Aftermath

*Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry*Halloween*second floor landing of the grand staircase*

After the shock finally left Harry, he realized that the teachers were looking at him and his friends, probably for an explanation, so he opened his mouth shakily to give it, "Lisa was not at the feast, nor was Hermione, both were in the loo because of something said to Hermione, I brought Terry, so he could get them away," a shaky smirk found his way to his mouth, "I lit its junk on fire, then ran like hellhounds were after me, then I tripped it"

"How are you feeling, my boy?" Dumbledore asked as nobody else of the present teachers, Snape, McGonagall, Quirrell, Vector, Sinestra and Flitwick, could say anything.

"Like I outran a troll, my legs are sore and my stomach wants to jump out my mouth" he rubbed his throat, trying to get the after pain of vomit from it, "could use a visit to the hospital wing"

"What about you three children, are any of you hurt?" Dumbledore turned to Lisa, Hermione and Terry.

"No, sir, Harry didn't let the troll see us" Terry answered, his voice surprisingly calm, "I'm a bit shocked though, never thought I would see a troll outside dad's job" the girls only shook their head, to shaken to speak

"Understandable, the last troll that entered Hogwarts grounds was when I was a first year," the headmaster looked at his past, "The teachers and the centaurs dealt with it swiftly, not a troll has come down from the mountain yet, until today" he said with a frown, "I am befuddled however, as without authorization from a teacher it should be impossible for a triple-x class beast to enter the grounds."

McGonagall and the rest of the teachers regained their senses at this point, but it was the Scotswoman that reacted first, shouting at them, "What were you boys thinking? Had you told us about your missing friends we would have gone for them ourselves! Do you have any idea of all the things that could have gone badly for you!?"

"Death, paralysis at best" Harry nodded, "but if I'm not fast then that puddle in the dungeons entrance is a snail."

"He's a Potter, Minerva, of course he would try to show off" Snape sneered once he got his wits back.

"He's Batman, professor, he looks down to everyone" Harry smirked at Snape, ignoring his pain.

Snape looked ready to tear a new one into Harry because of his answer, but Dumbledore intervened before she could, "well, you did a service to the school, and between the two of you, you saved two of your year mates, so I believe fifty points each to Mister Potter and Mister Boot and a visit to Poppy should be enough of a reward."

Harry smiled thankfully at the old headmaster and used the wall to his right to get to his feet, only to almost lose his footing before he could fully stand.

Lisa was at his side in an instant, swinging his arm over her shoulder and making him lean on her, Terry was not far behind the dark-haired girl, grabbing Harry's other arm, but the boy was slightly unnerved by the fierce look Lisa had when she looked at Harry.

"What were you thinking?" she asked in a near hiss, "the four of us could have hid under your cloak"

"All of us were scared," Harry said as they helped him limp towards the Hospital wing, all the way to the fifth floor, a hallway away from the clock tower, a bit of a bad location, considering the loud noise of the clock bells could disturb sleep, "It was the first thing that came to mind, I don't regret it"

They spent the rest of the way in silence, with only the occasional groan or ruffle of clothing as they had to adjust Harry so he wouldn't fall off.

It would be almost twenty minutes until they made it to the hospital wing, by which time exhaustion was beginning to set into Harry, so it was within reason that Poppy would treat him first.

"What happened to you, Mister Potter? Torn muscles in the legs, scorched hair, week magical exhaustion, mild shock," she pushed him into a bed, "not even your father came here this early in his first year, and when he did come it was with a potion burn"

Harry chuckled and allowed the matron to push him into a bed, "yeah, I doubt dad had to outrun a troll, what was the worst thing he came over for?" Harry asked, always eager to hear more things about the parent he hadn't met.

Madam Pomfrey looked thoughtful as she rummaged through her potions cupboard, "well, he almost always came because of a stunt he pulled while playing quidditch, he was a great player, but also a bit of a show-off, the worst time he came over was in his sixth year, after he started mellowing out, a bludger hit him while he was flying low," she picked for bottles and a jar, frowning before picking up a fourth bottle, "he came with a broken nose, sprained ankle, fractured femur and dislocated shoulders, he couldn't wipe the grin off his face though, he scored a goal that saved his team from losing the final"

"Well, from next year on ye can expect another regular" he took a whiff from the potions and grimaced, "do I have to drink that? It smells like crap," he said.

