Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. Star Wars is owned by Disney. I am neither a British woman nor an animated mouse. Thus I do not own nor do I claim ownership of either Harry Potter or Star Wars, and I am not profiting in any way through the writing and publication of this story.
Holocron
VI
Thursday, October 31, 1991
Harry aimlessly wandered the hallways, his thoughts adrift. He had no desire to go to the Halloween feast in the Great Hall. He still didn't have any friends and probably never would. Most of the other students seemed content to gawk at him from across the common room or whisper when his back was turned. A few had approached him with questions, but they had either been trying to get him to talk about his scar and how he defeated You-Know-Who, or they were attempting to get him to admit that he really was crazy.
He spent most of his time alone either exploring the castle and its grounds or practicing the Jedi Arts in some secluded place away from prying eyes. His schoolwork was easy enough. The simple application of a few Force techniques meant that he could finish his assignments in no time whatsoever. He tended to do his work in the library, away from the stares and whispers of the Gryffindor common room. He often saw Hermione there as well, like him ensconced by herself at one of the many tables, doing her work amidst a pile of books. He sometimes felt her staring at him, but after their awkward encounter on the train, she never tried to approach him.
Maybe he could offer to help her with her assignments? It would be nice to have a friend, and she seemed a bit lonely herself. He took it that she was rather serious about her schoolwork, if her attempts to answer every single question in class were anything to go by, and she was always offering to help others as well. Not that she ever offered to help him, but then again, he was nearly always the first to be able to cast a new spell and he never had trouble with the assignments. Would she take it the wrong way if he offered to help her?
Harry paused in his wandering through the corridors as he felt a ripple of worry and fear permeate the Force. Something was wrong. Almost the entire population of the castle was suddenly on edge. He pondered the feeling for a few minutes before he turned to head to the Great Hall and hopefully find out what was going on.
But then an acute spike of sheer terror pierced through the Force. Someone was in serious trouble.
And then he was moving before he even had a chance to think. Harry embraced the Force and let it flow into his muscles before taking off at a run faster than was humanly possible. He let the Force guide his path, and prayed that he would get there before it was too late.
OoOoO
OoOoO
Hermione stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were still red and puffy. She couldn't go to the feast looking like that. Her lip trembled at the thought and her tears threatened to spill over once again. Maybe she could just slip up to her dorm and hide behind the curtains of her four-poster now that everyone was likely in the Great Hall. That way she wouldn't have to see anyone. Especially him.
Ronald Weasley was such a… a bloody brat! There! She said it! Well, not out loud. Hermione Granger would never use such language out loud. But she'd thought it! And that had to count for something!
She had only been trying to be helpful. It wasn't her fault that he was so terrible at Charms. He didn't need to be so awful to her all the time, especially in front of all the others. She got that enough at home. So much for Hogwarts being different.
She had just turned to leave the lavatory when an awful stench reached her nose. She gaged.
"What is that?" she asked herself. Did one of the toilets backup and overflow?
Right. That did it. She'd not spend one minute more in that lavatory feeling sorry for herself. She'd go back to her room and go to bed and start again fresh in the morning. She turned to leave but stopped when the door swung open and a huge thing bent over and lumbered through the doorway.
Once in the room it stood upright. It had to be over twelve feet tall. Grey skin covered its lumpy body from its flat, horny feet to its relatively small, misshapen head. It sported a huge nose that dripped with what looked like lumpy, grey glue. It's only clothing was a soiled and filthy loincloth, and it dragged an absolutely huge wooden club behind it.
Hermione just stared at the beast with an open mouth for a moment.
The troll stared right back at her, seemingly confused.
Then she screamed.
The troll apparently didn't like that.
It growled and yelled, and hefted its huge club to swing at her. Hermione had just enough presence of mind to dive out of the way before the club smashed into the row of sinks with a crash, sending bits of broken porcelain and masonry flying through the air.
Hermione crawled to the far corner of the room and curled up into a ball. The troll turned to face her with rage in its tiny, beady eyes.
And then the door swung open again and in stepped a boy with a messy mop of ginger hair.
