"I want to talk to Novus," Ron declared at the breakfast table next morning.
Harry blinked and turned to stare at him. "Why?"
"Well," the redhead said after chewing and swallowing a bit of sausage. "Who knows what he could have been doing last night? He should have been asleep like everyone else."
Harry nodded. "You're right. So, when are you going to talk to him?"
"Uh . . ."
'-'
Envy smirked at Malfoy, who was staring at Ron and Harry in shock. Of course, this form of entertainment couldn't last for long, so he soon finished his breakfast and stood to leave. As he passed the Gryffindor table, he paused to watch a long, thin parcel being delivered to Potter before continuing on his way.
He was followed by the two, although he didn't think it was intentional. When he had reached to top of the stairs (he was on his way to his first class, having nothing better to do) they were halfway up, but were blocked by Malfoy—the little git—and his goons. The ensuing argument caused Malfoy to be disappointed. Envy had barely been able to hear what Flitwick was saying, but he managed to make it out. From what he could tell, Harry had been sent a very expensive broomstick for some reason and when Professor Flitwick had arrived, Malfoy had tried to get Potter in trouble. It hadn't worked.
Smirking, he turned to walk away, but it seemed that Harry and Ron had noticed him, and they immediately sprinted up the stairs to catch him. He sighed. "What do you want?"
They took a moment to catch their breath, then straightened up, Ron first. "What were you doing wandering around in the middle of the night?" he demanded.
Envy smirked. "That's for me to know and for you to never find out!" With that, he skipped away, leaving the two Gryffindors with confused expressions.
'-'
The next few weeks passed in the same boring blur as the the previous weeks. Because of this, Envy decided that McGonagall had been lying when she told him that Hogwarts would be more exciting than the orphanage. Sure, it was fascinating, but there was a distinct lack of real action.
He woke on the thirty-first to a delicious smell of baking pumpkins. From what he had heard, there was a holiday today called 'Halloween'. He wasn't sure what they celebrated on this day, but apparently it wasn't big enough of a thing to cancel classes (although there would be a feast). It didn't matter much, however, because Flitwick declared that they would practicing the Hover Charm today, the one which he had used to make things fly on that first lesson. Envy was among the last to get it, but with a forceful "Wingardium Leviosa!" he managed to lift his feather a couple feet.
He managed to push down the twinge of jealousy he felt upon seeing the other students chatting happily to one another and left the class.
'-'
The Great Hall was truly a sight to behold. Thousands of live bats swooped about, and enormous carved pumpkins could be seen everywhere with candles inside them. The feast was indeed a feast, with much more food than usual. Like at the opening banquet, the tableware was made of gold.
People had hardly started serving themselves, however, when Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew, and started yelling about a troll being in the dungeons. He then fainted.
Envy frowned at this. Had Quirrell just decided to skip out on the feast and take a stroll in the dark, damp, ever-so-scary dungeons?
His thoughts were, along with the uproar caused by Quirrell, broken into by Dumbledore's wand, which had just shot off a lot of purple sparks. "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately."
Envy gaped up at the old man. The Slytherin dormitories where in the dungeons! What was that old fool thinking? Did he not care for them, or did he simply not know where their dormitories were? . . . Perhaps he believed that the troll wasn't really in the dungeons . . .
He was once again jolted out of his thoughts, this time by a prefect. "Come on, I know you're scared, we all are, but this is no time to stand around!"
Envy let out a growl as the prefect started dragging him after the rest of the Slytherins. He was soon let go, fortunately, at the edge of the group, and he managed to catch a bit of a conversation between Ron and Harry—they were going after the troll.
Grinning, he slipped into a crowd of Hufflepuffs after them. He did not apologize to the few people he bumped into, and none of them seemed to realize that he was a Slytherin, too caught up in their own panic. Due to this lack of hindrance, he soon reached the two Gryffindors when they ducked behind a large statue of a griffin.
"Oh." Ron scowled. "It's only you. Come to take us back, have you?"
Envy laughed. "Take you back? No way! I just want to get in on the fun."
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance that quite plainly intoned, 'He's insane', before turning back to him. "You can come," Harry started, "but don't try to hitch a ride on the troll if we run into it or anything, got it? We don't want to get Hermione killed."
Envy gave a surprised blink. So, Granger was after the troll? Or had she gotten separated from the Gryffindors? "Fine, fine, I won't do anything terribly reckless."
Harry nodded approvingly. "Good, let's go."
They were about to start down the corridor when footsteps came clacking along it. They ducked back behind the griffin and watched as Snape hurried by them.
"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said.
Envy wasn't listening—he had instead chosen to cover his nose. "What is that smell? Gluttony's stomach?"
