Thoroughly admonished by Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, and her mother, Revati had kept her head down for the next couple of weeks, working hard to prove she wasn't just some insolent brat. She'd written her mother back, explaining exactly what had happened in class and why she'd reacted the way she did. Her mother hadn't written back just yet, but Revati knew that was probably because she was kept busy by her awful Ministry job.
The morning after the incident with the Cerberus puppy, Reva confronted Hermione about lying to her the night before. Hermione seemed quite ashamed of herself, and apologized profusely. The two girls made up, and were closer than ever.
Hermione was ignoring Harry and Ron, who had seemed emboldened by their lucky escape. Reva tried her best to stay out of it, but it was futile. Hermione gave her an injured look if she didn't back her up, and Harry and Ron seemed to think Reva had been trying to stop them from sneaking out in the first place.
"You're a hypocrite, you know," Ron said at breakfast one day. Hermione was studying in the library, trying to get some extra work done before Transfiguration, so Reva was eating with the other first years. "You followed us out because we might have lost points if we got caught, but you're the one who singlehandedly lost all of Gryffindor's points the first week." He scowled. "And we didn't get angry with you at that."
Revati sighed. "For the last time, I didn't know she was going to follow you."
"Why didn't you stop her when you figured it out?" Harry replied accusingly.
"Please," Reva snorted. "You try and stop Hermione Granger when she puts her mind to something."
"Why do you put up with her?" Ron groaned. Reva's eyes flashed angrily and she stood up very suddenly, accidentally knocking her goblet of juice over and spilling it over an indignant Katie Bell. Katie, who was a second year and a Chaser on Gryffindor's Quidditch team, glared at Reva as she cleaned herself up.
"That's my best friend you're talking about," Reva said dangerously. "I don't 'put up' with her, I enjoy spending time with her, and you'd better watch your mouth when you talk about her. She's a lovely person, and it's your loss if you can't see that!" With a huff of anger, Revati gathered her things and stormed off, heading to History of Magic early.
The weeks passed by, and before Reva knew it, it was Halloween. Despite her initial attempts at making friends, she wasn't particularly successful, and the only person she spent time with was Hermione. The two of them stuck together even as other, larger friend groups became apparent in their year. The only person who seemed to like them was Neville Longbottom, but he tended to remain neutral in their tiffs with the other first years. Harry and Ron, of course, couldn't stand them, especially after Reva told Ron off in front of his elder brothers at breakfast that day—from what she could tell, Fred and George Weasley took great pleasure in teasing their younger brother.
But on the morning of Halloween, Revati woke up with anticipation building in her stomach and Mango sitting on her chest. Her mother had told her, quite wistfully, about the wonderful feasts the school had every October 31st. Anjali always seemed a little down around this time of year—Reva knew that many years before, her mother had lost family to a Lethifold attack in her home in India, and though she'd never asked when it had happened, her mother had once smiled very sadly and mentioned how much she missed her brother on Halloween.
Reva sent off a quick letter to her mum, telling her that she was thinking of her and that she loved her. Then, she made her way to breakfast with Hermione, both girls practically shaking with excitement for Charms later in the day.
Professor Flitwick had told their class that they would start learning to levitate things that day. Everyone was excited for it, and Reva even brought Mango to class so she could make her beloved toad fly. But Professor Flitwick wouldn't let them pair off as they wanted and instead assigned them partners, so instead of Hermione, Reva found herself sitting next to a rather disgruntled Harry Potter.
The two of them practiced the charm to no avail on the feathers they were meant to be levitating. That could have very possibly been due to the bickering going on in the row just behind them, where Ron and Hermione seemed, once again, to be at odds.
"You're doing it wrong!" Hermione was saying. "It's 'Wing-gar-dium Levios-a,' make the 'gar' nice and long."
Revati raised her eyebrows. She'd been saying it like Ron had, so maybe that was her problem.
"You do it then!" Ron snapped.
Revati didn't have to look behind her to know that Hermione perfectly executed the motion, saying, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The pair's feather floated over Harry's and Revati's heads.
"Oh, well done, Miss Granger has done it!" Professor Flitwick squeaked excitedly. "Ten points to Gryffindor!"