"Hermione!" Ron called out as he entered, "You've got to come back to the common room, there's a troll in the… oh."
The troll turned its head back and forth between the two children. It apparently decided that Ron was the greater threat and moved to attack him.
Ron ducked as the club swung over his head and tore through one of the stalls with a thunderous crash. Water fountained up into the air from the ruined toilet within, and the room quickly began to flood.
"Bloody hell!" Ron cried as he ran about franticly. He didn't seem to have any better idea of what to do at the moment than Hermione did.
He dodged another swing of the troll's club, but tripped over some debris and fell to the floor.
"I'm gonna die in a bloody girl's loo!"
Hermione closed her eyes. Ron was right. They were going to die.
She didn't want to die.
And then the door banged open one more time.
Her eyes snapped open hoping to see one of the professors coming to save the day. Instead she saw the messy black hair and bright green eyes of Harry Potter.
What was it with these boys coming into the girl's lavatory anyways?
"Hermione! Ron! Run!" the newcomer shouted as he threw himself at the troll.
Hermione stayed frozen where she was as she incredulously watched the eleven-year-old boy attack the twelve-foot troll.
He moved so fast that her eyes had trouble following him. He ran straight at the beast and then spun around in a roundhouse kick that landed squarely on the side of the troll's knee. The monster howled in pain and swiftly brought its club down right where Harry was standing. It smashed into the floor so hard that the ground trembled from the blow.
But Harry wasn't standing there any more – he was running up the troll's arm and throwing a punch that landed right on the beast's disgusting nose.
It howled again and swatted at Harry with the back of its hand. This time the blow connected, and the boy was thrown through the air and into the far wall.
Hermione's mouth dropped open again as Harry managed to land in a crouch with his feet planted on the wall!
You're not supposed to be able to do that! You can't crouch on walls! Gravity doesn't work like that!
But Harry apparently didn't care about the laws of gravity as he rebounded immediately, springing away from the wall to once again attack the troll's knee. He landed a powerful blow that seemed to reverberate in the air and Hermione heard a loud snap! as something broke.
The creature howled in pain and collapsed to the floor. Its beady eyes glared murderously at Harry as the boy vaulted through the air, and with a midair somersault, landed outside of its reach.
The monster screamed in fury and pounded its fists and feet into the ground, causing the whole room to shake. It grasped for its discarded club, but someone called out "Wingardium Leviosa!" and the weapon rose up out of its reach.
Hermione turned to see Ron with his wand extended, pointing at the club.
It seemed like he wasn't so terrible with Charms after all.
Harry threw both his hands forward, and the club sailed right to him. He caught it, and even through the thing was longer that he was tall and likely three times as heavy, he brought it up and over his head, and with an incredible leap, brought it slamming down onto the troll's skull.
The beast went still.
Three sets of eyes slowly regarded each other.
"Is it dead?" Hermione quietly asked.
Harry closed his eyes before responding.
"No. Just knocked out."
"We're in so much trouble." Ron added.
And then the door burst open a fourth time and in rushed Dumbledore, McGonagall, Quirrell, and Snape.
"What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall cried.
"Potter!" Snape barked. "It figures you'd be behind this travesty!"
Quirrell took one look at the unconscious troll and then stumbled against the wall, clutching at his heart.
"Now, now," Dumbledore calmly admonished, "I'm sure these three can explain why they're not in their common room and are instead in a destroyed girls' bathroom with the body of our missing troll."
Hermione would swear that she saw the Headmaster's eyes actually twinkle.
She looked at both of the boys. Harry was breathing heavily after all his exertion. Ron was white with fear at the prospect of getting in trouble, seemingly much more afraid now than he had been while confronting the troll. Neither of them looked like they knew what to say.
"It's my fault," Hermione heard herself saying. "I wanted to go exploring. Harry and Ron tried to get me to go to the common room, but I wouldn't listen. Then the troll found us."
"And just what happened to the troll?" McGonagall asked, gesturing to the unconscious creature.
"Ron used the Levitation Charm to lift its club away and Harry hit it in the head, knocking it out," Hermione answered.
