Chapter 4

The next couple months went by slowly. Harry would take some time away from Ron and his new friends to talk to me. None of them liked me, but that didn't stop Harry from going out of his way just to say hello to me.

Soon, Halloween came about, which was my favorite holiday. The creepy atmosphere almost made me feel like I belonged. Still, no one liked me, but I didn't care. I had become accustomed to it and didn't pay them any mind.

We were sitting down to dinner, when one of the professors ran in the door.

"TROLL!" the professor screamed. "Troll in the dungeons!" He fainted in the middle of the aisle.

While everyone started, panicking, Dumbledore stood, yelling out instructions. I calmly stood, following my prefect. On the way to the common room, I heard Harry and Ron talking about finding Hermione, who had evidently been crying in the bathroom all day. I knew that they'd get themselves into trouble, so I broke off from the group, sneaking after them. I could smell the troll. It was heading for the girls' bathroom. I cursed our luck silently. As Harry and Ron rushed to save Hermione, I hesitated. Why did I care? Hermione was so cruel to me. Eventually, I decided that if it was Harry's fight, it was my fight as well. If Harry liked Hermione enough to try to fight a full grown troll, I should have his back. I took a deep breath as I ran into the room.

As I entered, I could see Hermione cowering in the corner, Ron waving his wand, trying to take the troll's club, which it was swinging at Harry as he dangled helplessly from the troll's large hand. I flew at the troll, hissing wildly. My fingernails grew and became razor sharp. I sliced at the troll's face. I didn't do any real damage, so it recovered quickly. It tried to hit me with the club, but with blinding speed, I jumped out of the way. I went for its head once more, distracting it long enough for Ron to use his levitation charm, taking the club from the troll and knocking it out with it.

I helped Hermione up. "Are you hurt?" I asked.

"No." Hermione replied. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"I didn't know vampires could move like that." Ron said.

"We tend to keep those kinds of things secret. People are scared enough of us without knowing about what we can really do."

Just then, a group of teachers ran in. Terror in their eyes, they surveyed the scene.

"You'd better explain yourselves, now!" Professor McGonagall said. We all looked at each other, not sure how to explain.

"It was my fault, Professor." Hermione piped up. She told the teachers how she'd attempted to find the troll and kill it herself and the rest of us had come to save her. McGonagall investigated the cuts on the troll's face.

"Miss Sabre, did you do all this?" She asked.

"Yes Ma'am. I didn't know how else I could have distracted it. I didn't have any other option. I didn't want to hurt it. Honest, I didn't! I know Dumbledore said-"

"I'm not scolding you. Even though what you've done was very stupid and reckless. Especially you, Miss Granger. Five points will be deducted from Gryphandor. As for the rest of you, ten points each will be awarded. Now get to your common room."

The next morning, everyone seemed to know about the troll and what I had done to it. Most were still afraid of me, but at least they didn't stare at me with hate anymore. I was even invited to sit with Harry and his friends at breakfast. No one talked, so it was just one long awkward silence. That didn't bother me. It was preferable to sitting alone. I began to think that maybe Gran was right. All they had to do was get to know me a little better. Hermione in particular seemed extremely fond of me. With this fondness, I also found that my dislike of her had dissipated as well. After our near death experience, Hermione had given up some of her arrogance and was a much nicer person not only to me, but to everyone else.

When I walked into the girl's dormitory that night, all of the girls had taken the garlic food off of their beds. I was actually relieved at this. I had grown tired of having to endure the pungent, hostile odor of garlic every night. I considered, for a moment, their true motives. I wondered if any of them actually liked me, or that they wanted protection in case of another troll attack and didn't want to take the chance of injuring me with garlic. This was hilarious to me and I nearly busted out laughing in the middle of the night. I managed not to, though. I didn't think that acting like a lunatic would help my tenuous relationship with me schoolmates.

The next few days were some of the best in my life. I'd never had so many people to talk to. The only people I had really talked to prior to Hogwarts was my grandmother and grandfather.

I never really knew my parents. They were killed by Hunters not long after I was born. As I grew older, I began to wonder if that was indeed the case. My grandparents refused to talk about it with me. They told me that I wasn't old enough to understand. I couldn't see why. After all, Harry Potter was my age and he knew exactly how his parents were killed.

And for all I knew, Voldemort had killed me parents too, but that was highly unlikely. It was well known that Voldemort was one of the few people who liked vampires. Besides, the only thing I really knew about my parents was that they were both very powerful wizards. From a young age, I had believed that it was suspicious that my parents, who were supposed to be so great, could both be killed at the same time by hunters. Nevertheless, there was no point in fighting with them. There is one stereotype about vampires that, through my own experience, I have found to be true: we are annoyingly stubborn.