It took Reva the rest of the class period to do it, but at long last she managed to make Mango fly across the room. Because she was the second person who'd successfully completed the charm, Professor Flitwick awarded her five points. Beaming, Reva waited for Hermione at the end of class as Ron marched forward to join Harry.
"Well done," Hermione told her, hugging her books to her chest. "I knew you could do it!"
"Thanks," Reva said. "It was really what you said to Ron that did it, you know, I'd been saying wrong, too. After that it was just getting the motion properly."
But the pleasant air surrounding their conversation vanished as they caught the tail end of Ron's rant to Harry.
"It's no wonder nobody but Revati can stand her," he was saying, "She's a nightmare, honestly!"
Hermione's face crumpled, and without another word to Reva she started running down the hallway, brushing past the two boys who looked quite shocked to see her.
"I think she heard you," Harry said.
"Oh, do you think?" Reva snapped, and the two boys whirled to face her. Ron winced but kept his mouth shut, though he did look a little ashamed.
"Look, Reva—" Harry began.
"That's Revati to you," she said coldly, glaring at him. "Hermione's a nightmare, is she? Ever consider maybe the two of you are just as much a part of the problem?" She shook her head in anger and disappointment. "I never thought my housemates would be such cruel bullies." Revati didn't pause to take in the affronted and stricken looks on the boys' faces. Instead, she shouldered past them, running after her friend.
It took about a quarter of an hour, due to the size of the castle and the number of potential hiding places, but Reva eventually caught up to Hermione in the girls' bathroom on the first floor.
Hermione was sobbing, curled up in a corner, face in her hands. Her entire body heaved with her cries, and her bookbag was lying carelessly on the floor next to her. Revati didn't know what to say, so she just sat quietly down next to her. After a little bit, Hermione looked up at her, still crying, and the sight of her best friend upset was enough to make Reva sad, frustrated, and angry, even as she wrapped her arms around Hermione in a big hug.
"Ron didn't mean what he said," she tried to say comfortingly, "He looked like he regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth."
"You mean as soon as he knew I heard it," Hermione corrected, hiccupping. "He really believes it! That I'm just an awful person that everyone hates…"
"That's not true," Reva said soothingly, "And even if he did think that, it's his loss! One day, you're going to be Minister of Magic, and he's going to know then that you are the smartest, most capable witch in our year."
Hermione let out a fragile laugh. "And what about you? You have to be there with me!"
"Nah," Reva gave her friend a conspiratory smile. "I'm going to be protesting Ministry policy, probably. I'm going to try and get you to notice me and do what I want you to."
"I'm going to be very busy," Hermione played along, "How exactly are you going to get me to listen?"
"Oh, I dunno." Reva said. "Start setting things on fire, and soon enough someone's going to start paying attention."
Hermione giggled a bit, but it seemed that this particular comment of Ron's was one too many, and despite the brief moment of levity, she wasn't so easily consoled. They spent hours in that bathroom, skipping the rest of their classes and being interrupted by students of all ages and houses, including Parvati Patil, who, upon seeing them, gave Hermione a concerned glance but left them in privacy.
"What was it like, growing up in the Wizarding world?" Hermione asked suddenly. They were still sitting in the bathroom, and it was one of those stretches of time where Hermione calmed down temporarily, before another thought occurred to her and she burst into tears again. Reva had brought Mango out on her lap—she hadn't had the chance to go back to the dorms—and was gently stroking her as she mused over Hermione's question.
"Well…" Revati said slowly, "I'm not really sure how to explain it. I, er, couldn't go to Muggle school because the nearest town is an all-wizarding community, but Mum didn't want me to go to that school. She knew some of the families that lived there, and for some reason none of them really liked us. I think that's where Susan Bones and Mandy Brocklehurst went, actually, but I don't really know them."
"So how did you learn… you know, maths and writing and things like that?"
Revati smiled at the memory. "My mum would drop me off before work every day at the house of Mrs. Tupps, who was a Squib living in the area. Mrs. Tupps would always offer me something she'd baked, and she'd give me books to read. When I was six, I think, Mum started paying her extra to teach me maths and formal writing, and so she became a sort of tutor for me." Her smile faded a bit. "Mrs. Tupps died last year. She got a bad case of dragonpox."
