Not Potter and the Stupid Stone

Chapter nine

Laura

After I finished my toast, I changed into a comfortable outfit, pulling on a pair of black leggings, a, dark green, Holyhead Harpies t-shirt, and a gray sweatshirt. I still had plenty of time before lunch, so I decided to read one of the books I had brought from home. I opened my trunk and lifted out the false bottom to reveal my small library. It included everything from muggle fantasy novels to books on wizarding lore and myths. Today, I pulled out my copy of Roald Dahl's, The Witches. My parents had originally bought it for me as a way to explain to me how the muggle's saw witches, and why I couldn't show the little boy down the street my miniature color changing toadstool garden that puffed out magic bubbles, which, if inhaled, changed the tonality of one's voice. Unfortunately for them, I found the overexaggerated, evil, depiction of witches to be quite humors.

The book isn't very long, only about two hundred pages, so I manage to get through half of it before lunch. As I step into the great hall, I am reminded of the mission I set for myself, to find Noel. I scan the Gryffindor table, no Noel. I decide to eat lunch before I go hunting for her.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione are also absent from the table, Hermione often walks in only for a minute to grab something she can eat while studying, on the weekends, however, Ron and Harry have never missed a meal. I decide to assume that they are simply late and sit at a spot with plenty of empty spaces around it to wait for them. I had eaten quite a bit of toast at breakfast, slowly consuming almost twelve pieces over the course of the morning, so I'm not quite hungry yet. In light of this, I grab and orange to idly peel and eat as I wait for my friends. I also pour myself a generous glass of pumpkin juice, something I had neglected to do this morning.

About eight minutes after I sat down, I had been quite impatiently checking the clock on the wall, bored out of my mind without someone to talk to, Noel wandered into the great hall. She seemed quite lost in thought and paused in the doorway for quite a number of seconds before seemingly realizing where she was and scanning the Gryffindor table. As soon as she noticed me, she rushed to sit down. As she sat down, she slipped, what appeared to be, a large textbook onto the bench next to her.

"what's that?" I questioned, not recognizing it as a book we needed for class, and desperately hoping I had not missed some kind of essay or project assignment.

"Hmm," she hummed.

"The book," I clarified.

Her gaze shifted to look at it at my mention. "Oh that," she gesticulated vaguely towards the thing, "that's just for..." She drifted off into thought for a moment before responding, "fun? Or recreation, or whatever you want to call it.

I nodded in understanding, wishing to press her for more details. I hesitated to, however, because her face showed a look of obvious concentration, and she appeared to be on the verge of asking me something. Finally, after a lot more vague gesticulating, she spoke up.

Hesitantly, she began, "Laura... did your parents ever... that is did they tell you... Why is it that you treat everyone so neutrally? You never seem to have... Prejudices or... preconceptions. Or you never seem to at least."

I was taken aback by her comment, not really sure how to respond to such a thing. "Well," I began, "I suppose it's because I don't really know anyone yet. You know what adults are always saying," I supplied, "Don't judge a book by its cover!"

She seemed to puzzle over this response for a minute before saying, "They say that do they?" and omitting a small, thoughtful hum.

I stared at her as she drifted off in thought, appearing to carefully break down, what I thought, was a fairly common answer to quite an obvious question. Of course I treat everyone the same, it's what you're supposed to do.

While Noel was still spaced out, Harry and Ron arrived in the great hall and moved to take a seat. Ron immediately began shoveling sandwiches onto his plate, while Harry emptied something from his pockets into a nearby empty platter.

"What are those," I questioned, examining the small brown lumps that had fallen out of his pocket.

"Cakes," Harry replied, simply.

"Yeah, but don't try to eat them though," Ron mumbled through a mouthful of turkey and cheese, "More like rocks they are. Got them from Hagrid's."

"He means well," Harry mentioned meekly. To which Ron rolled his eyes before sighing.

