A Troll for Hallowe'en

Harry sat with the twins and Lee at the Gryffindor table enjoying the Hallowe'en feast. He and his brother had been off to remember their grandparents' death for a while by the lake, but, as their parents told them often, they would have wanted them to enjoy the feast. Therefore, the brothers had compromised by holding a small remembrance ceremony each Hallowe'en for them and after that they enjoyed the Hallowe'en celebrations. Harry noticed that Aaron and Neville were glaring at Ron Weasley for some reason. He wondered what Fred and George's stupid younger brother had done this time to anger the two. Then he noticed that Hermione was absent.

"Do you have an idea where Hermione is?" Harry asked Lavender Brown, one of the first-year girls.

She was startled to be addressed by the popular Quidditch captain. Harry Potter was more or less the love interest of all girls fifth year and younger, with some also fawning over his best friend Cedric Diggory, and while he was nice to everybody who didn't do anything to him, it was rare that he spoke to the younger students outside of his brother's group of friends.

"Ron Weasley said some really hurtful things after Charms and she is in the girl's bathroom on the third floor, crying her eyes out. Parvati and I tried to get her out of there as did Aaron and Neville, but she wouldn't come," Lavender said and shot a glare at Ron.

Fred and George now looked serious for once.

"What did our idiot brother say to her?" Fred asked.

"I don't know the exact words, but it was something about being an insufferable know-it-all and that she had no place in the wizarding world with her attitude and being a muggleborn," Parvati now spoke up.

"That stupid little idiot! We will make sure he learns his lesson this time, Harry," George promised looking murderous.

"You better do. I am sick of hearing Aaron complain about Ron all the time. I don't know how he can be that idiotic. I mean, none of your other brothers is like that, even if Percy can be a pompous arse," Harry commented, having clashed with Percy on more than one occasion.

Their talk was cut short when Professor Quirrell came running into the Great Hall, shouting about a troll in the dungeons and fainting afterwards. Harry was on alarm. Hermione was out not knowing about the troll and the teachers were heading off already to face the troll. The prefects would be useless in this, as none of them could really deal with a troll. Well, he knew what to do.

"Parvati, which bathroom is Hermione exactly in?" Harry asked.

"The one close to the Charms classroom," She answered scared for her classmate.

"I will go get her. If I go now, I should reach her before the troll could even get there from the dungeons. You follow the others to the Gryffindor Common Room and don't worry about me. I know how to deal with a troll in case I might face it," Harry said and shot off towards the third floor.

He didn't see how Fred and George looked at each other nodding once promising themselves silently to use the time to seriously talk to Ron.


Harry sprinted down the corridors towards the girl's bathroom on the third floor close to the Charms classroom. He had to get Hermione to the Gryffindor Common Room and to safety before she could be in danger. He had a bad feeling about Quirrell being the one warning about the troll and so he wasn't that sure if the troll was really in the dungeons, especially as the headmaster's little trap was on the third floor. Harry had come to the conclusion that Quirrell was faking his stutter and was probably doing it to throw off suspicion. The most probable reason Harry had been able to come up with was whatever was hidden on the third floor. He finally reached the corridor where the bathroom was located and thankfully there was nobody here. He quickly opened the door to the bathroom and called out to Hermione.

"Hermione, you have to come out at once! A troll is loose at the castle and you need to follow me back to the common room!" Harry called out, stifling any protest directly.

Hermione came out of the stall she had been in with red eyes, looking scared.

"Don't worry, we will get back to the common room as fast as we can and should be able to avoid the troll altogether," Harry tried to assure the younger girl.

Sadly, Harry's hopes didn't come true, as, when they were at the exit of the corridor to the main staircase, they came across the troll. Hiding wasn't an option anymore, as the troll had seen them and was raising his club to attack. Harry wasn't having it.

"Hermione, retreat and give me some space. Trolls are resistant to spells thanks to their hide, but they have weaknesses to blunt trauma. They also suffer damage from elemental influence, so if you try to defend yourself, should it get past me, use incendio," Harry instructed her, knowing that the fire spell was the only elemental spell in the first-year spell book and that Hermione had learned them by heart already.

Hermione managed to stumble back a bit, her wand trembling in her hands. She watched Harry's stance changing. He looked ready to fight seriously. She had seen that once with her Dad who had been taking out a bandit that had threatened her Mum during a shopping trip. Her Dad practiced karate, she knew that and she had seen him train quite often and even spar with his club mates, but that one time his stance had been different. And Harry's was similar now. Then a strong magical aura started to come off of Harry. She was amazed. She hadn't thought that Aaron's older brother was that magically powerful.

