickly fell into a rhythm, dodging around incoming spells in the same headspace he used to get into to dodge opposing players while running the ball in games back home. This rhythm was all that kept him from getting hit in the chest with a spell that was definitely not Flipendo, it was twice as fast as the knockback spells and a sickly yellow in colour. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't able to dodge completely and it struck him in the left arm with the feeling of being punched, hard. Harry gasped and accidentally dropped his wand as he clutched his arm, continuing to move out of the few remaining jinxes still incoming. He would need to check and make sure there wasn't an actual bruise there in a moment.
"That all you got, Potter?" Nott called from the other side, "Pitiful. How did someone like you ever defeat the Dark Lord?"
Harry stood tall again as he faced Nott down, lifting his empty wand hand he hoped this would finally work.
"Flipendo!" He shouted angrily as he made a 'be gone' motion with his wrist. A foot wide ball of blue energy sailed from his hand towards Nott, who barely managed to dodge out of the way in his shock. Harry continued his assault, repeating the incantation over and over as he flicked his wrist up and down far faster than he could 'spin and push' his wand.
Eventually Nott grew too tired to dodge and shouted, 'Protego,' forming a disk of translucent energy directly in front of him that stopped Harry's spells in their tracks. Harry kept casting, but didn't think he was going to win like this. He was pretty sure that, even if the first "other spell" was somehow allowed by the professor's vague rules, that this shield was not. Hermione had found that one in the very back of this year's Defense textbook so Harry was impressed that Nott could even cast it, but he still felt that Quirell should have called the fight when he did.
Deciding that the professor was going to make them keep going until one of them was knocked down, Harry tried speeding up his casting to break the shield. First he silently flicked his wrist while imagining the feeling of knocking down the arrogant git in front of him, it worked and the spells kept flying. After a few silent casts Harry held out his hand and gripped the feeling of pushing Nott away as hard as he could. His spells began shooting out of his palm as fast as he could think to 'push' again, and the other boy's shield sputtered out against the onslaught in under fifteen seconds. The moment it broke, Harry stopped. But it was a bit too late for that as Nott was struck not once, not twice, but four times by already flying knockback spells, launching him ten feet off the platform and through the dueling ward, which was only meant to protect against spells, to crash into Crabbe and Goyle who were unlucky enough to be standing in the way.
"Five points for Gryf-f-findor." Quirell stated as he walked over to check on Theodore Nott, "As for you Mister N-n-nott. You raised the stakes with a sh-shield charm. You should have been p-p-prepared for the conseq-q-quences and f-f-followed up with something."
With only ten minutes left in the class anyways, Quirell dismissed them early after assigning a half-foot essay on things they could think of that Harry or Theo could have done to end the duel faster. As they returned to their desks Ron had to chase away Blaise Zabini from going through his bookbag.
"Just seeing if it was as old and ratty as I thought it was." The boy jeered as he rejoined Nott, Millicent Bulstrode, and Janice Runcorn.
Ron shook his head as he grabbed his bag and rushed out. Slytherin first years had a free period before lunch on Thursdays, which was terrible for the redhead since it meant he still had to wait to eat again. Thankfully, he'd taken to preparing for Thursdays by grabbing a couple extra muffins and stuffing them in his bag to munch on after DADA.
Immediately after finishing the first muffin Ron knew something was wrong, his stomach gurgled and he ran for the nearest bathroom he could find to vacate his bowels only to keep throwing up almost continuously for the next hour. It didn't take him long to know when this probably happened, apparently he didn't stop Zabini from doing whatever he was doing to his bag. Since he'd taken in with Harry's group, Malfoy and his two muscle men had left him pretty much alone, but the other two boys in his year had apparently taken that as a challenge to inflict as much misery on Ron as possible.
He wasn't sure how much more of this he could handle. He wasn't bothered while he was near the Gryffindors, but the minute he was alone he still tended to be hexed whenever he wasn't looking. Harry and Dudley somehow had a tendency to "know" when he was in real trouble and come to his aid, but that was starting to grate on him too. Especially since he had no idea how they were doing it.
