A/N: Ok... so I said I would take some time before my next chapter and then I post it the next day... Well, don't ask why, but I somehow got it finished so here we go with chapter 10! =) Enjoy!

The poll about if this should become a serie or stay a single story is still up and currently, the idea of making a serie seems to be more appealing to my readers! =)

Disclaimer: I do not own this stuff. Never have, Never will.

Chapter Ten: A Hell of a Halloween!

With classes, quidditch practice and private lessons with Severus, time flew by quickly for Harry at Hogwarts. To his frustration, he kept on being unable to cast any of the low lever magic that they were assigned, in charms as well as Transfiguration. By now, Neville had managed to make his feather float and Hermione had already learned to transfigure her needle into a match. Ron still had trouble with his levitation charm, but he had managed to move his feather slightly, unlike Harry whose feather still hadn't moved one inch.

On the countrary, he was making fast progress on the quidditch pitch and was already feeling pretty comfortable on his broom. He still used one of the school brooms, but Professor McGonagall had told him not to worry about the rule that first years weren't allowed their own broom and that she would sort it out. His first practice with the team had been quite the experience. He and Katie, who was also new to the first team, had felt a little left out the first 10 minutes, but they had quicky gotten into the team spirit. The Weasley twins had welcomed them to the team by charming their quidditch robes to glow so that when the night came falling, they stood out like a pair of flying fluorescent lamps.

The evening after their little talk, Severus had called Harry down to his office to start their training. The curse he had decided to teach Harry was Validus Corripio, the same curse he had used on Filch, though Harry refrained from showing any recognition of the curse. The choice of curse proved to be a wise one, as the gripping curse's balance wasn't rubbed by an overuse of magical power, but just either tightened its grip on the object it was holding or increased the size of the "invisible hand" used for the grip. So far, all he had accomplished was the crushing of several glass bottles and other objects he was assigned to try it on, but at least it showed that he could do magic with a wand.

The weeks passed by and Harry was growing into a routine at Hogwarts. As opposite to what he had been thinking when he first arrived, one of his favorite subjects had gotten to be potions. While he had looked forward to Sev's classes, he had been more eager to actually use magic so classes like charms, transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts had seemed more appealing at that time. However, as he so far had failed to make any progress in either charms and transfiguration due to his spells still being overloaded and malfunctioning, and Professor Quirell was unwilling to allow them to use any magic during his classes so far, he found he enjoyed the classes in the dungeons more and more, even if they shared it with the slytherins. He got to do something that felt magical (unlike in History of Magic where all he did was sleeping) and it was not interfered or sabotaged by his "power problems", as Ron had dubbed them.

On 31rst of October, they were informed that there would be a large banquet in the great hall at the evening. This caused excitement to spread among the first years. Harry found himself among the bunch that felt excited for the evening. They hadn't had a great feast since the opening of term. However, his mood got a huge damp during the History of Magic lesson they had just before the school day was over. For once, they didn't talk about Goblin rebellions, but what they talked about was, in Harry's opinion, even worse.

"Today is a very special day. Does anyone know why?" Professor Binns asked. The old ghost sounded as bored as usual, and the class inwardly groaned as they thought they would be talking about yet another goblin rebellion that ended on this day centuries ago. However, the professor surprised them all when he said:

"On Halloween 10 years ago, he-who-must-not-be-named was defeated and perished from this world. Therefore, wizards and witches all over the country tend to celebrate the defeat of the most dangerous of dark wizards of all times during this very day."

Harry felt himself freeze where he was sitting in his seat. If this was the day when Voldemort was defeated, then that meant..

This is the day my parents died! he thought in shock. Beside him, both Hermione and Neville glanced at him with worried expressions written all over their faces, no doubt understanding as well what this meant. It took a little while before Ron caught on but when he did, he looked over and met Harry's eyes and nodded, silently giving support to the boy he had come to regard as his best friend. Harry gave his friends a thankful nod, before turning his way back towards the front. Professor Binns kept on talking about how the "great Harry Potter" had somehow vanquished the dark lord and brought peace to the world, seemingly unaware that the very same Harry Potter was sitting in a school bench on the third row in his own classroom. The longer the lesson went, the more people seemed to understand what this meant for Harry. Susan Bones, who was sitting at the first row, turned around after a few minutes when she seemed to realize that this was the day Harry's parents had died and shortly after, Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillian did the same. Justin Finch-Fletchley called on Harry's attention by throwing a crumbled parchment at his back from the fourth row and gave him a reassuring smile. Seeing the care in his friends eyes when they looked at him, Harry felt emotions stirr in his chest. He had great friends. After the lesson ended, the group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors gathered around him.

