Halloween

*October 31*Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry*Scotland*

Harry Potter was not a happy boy.

Harry Potter was very annoyed.

Harry Potter was celebrity in the wizarding world.

He had survived the killing curse when he was one, just after his mother finished a ritual that ended up tying their souls together.

Only he and the soul of his mother living in his mind knew this.

Everyone else was an idiot and just believed what books that had studied nothing on him or what happened that night said.

Everyone else was an idiot that knew nothing about common sense and extra-personal sensibility, for they were asking if he remembered what was probably the worst two of days of his life.

He was already fed up.

It was only nine in the morning.

He was being asked by a third year fan for an autograph.

A male fan.

A girlish male fan.

His glare was scaring everyone around him.

Lisa Turpin, his best friend, first friend, had a calming hand in his shoulder, but even with his mother trying to calm him down he was about to snap.

"Go away" he finally did.

"Bu-Bu-But I don't have an autograph" the fan boy stuttered out.

"And you never will, nor will anyone who asks or even wishes one" he smiled a creepy smile, a smile that promised pain to anyone who crossed Harry, a smile that could intimidate even the headmaster, who was more than sixty yards away.

The fan ran away, letting Harry relax.

'Thank you for teaching me that' he said truthfully to his mother.

"It's alright sweety, so long as you teach it only to your daughter," Lily told him.

'I still don't get why that is,' Harry muttered in his mind, but he continued eating, letting conversation fall.

"Have I ever said how much I hate wizards" Harry said loudly to his friends, forcing his voice so the acoustic of the Hall could carry it everywhere, "I mean, it's like they forget that I'm an orphan because of that night" silence reigned in the great hall, "say, Neville, could you pass the sausages?" Lisa face palmed, "Oh, well, at least I'm not the worst off, dad died a hero and mom didn't feel pain" Harry looked around, "Neville, I asked for the sausages, I don't think I can do it with my annoyance."

The chubby boy reacted and passed the plate to Harry, who scooped three onto his plate and also put some bacon in it, just as the mail arrived.

Hedwig, ever punctual, was one of the first owls to arrive, and after delivering a parcel the size of the smallest book Harry had, a three hundred page book called fantastic beasts and where to find them, in front of Lisa and Harry, she stood next to Harry's plate and started to eat the bacon and sausage.

"Don't eat all of it, I'm still hungry" Harry said as he and Lisa started opening the box, not surprised to see some of the candy that the Turpins had bought for Halloween.

Hedwig gave a hoot followed a screech, "You had me fly all the country in a night, at least let me feed properly"

Harry gave Hedwig a look, "you ate a rat on the way; there is blood in your tail feathers"

Hedwig looked away and hooted, knowing she had been found out, and stuck to eating Harry's bacon.

"I still can't get over how you can talk to animals and I can't" Lisa muttered, "I would love to do that"

"Yes, well, it can get bothersome if you have a prideful pet" Harry smirked and dodged, barely, a swipe from Hedwig's wing.

"I am NOT prideful" she screeched.

"The defense rests" Harry took one of the candies, a sucker, and unwrapped it, putting it on his mouth as soon as he did, "we'll have to send them candies from Honeyduke's, I saw it when we were passing by Hogsmade"

"We can't go to Hogsmade, not until third year, you read the Hogwarts rule book" Lisa said, grabbing a candy for herself and closing the box, "they'll have to wait until summer to try them"

"Says who?" Harry rolled his eyes and looked for the twins, who were sitting by the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch team, he would intercept them as they were about to leave the Hall or in the common room, he would have to give them the money though.

Easy enough, the first Hogsmade weekend was two days away.

The day after the first quidditch game, which he would be watching from the stands, he wanted to know what to deal with when he tried out the following year.

The day from breakfast onwards was a rest for Harry and allowed him to lower the level of frustration he had been feeling in the early morning.

McGonagall had upped the level of their transfiguration classes and now had them transfiguring rock into buttons; what she explained was high to low mass transfiguration.