Harry stared at the troll threateningly, trying to get it to retreat by intimidation only. Sadly, the troll was too stupid to take the warning and attacked. It was over quickly. Harry first deliberated the troll of its club with a simple levitation charm, then he animated the club inspired by the Muggle fairy tale of the Wishing Table, the Gold-Ass and the Cudgel in the Sack. The troll got intimately familiar with Harry's version of 'cudgel out of the sack' by being hit over and over with its own club until it fainted from all the harsh hits.

"Well, that's that," Harry commented looking down at the troll.

"Is it dead?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"No, just knocked out. They have hard heads. Killing a troll is difficult, that's why many use them to guard places. It's possible, but many wouldn't want to waste the magic to do so," Harry explained.

Then they heard running coming closer to them.

"Of course, they come when everything is over," Harry mumbled.

Harry and Hermione saw Professors McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore being the first ones appearing, followed by a trembling Quirrell.

"Why aren't you at your common room, Mr Potter, Ms Granger?" McGonagall asked.

"Hermione was crying in the bathroom closest to the Charms classroom, because one of her classmates insulted her in anger. I had overheard it during dinner and went to get her to the common room, as she didn't know about the troll. We sadly were intercepted by the troll, so I told Hermione to step back and fought it. You can see the result," Harry informed them.

"You want to tell us that a fourth-year was able to defeat a troll?" Snape sneered disbelievingly.

"I will gladly demonstrate the spell I used. Trolls are weak against blunt trauma and I animated the troll's club to hit it over the head over and over again. It should be knocked out for some hours," Harry said not backing down a bit.

"The troll's injuries confirm Harry's story, Severus," Dumbledore nodded. "It was hit with a heavy blunt object several times. Was it really necessary to use so much violence, Harry? And why didn't you ask a teacher for help?"

"I prefer getting away uninjured and I dislike violence, Professor. But if I can't avoid a fight like this time, because the troll had already seen us and was about to attack, I take out my opponent as quickly and effectively as possible. And pardon me if I say this, what spell would I have been able to use that could have taken down a troll less violently? Single stunners don't work, thanks to the magically resistant hide, elemental spells would have caused much more damage and shields don't hold at all," Harry stated, "And for your second question, you were all gone within a few seconds after telling us to go to the common rooms. Which teacher should I have asked?"

"He is right, Albus. Mr Potter, take twenty points for Gryffindor for outstanding performance under duress and helping a younger student to get out of danger. Now go back to your common room, your friends will be worried," McGonagall said and Harry nodded, leading Hermione away with his hand on her back.


The rumour mill was quick. The fact that Harry Potter had defeated a troll and saved a first-year quickly spread all over the school. The girls found it heroic; the boys couldn't help but grudgingly respect Harry's power. The Slytherins were contemplating how to get on his good side, because you didn't want to have a powerful wizard who could take down a twelve-foot troll down single-handedly against you. Many asked to hear how Harry had defeated the troll and only the muggleborns and some halfbloods understood the reference to the fairy tale Harry gave for the idea behind his spell. It led to some purebloods wanting to know more about the muggle world, even if for now it were only their children stories. Hermione asked her parents to send her a copy of the Brother Grimm Tales.

It was amusing that now in the evenings many students could be seen lying on the carpets of the Gryffindor Common Room, listening to another student reading out loud the fairy tales. Some were funny for them, some they could only shake their heads about. The muggleborns also explained how there was a moral in each story from which children learned, like not trusting strangers, how to outwit bad guys and so on. It soon was a loved tradition and Harry heard from Cedric that Hufflepuff too had taken it over. The house elves even supplied them with hot cocoa and biscuits for the 'Fairy Tale Hours' as they were called. Soon both magical and muggle children stories were read and the understanding from both sides grew, even if Slytherin didn't take up the reading sessions. It wasn't the pureblood way in the eyes of the older years. But many first to third-years had asked their classmates if they could get copies of some stories that they had heard others talking about.

Many students could be seen conversing what kind of curse it could have been that sent Sleeping Beauty into her one-hundred-year sleep, or how to enchant a house made of gingerbread. The teachers that overheard some of those questions could only chuckle and Professor Flitwick promised them to show them a few charms to build small gingerbread houses for Christmas, which was taken extremely well.