"How are you feeling Harry?" Susan asked, seemingly worried about it. Harry thought that had it been anyone other than Susan, and possibly Ginny, who had asked that question, he had probably snapped. But Susan had also lost her parents to Voldemort, so somewhere deep inside, Harry felt like Susan could understand how he was feeling.

"I'm alright. Just a little shaken, that's all. I didn't realize what day it was until Professor Binns mentioned it." he said, truthfully.

"It was very insensitive of him to just stand there and state facts about it as if you weren't even there." Hannah piped up.

Harry just shrugged at that. His Gryffindor friends all mumbled in agreement with Hannah, though Ron snorted.

"Please, that senile old ghost still thinks he is teaching his class from 1967 so I don't think he even recognized that Harry was there." he said.

At that, Harry couldn't help but laugh. It sounded so horrible but yet it sounded so true. Apparently, the others had similar thoughts as they all snickered at Ron's comment, though Hermione had a disliking look on her face for Ron's disrespect for the teacher. They rounded a corner where they were supposed to split up to head to their respective dormitories, but before the Hufflepuffs could leave towards their common room, someone emerged from that direction.

"Hey Harry!" the tall boy called through the corridor.

Harry, who had been on his way towards the Gryffindor tower, turned around to find Cedric Diggory walking towards him.

"Hey Cedric. What's up?" he asked, trying to put on a smile but not quite managing.

The older boy walked up to Harry and his friends.

"I would like to talk to you for a moment? In private?" he asked kindly, while giving Ron, Hermione and Neville an apologetic smile for stealing Harry from them.

"Sure. I'll see you in the common room guys." he said.

Harry handed his bag to Ron to take to his dorm, then followed Cedric. The two friends walked in silence, Cedric leading the way. Harry idly wondered what this was about, but in truth he had a pretty good idea why. And sure enough, after a little while, Cedric spoke up again.

"I know what day it is today Harry. How are you feeling?" he asked.

Harry sighed. Suddenly, it seemed like that was all people wanted to talk to him about. Not that he didn't mind their worry, it actually felt good to know he had such good friends, but it was getting kind of annoying.

"I'm fine." he said simply.

Cedric gave him a searching look, showing that he wasn't surprised by this reaction in the slightest.

"Ok, I get it. But I just thought I'd show you this." he said as they stopped in front of a paining of a large fruit bowl.

When Harry raised a questioning eyebrow, Cedric just grinned and reached out with his hand to tickle to pear in the painting. And to Harry's great surprise, the pear began laughing before it turned into a doorknow. A real doorknob which Cedric grabbed and used to pull open the hidden door behind it. Motioning for Harry to follow him, he led him down a set of spiral stairs. As they made their way deeper down, Harry felt his curiousity spike.

At the bottom of the stairs, there was another door which opened to reveal a large room. Following Cedric into the room, Harry felt like he had just stepped through a wall of heat. The temperature inside the room was noticebly higher than in the rest of the castle. Everywhere he looked, he saw strange, small creatures hurrying about, carrying a tray of something. After looking around the room a second time, Harry realized that they must be in the kitchen.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts kitchens Harry." Cedric said with a smile as he made a waving motion towards the room. This apparently caught the attention of the strange creatures, and one of them hurried towards Harry and Cedric as fast as its short legs could carry it.

"Welcome back, mister Diggory. Can us get you something?"

Harry frowned at the strange speech habit of the small creature, but he supposed he should be more surprised that it could speak at all. Cedric politely declined the offers of various food that the creature suggested before explaining to Harry that these were house elfs. They handled the food here at Hogwarts and one could also find them in old, rich wizarding families.

"I thought that if you wanted to have some time alone tonight, you wouldn't need to worry about going to dinner." he said as an explanation as to why he had showed Harry this.

He hadn't been aware of it, but suddenly the thought of getting some time alone to mourn his parents passing on this day sounded very appealing. Not that he wanted to sink into despair or anything but simply to pay them his respect.

"Thanks Cedric, I appreciate it." he said.