Harry, showing what could have only been passed down from his father, was the first of two to complete the transfiguration, though the button was not plastic the first time he managed, but metallic, like the one in the pants he was using right now.

The other one who had finished in class time was Hermione Granger, the girl that had interrupted his reading time a week ago, but she had only managed the shape and size, it was still as hard as a rock and did not have the holes of a plastic button.

It was still better than most of the others in the class, both Gryffindors and Revanclaws; Lisa had gotten a small, spherical pebble, Terry had cylindrical rock, the failure of the class, Ronald Weasley had managed to chip his rock, Seamus Finnegan had blew up three rocks, his face and arms had a lot of scuffs, Su Li had not managed anything, Mandy Brocklehurst had been the best of the ones that had not done it, with a small cylinder with four holes, but to big be used in clothing.

After transfiguration, Harry took off without either Terry or Lisa knowing and went to explore the transfiguration floor of the castle, finding one hidden, or forgotten, room behind one of the suits or armor in the hallway that connected the transfiguration courtyard to the second landing of the great stairway, a hole that connected that same landing with the floor below, a passageway that connected to the entrance courtyard and another one that connected the library with a painting at the great stairway.

Not bad for forty minutes, but not enough to even make a dent in the cache of secrets that were hidden in the corridors and grounds of Hogwarts, but it was a start.

Then came herbology, and the Hufflepuffs, as always, were a quiet bunch and made little to no noise in class, whereas the Gryffindors made most of the noise in the class, and the insects made the rest of the noise, but they were insects, and as such guilty of most of the annoyance everyone was feeling by the time the bell rang again.

Harry tried to find anything that would help him reach the greenhouses faster, but he only found a room full of snails that charged him as soon as he entered the room, so he marked that room as forbidden, unless it was one of the many that changed their contents once a week, he would have to check.

It was now lunch time, but when he reached the Great Hall there was little food, nothing more than fruits and bread were served, but that may have been because, as the headmaster had said on Monday, there would be a feast that night, and already the decorations were being hanged, appearing above their heads with almost unnoticeable pops that only the keenest of ears could hear.

Nobody bothered him as he entered, grabbed an apple and left the hall, not wanting to risk his temper flaring up again.

Then came charms, the last class of the day, where the cheery professor had them learn the levitation charm, but whereas Hermione Granger managed it early on the class, most other only managed to get their feathers to raise a few inches off the desk.

'Why do I have to learn to do this with a wand?' Harryaskedhismother, 'It's not like I can't do it without one'

"Because it's that or getting low grades in your first course" Lily answered him, "And I don't want you getting less than EE's in everything"

'Except in potions' Harry said 'Professor Bat won't let me get higher than that'

Hermione had been trying to help the two Gryffindor besides her, Ron and Neville, but only the chubby boy had accepted her help, while the redhead did not take it and instead snapped at the bushy-haired girl.

Lisa had taken a seat right next to Harry, but unlike him, she was actually talented at charms, so she was the second to get the spell right, and helped Harry says he was not as good at them as she was, not when it had to be through the wand, so she helped him get it fully just before the class ended, but Ron Weasley hadn't, and he blamed Hermione.

Insulting her almost as soon as he left the classroom behind, commenting to his friends about all her bad bad qualities, but failing to mention that she had many good other ones, like common sense, but that was the only Harry knew about.

He himself had a lot of good qualities disguised as bad ones, like his wit disguised as sarcastic humour, his dashing eyes under his long, shaggy hair.

There were also bad qualities, but those were only because other didn't like them, like his disregard for authorities or his blatant disrespect of everyone around him.

Lisa would disagree and say that the only good thing about him were his eyes and taste in movies,but she was a girl, what did she know?

One of the qualities that did not endear him to any teacher was that he did not tolerate bullies, he beat them down verbally whenever he could, so as Granger passed by him, hands on her face, he rounded on Weasley.