Ron felt too miserable to go to lunch when the time came around. He was convinced his stomach would just rebel again and he'd embarrass himself. After lunch he convinced himself that flying on a sick, empty stomach was a bad idea; and after that skipping charms to continue feeling sorry for himself just seemed like the natural thing to do. Unfortunately, all that wallowing had left him truly wondering if maybe he would just be better off going home. He still hadn't gotten anything from his mum after the howler in the first week except his own letters, unopened, and he was pretty sure she was keeping the letters he sent from his dad too. The only time he'd gotten a reply from his father had been when he sent one with Percy's weekly report to the family, and that was just to say 'keep doing well' since Ron had chickened out and not written about his problems where Percy might read them.
As dinner was nearing its end Ron's stomach finally won out against his misery, and he got up to see if he could grab something before the Hall was cleared. While he was washing his hands, he heard a crash behind him as a smell worse than anything he, himself, had caused that day assaulted his senses. He looked up at the mirror in front of him to see a full-grown troll smash the first stall in the bathroom…
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
Petunia held her hand out to stop Ron as he became rather emotional in his retelling, "Professor Mcgonagall, is that kind of systemic bullying truly allowed here?"
"Not exactly," the witch replied, "but with magic it is often extraordinarily difficult to prove who did something. If the perpetrator can actually be found then punishments are handed out. But, unless someone is hurt it's sometimes hard to justify the difficulty in hunting them down when it isn't obvious. I shall be addressing Severus about his students soon."
Petunia frowned at that before glancing over to Remus, his assertion that 'The Marauders' would play pranks on people to protect against bullying was making more sense now, "Well, I guess that explains why you were in the bathroom, but am I supposed to believe that your mother decided not to come after you almost died?" She looked over at Mcgonagall, "Or was she not informed?"
"I asked that no one tell her." Ron said, drawing the attention back to himself, "I didn't want to hear what she would say. She'd probably have congratulated the troll or something."
Petunia's heart broke at that statement, and she pulled the poor boy into a hug before she even realized what she was doing. Ron Weasley hugged her back and soon found himself crying as she held him tight and ran a hand through his hair, just like his own mum would whenever he got hurt back home. Petunia looked over at Remus, who nodded in understanding. The Weasley family needed a talking-to.
Composing herself because she remembered that Harry was on a timer, Petunia set Ron back down onto one of the beds once he'd finished crying and turned back to her wards, leaving the boy in the Matron's care again, "Well, that explains that, but Dudley said that you weren't at dinner either Harry, why not?"
This time it was Harry's turn to become emotional, "They were celebrating…" Petunia's eyebrow raised a bit as she processed that before understanding, "It was basically a party. I… I didn't want that… not today."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"I can't do this after all, I need to go." Harry whispered as he and Hermione took in the massively overblown Halloween decorations set up in the Great Hall. There were even live bats flying around the enchanted ceiling! Over at the Gryffindor table the Weasley twins were leading several others in singing and generally carrying on.
"It's alright Harry. Let's just go to the kitchens, okay?" Hermione sought out Dudley and made eye contact, pointing down with her free hand to hopefully tell him where they were going.
The two slowly made their way downstairs, avoiding anyone heading back up by stepping through a secret passage that Hermione had no idea how Harry knew about. By the time they made it to the kitchen, she had resolved to finally ask him how he seemed to know where things were in the castle. Originally she'd assumed he just asked the elves, and she'd even done that sometimes herself, but there was no way he'd had time to quiz them on the dozen or so secret shortcuts in the school she'd seen him use so far.
The elves were ecstatic when they saw Harry Potter joining them for Halloween dinner, and he almost had to shout to get them to hear him say that they only wanted some light food. Nothing too heavy like they were having upstairs if possible. A little let down that Harry wasn't celebrating, but understanding that he might prefer quiet, the elves set up a table for the pair with some nice stew which Harry and Hermione said was perfect.
"I'm still not sure about this house elf thing Harry." Hermione huffed as they sat down, "It just feels wrong to me. Especially since there's nothing in any books in the library besides vague mentions of how useful they are."
"Maybe you should just ask them?" Harry asked. Hermione had been so caught up in finding a book on elves that he hadn't mentioned this before. Secretly he was hoping she would come up with it on her own. Why was she so obsessed with finding a book when a firsthand source was right here?