"Do you really expect us to believe that three first-years managed to incapacitate a fully-grown Mountain Troll, Miss Granger?!" Snape snarled at her.
"Now, now, Severus," Dumbledore said, "let's all just be thankful that no one was hurt. Besides the troll, of course. I think twenty points each to Gryffindor for bravery are in order. Don't you agree Minerva?"
McGonagall sputtered.
"Awarding points?! They should be punished for not going straight to their dormitories!"
"I think this experience has been punishment enough for them," Dumbledore said, the twinkle back in his eyes. "I doubt these three will ever go looking for trouble again. Will you?"
The three students quickly shook their heads.
"Right. Off you go then. The feast has been moved to the common rooms. Be sure to get there before it's all gone!"
Hermione quickly left with Harry and Ron before the Headmaster could change his mind.
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OoOoO
Harry slowly picked at his food back in the Gryffindor common room. It wasn't like he wasn't hungry. He was. Fighting the troll had used up a lot of energy. But he couldn't keep his mind off of the new disturbance in the Force that he felt swirling all around him. Hermione and Ron were oblivious to such things of course.
They were sharing a secluded corner together. They hadn't said much to each other, but there seemed to be a new bond between them, and it just felt like they should stick together. Ron was eating with gusto, shoving food into his mouth as quickly as he could pick it up. Hermione seemed to be more like Harry, quietly thoughtful and picking at her food after their encounter with the troll.
"Thank you," she finally said. "Both of you. If you hadn't come when you did…"
"It was mostly Harry," Ron said as he swallowed a mouthful and then took another bite, "I jus' casta shpell."
"Still. You came. That's what counts."
Ron's face flushed red before he mumbled his reply.
"Yeah, well, you know. Felt kinda bad. Was my fault you were in there all day. Sorry for bein' a prat."
In the Force, Harry could feel that there was something off about the other boy's response. He was... embarrassed. And there was something that was maybe... untruthful... about his words.
But Hermione just smiled.
"You're forgiven."
Ron turned his eyes to Harry.
"How'd you do all that anyways? All that flippin' and runnin' and jumpin'?"
Hermione furrowed her brows and looked at him as well.
"And I swear I saw you get thrown against the wall, but instead of hitting it and falling, you just crouched on the wall and used your feet to spring back at the troll."
"Err… yeah, well, I kinda did," Harry answered.
"How?" Hermione asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me," she said. "After seeing you fight the troll, I'm ready to hear you say just about anything."
Ron looked rather interested as well. He'd actually stopped eating to pay attention.
"Well, err… I actually already told you. On the train. I used the Force."
"You mean all that stuff you've been going on about is real?" Ron asked rather loudly.
"Shhh!" Harry admonished. "Do you want everyone to hear us?!"
"Sorry."
"Still," Hermione said. "You mean you really are a, what did you call it, a 'Jed-hi'?"
"Jedi," Harry corrected. "And kind of. I'm not really a Jedi yet. I'm still learning to use the Force and about the Jedi Arts. But one day I'll be a Jedi Knight. And yes, that's how I fought the troll."
"Wicked," Ron said.
"What else can the Force do? Is it like using magic?" Hermione asked.
"Here, watch," Harry replied. He then stretched out his hand and slowly levitated his fork and knife so that they spun in the air between them.
"So what?" Ron asked. "That's just the Leivosa spell. We learned that in class today."
"Ron." Hermione shook her head. "Look. He's not holding his wand. And he didn't cast a spell. This is something different."
"Oh," Ron said before his eyes widened. "Oh!"
"The Force is like magic, but different," Harry explained. "Magic comes from within. It's something inside us. But the Force is all around us. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's an Energy field that flows through the whole world, through the entire universe. A Jedi is able to open himself up and let the Force flow through him to do all sorts of things."
"Like what?" Ron asked.
"Lots of stuff. You get a… sense of the world and people around you. You can kind of tell when things are about to happen. I can move really fast and I have great reflexes."
"That would be killer for playing Quidditch!" Ron exclaimed.
Harry nodded and continued.
"I can jump higher and farther than anyone else I know. And I'm just getting started, still learning. And then there's all sorts of mental stuff too. Meditation and mind tricks, and techniques to help with memory and learning new information."
