Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts two months. He had been so busy with school and friends and thumbing through the photo album that Hagrid had given him that he had barely noticed the time passing at all. He had found that each picture in the album had the date and the names of those in the picture written on the back in an elegant, unfamiliar hand.
The picture would say, for example, Christmas 1977-and there were his parents sitting next to each other in the Gryffindor common room, wrapped in each other's arms. Not only that, but to his delight, Harry discovered that every one of the photographs in the album were wizard photographs-they moved. Harry could watch his parent's wave to him from behind their tiny frame.
September 13th 1978-Wedding of Lily Marie Evans and James Charlus Potter. Those pictured (from left to right) Marlene McKinnon, Isabella Carmichael, Mary Macdonald, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew.
That one was his favorite. Harry usually flipped to that page when he got the photo album out. It was another photograph from his parent's wedding, just like the one Aunt Petunia had, but this one showed his parents surrounded by laughing young people that looked just about their age. Their friends. It made his parents more real somehow, to see them with their friends.
Sometimes, when he was looking at his photo album or eating dinner in the Great Hall, Harry still found himself missing Aunt Petunia's hugs or playing outside with Dudley. But on the whole, Hogwarts had begun to feel more comfortable. His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.
On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry ended up partnered with Seamus and Dean with Lavender Brown. Ron, however, had ended up partnered with a Ravenclaw girl named Hermione Granger.
Hermione Granger was an intelligent girl; there was no doubt about that. Harry didn't think he had met anyone smarter. The Ravenclaws took flying lessons and Charms with the Gryffindors, and even though Hermione did not like flying, Harry had never seen anyone answer as many questions as she did. Her hand seemed to be perpetually in the air. Ron thought she seemed like a bit of a know-it-all
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too—"
The charm turned out to be significantly more difficult than Professor Flitwick had made it look. Harry and Seamus swished and flicked until their wrists were sore, but the feather remained steadfastly on the table. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it - Harry had to put it out with his hat.
"I don't understand how it could be this hard!" Lavender muttered under her breath from the table to Harry and Seamus' left, throwing down her wand in frustration. She huffed in frustration, her blonde hair fluttering around her. Dean wiped his forehead and attempted the spell again.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried. Harry looked at their feather. The feather did not move. Lavender groaned.
Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted. Like Lavender and Dean's, his feather did not move, but unlike Harry and Seamus' it did not burst into flame. Harry thought that Ron was doing much better than he was. W
"You're saying it wrong," a very prim voice spoke up. Ron whipped his head around to look at his partner.
"It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." Hermione, Harry noted had not yet attempted the spell. Ron seemed to have noticed that fact as well.
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," he said, raising his eyebrow in challenge.
Hermione did not baulk. The frizzy haired Ravenclaw rolled up her sleeves, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads. Ron's eyebrows shot up and the whole class turned to look at the rising feather.
"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
The Gryffindors looked significantly impressed on the whole, (though Ron was sulking a little). But Harry couldn't help but notice that none of the Ravenclaws looked very pleased at all. In fact some of them were whispering to one another, and, by the looks on their faces, Harry guessed that what they were saying wasn't very nice. Hermione seemed to notice too. Harry saw her eyes flicker towards her classmates and her smile waver a bit.
As they were leaving the classroom and heading down to the Halloween feast Harry felt someone brush by him really quickly. He looked up to see a bushy head of hair practically running down the hall. It was Hermione, and she looked like she was in tears.
Hermione's tear stained face remained in Harry's mind as he and the rest of his friends made their way down to the Great Hall. Not even the amazing Halloween decorations (talking jack-o-lanteurns, live bats) could distract Harry from how upset Hermione had looked.
He didn't know her, and he did think she was kind of annoying, but no one deserved to be that upset.
"What's eating you, Harry?" Dean asked, filling his plate with jellies.
"I think Hermione was crying after Charms." Harry said, watching Seamus start a small fire in his pumpkin juice, "The other Ravenclaws were being mean to her, I think."
"I heard that none of them like her," said Lavender Brown, taking the seat next to Dean. Lavender's friend Pravati sat down next to her.
"Yes," Pravati said, leaning in and looking very serious, "They all hate her; they think she's a know-it-all."
"Well that's kinda hypocritical, coming from that lot." Ron said, shoving a pasty in his mouth.
Dean nodded, "Their jealous. They don't like that she's showing them up."
"She's nice enough." Lavender said, digging into her own food, "But she's dead poor at making friends. I passed the loo and heard crying. I checked in and it was Hermione. I think she wanted to be left alone."
