AN: Watching someone play BioShock helped out with this chapter. Don't believe me? Play or watch someone play that game and tell me there isn't at least one bit that scared the hell out of you! And I can't believe I finished this in time for Halloween, three cheers for me!
Harry picked up the feather in exasperation, 'Move you stupid little thing!' Before he knew it, the feather had left his hand and shot across the room, just barely missing Professor Flitwick, and embedding itself into the wall. "…Sorry about that…"
"I should be thankful your accuracy isn't good," Flitwick joked.
'It's better than you think it is,' Harry thought, several attempts afterwards fared slightly better in the fact no one got close to being impaled, "Is it possible to kill someone with a feather?"
"If they were allergic to it, I suppose," Hermione offered.
"But would anyone die by being stabbed by one?" Harry retorted.
"I think that's impossible," Neville pointed out.
"Tell that to the feather stuck in the wall," Harry deadpanned.
Harry's mood stayed dim through the rest of his classes, though he did do better than most, but lightened considerably when he walked in to the Great Hall and saw all the candy, "This almost makes up for not being able to go Trick or Treating!"
"That sounds like fun, what do you do?" Luna asked.
"You dress up in costumes and go to people's houses to get candy, and if you don't you prank them!" Harry answered with a wide smile, eating some candy, "By the way, have any of you seen 'Mione around?"
"She's hiding in the girl's lavatory," Luna responded, eating some pudding.
"What? Why?" Harry responded.
"Ron Weasley," Luna simply stated.
"I'm going to shove his head right up his ass!" Harry threatened, standing up and starting to make his way over the Gryffindor table when Professor Quirrel barged into the hall screaming about a troll.
"I'm guessing a troll is bad?" Harry sarcastically asked, seeing the panic and chaos that erupted.
"Everyone thinks so," Luna answered, calmly eating some more pudding before Dumbledore told the Prefects to lead their houses back to the dorms.
"And away we go with the flow," Harry joked as the tide of students swept him along, "Luna, just take the pudding with you!"
"What about Hermione?" Luna asked, still eating her food and walking alongside Harry.
"What're you talking about?" Harry responded.
"She's hiding so she doesn't know about the troll," Luna pointed out.
"Crap!" Harry exclaimed before running in the opposite direction, Luna following close behind, "If we hurry we can grab her before anything happens."
Heading down the corridor they ran into, literally, Neville who had been going in the opposite direction.
"What're you doing here, Nev?" Harry asked, "Isn't your house in the other direction?"
"I got separated from the rest of my house when everyone went mad," Neville answered.
"We have a bigger problem," Luna pointed down the corridor to where the troll was, "That's where Hermione is hiding."
"Oh this is just wonderful!" Harry sarcastically exclaimed before taking in a deep breath and letting it out, "Okay, here's the plan: I distract the big idiot, you two grab 'Mione and run your asses off."
"Are you crazy?!" Neville exclaimed.
"Why do you keep asking that question if you already know the answer?" Harry grinned.
Neville sighed in exasperation as the three made their way to the bathroom; Harry kept true to his promise of being a distraction by breaking off a sink and throwing it at the troll's head.
"Didn't I say: grab 'Mione and run your asses off?!" Harry yelled, seeing that his friends were staring at him in shock.
Being yelled at snapped them out of their stupor and the noise caused the troll to focus on Harry long enough for them to escape.
Looking at the door long enough to see his friends vacate the bathroom to safety, Harry glanced up at the face of the creature and muttered, "Okay ugly, now I can let loose."
It was actually a bit boring how predictable the troll attacked; either it would swing downwards or horizontally. 'I'm infinitely thankful that I convinced Uncle Croc to let me fight him once in a while, makes going up against this guy a piece of cake!'
Ducking out of the way of another swing, which smashed a toilet stall and a sink, Harry cursed the fact he had recently stopped taking his cards wherever he went and was without his gas capsules too, 'I should really take a page out of that Bat's book and be crazy prepared for anything!'
He ducked into a section of the wall that had been broken away to get out of sight to catch his breath. Glancing around for anything to use as a weapon, he picked up a shard of porcelain before vacating his hiding spot for another to pick up a fragment of wood.