Hermione stared at Harry with her mouth open for several seconds before he reached over and closed it for her, chuckling as he did. After waving her away the girl hugged him before hopping up to go talk to an elf that looked to be less busy than the others. A little while after she did, Harry flexed his fingers, carefully floating his spoon out of his bowl and to his lips while spilling on the napkin he held under it. He'd been trying to work on being more steady and precise with his levitation, easily his favorite bit of wandless magic, by eating snacks in private using it. Smaller things were harder to keep steady in the air than bigger or heavier ones, it turned out. He didn't get that much time to practise because the three had promised their friends they'd avoid showing off with wandless spells all the time, since Professor Flitwick had confirmed that they wouldn't be able to teach it before the summer.
After a few failed attempts to keep his stew in the spoon while moving it fast enough for it not to be cold, Harry gave up and picked up the spoon to eat normally. In the absence of something to concentrate on, his day long melancholy threatened to come back. But that was about the same time that Hermione returned from her chat with the elves.
When she sat down she immediately began explaining what she'd learned, hoping that learning something new and interesting would get his mind off of why he was sad today. According to the elf she had talked to, Wopny, elves weren't capable of producing magic on their own. Instead they get it directly from whoever they are bonded to. The only exception being for places with a huge amount of magic, like Hogwarts, where they can bond directly to the location. The service they performed was their side of the magic bond that literally kept them alive. Because of that, they were usually quite happy to do anything their masters asked of them.
One thing she did learn that appalled her was that there were apparently no laws protecting an elf from their masters if they were cruel, which many dark families were. Several Hogwarts house elves had been abused by their masters and freed when they got bored of it or died in the war. The elves came here because families don't usually want "damaged goods." Harry had her make a note to mention it to Mrs. Tonks when the time came. That led Harry into a new funk about his family, remembering how he might have known Mister Lupin growing up if Amos Diggory hadn't been so anti-werewolf.
After a few minutes of companionable silence, Hermione tried to start a new conversation.
"Could you help me with the Flipendo spell?" She asked, "I want to be able to cast it wandlessly like you did against Nott, and you look like you need something to keep your mind busy."
Harry wasn't sure he liked what he'd learned about wandless defensive magic from that class, he didn't want to be in the habit of wanting to potentially hurt someone like he did with Nott earlier today. That was, as he'd discovered, the big difference between wandless and wanded magic once you "got" the former; the intent behind your spells had to be much much stronger without a focus to cast them through.
"Or you could tell me how you know where all those secret passages are?" Hermione offered hopefully, seeing Harry's discomfort at the former question.
Harry thought about that for a minute. He hadn't shown Hermione the Map yet, because he was worried that she would think it was purely against the rules and insist he shouldn't have it. But then again, she complained all the time about getting lost, or hallways seeming to change; and the Map self updated with the minor changes that happened throughout the castle.
Resolving to make sure the Map was well hidden if she didn't like it, Harry pulled out the blank parchment and unfolded it on the table in front of them, "This was made by my dad and Mister Lupin." He explained as he reverently touched his wand to it, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"Harry! This is incredible!" Hermione squealed as she watched the Map draw itself in, "Oh my goodness!" She cried anew as it filled in the name tags for every person in the school.
"It's totally accurate, to the moment." Harry explained, "If you ask it for a shortcut then the map will draw a line from you to your destination. The first time it did I was confused when it sent me to a suit of armor at a dead end. Well, when you're near a hidden passage the Map shows you how to open it. I didn't even know it did all that when I was trying it out, I was just late to History one day and asked it for help. By the way, that passage behind the armor took me up a flight of stairs, but ended three floors below where I started. This castle is amazing!"
Hermione's dancing eyes convinced Harry that he wouldn't have to worry about her being a stickler for the rules in this case. Not when she had a chance to always be early to all of her classes!
The pair spent a bit of time checking out the features of the Map before Harry decided to answer Hermione's first question about wandless magic. Afterwards she agreed that it was probably something she wouldn't worry with too much. Really wanting to make something levitate was pretty easy, she felt, but wanting to hurt someone, even just a push, to that same level wasn't something she wanted to train herself to do.
As the two were preparing to leave a group of elves rushed over to them and told them they needed to sit back down.
"Hoggy-Warts has been invaded Mister Potter!" Lonny, the head elf, explained after popping in, "A troll in the lower levels! You musn't be leaving the kitchens until it be's safe! Other students be going to their dormy-tories."
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"The elves wouldn't let you leave despite my order for students to evacuate to their dorms?" Dumbledore asked.