Dean nodded, "A lot of the time people want to be left alone when their upset. It can't be easy being in a house where no one likes you."
Harry's inner contemplation about the troubled social life of Hermione Granger was suddenly and rather unexpectedly interrupted.
Professor Quirrell burst through the great doors and came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stopped eating (seemingly at once) and stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
There was a beat of dead silence, and then absolute pandemonium. Lavender shrieked and inexplicably dived under the table. Dean buried his head in his hands. Harry did not know exactly what a mountain troll was, but from everyone's reaction, he thought it might be pretty bad.
Suddenly, Dumbledore stood, "Prefects!" he called, and there was sudden silence in the hall, "Lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Percy was in his element. "Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"
Ron rolled his eyes, but Harry was rather inclined to follow Percy's (admittedly pompous) instructions.
They were halfway back to the common room, slightly behind the rest of the Gryffindors, when Harry remembered. He grabbed Ron's arm and stopped short. "I've just thought - Hermione."
Dean paled. Ron and Seamus looked confused.
"She doesn't know about the troll." Dean gasped.
Ron bit his lip.
"Should we tell someone?" Seamus asked.
"Yes!" Dean exclaimed.
"I don't see any teachers." Seamus said, looking around. What he said was true. There were hardly any students now that the boys had hung back and there wasn't a teacher in sight.
"Well…" Seamus thought, "Maybe we could go warn her."
"Yeah!" Ron said, perking up, "The troll is in the dungeons anyway, we just have to let her know it's in here so she can get back to her common room."
Harry nodded. They weren't really doing anything wrong. They were just going to tell their classmate that there was danger.
The boys quickly turned and headed off towards the Charms corridor. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them. Dean groaned and Ron yanked Harry and Seamus a large stone griffin. Expecting and irate Percy or a skulking Filtch, they were surprised when they peered around it and saw Professor Snape, gliding off towards the third floor.
"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
"Search me." Ron shook his head.
"Come on." Dean motioned for them to follow him. Quietly as they could they snuck into the Charms corridor. And then they heard it - a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet.
Ron gasped and pointed - at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. The four of them shrank into the shadows and watched as the troll emerged into a patch of moonlight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.
"Oh no!" Dean all but whimpered, "That's the girl's bathroom!"
As if to confirm his words, at that moment a high, petrified scream pierced the silence.
Harry gasped. "Hermione!"
The boys looked at each other for a split second, and then they were in motion. Harry sprinted towards the bathroom door and pulled it open; all four boys ran in. The troll stood, club raised, in the center of the bathroom, hovering over the pale, prone figure of Hermione Granger.
"Confuse it!" Harry said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.
The troll stopped what it was doing and turned towards Harry, blinking stupidly. Dean and Seamus took the opportunity to dash around the back of the troll and seize Hermione by her arms and legs, dragging her off to the side.
"Keep it's eyes on us, Ron!" Harry called, as he picked up more debris to through at the great, stupid thing.
"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead. The distraction provided Dean and Seamus enough time to drag the unresponsive Hermione out the door.
"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Ron, as he dashed for the door. Ron moved faster than Harry had ever seen him, maneuvering around the troll and out the door. Harry whirled around and slammed the door, locking it just as the troll brought his club down where he had been standing.
"Help us with her!" Dean called, and he and Ron grabbed a leg each. Together, the boys carried Hermione down the hall. They set her down a few meters away from the bathroom door. Hermione was pale and still and didn't react when they laid her down on the cold, stone floor.
"Is…is she dead?" Seamus asked fearfully.
"No." Harry said, leaning over the unconscious girl, "She's breathing."
His friends all breathed a sigh of relief.
A sudden slamming, loud footsteps and a chorus of voiced made all of them look up.
"Teachers!" Ron cried. The troll roared in response.
"What should we do? We can't just leave her here." Dean whispered. Harry heard the group of teachers coming closer to the girl's bathroom corridor. The troll was now making a fantastic effort to knock the door off its hinges.
"We have to!" Ron whispered, his eyes wide and panicked, "We can't get in trouble again! We just lost Gryffindor 80 points!"
"Ron's right." Seamus said, "The teacher's will sort out the troll, she's not in any danger. We need to get out of here."
Harry and Dean glanced at each other. Harry didn't relish the thought of leaving a girl passed out in a hallway with a troll trapped meters away, but Seamus did have a point.
"Alright, let's go."
Dean sighed.
As quietly as they could, the boys rounded the corner and headed back up towards the Gryffindor common room and agreed that this was one story that the wouldn't be telling for a while.