-:-:-:-

Ronald Weasley had always been a very gluttonous boy. He even admitted it himself. He always took 3rd rows and rarely left anything on the plate. But for some reason, he didn't feel like this was a day to glut. Harry had come back to the common room to spend some time with him and their friends, during which time Ron had beaten him in chess twice, but he had seen that Harry's mind wasn't really in the game. Well, not that it was very surprising. He had just gotten to know that this was the day his parents had died so it was only natural that he was a little shaken up.

Before Harry had come back from his talk with Cedric, Hermione had pushed them to make sure they didn't bring his parents up when Harry got back. Ron thought she was mental and that Harry would probably feel better after talking about it, but he didn't argue when Hermione pulled out her wand and reminded him that she was the best in their year when it came to hexes. After that, Ron decided to just try and not think about it.

But as it was, he failed terribly. There wasn't much that could still his gluttony, but apparently the thought of his best friend's parents could. When they were about to go down to the feast, Harry had stayed behind, saying he wanted to be alone for a little while. Ron had wanted to protest, but a warning look from Hermione had been enough to silence him.

Ron sighed as he looked down on his plate, which was still only half eaten. And this was just his first plate. Perhaps he should go and see how Harry was doing? He looked over towards Hermione, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines, despite her earlier statement that they should let Harry sort it out on his own. She caught his eyes and nodded towards him. He was just about to tap Neville on his back to call on his attention when the doors to the Great Hall burst open.

"T-trooolll in the dungeon! Troll in the dungeon!" a panicking Professor Quirell screamed as he rushed into the hall, silencing all conversation and causing the teachers at the head table to hastily rise from their seats.

"Thought you outa know..." was all Quirell got out before fainting on the floor.

A second passed before the entire hall burst into panic. Students were running towards the exit, screaming in panic and some older students made vain attempts to calm down the first years.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore's powerful voice bellowed, immediately causing all activity to come to a halt. "Everyone, please remain calm. The prefect will take the students back to their houses. All teachers follow me to the dungeon!" he instructed.

Activity started up again, but it was a lot calmer now than it had been just 20 seconds ago. Ron, who had been among the ones to panic, felt a lot calmer now that he knew what to do. He, Hermione and Neville began making their way back towards the common room. Hopefully, Harry would still be there. Unbeknownst to them, Harry was NOT in the common room.

-:-:-:-

Harry had just finished his meal down in the kitchens when he heard the commotion upstairs. At first he didn't think much of it, but when he checked his watch, he realized that it was way too early for the feast to be over. He asked one of the house elfs about what was going on and after popping away for a moment to check, the elf returned with the news that there was a troll lose in the dungeon. Frowning at this, Harry decided it was probably best to head back to the common room. That was probably where Dumbledore had sent the rest of the students. Thanking the house elfs for a brilliant meal, Harry made his way up the stairs.

After exiting the secret passage behind the fruit bowl painting, he hurried towards the stairs that would lead to the Gryffindor common room. While he was running, his mind was working in overdrive. How could a troll get into the castle? From what he knew, there didn't live any trolls in the forest and aside from that, there wasn't any part of the school grounds that housed magical creatures.

He turned around a corner and was about to take off at a higher speed, but froze dead in his tracks. There, at the end of the corridor, stood a fully grown mountain troll. Apparently, it had left the dungeon.

When the troll spotted Harry, it took a moment to take in the sight of the 11 year old boy at the end of the corridor. Slowly, Harry was starting to ease his way back towards the corner he had turned around, hoping to avoid catching its attention. He felt the adrenaline pump through his veins and his entire body trembled slightly for every step he took, praying to whatever god there was out there that the troll wouldn't come at him. When he reached the corner, he took a deep breath and jumped behind it. Bad descision. As soon as he was out of sight, he heard the troll give off a roar and heavy steps making their way through the corridor. He broke off into a run again, but the troll's longer legs apparently gave it an edge because he hadn't gotten half way to the next turn before the troll appeared from behind the other corner.

Harry swore as he tried to push his legs to move faster, but he was already at his limit. His heart pounded painfully in his chest and his breathing was unsteady and close to hyper-ventilation. When he passed the painting of the fruit bowl, he felt like he was about to fall at any given second. Desperate for any kind of shelter, he tickled the pear and threw the door open to the secret passageway and dove behind it, closing it in the process. He leant against the wall inside, panting as he never had before, not even after quidditch practice. He heard when the troll came to a stop, just outside the painting. He covered his mouth with his hand, not knowing if his panting could be heard through the secret door, but not too intent to find out right now.