"They said they were allowed to defend the kitchen, but weren't allowed to protect the castle otherwise unless they were specifically told to." Hermione replied as she held Harry's hand, which Madame Pomfrey had unstuck to make him slightly more comfortable.
"I suppose that makes sense." The headmaster conceded.
"Sir?" Harry asked from his bed, "If the troll was in the dungeons why did you send everyone out of the Hall? Slytherin and Hufflepuff were in the same direction as the danger, particularly Slytherin."
"Ah, that would be because once I was actually aware that there was a problem the wards were able to alert me to the troll's location." The white-bearded wizard replied, "I knew that it wouldn't be directly in the path of any students going from the Hall to the Dorms, but unfortunately there is no ward that tells me if all the students are where they're supposed to be."
Harry was so glad in that moment that he'd decided to tell Hermione about his breakthrough in wandless magic earlier that night. When recounting what they did in the kitchens, the Map hadn't actually come up despite taking up most of their time. He had no intention of just offering it to the headmaster, though perhaps he should see if Mister Lupin could recreate it without the personality and give that to the school for tracking students. Thankfully, Hermione seemed to get the memo as well when Harry didn't mention the Map as a way to keep up with wayward children.
"Not even I can demand a perfect security system." Petunia relented, "At least there were plans in place if this sort of thing happened." Looking over at Dudley she continued, "So you come into this after the Headmaster sent the students to safety? You realized Ronald was missing and went to find him?"
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Justin, tell the prefects where I'm going!" Dudley said as he broke off from the other Hufflepuffs on the first floor, one under the Great Hall.
He hurried along the corridor, racking his brain for where the boy's toilets were on this floor. It was so close to both the Hall, as well as the Hufflepuff Dorms, that he'd never actually used them that he could recall. As he ran he came to a stop in front of a familiar painting of a bowl of fruit, tickling the pear to turn it into a door handle, he stepped into the kitchens while praying that Harry was still there. He knew where everything was by now thanks to his dad's map.
A quick explanation to Harry and Hermione, and a slightly longer argument with Lonny the Elf, later, the trio were headed towards the toilets to warn Ron about the danger of the troll.
"What is that smell?" Dudley asked as they rounded a corner while holding his nose.
"I know you said Ron was sick, but this is a bit much." Hermione said as she gagged a bit and leaned on the wall for a moment to steady herself.
Crash. The sound of a door exploding off its hinges resounded through the corridor from around the very next corner, and the terrified shriek of a boy cornered by a troll came after it. The three wasted no time in charging down the hall, maybe they could lead the thing away and outrun it in the corridors. Skidding to a stop at the door to the destroyed bathroom, they saw the twelve foot tall behemoth raising a huge tree branch to smash the next stall in line, three were already cratered. Ron was huddled under the last sink, which had taken a glancing blow after the troll apparently swiped across the entire bar of sinks, but it was clear that he'd hurt his ankle somehow and wouldn't be able to escape easily.
Dudley reacted without thinking, running around behind the troll to get to Ron as he said, "Distract it" to the two he left at the door. The troll turned around, planning to smash the newcomer, but was startled when his wand gave off a sound like thunder (Dudley was so proud that he'd learned how to do that intentionally, Professor Flitwick had worked with him for a couple weeks on it). The troll turned slightly when it flinched, catching Harry and Hermione in its sights.
Harry immediately raised his hand to try and Flipendo the troll, but it didn't work. Even though getting into the 'push this thing away from me' headspace wasn't difficult in the face of a twelve foot tall troll, the spell just wasn't strong enough to do anything to the magic-resistant monster.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione called as she gestured with her wand and the tree branch jerked out of the troll's hand. It reached to grab the branch as she turned to Harry, "If we do it together we might could trip it, that'll get Dudley out." As she finished she gestured to where Dudley was supporting Ron and trying to sneak back around.
"Alright," Harry said as he clasped hands with Hermione and pointed his other hand, empty, at the beast quickly finding a mutual frequency with his best friend's magic. Hermione mirrored him, her wand back in her pocket. "Pick up the troll on three." Harry finished.
What? Hermione's mind wasn't fast enough to question him out-loud. They weren't going to try and knock it down with Flipendo? She realized then that if they did, they would likely knock it at Dudley and Ron. Oh no! There was no way they could actually do that! Could they?