"Do you make it your personal goal to make people miserable?" Harry asked him in a cold yet calm voice, "You snore, you're loud at the common room, and I've seen the glares you send everyone who has more talent at magic than you" Harry counted with his hands, resisting Lisa's attempts at dragging him away, Terry just watched, interested at what was going to happen, "I understand those three, I myself get jealous of the girl you just insulted, she's better at theory than I am and she gets things fast, but there is such a thing as sensibility you know, you won't hear me insulting someone that doesn't deserve it, seems I was raised better than you were"

He turned on the spot and walked away, leaving a gaping Ron behind, but he didn't care how he left him, hopefully that would give him more common sense.

"Lisa, would you mind going after Hermione, tell her that she shouldn't let it get to her" Harry told his friend, who complied almost as soon as he asked, "Say, Terry, do you think they're serving pumpkin pie?"

The two did not see the girls for the rest of the day, but they did explore the third floor on the left hand, the non-forbidden part of it.

They found only one passageway, leading from the entrance of the library to the clock tower courtyard.

The feast came by, but not a sign of either Hermione or Lisa.

"Lavender, do you know where Hermione is?" he asked the pretty witch.

"Well, we, that is, Parvati and I, saw her and your friend, Lisa right?" Harry nodded, "well, we saw them at the loo of the second floor, your friend was trying to get Hermione to come out of a booth"

Harry closed his eyes and sighed, but decided that he would provide them with food if they did not make it to the great hall before the feast was over.

After thanking Lavender, he sat himself between the Weasley twins, for he wanted to ask them about they getting candies from the candy shop at Hogsmade for Lisa's parents, to which they agreed, with the condition that they would use whatever was left from a 'one of everything' bill to buy pranking products.

Harry managed to let them have only five galleons for pranking, and they would return whatever was left.

Considering the looks the Gryffindor chasers were giving him, he had gotten a really good deal.

He ate, watching the doors for any sign of the girls, but nothing came, and when the doors did open, it was not them but professor Stutter who entered, but he was running, panicked.

"TROLL, TROLL IN THE DUNGEON" he stopped halfway to the head table, "thought you ought to know," and he passed out.

It was a testament to the twins and Harry's nerves that the only reaction they had was freezing on theirs spots and dropping what they had on their hands instead of breaking into scared screams and shrieks.

'How the hell does a troll get into a school?' was the first thought that ran through their minds, but whereas the twins' second thought was to get to the common room, where there was no chance of the troll getting to them, the thought that ran through Harry's heads were about getting to his friend and the other girl.

"SILENCE!" the headmaster screamed well above the noise in the hall, pocketing his cup, "Gryffindor and Ravenclaw prefects, take your houses to the towers, Hufflepuffs, you too, but be very cautious, Slytherin will stay here"

That said, he took away all the professors, leaving behind only a woman with amplifying glasses that made her look like an insect.

Harry moved to the back of the Gryffindor line and hid away without any of the prefects noticing and grabbed Terry as he passed by, "We have to get to the second floor" he swung his backpack so he could roam through it and took out his invisibility cloak, "we've got to run"

Terry nodded and moved close to Harry, but far enough so that his movement was not impaired by him, and the raven-haired boy slung the cloak over them.

It took them about five minutes to reach the second floor, but that was because they had been in the first floor when Harry intercepted Terry.

They were in sight of the bathroom, but the stench had hit them already, and looking at the intersection that connected to the charms corridor, the troll was already near.

"In, now," Harry whispered to Terry, his mind racing through any and all possibilities, but he was also moving.

The two entered and the first thing they saw was Lisa and Hermione over the sinks, "so, better now?" Lisa asked to Hermione.

"Never mind that, you need to stay quiet, no words, no whispers" Harry told them as he took the cloak off, leaving an embarrassed Terry in plain view.

"What are you two doing here!?" Hermione shouted at them, making Harry glare at her.

"Shut up and listen, what did I just say?" heavy footsteps were heard at the door, "that out there is a troll, and I don't want to fight it," Harry almost growled.