He waited with all his mind on edge, trying to pick up any sound that would suggest that the troll had left. But the sound that came was not one he had wanted to hear. Through the painting, a low, slurping sound could be heard and to his horror, Harry realized that it was the doorknob that melted back into the painting. If the troll was still outside...

Reacting on instinct, Harry threw himself to the ground and not a second later, the trolls large wooden club came through the secret door, missing his head with just a few inches. Harry rolled a few steps down the staircase and came to a painful stop, his entire body aching from the rolling. He looked up to see the troll looking down at him with a clueless look, as if it was trying to figure out where Harry had come from. Thinking he had a second to get a head start, Harry was just about to rush down the stairs when he realized that it would be futile. There was no escape route down there. All he would do was put the house elfs in danger.

Looking back up at the foul creature that stood at the top of the stairs, he all logical thinking leave him as he pulled out his wand and did the only spell he knew he could perform with fail.

"Validus Corripio!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

A sickening crack was heard, followed by a pained roar from the troll, who began struggling against the invisible force holding it. With a sense of horror, Harry realized that he had not tried to surpress his magical reserves when he cast the curse as he usually did and the overwhelming power had caused the grip to tighten enough to crack some bones in the trolls body. Seeing the troll in pain, even though it had tried to kill him, Harry forced himself to take a deep breath and try to get his magic under control. Slowly, the grip on the troll grew lighter. However, the lighter the grip grew, the more the troll began struggling, obviously not realising that the struggle was the reason behind its pain. Feeling as if his grip was slipping, Harry twisted his wand to the left, sending the troll flying into a wall with its head first before releasing the curse. His breathing trembled as he looked at what he had done.

As Harry slowly walked over towards the troll, that was either dead or unconcious, he didn't even notice the sound of running steps closing in on his position. He was standing over the troll with an expression of horror at the thought that he might have just killed another living being when Professors McGonagall, Quirell and Snape came aorund the corner. Taking in the scene, McGonagall had to stop and placed her hand over her heart in shock. Snape however, took more notice of the boy standing over the defeated mountain troll.

"Harry?!" he almost shouted as he ran over towards the boy he almost called his surrogate son.

Hearing his favorite uncle call his name, Harry finally tore his gaze away from the troll at his feet and looked up in time to be engulfed in a sea of black cloth. Shocked at the sudden hugg, Harry took a few moments to realize that it was his uncle Sev that was hugging him. When he got ahold of himself, he hugged back and he felt the tears of guilt fall from his eyes. For a few minutes, during which Professor McGonagall and Quirell walked up to them, Harry and Sev stayed like that before Sev broke it off and looked Harry over.

"What in Merlin's pants happened here Harry?" he asked, his voice trembling.

Taking a deep breath to try and steady his voice, Harry set into telling them the short story of what had driven him to go up against a mountain troll, from him being in the kitchen and getting to know about the troll, to running into it on his way to Gryffindor tower. When he was done, Professor McGonagall once more held her hand to her heart while Severus had a look of pride and fear on his face. While he felt like he had been just one single misstep from losing Harry, he also couldn't help but feel extremely proud of his favorite student for how he had held his own.

"Harry, what you did was nothing wrong. You tried to avoid a fight in the first place and when you had the chance to run away again, you chose to stay in order to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. While I can't say I quite approve of you going up against a mountain troll, I think you have deserved a good 50 points for your heroic actions, wouldn't you say Minerva?" he asked as he turned towards Harry's head of house.

"Yes... yes, yes of course. Just try not to get involved in something like this again, ok Harry?" she said, still a little shocked at the revelation that a 11 year old boy had taken down a mountain troll.

Promising to never seek another fight like this one, Harry turned back towards the troll on the ground. It hadn't moved at all since he knocked it out.

"Is it... dead?" he whispered.

Quirell went over to look at the troll. He pulled out his wand and did some advanced wand movements over the body while mumbling something that sounded like it was in a foreign language before he turned back to the three others.

"Y-yes. I-i think it i-is." he got out.