He, thankfully, swallowed the bite of sandwich he was currently working on before responding, "Doesn't mean I have to get poisoned over it." At this response, Harry couldn't help but laughing.

"You went to Hagrid's?" Noel remarked, once again coming out of her daze.

"Yeah," Ron remarked around his second sandwich, "he's right nice, just like Harry said."

"What did you do down there," I asked.

Harry rolled the question around in mind for a moment before answering, "Mostly just talked."

"Served us tea and rock cakes," Ron supplied. His mentioning of the cakes elicited another round of giggling from the boys.

"Did you tell him about you being made seeker," Noel questioned.

"Oh, yeah. He was real excited about it, promised to come see my first game and everything," Harry said, with a smile.

"That's great Harry," I commented.

"What time's practice," Noel, who had missed this morning's conversation, asked.

"Seven," Harry sighed, a bit of worry playing into his voice.

I reassured him, "Don't worry, you'll be fine. It's just practice."

"Youngest player in a century!" Ron whooped through a mouthful of chips, to which Noel laughed at him for doing, causing him to toss a chip into her hair.

As the conversation continued, I remarked to myself how pleasing the gentle ricochet of friends talking was. It made me wish that Hermione was here. Despite how prim she was, I had grown used to her company. However, I got the impression, from the looks I had seen them exchange in class, that she and Ron were not fond of each other.

Noel

Many nights later, days after Harry's first Quidditch practice, Laura, Ron, Harry, and myself, sat in the Great Hall, once more, as we watched the more elaborate, banquette, dinnerware from the opening feast reappear in front of us. It was the night of Halloween, and, seeing as it was quite an important holiday in the wizarding world, the school treated us with a special, feast-like, dinner. While we were there, happily enjoying the mass amount of food, may I add, Professor Quirrell came running in, shaking and shuttering more than usual. He shouted loudly so that the whole hall could hear,

"T-t-t-troll – in th-th-the dungeons-s – j-just, thought y-y-you ought t-to know." He said, before passing out.

He spoke these words quickly, before passing out onto the hard floor. I stared at him, lying there, a mix between disgust and pity filling my head. Screams and clamor filled the air, moments after. The uproar was ear shattering, after all, everyone was screaming their heads off. Because of this, it took several attempts for Professor Dumbledore to silence the room.

"Prefects, take your house back to their common rooms!" Dumbledore shouted, before turning back to the other teachers and lowering his voice to a whisper.

Percy Weasley began to shout, while leading everyone out of the Great Hall. Whilst we shuffled out the door, extremely slowly, I heard Ron and Harry muttering behind me, as they began discussing Hermione's disappearance. I made eye contact with Laura, who walked next to me, as we listened in on their conversation. Fed up, I interrupted.

"She's in the girls' bathroom; has been all day." I chimed, "Though none of us could figure out why," I egged, staring daggers into Ron. I had been with him earlier that day when he had said he pitied Hermione for being a stuck up bore and claimed it was the reason she didn't have any friends and never had. Meanwhile, she had been right behind us and herd the whole thing. I had told Ron to apologize hours ago when I had first noticed him missing. He had insisted, however, that he had said nothing wrong, and now chose to play dumb on the matter.

"What about it?" Ron asked, as he had a chicken leg in his hand. Yes, you heard me right. A. Chicken. Leg. From. Dinner. He brought it with him, for goodness sake. Did the boy have no manners?

"Should we not go warn her about the troll?" Laura added, also joining in.

"We need to." Harry declared.

Ron shook his head, "Alright, but if Percy sees us, you're all dead."

Our group, luckily, was able to sneak off easily, without detection, as Percy was struggling to maintain order, Fred and George having decided to each choose a foot and walk behind him, repeatedly flat tiring him. We crept down the hall, being as quick as possible. At one point, I witnessed Snape heading up towards the third floor, but ignored him, more concerned with the troll situation. We turned another corner, and, to my astonishment, almost ran into a twelve-foot, disgusting looking, troll, which was stood above us, back turned. He seemed to be staring into one room in particular, which was located nearby. We stood there, transfixed, as he slowly meandered his way into said room.

