You're a protagonist Harry
Chapter 25 – Making friends
…
"You're not doing it right."
"Of course I'm not doing it right. If I was doing it right, stupid feather'd be floating."
"He has a point Hermione."
Charms class was the closest thing to a 'fun' class they had that term. Much of this could be attributed to the perfectly positive Filius Flitwick. A man possessed, not only of a knack for his subject, but a passion as well.
Charms was probably the most diverse and overall practical branch of magic Hogwarts taught. Everything from sowing to cooking to building a house could be accomplished with, if not done entirely by, charms.
When you looked at it that way, it was no wonder he was always excited for class. There was so much he needed to teach them.
And he went to it with a gusto that had nothing to do with spirits of any kind (just imagine how jealous the ghosts were).
Coloring charms were used as an excuse for an impromptu art class. Dean had been the star that day. The light spell was learned in the dark and got more than a few people slapped for their wandering hands. Some of them even deserved it.
Now they were working telekinetics, the spells of movement and manipulation. The easiest of these being, the levitation charm.
Easy being subjective, as Seamus had already exploded two feathers and was steadily working on a third. Also, class was half done and the only one to levitate their feather was Hermione; much to Ron's annoyance.
And to his further annoyance, she was now trying to help him, help, in the very broadest definition of the word.
"It's ohhhhsa, not ohsah! You've heard me say this," and the more times she did the further he dug in his heels.
It was kind of funny, sitting on the outside looking in. The stubbornness on display from both of them. It was kind of scary just how similar they were. Though both would most assuredly deny it.
"You think it's cuz she's a wind element?" Serena whispered to Harry.
"Should that matter?" he whispered back.
The bunny/wolf girl shrugged.
"She's not really helping," Zuli whispered behind Serena's head. "She's just making him more frustrated."
Obvious to all those watching yet somehow invisible to the one doing it. Clever girl, perhaps. Willfully blind, almost certainly.
"It's ohhhhhsa, not ohsah! Honestly!" Ron complained later as the gentleman of Gryffindor strode the halls after charms, their female counterparts left behind to do…um, girl things.
"She was trying to help," Neville said meekly, as he said most things.
"If that's how she tries to help she can keep it," said Ron dismissively. "Honestly, it's no wonder she's got no friends. Even her roommates can't stand her."
From what Harry understood it wasn't so simple as 'them' vs. Hermione. There was a definite clash of egos among the first-year girls.
Hermione clashed with Lavender, Serena annoyed Parvati, Madysonne just rubbed everyone the wrong way and didn't care one lick about it. It wasn't obvious outside the tower, but up where they weren't being watched it was like one prolonged pre-catfight. At least, according to Zuli.
Harry didn't really understand it. If there'd been that much tension between the boys of Gryffindor, someone would've gotten punched by now.
Girls were weird.
They were also sensitive and not deaf, as Hermione proved by shoving through the lot of them before any ever realized she was within earshot.
"I think she heard you," said Harry.
"Maybe it was something else," the ginger hedged, not for a second looking like he believed it.
They saw neither hide nor bushy hair of Hermione the rest of the day. By the time dinner rolled around, with still no sign, Harry felt it appropriate to say something.
"You're a crumb Ron Weasley."
"I know."
"A tiny crumb."
"Yeah."
"Sourdough crumb."
"… really Harry?"
"Well you are."
*sigh* "I know."
So, it was fair to say, the bush with a girl could rub people the wrong way. It was also fair to say, there were better ways of expressing this that 'hopefully' did not cause people to go MIA. These things were very clear in hindsight.
"I didn't mean to do it. I didn't know she was listening."
"That's a really weak excuse."
"… I know."
It's not that he was trying to be hard on Ron, but dammit, the boy seriously needed to change the filter between his brain and his mouth.
"Harry! We found her," Serena chirped as she and Zuli joined them at the table.
"Where is she?"
"Hiding in the loo," said the tallest girl in Gryffindor. "We tried to get her to come out, but she just yelled at us, told us to go away."
This news only added to the weight that sat heavily on the ginger, so heavily it did what Harry would never have believed possible if he hadn't seen it himself. It completely killed his appetite. His plate sat full before him, unmoved, untouched.
"Aw man."
"I guess that's going to complicate your apology a bit."
But not nearly as much as the disaster that ran into the great hall under a rumble of thunder and screamed, "TROLL! In the dungeon," before passing out like a sissy.
"Huh. Well how bout that."
Harry's non-plussed reaction came largely as a result of ignorance. He didn't know what a troll was and therefore didn't know he should be afraid of it. But that was okay because everyone else was properly demonstrating the correct reaction to such news.
"OH MY GOD!"
"I DON'T WANN DIE!"
"GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!"
The somewhat overexaggerated exclamations came amidst a general clamor and running about in terror, all of which came to an abrupt halt when the headmaster stood, raised his wand, and fired off a spell that cracked like a gunshot.
"Everyone please calm down," he bellowed with authority. "Prefects, escort your houses back to their dormitories. The faculty and I shall hunt down the troll and remove it."
There was no argument. Not a peep of complaint. There was a lot of pompous ordering however, but everyone had come to expect that from Percy, so they paid it no mind, unlike the peculiar appearance of the troll.
"It don't make sense. Trolls are supposed to be really stupid. How did it even get in?" Ron said.
