They were three corridors away when Harry felt the floor shake beneath him. Ron and Malfoy were still squabbling, Malfoy whining, "I don't see why we need to tell her, the troll is in the basement."

"Not Anymore." Harry said harshly, his voice coming out as half hiss half growl. He'd recognized the shaking - it was just like Dudley, when he was in a hurry. Only, these were stone floors, not wood, and thus that troll had to be obscenely huge. 300 stone? Maybe more.

"We'd better hurry." Harry said, shaking off Ron's questions and Malfoy's silent accusatory stare.*

They had reached the final corridor, running towards the girls' bathroom, when they heard the grunting from behind them. As one, they whirled, looking at the biggest and ugliest humanoid that they'd ever seen. It had a club, a huge thing with metal nails sticking out of it. And it was shuffling quickly towards them.

This was bad, Harry thought, trying to summon a spell. He hadn't, though, hadn't learned combat against magic-resistant creatures.

Ruthlessly, he cut off that train of thought. It doesn't matter. Find something that works.

Now that they'd all gone quiet, Harry could see the troll moving its nose about and snuffling for them. As if it couldn't rightly see.

And that gave him an Idea!

Closing his eyes, he mentally replayed a spell the twins had used, that he'd never had the chance to try before. "Odor Magnus!" Harry said, nearly shouting it. Turning to the other boy, he said the same thing.

"I need you two to run, get help." Or, serve as bait - really, same difference, right? Harry said urgently. If trolls liked to eat humans, well, he'd just made these two smell like pork roast. Like the best pork roast that he'd ever eaten (and that was the only dish Aunt Petunia ever made right). With luck, he'd even infused the scent with his own appetite.

To no one's suprise, Draco Malfoy hadn't waited a moment to turn to the left and dash down the corridor.

Ron was a different story. "You want me to just Leave you?"

"I can distract it for a little bit. I need you to get backup." Harry said, his voice tight under the strain of holding both spells.

"But..."

"Just do it, already!" Harry snapped, and Ron ran off.

Of course, distracting a full grown mountain troll was easier said than done. Harry curled himself into a ball near the doorjamb, frantically reciting to himself, I'm small, I'm little, I'm in the dark. It was a mantra, a mental focus.

The troll drew ever nearer.

*Stare is really just supposed to get people to fess up.

[a/n: I do so love reviews. won't you write one?]