Hearing that he had indeed killed something, Harry gave off a panicked squek that got Severus blood to run cold. Not that he didn't understand, he still remembered the first time he had taken a life. It had been a horrible feeling, and he had been 18 years old back then. It had been in a battle between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. It had been the first time Severus had seen Lily since they graduated and he had been extremely stressed to find her on the other side of the battle. He had been wearing his mask and tried to act as normal as possible, but when one of his comrades, if you could call them that, had turned his wand on Lily, Severus had panicked and sent a killing curse at him, instantly killing him. That feeling of taking the life of a living being, knowing that the man would never ever wake up again, had been unbearable and he had been in a shock state for days. Now, it was just a troll Harry had killed, but Severus also knew that Harry was much more compassionate than he was and a lot more respectful towards all kinds of life. Just the fact that he had been willing to fight the troll alone in order to protect house elfs proved that. The poor boy was probably still in shock.

"I don't want to interrupt Severus, but I think Mr Potter really should get back to the common room. His friends must be very worried for him, and I think he needs to feel that he has their support in this." Professor McGonagall broke in with a hesistant but firm voice.

Severus nodded slowly. Harry's mind appeared to have shut down in reaction to the knowledge that he had killed something. The poor boy was just staring in front of him with unseeing eyes.

"Very well, but I am staying with him." he said with a voice that didn't leave any room for arguments.

Professor McGonagall just nodded at this and the two Professors led the raven haired boy back towards the Gryffindor common room. Harry didn't resist being led through the corridors, neither did he react to anything. Severus tried to whisper soothingly to him but got no reaction or even recognition that he was there. The Fat Lady didn't even ask for password when the two Professors came leading the traumatized boy towards her, simply giving them a sympathetic look and swinging open.

"I DON'T BLOODY CARE WHAT YOU SAY PERCE! I AM GOING TO FIND HIM!" was the first thing that greeted the trio as they entered.

"Calm down Ronald or I am going to call Professor McGonagall!" Percy Weasley roared back at his younger brother, who was being held back by the twins in the middle of the common room.

All students were standing along the walls, giving space to the family row that was taking place. It would appear that Ron had been trying to sneak out of the common room to go look for Harry, but was caught by someone who told Percy. Hermione and Neville was giving Ron a worried look, though it couldn't have been more obvious from their faces that they too had been all too keen on getting out to look for Harry. Minerva and Severus came to a stop as the portait closed behind them. Just as Minerva was about to announce their prescence, one of the twins spoke up.

"Yeah, you really should calm down, ickle Ronniekins..."

"...or mum is gonna have a fit when Percy send that bloody owl of his to tell on you!" the other one finished.

Percy looked annoyed at the insult to his owl, but decided to let it slip for now. He was just about to say something more when Minerva spoke up.

"Stop this argument this instant! Harry is fine, so no need to worry!" she said with a clear and strong voice.

This caused all eyes in the room to turn towards the entrance, where Severus was leading Harry towards one of the couches by the fireplace. Seeing their friend, Ron relaxed in the twins grip and Hermione and Neville rushed over with relief written all over their faces. After taking a moment to be sure that Ron wouldn't blow up again, the twins let go of their younger brother and hurried over to the raven haired boy.

"Harry! What happened? How do you feel? Where were you?" The questions hailed over the boy who remained unresponsive. After a few seconds, they realized that Harry was not reacting to them at all. However before anyone could say anything, Professor McGonagall spoke up again.

"Everyone return to your dormitories! Don't ask any questions, just do as you're told!"

Seeing that McGonagall really meant business, the students of Gryffindor didn't question the order and began making their way over towards the stairs. A lot of people sent worried glances towards Harry while they passed by. Most Gryffindors had grown quite fond of the boy since the beginning of term and seeing him in a state like this put everyone slightly at unease.

When the common room was cleared of everyone but Severus, Minerva, Harry, the Weasleys, Hermione and Neville, Hermione turned towards Professor McGonagall with a worried look on her face.

"Professor, what happened? Why is Harry in this state?"

Professor McGonagall felt torn about what to say. These were Harry's friends and they deserved to know what had happened to him, but she was worried that they would not take to the news so well. However, the descision was taken out of her hands when Severus spoke up.

"Harry is suffering from a mental trauma."

And with that, he retold Harry's story exactly as it had been told by the boy himself. The younger Weasleys all looked gobsmacked when they got to the point where Harry had run into the troll and Hermione's face took on a look of horror when Severus told them that Harry had refrained from running away and instead turned to fight the troll when he realized the house elfs would be in danger if he ran away. When he finished by saying that Harry had somehow killed the troll, Neville looked pale and Hermione queked in shock.