As soon at the troll had disappeared into the depths of the room, Ron ran foreword and quickly shut and bolted the door closed, before remarking, "There, it's trapped now." Ron said, pointing towards the door. "We can go back now, right?"

"Not when that room is the girls' restroom!" Laura shouted.

In panic, Laura flung the door open and ran in behind the troll, as we all heard Hermione shrieking inside. We quickly sprinted after her, clearly not thinking, and ran around the large beast, towards Hermione's shrieks.

"Hermione!" Harry screamed.

Hermione shrunk against the back corner, mouth open, petrified. She was practically frozen in place, one hand extended, pointed toward the creature. Laura and Harry attempted to pry her off the floor, while Ron and I attempted to confuse the troll. Ron tried throwing the chicken leg at the beast, with no avail.

He threw the bloody chicken leg.

"Use a spell, or something!" I said, trying to figure something out that didn't involve chicken.

"Which one?" Ron asked, I did not think idestpropagio would work on a fully grown mountain troll.

Laura, turning around, answered, "just use the first one that comes to mind!"

I held off the troll for a few moments, casting small bombardment spells at its legs, as Harry and Laura attempted to convince Hermione to run around it. Seconds later, Ron muttered the first spell that came to his mind, which, shockingly, and honestly, mind bogglingly, was an actually smart one.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Instantaneously, the club the troll had held for so long had floated above its owner's head, and quickly fell upon it. A large crash shook the room, as the body of the creature lay numb on the ground.

Finally speaking, Hermione stammered, "I-is it dead?"

"Seems to just be knocked out." Harry said, observing the troll.

"We better get going-" Laura began, before her statement was interrupted by the clatter of footsteps.

Racing into the bathroom came a large gaggle of teachers. I felt the rush of adrenaline dim, as I sensed trouble coming. In shock, Professor McGonagall gasped, and stared at the five of us.

"And what in heaven's name are you all doing?!" McGonagall shrieked, "you could've been killed!"

"Professor, they were just trying to help me." Hermione said, mustering up courage.

"Miss. Granger..."

She continued, "I was just using the restroom during dinner, when everyone else found out about the troll. My friends were worried about me, and just came in to make sure I knew, when the troll came straight into the bathroom!"

Professor McGonagall shook her head. "Five points from Gryffindor for the for of you," she motioned to Harry, Ron, Laura, and I, "for not thinking to ask for help from an adult, or at least a prefect." She looked down at the mountain troll once more before shaking her head and continuing, "And ten points for being able to bring down a fully grown mountain troll. Goodness only knows how you didn't wind up dead!

As we scurried off in silence, I could hear her bewilderedly muttering, "A group of first years. That's all they were, first years!" We walked the halls back to the Gryffindor common room and I sulked, angrily, at their unkindly decision. We just saved her life, and they scold us? What trash of a response is that?! At arrival to the common room, I ignored the set-up dinner, and headed straight to my dorm, angry dimming slightly.

I paused at the top of the stairs, waiting for Laura and Hermione. As I stood there, my anger dissipated, and by the time Laura came up to bring me back down to finish dinner with the rest of them, I was calm enough to go willingly. As I neared Ron, Harry, and Hermione, I was hit by a wave of shock over the words I could hear falling out of Ron's mouth.

"I'm sorry," He said, if a bit gruffly, "I guess someone who's stuck up would have told on me for making fun of you." He paused, looking at her for a moment. Encouraged by the gratefulness etched on her face, he continued, "And I suppose you do have friends, us that is." He finished up, actually smiling towards the end, motioning towards Harry, Laura, and me. Hermione stared at Ron with tear filled eyes, this time tears of joy, instead of the tears of sorrow which she had been crying in the bathroom all day, before pulling us all into a hug.