"Really?" Hermione asked, a bright new look coming into her eyes. "Is that why you're so far ahead of the rest of us with your schoolwork?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm that far ahead. But yeah, the Force makes learning and remembering new things much easier."
"Can anyone learn to be a Jedi?" she asked.
"Well, no," he answered. "Not just anyone. Most people aren't Force-sensitive at all. But I think witches and wizards are. Using magic is kind of similar. And all the magicals I've met feel rather strong in the Force."
"You have to teach us," Hermione stated.
"Yeah!" Ron agreed. "Imagine us on the Quidditch team! The three of us all with reflexes like yours! We'll be unstoppable!"
"I'm not sure I can do that…"
"Why not?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah!" Ron added. "You told us all about it."
"I know, but…" Harry trailed off.
It was forbidden. The Holocron had told him as much. Only Jedi Masters were allowed to instruct others in the ways of the Force. And Harry was no master.
"How did you learn about it?" Hermione asked.
"I kind of have a… sort of… teacher, I guess." Harry answered.
"Could he show us too?" She asked.
"No. I actually already asked him about that. He said it'd be impossible for him to teach more than one student at a time."
"Come on mate," Ron pleaded, "you've got to teach us! It's what friends do for each other!"
"Friends?" Harry asked, his heart starting to speed up.
Hermione smiled brightly.
"Of course," Ron answered.
"I like the sound of that," Hermione added.
Friends. He finally had friends. Ron and Hermione. And friends helped each other. Shared things together. How could he not show them how to use the Force?
But Master Isu had been insistent. Harry was not to teach anyone about how to use the Force. He said it would lead to disaster.
Harry looked into the bright, happy eyes of Hermione and at Ron's grinning, excited face.
Friends…
He sighed.
"Fine. I'll teach you."
"Yes!" Ron cheered.
"This is going to be so exciting! Imagine all the books we'll be able read and remember! All the knowledge at our finger tips!" Hermione said.
"Books! Think of how good we're gonna be at Quidditch! We're gonna dominate the tryouts next year!"
"But this has to be absolutely between us only!" Harry interrupted. "Our secret. No one else can ever know. Ever! No teachers or parents or anyone! I'm really not supposed to teach anyone at all. And if my, err… teacher, finds out, I don't know what he'll do."
"No worries mate," Ron said. "We can keep a secret, right Hermione?"
The girl looked a little hesitant, but eventually nodded in agreement.
"This is the start of something beautiful," Ron said. "Everything is going to work out great. You'll see. I can feel it!"
Harry nodded. He'd agreed and there was no going back. He just hoped that the disturbance he felt in the Force had to do with something else entirely.
OoOoO
OoOoO
Sybil Trelawney shook herself out of her daze. She was so absentminded sometimes. The price one paid for the gift of the Sight…
She felt something wet on her feet and looked down to see broken bits of porcelain scattered about and the remains of her tea soaking into the rug.
Now when had she dropped her teacup? She didn't remember doing that.
She waved her wand and cleaned up the mess before turning to make herself another cup. It wouldn't do to end the day without trying to read the tea leaves. One never knew when the Sight would choose to come…
AN: What did you think?
(NEW NOTE 24 November 2018) So it seems that this is somewhat of a divisive chapter among my readers. Apparently a lot of people simply can't believe that Ron would have gone after Hermione to warn her about the troll without Harry's urging. So let me just point out that since Ron's moment of decision happens 'off screen,' we don't get to really see why he went to warn her. He could have simply had a crisis of conscience and decided to do the right thing. Or maybe Lavender and Parvati yelled at him and forced him to go look for her since it was his fault. Or maybe he made a joke that Hermione was going to get eaten by the troll and his older brothers threatened to beat him unless he went after her. The point is, it's intentionally ambiguous. This story does not have an omniscient narrator, rather, it's told from the limited perspective of the point of view character. So, as the reader, you can either try to infer the motivations for Ron's actions from the clues and context that I did write, or you can make up your own reasoning. Does that make sense?
Thanks for your reviews, and thanks for reading!