"I'm sorry," Hermione said.
"Thanks." Reva said. "I think we were the closest thing she had to a real family, though, poor thing. From what I heard, her parents and siblings didn't take too kindly to her being a Squib."
"That's awful!"
"Yeah." Reva nodded. "It really is."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, and Mango hopped over to Hermione, who rewarded the toad with a quick pat. All of a sudden, Reva's stomach gurgled, and she realized they had been in the bathroom for close to five hours now.
"The feast might still be going on, if you're up to it," Reva offered, reaching out for her toad.
Hermione smiled at her as the girls got up, Reva putting Mango in the pocket of her robes. "Yes, I think—"
But what Hermione was going to say was quickly cut off as an awful stench permeated the air, making both girls gag.
"What on Earth—" Reva coughed, but she didn't have to finish her question to get an answer. The door to the bathroom swung open, and in lumbered a great, ugly, angry troll. It was greenish-grey, the color of some kind of awful vomit, and it carried a big, wooden club in its hands. Behind it, the door somehow swung shut. With a sinking heart, Reva heard the latch turn.
She pulled Hermione behind the stalls and put a finger to her lips, eyes wide with horror. Trolls were notoriously stupid—if it didn't sense any humans nearby, maybe it would lose interest and try and find some to kill and eat. It would break down the bathroom door, so the lock wouldn't be a problem.
The troll got closer and closer, and Reva stiffened, hardly daring to breathe. Hermione's eyes grew wider and wider, and when the shadow of the troll loomed over them, she let out a piercing shriek.
Reva clapped a hand over her friend's mouth, but it was too late. The troll had heard them. It turned towards them, raising its club as it spotted the two girls.
"Any ideas?" She asked Hermione desperately, but the girl seemed frozen, horrified at what was going on. "Hermione!" Reva tried to get her friend to snap out of it, but Hermione didn't react. Reva pulled out her wand, but her mind was drawing a blank. What could she do, turn matchsticks into needles? She didn't know any spells that could help them out!
As if reacting to her fear, her wand started shooting off green sparks, and when one landed on the troll, it let out a howl and flinched back in pain.
"Er, that's right!" Reva said, her voice shaking and her heart pounding. "Stay back!"
The bathroom door burst open, and out of the corner of her eye Reva saw Harry and Ron standing at the entrance. The troll paid them no mind, seeming to have decided it didn't care much about the pain of the green sparks.
"Confuse it!" Yelled Harry, and the two boys started throwing random objects at the troll, which was now tearing sinks from the wall.
"Oi, pea-brain!" Ron screamed at it. The troll heard him and turned towards him, and Harry beckoned for the girls to make a break for it.
"Come on!" Reva said, trying to tug Hermione, but she was still standing petrified next to her.
"Run, run, run!" Harry shouted at them.
The troll seemed agitated now, and started swinging its club all about. The four first years ducked to avoid it, but it was only a matter of time til one of them was hit.
That was when Harry Potter did something crazy.
He lunged and jumped on the troll's back, shoving his wand up its nose. It howled in pain and tried to shake him off.
"Hermione!" Reva begged, pulling her friend. "Come on!"
Finally, Hermione snapped out of it and the two girls raced towards Ron. Harry was barely hanging on now, and Reva was fully panicking now, unsure as to what to do—
But it was Ron who saved the day as he pointed his wand and bellowed, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The troll's abandoned club flew into the air and hit the troll on the head with full force. Harry, now dislodged, began the ten foot fall to the ground, but Reva stumbled over just in time for him to crash into her instead of breaking his neck. Groaning, the two first years extracted themselves and Reva immediately moved back, trying to put a good amount of distance between herself and the apparently unconscious troll. Harry leaned over it and retrieved his wand.
The four first years regarded the felled mountain troll with astonishment and no small amount of relief. Somehow, they'd done it. Somehow, they'd survived.
It was over.
Sweet Merlin, Reva's mum was going to kill her.
not exactly my fave chapter tbh, but necessary, as you all well know.
please stay safe! sending lots of love your way!
-alidfi