Harry and Ron gave him weird looks for this, but didn't comment, because just then low grunting had started up at the end of the passageway (to the left), along with the sound of enormous feet meeting stone.
There was the troll, dragging its club along the floor. It was easily twelve feet tall, and its head was very small in comparison to its body, which was very lumpy. It had flat, horned feet and gray skin. Envy thought it looked rather ugly.
It was also coming straight toward them. Harry and Ron ducked behind the statue yet again, dragging Envy back as well when he tried to jump out at the beast.
The troll stopped in a door and stood there for a moment, thinking, it seemed, before dragging its feet inside. Harry and Ron whispered something about the key in the lock, but Envy didn't listen—instead, he ran after the troll and into the room it had entered.
It turned out to be a bathroom, and, if the cowering Hermione was any indication, a girls bathroom. Great. Shaking these thoughts off, he attempted to transform into his larger self. Then he remembered that he was unable to do that. Also, the troll had noticed him.
Crap.
He was jolted out of his thoughts when the club came swinging at him. Envy jumped out of the way just in time. The floor where he just stood had a new dent.
'-'
With the troll distracted by Envy, Ron and Harry came edging into the room and over to Hermione. The troll was currently busying itself with smashing the sinks in an effort to hit Novus, and it was failing miserably.
"Okay," Harry whispered to Ron. "You get Hermione out of here, I'll help Novus distract the troll."
Ron nodded and started sneaking around the troll to get to where Hermione was slumped against the wall and trembling.
Harry, meanwhile, raised his wand and gave a shout. "Oi, you! Um, troll!"
The monster turned its coconut-head to look at him, and Envy glared. "I was handling it just fine, you moron! Why did you interrupt?" he yelled.
"No, you weren't handling it! It was about to crush you!"
The argument seemed at first to be enough to sufficiently distract the troll, but it was not to be. The great lump soon got bored and spotted Ron and Hermione slowly making their way to the door. Envy was the first to notice. "Hey, look out!"
Hermione looked up and froze in terror, and Ron tried to pull her along. "Come on!" She wouldn't listen.
Ron muttered for a moment then raised his wand to point at the troll's club. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The troll looked up in utter confusion as its club was wrenched from its granite-gray hands. A moment later, the wooden weapon fell on the beast's head, and it collapsed, knocked out cold.
"Is it—dead?" Hermione asked.
"I don't think so." Harry approached and poked the troll's shoulder.
Envy gave the troll a vicious a kick to the head. "It's just knocked out."
The sound of shoes meeting flagstone echoed around the bathroom, and they all looked up to see teachers flooding in. The four of them soon found themselves on the receiving and of a lecture from McGonagall. Envy was rather bored of it—he'd endured much worse.
Granger gave an excuse for them ("Envy distracted it, and Harry and Ron came to help, blah blah blah"), but McGonagall wasn't entirely convinced.
"Mr. Novus," she said. "Why did a Slytherin such as yourself follow Miss Granger and Misters Potter and Weasley?"
Envy glanced at the trio then gave a shrug. "I wanted to fight the troll."
McGonagall gave a nod. "Very well, then. Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. You could have been hurt or worse. You may go now, students are finishing the feast at their houses."
Hermione nodded and hurried off.
'-'
Envy was mildly satisfied to walk away from the girls bathroom with four points in his pocket.
'-'
Full Name: Envy Novus
Birthday: 7 May 1980
Wand: Hawthorn and Dragon Heartstring, ten and a quarter inches, flexible.
House: Slytherin.
Parents: Connor Novus (half-blood) and Lucy Novus (muggle).
Skills: Good at Transfiguration and offensive spells.
This chapter absolutely hated me. I managed to finish it, fortunately, and I made it out of the Pit of Writer's Block alive. The ability to write this returned to me once Envy dashed in to fight the troll. Yay.
I was inspired to write this after watching Envy's death over my brother's shoulder. Yup.
All of McGonagall's lines in this chapter are taken from the book, but they aren't exact because I decided that since the circumstances are slightly different, so is Minerva's speech.
There is a reason that Envy's metamorphmagus abilities are not listed at the end of his profile this chapter, so don't go talking to me about it. Also, I wrote this little one-shot for the same category this is in. Yay.
This is my most popular fic. It may have less favorites than Happy Birthday, but it has more follows. :) Thank you, guys.
I hope you're all having a lovely time. Please enjoy your day or night and don't anger Father and have your writing ability blocked by him.
(I was thinking I'd change my pen name to Leaf of the Whomping Willow. Whaddaya think? I'm still not sure yet, I'm kinda attached to my current one . . .)
If you find any mistakes, please point them out. I was too lazy to proofread this twice, which I usually do.
Please review!
-The Leaf on Italy's Head