When he was done, no one said a word for a few moments. The Weasleys, Percy included, was staring at Harry with a mix of shock, awe and pity and Hermione looked like she was close to tears as she looked at the still unresponsive boy that sat with Severus left arm around his shoulder, staring out into nothingness.

"But how did Harry manage to kill a mountain troll?" Ron broke the silence.

Professor McGonagall turned her gaze towards Severus, as did everyone else in the room.

"Yes, that is a good question. You know the boy better than anyone Severus. Any idea how he might have managed it?"

Severus thought back to the scene he had come upon while searching for the troll. He had gotten quite a good look at the troll and it looked like its arms were lying unusally slack at its sides, even for a corpse. And the way it had been lying, with its head towards the wall that had been cracked from what had to be a hard hit...

"He must have crushed its skull." he said, causing the womans to gasp in shock and the boys to look sick. Not even the twins could find a funny way to look at this. Neville looked like he was about to faint.

"But how? He hasn't been able to perform any magic so far." Professor McGonagall whispered, still in shock at Severus theory.

"However, that isn't entirerly true. Harry have been able to perform magic here, but as he is used to performing magic without his wand as he learned while still underage, his subconcious mind still tries to force his magic to move in the same way as if he didn't use his wand. As a result, he automatically pulls on too much magic and it causes basic spells like the Levitation charm or anything you would do in class to shut down due to a magical overload. I have been teaching him to control his magic better and get used to using a wand by teaching him the Gripping Curse."

Hearing that Severus had been teaching Harry a NEWT level curse, Professor McGonagall gasped for who knows what time this evening. Normally, the Gripping Curse was a high NEWT level curse due to the power required to cast it and more than 50% of the students failed to learn it before graduating even then.

"But..." Severus continued. "...Harry's magic is still out of control when he uses his wand and so, he tends to grip too hard when he uses it, causing whetever he is gripping to get crushed. I noticed that the bones in the trolls arms had been forcefully bent inwards, similar to the result of Harry's uncontrolled gripping curse. And as you should know Minerva, the gripping curse can be used to throw or toss an object or person, which leads me to believe that Harry, knowingly or not, twisted his hand to the left, sending the troll head first into the wall with enough power to crack its skull." he finished.

If anyone was unnerved by the fact that he could talk about cracking skulls and strangely bent limbs as if he was talking about the weather, they didn't show it. The children, with the exception of Hermione and Percy, looked awed at the power that Harry seemed to posess. Minerva however glared at Severus with a disapproving look.

"You taught him the Gripping Curse of all curses, spells, charms and hexes in the world? You, if someone should know how dangerous that one can be if used the wrong way, not to mention if the person in question can't control his magic!" she said with a stern look on her face that promised Severus that they would talk more about this later.

"Why would Snape of all people know that?" Ron asked before Hermione stomped him on his toes.

Severus looked down at his surrogate son's best male friend. For a moment, it looked like he would tell the boy off for asking, but after looking over his young protege's friends, his face broke out into a slight smile.

"I would know all about that curse, because it was me who created it." he said with a hint of pride in his voice.

Hearing about this feat, the gathered students gasped and the Weasleys in particular looked at Severus with a whole new respect. Neville and Hermione were both always respectful towards teachers so the change wasn't as visible in them, but they too seemed impressed by this. Minerva, while still feeling a little sour that Severus had not consulted her before teaching her student such a potentially dangerous curse, couldn't help but feel a little relieved as most of the tension that had settled among them while they spoke about Harry's first kill lifted. She sincerily hoped that Harry would not be forced to take another life, even in self defense, but she knew that there was still one more person out there whom he must stop, whom it was his fate to kill or be killed by. Severus had told her about the prophecy as proof that he trusted her after they had made up that night when the Potters died and its contents had shaken her to her core. The mere thought that this boy, who was now sitting unresponsive among them, was destined to kill or die at the hands of the most powerful dark wizard of all times made her feel sick to her stomach.

"I think I'm going to go back to my office now." she said. "Please make sure Mr Potter is ok. If there is any trouble at all, don't hesitate to call me back."

She recieved a collective nod from the group and left the common room. With McGonagall gone, the group fell silent again for a little while. All of them, including Percy, kept casting glances at Harry who seemed to be falling asleep as the exhaution from the battled settled in. Severus carefully put him down on a pile of pillows to allow himself free movement again and leant back, looking down on Harry sleeping.