Tightening his grip his makeshift weapons, grateful that he had taken the liberty of putting on his gloves and that he would not be pulling splinters out of his hand later, he waited until the troll swung down and jumped out of the way before running up the troll's arm and used all of his strength to shove the weapons into the creature's eyes. The troll attempted to pull the shards out, bellowing in pain, but the weapons were too small for it to grasp and instead caused them to go deeper.
'I guess I should put the thing out of its misery,' Harry thought as he watched the creature stumble around in pain. Looking around for a moment, he picked up a large fragment of wood and climbed up as high as he could. He then proceeded to jump off from his spot and proceeded to hit the shards sticking out of the troll's eyes hard enough to shove them into its skull; he had screamed out "KABOOOOOONG!" the instant he had made contact with the troll's head. 'Wish I had a guitar to do that with, but that was fun!'
"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall gasped, seeing the damage Harry had done.
"Hello there, Professor," Harry smiled, walking around the troll slightly.
"What were you thinking?" Flitwick asked, astounded that a first year had singlehandedly killed a troll.
"Either you destroy your opponent or get destroyed yourself," Harry responded, ignoring the puddle of troll's blood he was standing in, "Uncle Croc taught me that one."
"Taking on a full grown troll by yourself, you could've gotten killed!"
"I wasn't going to abandon 'Mione and let her get hurt!" Harry argued, "She's my friend, and I don't abandon my friends ever!"
McGonagall, along with Flitwick, remembered James Potter's steadfast loyalty to his friends and could not help but be a bit relieved that a small portion of that remained in his son despite the way he was.
"Professors, do you mind me saying something?" Luna spoke up.
"What is it, Ms. Lovegood?" Flitwick responded, startled slightly because he had forgotten about her along with Neville and Hermione.
"While Harry did break the rules by not listening to orders to go back to the common room, if he didn't Hermione would be dead right now and there would still be a troll running around the castle," Luna pointed out.
"The ends justify the means!" Harry interjected, "You may be ticked that I disobeyed, but you should be happy you don't have a death on your hands!"
"That is enough, Mr. Potter," McGonagall commanded.
"Yes ma'am," Harry responded, instantly recognizing the tone in the Gryffindor Head's voice as one similar, but less menacing, as when Joker would want to scare the crap out of a normal person.
"For now, go back to your common rooms while this gets cleaned up," McGonagall ordered, "Any punishment will be discussed at a later date."
"Yes ma'am," Harry answered as he and his friends walked off, first swinging by the Hufflepuff dorms to see Neville off before heading towards their house.
"You are ridiculously reckless," Hermione sighed before smiling, "Thank you for saving me, though."
"The number of close friends I have can be counted on one hand, and besides, abandoning your friends makes a person lower than dirt!" Harry remarked before speaking to Luna, "Great quick thinking there, by the way, you saved my hide, Alba!"
Luna tilted her head slightly, "Who's that?"
"That's your nickname!" Harry stated.
"Where'd that come from?" Hermione asked, confused at how Harry got Alba from Luna.
"It's a part of the scientific name for a moon flower: Ipomoea Alba," Harry clarified, "The idea came to me after Jin mentioned that Luna smells like flowers."
"How do you know the scientific name of a moon flower?" Hermione pressed.
Harry paused a moment before dramatically declaring, "Do not question the powers of my scar, it holds the answer to everything!"
Hermione smiled and shook her head slightly both at Harry's inventive nickname and his acting like a drama queen as he entered the common and could not help but notice that Luna's cheeks seemed to be a bit pink. The cute moment was thus ruined by Peeves floating by and singing an annoying song, Harry reacted by somehow chucking a chair at him.
"…how can a first year throw a chair that weighs more than him?" a Random Student asked to the stunned room, he received no answer.
AN: Cookies to anyone who figures out where the 'KABOOOOOONG' line comes from…but damn, you're a strong 11 year old. What the hell was in that serum Ivy gave you?
Harry : "The extract of MAGICAL MUSHROOMS OF POWAH!"