"Well if you had decided to stay hidden with your friends, you wouldn't need to drink it, now stay still, I need to apply the burn salve" he hissed as the cold cream touched his scalp, where a few members of the burning loincloth had landed, "now, my oaths make me require to tell you what is what; the blue vial is dreamless sleep, that's the last one, the red is for the muscles, if they were simply tired it would only be a salve, the light green is for the magical exhaustion and the yellow is a calming drought, drink the now, I'll wake you up in the morning" she left his bed and made her way to the others, who were looking at the vials on Harry's bedside table with apprehension.

Harry however, was even more apprehensive, as he had to swallow three foul smelling potions, which probably tasted even worse than the looked, and two of them looked like coloured fat.

Pinching his nose, he started drinking them down, gagging as they did feel like fat going down hi throat.

At least the calming draught was flavour less, even if it was thicker than water.

All that done, he lay down and let sleep take him.

*Mindscape*

The first thing Harry saw when his eyes opened was that all the animals that normally roamed his mind as guardians were all cowering, and harry had a vague idea as to why, and a hand on his shoulder only confirmed said idea.

Sighing and turning around to face his mother, Harry almost took a step back at how angry she looked.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN WERE YOU THINKING, RUNNING BETWEEN THE LEGS OF A TROLL" she deflated a bit but kept the angry expression, "do you have any idea of how worried I was, you didn't listen to anything I tried to tell you"

"I was worried for Lisa," Harry tried to explain, "I didn't even know you were trying to speak to me"

"That gives you no excuse, young man; you could have tried to take one of the teachers with you, that woman with the glasses," her glare was starting to diminish even more, "a silencing spell over yourselves while under James's cloak, you had a lot more choices and you had to go with the most dangerous one" she hugged him so strongly he thought that if they weren't in the mindscape she would have cracked some bones, "I thought that you wouldn't make it" she whispered, making his eyes go wide.

Had he really been so reckless that his mother, who knew every single thing he could do, had been that worried about him?

He understood his friends, the only thing they knew about his abilities was that he could manipulate magic without a wand and that he knew some runes and arrays, but that was it.

Without revealing all he knew about himself, they would always be impressed when he revealed something new, but they would also be scared whenever something came up.

He hugged his mother back, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," he mumbled.

Lily pulled back, the glare back on her face, "that much was obvious, so as a punishment for that, you won't be flying until December"

Harry gaped, "But mooom, I can't go that much without riding a broom, not again," he said.

"You went without it for ten years, another month won't hurt" she answered, squeezing him again

Harry twitched.

*The next morning*

Harry scowled almost as soon as he woke up, the punishment applied by his mother fresh on his mind, and the taste of the muscle potion still on his mouth.

Madam Pomfrey was at his bed in a second, waving her wand over him in complicated patterns and smiling every time a green light appeared over it, "well Mister Potter, you recovered overnight, even if you did not take the dreamless sleep, I'm surprised you didn't wake up in the middle of the night," he hear other beds ruffle and Mada Pomfrey looked away, "now, I must look over your friends, do not come back this term, Mister Potter, or I'll make sure you get the bottoms of every batch"

It was not a well-known fact outside of those who specialized in the field, but potion vials taste better when they are taken from the upper part of the cauldron, a reason why most potion masters tended to dump the lower half of the cauldron, that, or donate it to St. Mungo's, but Pomfrey kept everything, and the closer to bottom the potion was, the worse it tasted, getting to a taste that made almost everyone puke when they tried it when it reached the very bottom.

Lily Potter had known this, and she had told her son, who recalled that particular lesson.

Harry paled and nodded rapidly.

He had tried the bottom of a pepper up; it was only his strong will that kept it from coming back up.

The four of them made their way down to breakfast, idle conversation about the courses and who was their favourite professor.

Terry really liked astronomy.

When they arrived to the great hall, being able to hear the conversation even from beyond the doors, Harry took a step forward.

Everyone turned to the quartet, apparently the rumours of what had taken place the day before were already roaming the school, but Harry was willing to endure it if it gave him a reputation outside the 'boy-who-lived' hype.

"Hey, have you seen the stain in the basement?" he commented, "pretty damn big, makes me almost feel bad for Filch"

There were a few scattered laughs, so he shrugged and moved to the Ravenclaw table.

That was the start of his reputation as a powerful wizard.