The doors creaked, making Harry's and Terry's head snap there, "Take the cloak, leave the bathroom, I'll try to distract it," Harry held out the invisibility cloak to Terry, who looked at it and at Harry.

"I won't let you face that thing alone" he snapped, giving a weary glance to the doors, "if you face it, I face it"

The door was knocked on, "I will be alright, I'm fast, faster than any of you" Lisa nodded to Terry when the boy looked at her, "that thing is heavy, unless it is muscle instead of fat then I can outrun it" he shoved his cloak into Terry and the boy towards the girls, "now put that thing on and wait for me to give you an opening," Harry turned around, not giving Terry time to respond.

The boy glared at Harry but complied, moving to Hermione, who was shocked into not moving, and Lisa, who was shaking with nerves, "huddle up, let's hope it can't smell us" he said with his arms holding the cloak up.

The girls moved under it and Terry let it fall, moving them so that they were in plain view of the doors; should it happen, they would get out when the doors opened and run before shooting spells at the thing.

The troll gave a final punch to the doorway, making slinters fly about into Harry, who did not let them even touch him, his magic tendrils forming a dense shield around him, much like they had done whenever the Dursleys tried to beat him.

Hermione and Lisa gasped at the size of the troll, but Terry, being a half-blood whose dad worked around security trolls, only gulped.

Harry stood with a cold face, a total contrast of what was happening in his mind, which was racing with all that could go right or wrong in the few minutes that the encounter would last, because it wouldn't last more than thirty, either he would be caught or the troll would be dealt with, hopefully the later.

The first thing the troll saw, as its head was a good ten feet above the ground, was a window, then it saw green things at the low right of the window and white things at the low left of it, then, his gaze going even lower, it saw a human, standing with its arms crossed and a cold face, but the troll decided that it would be his next meal.

But first he had to kill the human.

Raising its club, the troll made to smash the human into the floor, just hard enough to kill, it, not hard enough to leave it nothing more than a red splat, but the human moved faster than the troll did, and by the time its club was on the cracked floor, the human was close to the wall with the white things.

Angry at not managing to kill Harry with one swing, the troll swung its club again, hitting the wall, but not Harry, as he had rolled to the left and evaded the weapon.

Standing up, Harry aimed carefully with his wand at the troll's eye, trying to think of any spell that would work, but the three he could think about, incendio, diffindo and furunculus, would not be any good against it.

Maybe incedio, but that was it, and only if its hide was not thick enough that it would take more than a minute for the thing to feel the pain of burning.

Then he registered that the troll was wearing a loincloth, even if it didn't feel it, it would be felt there.

Dodging under another swipe of the club, Harry moved under the legs of the troll, pointed upwards, and without thinking, did the motion and said, "INCEDIO," moving all the while.

The troll roared in pain and turned around almost immediately, growling at Harry and running after the boy.

The raven-haired boy ran towards where he thought the grand stairway was, pushing his legs to the limits with the amount of magic he was pushing into them, but managing to stay a good distance away from the troll, which was now wildly swinging its club around hitting a lot of the suits of armor before they could move from their platforms to try and stop it.

He halted just before he could hit the railing of the landing, but the troll was not far behind, so he climbed into a staircase, which moved as soon as Harry put both feet on it, and waited for the troll to smash through the door.

And smash it did, once again making a shower of splinters take flight, but it didn't stop like Harry did, and the fire was already consuming its leg.

A tendril of magic, solidified to make sure the troll would trip over it was sent to the landing which it had reached, and as it didn't stop, adding to Harry's magic, it fell from the landing and turned into a green blob as it crashed into the stone floor below, next to the door that connected to the dungeons.

Harry shivered, refusing to look down, and asked the stair to take him back to where he was before.

Not to steps after the stair stopped he bumped into someone, Terry, Lisa and Hermione, who had only now reached the end of the hallway.

Harry gratefully took the invisibility cloak from his friend and put it away into his backpack again.

Then he turned around and puked.