"Three!" Harry shouted, drawing her attention in time to cast the spell with him, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Several things happened when they cast the spell. The first being that Hermione noticed that it did absolutely nothing right away, which caused her to worry. But then there was a flare of magic from Harry, like he'd been holding back and suddenly decided to let loose all at once. That shocked her, as she had no idea that Harry had that much power to spare. 'That much' quickly became even more shocking to her as she felt her hand begin to burn from the heat of Harry's magic. It was all she could do to keep control of the magic that came coursing through her hand and as the troll took another step towards them she decided to just stop trying, trusting Harry not to hurt her. The magic poured through her, just like it was for Harry, and augmented her own power. But her hand stopped burning.
The result of both of them releasing all their magic at once upon the troll was instantaneous, it rose straight into the air, smashing its head into the ceiling with enough force to knock it out, and fell back down. Unfortunately, it's forward momentum wasn't arrested and it pitched over directly at the now exhausted Gryffindors. Using the last of his strength, Harry shoved Hermione out of the way just in time as the troll landed on his lower body. He screamed in pain as he felt the bones in his legs crumble under the weight of the creature, it felt like he had been run over by a truck.
o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o
"Professor Sprout got there a couple minutes later and helped us get Harry out from under the troll." Dudley finished explaining, "Justin told a prefect where we were and they sent the professor."
"And that more or less led to everyone being here?" Petunia concluded for him, "I'm disappointed that this happened," that was an understatement, "but that doesn't change the fact that I'm very proud of the three of you."
"Yes," the headmaster added, "if I may, fifty points to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for uncommon valor in the face of danger."
Petunia grimaced at that statement, she didn't particularly like the House Cup. It seemed to invite conflict more than competition from what Hermione had told her of how it worked.
"Also, Poppy, I think you should check to make sure Miss Granger's magic is not fluctuating as well." Dumbledore said as he continued ruminating over the story he'd just heard, "If she really channeled some of Mister Potter's magic through herself to power the spell then she might be more tired than she appears. Adrenaline and stress can keep you on your feet long after exhaustion should have sent you to bed."
The matron did just that, finding that Hermione's magic was severely depleted, and set out a few potions for her to take that would ease any restless sleep she might have as a result.
"Mister Dumbledore," The headmaster bristled when Petunia Dursley called him that, "Harry has about ten or fifteen more minutes before the matron said she needed to put him to sleep. I would like the chance to speak with my nephew, without you, and after he's out then we can have our long overdue little chat."
"Of course, of course," Dumbledore replied nervously as he got up, "I'll be in my office if you wouldn't mind bringing them by when you are done here Minerva?" The transfiguration professor nodded as her mentor walked out of the Hospital Wing.
Once the headmaster had left the room, Petunia broke down sobbing over Harry. Hermione and Dudley rubbed her back as she shuddered and cried, "I'm so glad you're okay." She finally said, "All of you."
Madame Pomfrey set up a privacy ward around the family while Petunia was in hysterics, "That's best kept private, I hope you understand." She said to Ron as she cast the ward, to which the Slytherin nodded kindly. He did understand, he wished his own mum could have been here for him like that…
Giving Petunia a chance to regain her composure, Remus decided to introduce himself, "Hello Harry. I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances." He smiled wanly as he spoke.
"Mister Lupin?" the boy asked.
"If that's what you want to call me. When you were really little you used to call me 'Uncle Moony' though. Of course, you weren't quite articulate enough to say it right back then."
"Mister Potter, Harry… I'm Andromeda Tonks." The last woman said as she stepped away from Madam Pomfrey, "Are you aware of who I am?"
"Mist-er… Uncle Moony said that you were like, distantly related to me or something?" Harry responded, the uncle in question grinned at the title, "He said you were someone I could trust to represent me on the… wizard court?"
"Your family asked me to be a little more than just your proxy on the Wizengamot." She began, "They asked me to be the Regent of your House. Basically the de-facto head of the family unless I step down or am replaced by you, the Heir. Something that is not easy to do before you come of age."
Harry tried hard to process that, but couldn't seem to answer a simple question. Turning back to Remus he asked, "Why?"
"The Smith family are worried that they will have to flee the country before James reaches schooling age to hide from Miss Temperance's father." The werewolf explained, "As Regent, Andromeda would be able to name the entire Smith family as wards of House Potter. That would keep her father from trying something underhanded to gain custody of the children."
