Hey all! I'm really excited for this chapter; this is where my whole idea for the series came from. And it's a little bit longer than most chapters! As usual, any likes, comments, questions, suggestions, reviews, etc. are appreciated.
Chapter 6 A Spoopy Halloween – Part 1: Hermione
Hermione Granger disliked many parts of Halloween; the reprise from classes, the advanced sugar content of the feast, and the immature pranks by other students. But Hermione did appreciate one part, the emptiness of the library allowed for her to finally have some peace and quiet while studying.
Or at least it was quiet, until Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe (all infrequent visitors of the library) arrived and after a brief patrol, zeroed in on their favorite target, Neville Longbottom. Seeing the aggressive group approaching, Neville quickly packed up his books. But Draco strolled up to him, smirking with glee at his luck to find someone to bully.
"Look Crabbe, it's Longbottom," Draco drawled, "Make sure you don't get to close, I've seen what happened at the Longbottom mansion."
Neville flushed a bright cherry red and attempted to exit.
"Why leave so soon Longbottom? Don't you want to see green?" Draco continued, knocking Neville's books out of his hands. Neville grabbed his books, and fled the library. Hermione hurriedly cleaned up her belongings and followed, shoving past a laughing Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe with a glare of disdain. Running into the hallway, she called out.
"Neville! Neville, where are you?"
Turning the corner, she ran over an unsurprisingly nervous Professor Quirrell. Quickly she reached to help him up, "Sorry Professor, I didn't mean to knock you over! Have you seen Neville Longbottom, he should have just come by, I think he may be upset?"
"N-no Miss Granger, I haven't seen him. B-but you should get to the Great Hall, the feast is about to start," he said twisting his hands, voice shaking slightly.
She nodded, promising to herself to find Neville later and talk to him about what had happened. What was Draco talking about? Had something bad happened at Neville's house? Briefly she reviewed Neville's most recently behavior. He had been acting quieter than usual, perhaps that was related to this supposed incident at the Longbottom's mansion. But before she could find out any of this, she had to first find Neville and make sure he was okay.
She entered the Great Hall, scanning for the familiar faces of her friends, and in particular, Neville. She was surprised when Ginny and a Ravenclaw girl with dirty blond hair ran up to her.
"Hey Hermione, this is Luna, have you seen Neville recently? Luna said he was supposed to meet her before the feast to talk about a Herbology assignment," Ginny asked, glancing at the girl beside her.
"He is normally not one to miss meetings," Luna said. She somehow looked both nervous and distant at the same time.
Luna was wearing giant radishes on her ears that seemed to change color like a muggle mood ring. She didn't seem to notice that her robes were inside out.
"Yeah, I last saw him in the library… Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were picking on him, so he left," she said. A sudden wave of guilt washed over her. Some Gryffindor she was, she didn't stand up for him at all. Refocussing on the girls in front of her she went on, "I thought he might be at the feast, but I guess not."
Luna frowned and turned to Ginny, "I'm going to look for him, you should stay here in case he comes back."
She then proceeded to skip away, hair bouncing as she went. Hermione continued to be confused on her actual feelings for the situation, but given Ginny's nonreaction accepted the behavior as normal.
"Come on Hermione, I saved you a seat away from Ron and his eating," said Ginny, using air quotes around eating.
Hermione laughed, "I would say inhaling would be a better term."
As they reached the table both she and Ginny poorly attempted to stifle a laugh at Ron who was holding six chicken wings of different flavours at the same time. The stains on his robes led Hermione to believe that he had many unsuccessful attempts proceeding their arrival.
Ron flushed at their giggling, "Hey, it is an efficient way of trying every flavor! This way I can find which wing is the best and eliminate-" It was at this point that he dropped two of the wings into the bowl of soup in front of him.
"And find out which one goes best with Minestrone!" Hermione quipped laughing.
Harry and Ginny burst out laughing and even Ron couldn't contain a small good-natured smile.
BREAK
Just as they began dessert, the doors of the Great Hall burst open, revealing a terrified Professor Quirrell.
"T-troll…. Troll in the dungeon…. t-thought you had to know," he called, clearly out of breath, and then, seemingly relived of his duty, promptly fainted.
The once organized Great Hall immediately descended into chaos, students shouted and pushed each trying to leave the hall all at once. Much of the food now was falling to the floor and sounds of plates breaking echoed across the room.
Hermione, however, stayed in her seat and turned to Dumbledore. She knew that he would know the best option, which was in her opinion, staying in the Great Hall. No need to split up students and divide the protection of the professors. Unfortually he was not in agreement.
"SILENCE! There is no need to panic, students. Prefects, lead your house back to your dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons," his words were evidently comforting enough for the students who obediently turned to their respective prefects for instructions. She began to do the same when Harry's voice interrupted her.
"Wait guys, Neville and Luna don't know about the Troll! We have to warn them," he said to the little group. Nearby Dean and Seamus nodded their agreement and moved towards them.
"But we don't know where either of them is. If they aren't together then we should split up to find them," Hermione said frowning.
"I bet Luna went to the library, since that's where you said you saw Neville last. I'll go there," Ginny said firmly.
Dean chipped in, "Seamus and I will go with you."