Harry prepped his team for the first match of the season against Slytherin. They were all good, they had numerous tactics to score points and Fred and George knew which Slytherin players they should knock out first. Harry's tactic was to prevent the Slytherins from cheating early on. The past three years had shown that Slytherin never played fair and if they were allowed to, they would injure the opposing players early on to have an easier time scoring. Well, this year they would get a nasty surprise. Gryffindor would play harder than ever before without resorting to cheating. They had more than enough talent to not need to do that.

But who said you couldn't turn cheating attempts around? Fred and George were instructed to keep a close eye on the bludgers and hold one ready for quick interference at all times. The twins had been over at Potter Manor a lot over the summer, some of the few people allowed to floo there, thanks to the immense security precautions, and they, Harry and Cedric had worked on tactics. Sometimes Harry's younger siblings and cousins had come to play with them and Fred and George were impressed by the younger kids' abilities in the air. Aaron was clearly chaser material, while the twins would give them a run for their money in silent coordination in a few years. They clearly had a twin bond too.

Aries Black would probably make a fantastic keeper one day and Juno had a good eye for finding the snitch. Of course, with the kids they hadn't played with the bludgers going; that would have been too dangerous and would have made Lily angry. And nobody was crazy enough to anger the redhead. Fred and George really didn't know why their mother made so many disparaging comments about Lily. She was really nice. Probably because the Potter kids were too independent in her eyes. They knew that their mother tended to baby all of them at home. It was the reason why Bill and Charlie had jumped at the opportunity to get jobs abroad.

The Gryffindor team walked out and took in the cheers of the students. Harry shook the hand of Marcus Flint and intentionally let his power show in his glowing green eyes. No reason to not go for a little intimidation. Perhaps that would remind the Slytherins to not cheat all the time. He could see the one year older boy flinch. The teams took off into the air on Madam Hooch's whistle and Angelina secured the quaffle.

After Gryffindor had scored three times, Slytherin tried cheating, but they weren't prepared when each attempt was directly met with a well-aimed bludger to either their torso or their head by one of the twins. Marcus Flint's attempt to block Alicia and knock her off her broom resulted in his getting hit over the head with a bludger and falling down instead of Alicia. He was out of the game for the rest of the time. The second Slytherin student to fall was their beater Bode. He got a broken shoulder after trying to hit Katie with his bat instead of hitting the bludger. He also couldn't continue. Harry made Terrence Higgs, the seeker of Slytherin fall for a Wronski Feint and plough into the ground. That made the match very easy for Gryffindor. With three of Slytherin's players down, Gryffindor could do what they wanted.

Once Harry felt somebody trying to hex his broom, but a strong push of magic to overpower the foreign magic, resulting in a loud snap, gave him back full control. He would have to investigate later who the bastard had been. The match went on for one and a half hours. With little interference, Gryffindor went on a scoring spree and Harry had no trouble waiting to catch the snitch until the score was really high in Gryffindor's favour. After all, he had no opposing seeker to worry about anymore, it was really embarrassing for a seeker to be knocked out by just one Wronski Feint, normally you should be able to get back up after the first one at least, hence why he could take his time and basically play fourth chaser. It was a tactic that was employed in professional Quidditch a lot when the opposing seeker wasn't really strong. Or knocked out like Higgs was right now. Finally, after two hours, Harry decided they had humiliated Slytherin enough and went after the snitch, which he had known the position of for twenty minutes now.

The Gryffindor stands erupted in cheers when he held the caught golden ball high over his head. The final score was 650:10 in Gryffindor's favour. Oliver later said he let that quaffle in out of pity for the two Slytherin chasers. This way they at least had a token goal. The rest of the team laughed hearing that. And it was true; Oliver had kept the hoops clean easily.


Time flew by fast and before the students really realised it Christmas was near. They had only one week of classes left. Professor Flitwick made good on his earlier promise to show the students how to charm gingerbread houses with supplies that the house elves in the kitchen had kindly supplied. Especially the first and second-years loved making their own gingerbread houses. Outside everything was covered in snow and many snowball fights had been held, some with the result that the overeager and not warmly enough clothed participants became patients of Madam Pomfrey to be given pepper-up potion for their colds.

Harry had overheard his brother and his friends talking about wanting to find out who Nicolas Flamel was. He wondered what they could want to know about the famous alchemist, but, as they didn't ask him, he didn't tell them. He only hoped they weren't up to something stupid or dangerous. Alchemy wasn't a field you played with. It could be dangerous without the proper knowledge and preparation. Well, this weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend and he planned to buy the last Christmas presents he needed.


