Here's chapter 4, how you liking the story so far?


Halloween dawned with the smell of baking pumpkin, wafting is way through the halls. And even better, in Charms Professor Flitwick said we were ready to make things fly! He put us in pairs, pairing me with the Hufflepuff next to me, though I didn't pay her much notice. I could see Harry partnered with the Gryffindor who kept exploding things, he had better be careful. And Ron was seated with a rather bushy-haired girl, Hermione Granger. She was a bit of a Know-It-All, but she got good marks in class. None the less, Ron did not look thrilled.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books, as he was rather short. "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. "

I never wanted that to happen, so I focused on my pronunciation. I was startled a bit when Harry's partner, Seamus was it? set fire to his feather, but my concentration was really disturbed by Ron shouting, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

I determined to ignore them as Hermione lecture him on the right way to say it.

"Wingardium Leviosa." I waved my wand in a slight curve, pointing it down at the feather at the end. My feather floated up into the air, and I directed it to tickle the Professor's nose.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Black has done it!"

Just afterward, Hermione's feather floated four feet off her desk.

"And Miss Granger! Ten points each to Black and Gryffindor."


Ron seemed to be in a bad mood.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly. "

Hermione knocked into Harry as she hurried past him in tears.

"I think she heard you. " He muttered.

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends. "

I marched right over and smacked him.

"Ron Weasley, you git! You are such a-" I cut off in my rage, turning to chase Hermione down. I found her sobbing in the girl's bathroom and tried to comfort her, but since we had basically no interaction up until now, she brushed it off and insisted I leave her alone. Still, I only left when I had to get to class.


That evening as I entered the Great Hall, I was in awe of the effort put forth in decorating. A thousand or more live bats swooped over the tables, snatching at shrieking girls hair, and a thousand more fluttered above, their many wing beats causing the candles to stutter. There were massive pumpkins carve with ghoulish faces, and of course, there were plenty of ghosts wandering around.

I was piling food onto my plate and waving at the Weasley twins when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, which was shocking in and of itself, but his face was filled with terror and his turban was askew as he gasped, "Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know." And then he sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"


I stumbled out into the hall, remembering Hermione. Heading straight for the bathroom, I burst in the door just as Hermione was emerging from the stall.

"Really, I'm fi-"

"Sshhh!" I pulled her back into the stall. "There's a troll in the castle, we have to get up to the dorm quietly."

But it was too late. Hermione screamed as I pulled her out of the way of a club swing, the stench of the thing making my eyes water. We ducked over by the sinks, as Harry and Ron burst through the door.

"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.

The troll stopped a few feet from us. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Oi, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it. I drew my wand, and raised it, unsure what I could even do.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn't move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape. I shouted at it to get its attention, and when it turned around, shouted, "LUMOS!"

It howled in pain as a brilliant white light shone from the tip of my wand. Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: He took a running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck. The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

Howling some more, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Hermione was on the floor, and the troll flailed, knocking me across the bathroom into the wall.

Dazed, I watched Ron, pulling out his wand- not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over - and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.

It was Hermione who spoke first.

"Is it - dead?"

"I don't think so," said Harry, I think it's just been knocked out. "

He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

"Urgh - troll boogers. "

He wiped it on the troll's trousers, then turned to me. A sudden slamming interrupted whatever he was going to say, as we turned to the footsteps echoing towards us.

It made sense someone heard the shouting and crashing, we weren't exactly quiet. Professor McGonagall came bursting through the door, followed closely by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll and whimpered, seating himself on a toilet as he clutched his heart.

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at the boys, with an anger I had never seen on the woman. Her lips were pursed so much they were white.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" She demanded. "You were lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"Please, Professor McGonagall- they were looking for me," Hermione spoke up, and the adults seemed to notice we were there.

"Miss Granger!"

"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. Leo found me first.

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose, Leo stunned it with Lumos, and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived. "

Harry and Ron were busy trying to look as if this tale were true, while I was confused. Hermione was lying to a teacher? I must have hit my head harder than I thought.

"Well - in that case. . . " said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of us, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses. "

Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go. "

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all. And then she turned to me.

"Miss Black, what really happened?"

So she hadn't believed Hermione after all. I gave a brief explanation as I tried to rise from the floor, but fell back with a cry. My ankle was swollen twice its normal size, my head throbbed something awful, and I think I broke my wrist. Realizing I was hurt, McGonagall sent Quirrell to fetch a stretcher. He darted down the corridor so fast it was like he hadn't been there at all.


So I spent my first Halloween feast in the Hospital Wing. Dumbledore stopped in to check on me and brought me my wand, which I had lost when I flew across the bathroom. It wasn't awful, with the pain potions combined with the fact that Dumbledore looked the other way when the twins snuck in with food.

"Blimey, you fought a troll!" Fred enthused as he handed me a plate covered in goodies.

"Yes, though I hope not to repeat the experience." I blushed.

"Aww, is Kitty embarrassed?" George teased.

"I was honestly terrified."

The boys settled on either side of me on the skinny hospital bed, each of them with an arm around me. For comfort or to keep from sliding off, I wasn't sure.

"Kitty, we won't let anything like it near you again." Fred's eyes held an uncharacteristic seriousness. George nodded and brought his other arm around me, careful of the sling my wrist had been placed in.

"Count us as your new bodyguards."

From then on I spent a lot more time with the twins, a bond formed in the dark on Halloween.