Dean then turned to Ron, Harry, and Hermione and continued, "I bet Neville went to the 6th floor bathroom, I found him there once after Malfoy poured sticking sap on his hair, you guys should check there."
Nodding, they all agreed.
"If we can't find our person at the location, we meet up outside the hospital wing." Ron said with an unusual authority. They all looked at him confused. His ears flushed, "That way if a teacher catches us we can fake being sick to get away."
"That's brilliant Ronald!" Hermione complimented him, impressed by his wit. His ears, if possible, turned an even darker shade of red, and she blushed in spite of herself.
The other Gryffindors started to shift towards the exit and the six of them followed, breaking off to their respective secret staircases after a brief nod to each other.
BREAK
After far too many sets of stairs, Hermione, Ron, and Harry finally made it to the 6th floor boys lavatory. As they approached, they heard sounds coming from the nearby maintenance room. It sounded as if some boy was crying. The trio looked at each other and nodded.
Hermione called out to the boy, "Neville? Is that you? Its Hermione, Ron, and Harry. We need to get back the common room, there's a Troll on the loose in the dungeons."
Suddenly there was the sound of glass breaking and a loud animal like yell. The trio ran inside and were not confronted with Neville or any other student. In front of them stood a 15-foot-tall green monster.
Hermione's brain whirled. This was most defiantly not the missing Troll because it was not a Troll at all. The only possibility that it could be a Troll was that it was a not previously identified Troll species. She searched the room quickly, while training her wand on the beast in front of her.
It hit itself in the head, yelling a mix of "GO" and "PUNY". It lunged forward at the trio and they dove out of the way. The beast rammed head first into the wall and keeled over briefly.
"Neville's not here! We have to go!" Ron yelled and the group sprinted to the door. It was locked. She turned around and saw the monster rear up for the final blow, its bright green eyes blazing with anger. Trapped, she closed her eyes and thought her final goodbyes.
But the end did not come.
She opened her eyes again and gaped. There was Harry holding a bright blue shield above him, the beast's fist held safely above her and Ron. Harry pushed the shield upwards and the monster flew across the room, smashing through the numerous shelving units and sending debris everywhere. Harry collapsed to the ground and the shield vanished, but the beast was, evidently, not on the same page.
It rose and lumbered again towards them yelling out two words, "MIMB SMASH!"
Instinct took over and Hermione found herself pointing her wand at the beast. Without hesitation and a firm swish and flick motion she preformed the lifting charm on the charging beast. It rose into the air and was stilled, unable to continue towards them. Hermione knew she couldn't hold it forever, Wingardium Leviosa was not a strong charm. It appeared that Ron understood this point as he ran to the nearest tool chest, and selected the largest blunt object available, a sledge hammer.
Hermione lifted the beast as high as the room would allow and then dropped the charm. The beast hit the ground face first and started to rise again, when Ron struck down with a massive blow with the sledge hammer.
The beast stilled.
They had beaten it!
Well, it stilled for a moment. It seemed to be shrinking. Harry got up, holding his head, as Ron rejoined the group. All three trained their wands on it, waiting to use the lift and drop technique again. But it continued to shrink more and more, losing its green skin color. Suddenly they realized that it was not a monster at all. It was Neville! Harry threw his cloak over the sleeping Neville, and moved away once more.
Hermione looked on the ground near where they had first saw Neville in his green beast form. She was surprised to see glass from a broken potion bottle but not a drop of liquid. Had Neville been transfigured by a potion? Did someone force him to take it? She tried to think of potions that would cause this transformation.
But yelling from the corridor outside distracted her. The doors burst open and Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor Quirrell, and Professor Snape strode in, each looking more cross than any of the trio had seen before.
"Professors! Something happened to Neville! I think he might have been cursed, he turned into a huge green beast and started to attack us and-" Hermione started until Professor McGonagall interrupted her.
"Mr. Longbottom was not bewitched. What I am about to tell you must stay between you three and Mr. Longbottom. He is what is called in Norse muggle mythology as a Berserker."
Noticing their confused looks, she continued, "Over exposure to magic at a young age causes a sort of tumour of magic to form in the brain. It is generally harmless, but when the victim becomes emotionally distraught or their life is threatened, the magic spills out and the victim transforms into a beast."
Neville stirred and fear flushed over his face as he looked at Professor Snape. "Professors, I- I can explain, I-"
"No need to Mr. Longbottom," Professor Sprout interrupted gently, helping him up, "Let's get you and your friends to the hospital wing. We can all talk about what happened later."
Professor Snape looked irritated but did not contradict his fellow teacher. As the group walked to the hospital wing, more and more questions conjured in Hermione's mind. She chose to speak one of them.
"What happened to the Troll?" she asked.
Professor Flitwick answered, "That was Neville, Professor Quirrell didn't recognize Neville in his state."
She nodded but made a note in her head. How would a Defence against the Dark Arts professor not know the difference between a Berserker and a Troll? Quirrell was acting suspicious and she needed to find out why.
They entered the hospital wing and were greeted by Luna, Seamus, and Ginny; all of whom were apparently waiting for them. They all had bruises and Dean was unconscious on a bed, currently be taken care of by Madam Pomfrey. Upon leaving the new group in the care of Madam Pomfrey, the professors left the room.
Looking around it was apparent that each group had a lot to catch up on.