"That's the primary reason." Petunia elaborated, "But a regent has more authority than a steward or proxy. Mrs. Tonks here could represent the Potter family to other families, not just in legislating but in general." As she spoke, Petunia jerked her head in the direction of the oblivious Ronald Weasley. "I have exchanged letters with her since late September, and Remus knows her and trusts her. I think this is the best thing to do."
Harry did his best to nod in understanding, "Do I have to sign something? How does this work?"
Andromeda laughed at how carefree and trusting the boy was, "I can go to Gringotts soon and get paperwork filed I suppose. There will be things for you to sign as well. If you want, someone could bring you and your cousin to Diagon Alley this weekend. I'm sure your uncle would love a chance to see you and know you're okay as well."
"We can mention that to the headmaster when we meet with him," Remus said before turning to Petunia, "assuming we are really doing that?"
"Yes." Harry's aunt nodded, "I don't think it can wait any longer now. I want to begin getting a few answers, and I want him to know that another incident like this will see all three of them pulled out of Hogwarts faster than he can sneeze."
The adults spent a few more minutes talking with the children, generally making them feel more secure. Meanwhile, Andromeda asked Harry a few minor questions about things he may have wanted her to do as Regent. Werewolf rights she expected, house elf rights… not so much. But, in her opinion, it was still a noble, and long overdue, endeavor.
"Mister Potter doesn't have much longer before the skele-gro begins working in earnest." Madame Pomfrey said as she came over to the group, "He'll need to be given a sleeping draught before that happens or he'll have a very uncomfortable night here. I'm going to be keeping the other three tonight as well, just to make sure, and give them a potion to help them sleep soundly."
Petunia reluctantly let Harry be sent into dreamland while she prepared for her meeting with the headmaster. Before leaving, she promised that she would call Hermione's parents in the morning and let them know what happened and that everything was alright. Two girls in green trimmed robes were waiting outside the door to the hospital wing when Professor Mcgonagall opened it to lead the others to the headmaster's office, one of them with a pet carrier in her hands.
"What are you two doing out of your dorms?" The stern witch asked as she eyed the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, floating behind them.
"When Weasley didn't show back up in the dorms some of the other first year boys were saying he got killed by the troll." The blonde girl, Daphne Greengrass if Mcgonagall recalled correctly, answered. "Someone got the idea to torture Weasley's pet rat. It ran to Tracey here," She indicated her companion, "and we tore into them for being the reason he was in danger in the first place."
Professor Mcgonagall cocked an eyebrow at that, demanding explanation which Tracey Davis supplied, "Zabini was bragging to Nott about what he did to Weasley, putting puking powder on his food. He said he put way more than you're supposed to. Pranks are one thing, but it sounded like he was trying to poison one of his own housemates. When Professor Snape came in to check on us and tell us the troll was dead we asked if we could bring Weasley's pet to him here in the hospital wing so it would be safe. I mean… I'm not a rat person, but still… The professor sent the Baron with us."
"Very well," Mcgonagall nodded, "five points each to Slytherin for house loyalty. Please do not tarry." She looked past the students to the ghost behind them, "Baron, please escort them back to their dorms after they have spoken with Mister Weasley." Mcgonagall turned to leave after the ghost nodded.
"Did she say the troll was dead?" Andromeda asked once they were out of earshot.
"Yes," Mcgonagall sighed, "the children didn't realize it when it happened, and I didn't want to worry them. But the troll is dead, it seemed to have been killed when it's head struck the ceiling. No wonder, since it was such a hard blow that it knocked a hole clean through the stones of Hogwarts."
"What?" Remus exclaimed, "How is that possible?"
"We will have to ask the headmaster about that, I suppose. Professor Sprout said that the hole was already starting to heal itself when she found them, but I have no idea how those two lifted a troll with that much force. I am very thankful to learn that it wasn't actually deadly intent on their part, though."
Back in the Hospital Wing, Hermione and Dudley watched curiously as Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis apologized to Ron for not speaking out against how he was being treated sooner. The two weren't allowed to stay very long, but before they left they offered to let the redhead join them to study or work on homework whenever he was in the common room, the place he was hexed or jinxed most often now.
From where he lay on his wizard's chest, Najash studied the rodent in the carrier long after the girls that brought it had left and long after all the others in the room were sleeping. There's something wrong with that rat the snake thought to himself as he drifted into a light sleep, ready to awaken and protect Harry if necessary.
