Disclaimer –The world of Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and various publishing houses. The films are owned by Warner Brother's Studios. I do not in writing this claim ownership over any properties associated with the works of J.K. Rowling. I am merely playing in her backyard while I get these ideas out of my head.
It was a beautiful Thursday at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It also happened to be All Hallows Eve and the 10 year anniversary of the deaths of James and Lily Potter and the defeat of the Dark Lord Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Fortunately young Harry James Potter had put his demons to rest many years ago in another timeline. As such he was now able to celebrate this day as the happy holiday it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, this particular Halloween was different from the ones preceding it. This Halloween, Harry planned to cause a wrinkle in certain plans for a certain somebody.
That was why it came to pass that Harry spent the majority of the morning this Hallowing day keeping a meticulously close eye on one Ronald Weasley. While Harry and Hermione could acknowledge that Ronald Weasley had not yet become the royal pissant he was in the previous timeline, he could still be a right git if he wanted to. And based on the events of the previous timeline this was his first real opportunity to prove himself worthy of the title.
When it came time for the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor dual Charms Class it was understandable that Harry was getting a bit anxious. Harry was once again paired up with Seamus Finnigan, while Hermione… well Hermione was paired up with the red-headed wonder of course.
Hermione bless her heart was able to maintain herself in a much less know-it-all fashion as compared to how she behaved in the previous timeline. However that still didn't help matters a whole bunch. Ronald Weasley still failed the lesson for the day, and Hermione still aced the lesson. As such Ronald again, proceeded to blame Hermione for his own failure as if it were only logical that she was the cause for his own idiocy.
Hermione of course ran off in a huff. Harry stood there momentarily stunned before his brain re-engaged and he dashed off after Hermione to try to comfort her.
When he managed to catch up with her, he found her on the fifth floor outside of the Ravenclaw Tower entrane laughing her head off. Harry was a little nonplused as he saw that and said "You alright Hermione?"
Hermione stopped laughing for a moment, looked at Harry, and then promptly started laughing again as she wheezed out the reply "Yeah, no problem. I should have realized what a git he was the first time this happened."
"Yeah, well at least I didn't have to follow you into a girls lavatory this time." Harry said levelly.
Hermione stopped laughing then and said "Oh, I would have sought refuge in Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom. At least there I could be guaranteed to have more or less perfect privacy, if you ignore the obvious. And even then, I could just go into the Chamber come evening, right?"
"Yeah I suppose that is true. Come on; let's go pass some time in the Room of Requirement until Dinner. We don't have any more classes today, and we still need to catalogue the items in the Room of Hidden Things." Harry said.
"Yeah true, I want to see what books are in there, there must be more in there than are in the Library if my guess was right." Hermione said as the two made their way off towards the seventh floor corridor that housed the Room of Requirements.
When it came time for Dinner Harry and Hermione made it down to the Great Hall just in time to be seated when the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and Professor Quirrell ran into the hall, made it half way up to the Staff Table, shouting the entire length about "TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!"
When he made it half way up to the staff table he promptly fell to the floor while saying "Thought you ought to know." Before going into a dead faint.
The chaos that erupted in the room was only quieted when Dumbledore launched several noise makers into the air from his wand and said "Prefects will lead their houses back to their Dormitories, while the Staff will accompany me to the Dungeons."
Harry and Hermione allowed themselves to be taken along towards the Ravenclaw Dormitories. However as soon as they passed Moaning Myrtles bathroom on the way up, the two of them slipped inside the bathroom, once the other students had passed by Harry and Hermione slipped out of the bathroom. Harry had retrieved the Marauders Map and intoned "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." While tapping the map with the tip of his wand, he then focused on the space between the Great Hall and the Headmasters Office.
"Sure enough, Quirrelmort is making his way in the direction of the Headmasters Office. We can head him off if we head in this direction. The troll is currently on the… er; fourth floor near the Hospital Wing for some reason." Harry explained.
Harry and Hermione easily managed to intercept Professor Quirrell. Harry promptly cast Protego Duo before the Professor had a chance to hit either student with a hostile spell. He then said "Tom, I am going to give you an option. Either Quirrell and you can leave the school peacefully, never to return, or you can die painfully… again."
Quirrell didn't know who this Tom person was, but he didn't take kindly to threats. He also knew that his master wanted this Potter brat to suffer a most decidedly painful death. That was all he needed to know to cause him to unleash some decidedly dark curses towards the boy and that mudblood.
Harry's shield spell held against the dark curses now flying towards them, though Harry had to constantly provide power to it so that it wouldn't break. That meant it was up to Hermione to deliver the offensive spells that the two of them would need.
Hermione of course didn't like getting into the trenches. However that didn't mean that she was unprepared to do so. She began weaving her wand in the direction of Quirrell, unleashing several silent spells. Now these weren't just your standard everyday hexes and jinxes that she was unleashing. No, these were the decidedly dark spell known as Sectum Sempra. While the Severing Charm or Diffindo would simply cut its target, and possibly remove a limb, it still had the possibility for the limb to be reattached. Sectum Sempra on the other hand was a highly over powered version of the Severing Charm. It also had the negative effect that any limbs removed with it would be completely incapable of ever being reattached, and any wounds caused by it would need to be treated immediately or else they would leave severe and permanent scarring.
Unfortunately for Quirrell, he had just sent the entire School Staff off on a wild goose chase, leaving him entirely vulnerable to face two students. He thought he would be able to handle two First Years. But apparently these First Years had knowledge of spells that even Quirrell didn't know. And he had already taken several hits from some of those black bolts of light that the girl was unleashing in his direction. Oh by Merlin did those spells hurt.
Hermione kept applying pressure, and YES, she had just scored a hit on his Wand arm costing him his hand. Two more quick shots, one to his throat, and one to his chest and the fight was over. There was a scream of agony as the Wraith of Tom Riddle escaped from the back of Quirrell's skull.
Harry let down the shield, and promptly walked over to the corpse. He began casting vanishing charms on the blood and body so that no one would find the remains of the fight. Meanwhile Hermione was casting Repairo Charms on the surrounding architecture of the Castle to make sure the more physical evidence of the fight didn't arouse suspicion from the teachers.
Once that was done Harry pulled out the Marauders Map and checked it again. "Teachers are now on the fourth floor, apparently engaged in fighting the Troll. If we follow this path we can make it back to our dormitories with no one other than the Prefects any the wiser. Come on."
Of course they got a scathing lecture from Penelope when they got back to the Dormitory, but since they seemed to be in one piece that was all they got.
The next morning at breakfast Professor Dumbledore had an announcement to make "I am sorry to announce that last night in all the confusion it appears that Professor Quirinus Quirrell has seemingly vanished from the premises. As such I will be taking over his Defense against the Dark Arts Classes until such time that a replacement Teacher can be found."
Harry and Hermione looked at each other with grins on their faces. They couldn't wait to see just what kind of classes Professor Dumbledore had in store for them.
A/N: I know it is a lot short, but not a whole lot happens on Halloween day, and I felt that day deserved its own chapter. Sorry I couldn't do a whole lot more.