Harry couldn't believe Hagrid. He had managed to win a dragon egg in a clearly rigged game of cards in the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade. Of all the stupid things to do. And he was stubborn about keeping it. How in hell would he be able to raise a dragon on the school grounds without endangering the students? Securing the hut against fire wasn't the problem. A few runic arrays on all walls and furniture were no problem. Hermione had been really surprised when he had waved off that concern of hers. But the dragon would grow fast. It couldn't stay. On top of it, too many already knew about it. Aaron and his group were no problem; they would keep their mouths shut, same for his own group of friends. But if this got out, Hagrid would be in major trouble.


It had taken two weeks of constant arguing to make Hagrid agree to send his dragon, which he had named Norbert, to the dragon preserve in Romania where Charlie Weasley worked. One main reason why he agreed was that Harry argued that it would be possible to arrange visits via portkey for him. Hagrid really lost all sense when dragons were involved. More than any other 'interesting creature'. Now they only needed to smuggle the dragon out without being noticed. Thankfully Harry had the invisibility cloak that his father had given him in his first year. It would enable them to sneak up to Astronomy tower without being noticed. He and Fred would do it, because somehow Norbert had managed to bite George and the bite was poisonous. Thus, he was out and getting Cedric all the way from the Hufflepuff common room, without something like Harry's cloak, would be too dangerous.

Hagrid had placed Norbert in a crate, which was bolstered on the inside to make the transport more comfortable for the young dragon. Aaron and his friends had wanted to help, but Harry had strictly forbidden it. He and Fred were enough and less likely to be caught, as they knew how to walk around the castle at night without being caught. The first-years didn't and would be more likely get caught and get detention for it. Harry charmed the crate featherlight and then he and Fred took it between them before Harry placed the cloak over them all. It wouldn't be possible for them to use it with more people at the same time much longer. Just in case both Fred and Harry used a disillusionment charm to hide suspicious feet or arms.

They made their way up to the tower as quickly as they dared. They had used silencing spells on their feet and scent erasing charms while they were outside, realising that they needed to make completely sure that they wouldn't be caught. When they reached the castle, they found that Ron and Draco Malfoy had got caught by Professor McGonagall out of bed. Malfoy insisted that Aaron had a dragon and Ron stated he had been in detention and on his way back to Gryffindor tower after polishing all the things in the trophy room, when he saw Malfoy wandering around suspiciously and had followed him to prevent whatever evil plan the blond had come up with.

McGonagall took twenty points from each of them and set detention. None of them had any right to be out of bounds after curfew. While Ron had a more legitimate reason, he should have headed straight to his common room after finishing detention. She took both boys with her. Harry and Fred could only silently shake their heads. They continued their way up to the tower where Charlie's friends were already waiting. They took the dragon and flew off. One problem less. He and Fred put the cloak back on but when they were close to the end of the staircase they heard Filch's voice. Harry pointed upwards and Fred nodded. They both whispered 'Wingardium Leviosa' and levitated each other, still under the cloak up on a beam of wood, waiting for Filch to be gone.

The levitation trick had saved their group's hide more than once. Nobody ever bothered looking up when searching for somebody.


Harry was busy studying for the end-of-year exams. He had managed to deter his brother and his friends from investigating the mystery about Nicolas Flamel by telling them that he was a famous alchemist and had created the only known Philosopher's Stone in today's existence. The younger ones had said that they suspected that the stone must be what was hidden at the third-floor corridor and that Fluffy was guarding it. Harry had told them clearly to not go there, because it was clearly a set-up for whatever reason. Aaron, trusting his older brother on the issue, had relented and with him his friends. They were kept too busy with repetition for their exams thankfully and the point hadn't been brought up again.

Harry was intent on making sure to keep his top-of-the-year position for another year. Though he had to shake his head at the franticness with which Hermione went about her study schedule. It became too much one evening so that he took the younger girl aside and told her to calm down and limit her study time to four hours each day, including the weekends, to not get a burn-out. Learning all you could was good and appreciated, but you had to make sure you didn't overdo things. The exams, while important, weren't like the OWLs that decided which jobs you could get in the future. She should concentrate on the important points and not learn each book by heart. He showed her how he structured his notes. Thanks to him being top of his year, she accepted the advice, much to the relief of her friends.

Even the Ravenclaws thought she overdid it and they were the ones studying most among the students. It led to her being a lot more relaxed and having more fun. She even agreed to have a girls' night with her dorm-mates one Saturday evening, something that was completely atypical for the intelligent girl. But it seemed to do her good.


Another one coming up tomorrow.