"I'll bet Hermione could tell you," said Harry.
"Read all about it in some book," Ron agreed, taking three steps before both boys stopped dead, turning to one another with the same abject look of horror.
"Hermione! She doesn't know!"
Never once considering they should try to tell someone, the two boys, conveniently at the end of the line, turned and dashed off in search of their wayward lioness.
"It's down this way," Harry said, leading the charge.
"You think that troll's got out of the dungeon yet?" Ron asked, keeping close to Harry's heels. So close he ran into Harry's back when he abruptly stopped, catching a whiff of why just as he was about to ask. "That is foul!"
And as they discovered, that which it preceded was no less so. Hiding around the corner they watched the troll, a nine-foot hulk of mottled gray flesh and near sentient body odor, sniff around the door to the girls loo before shouldering his way in, ducking through the too short frame.
"Oh no!"
"Maybe she's not in there," said Ron, all full of false hope. "Maybe she went back to the tower already."
The scream from within provided a counter argument to this weak narrative.
"Or not."
Charging into enemy (that being girl) territory, they found the troll standing over several smashed stalls and one bush with a girl about to join the stalls in that she was about to get smashed.
Ron froze, unsure what to do. Harry did not. He rushed the ugly beast, jumping on the trolls back which barely garnered its attention till he got up high enough to cover its eyes with his hands.
"Hang on Harry," Ron shouted as the troll began flailing about blindly.
"Ron! Do something?"
"What?"
"Grab Hermione!"
Easier said than done but he made the effort. He had no fear of the troll seeing him with Harry hanging on for dear life, but it didn't need to see him for that flailing club to hit him. He had just reached a shell-shocked Hermione's side and was trying to drag her to the door when it found him.
The club lifted him up and flung him across the room like a rag doll.
"RON!" Harry cried from his struggling mount.
"NO!" Hermione shrieked, the sudden attack pulling her back to reality, though only in time to duck and avoid a clubbing of her own.
"Hermione! Stay down!" Harry shouted as he wracked his brains for a plan.
To his everlasting shame, the troll got it's plan together first. Reaching back with its free hand it grabbed at the blinding wizard. Third times the charm, it yanked Harry off its back and held him out where he could finally get a look at him.
The troll was no prettier up close and gave Harry a nasty look as it raised its club. Fortunately, in the intervening moments, Harry'd gotten his plan figured out too, and the power surged and swirled from his hands with violent force.
The explosion knocked the troll back, its club falling from its hand as the force sent it stumbling into the wall. This was nothing compared to Harry who flew across the room under the force of his explosion, crashing into the mirrors over the sink and shattering them all.
"Harry!" Hermione cried, running to the flying wizard as he slumped onto the counter, shaking the glass from his head and looking dazed. "Harry! Harry are you alright?"
"I been better," he mumbled drunkenly, trying to focus on just Hermione and not her numerous dancing sisters.
The troll proved easier to focus on. His blast having proved insufficient to put the big beast down, it stood to its full height and stomped towards them. Then it stopped, head tilting slightly at the sound of a heavy wooden thunk. It wobbled once, then fell face forward to the floor, revealing Ron, holding the club over his head, preparing for another swing.
"RON!" the pair yelled.
"Hey," he groaned under the weight of the weapon. "Is he down? Is he gonna get back up?"
Not if his reaction to Hermione's shoe up the side of his head was any indication. With exaggerated caution, Ron put the weapon on the floor, pulling his fingers out of the indents they'd dug while gripping the weapon.
"How did you do that?" Harry asked, fairly certain he wasn't strong enough to lift that log.
"Earth sorcery," he said, rubbing his chest. "Feel the stone, be the stone. Strong like stone, hard like stone. Wish I'd thought of it before he hit me."
"Better late than never," said Harry with a pained smile, wishing too he'd thought of a few things before exploding himself across the room.
"You, you two came to save me?" said Hermione, now that the danger was over and the who, what, when, where, and why were becoming clear.
"Well, yeah," said Harry, brain still too scrambled to say anything clever.
Ron had no such excuse, "Just because you're a bushy-haired know it all doesn't mean we want you to die." No excuse at all.
"Well you are an insensitive berk!" she shouted, the grabbed him in the fiercest, soggiest hug he'd ever been hugged. "Thank you."
Ron stared in fear and confusion over the bushy-haired girl's shoulder. His look begging, pleading for some sort of assistance with the strange sobbing thing. What am I supposed to do with this, it said? To which Harry's look returned, why are you asking me?
"No! No, I appreciate the sentiment," he said when she turned her demeanor on him, "I just don't know how I'd stand up to 'that' right at the moment."
Things were currently hurting he didn't know could hurt. That was never a good sign.
Nor were the figures of authority charging in all pomp and bluster after the danger was passed. The look on McGonagall's face as she surveyed the scene and the three students standing over the unconscious troll probably wasn't good either, but who could really tell when her face always looked that way.
"What is the meaning of this?"
He wasn't sure if it was the pain or just his sarcastic nature showing through, either way, he would later blame it on temporary insanity when he looked McGonagall square in the eye and said, "Haven't you ever wanted to wrestle a troll?"
He noticed she didn't answer right away. He also noticed Snape skulking in the background suddenly cover up an exposed leg that, Harry would have sworn, looked like it had been bit. Bit by something with a very big mouth.
How curious.