"He will be alright, right?" Neville asked, sounding worried that Harry wouldn't wake up again.

Severus cast a glance at the boy whose parents he personally had avenged before turning back to Harry again.

"Yes he will. The trauma from the experienced, combined with the shock from having actually killed another living being have caused his mind to shut down in order to protect him from the trauma. It is a natural reaction caused by the human mind to protect us from experiences our minds can't fully handle or comprehend. Give it time and he will be fine." Severus said.

They all fell silent again after that. They just sat there for a little while, everyone thinking about a way to try and break the uncomfortable silence but no words were spoken for a whole 10 minutes. Finally, Hermione gathered up her courage to break the silence.

"So, Professor Snape? You got a liscense to create new spells? Isn't that really hard to get and even harder to pull off?"

Severus looked up from Harry to set his eyes on the girl who had spoke. Studious as always, he thought. Hermione Granger had so far proved to be an excellent student, always wanting to learn more and having an insatiable hunger for knowledge. It was a big mystery that she hadn't been placed in Ravenclaw.

"The liscence is hard to get, especially since there are so many things that can go wrong when testing out a new spell. One needs to do very precise calculations and careful studies about the properties of the spell you are trying to create. But the truth is, I have been doing it since I was in school in my fourth year." he said and revelled in the stunned looks he recieved from the boys and the look of shock, mixed in with awe, he was getting from Hermione.

"Actually." he added as an afterthought. "I wouldn't be surprised if Harry was to walk in my footsteps on that. He certainly has the drive to do it, and no doubt the ability."

Percy looked like he wanted to protest on this encouragement of rule breaking but wisely decided to hold his tongue when he realized no one would listen to him anyway. Ron in particular looked surprised by the teacher's claim.

"You do?" he asked with an uncertain voice as he looked down on his best friend. Behind them, the fireplace crackled as new wood was magically put into it.

"Yes I do." Severus said as he looked down on Harry fondly. "When I look at him, I can see so many other people I've known in my life. His parents, myself, Albus and in a way, even Voldemort." he said, ignoring the flinches at the dark lords name. Seeing that they were taking it the wrong way when Ron looked offended and ready to blow agian, he smiled reassuringly and continued. "No, I don't mean by the darkness. What I mean is by the power. Among all wizards in the last century, Voldemort (ignores flinches) have been the only wizard ever to best Professor Dumbledore in a duel. Albus Dumbledore beat Grindewald in what is regarded as the greatest wizarding duel ever, but even he couldn't meassure up to Lord Voldemort's power. But his power is not all I see in Harry, but what's more important is his will to prove himself. That same will to keep surprising everyone around him in order to earn the attention he is getting was what drove Voldemort to become the strongest among all dark wizards and it is what will drive Harry to become a great wizard himself."

The children looked awed, and a little bit scared, that he knew so much about Voldemort. Severus smiled slightly before getting a mishievous glint in his eyes.

"Of course, don't tell Harry I said that. But I think that you all already knew, deep down, that Harry was special when he came here, and not just because of that crap about the "Boy Who Lived". He is a very unique person."

Not really thinking about what they were doing, all 6 children nodded their heads. Even Percy had to admit that Harry was special. And tonight had proved it, even if it was in a most brutal way. Harry was destined for great things. Ron knew it. Hermione knew it. Neville knew it. Fred and George knew it. Severus definetely knew it. And somewhere deep deep down in his heart of hearts, Harry knew it too. He wouldn't admit it even if he really believed it, but hidden deep down in his heart, Harry knew that he was special.

-:-:-:-

The first thing Harry felt when he began to stirr was that he felt cold. He definetely wasn't in his bed in the dormitory. Feeling around with his hand, he realized that he was lying on a couch. He tried to open his eyes, but was met with heavy resistance. His head ached badly as he tried to force his eyes open. What had happened to him? He tried once more to open his eyes and this time, they moved slightly. He groaned as he felt his back ache. Wherever he was, he sure as hell hadn't picked a good place to take a nap. Why was he asleep anyway? He hadn't gone to bed from what he could remember. Actually, he couldn't remember much at all of what had happened after he had run into... the troll! Suddenly, it all came back to him. Hiding in the stairscase that led to the kitchen, being found and fighting back with the Gripping curse and killing the troll... He had killed another living being...

"Harry?"

Hearing his name being called, Harry forced his eyes open enough to see a mass of red standing over him. After blinking a few times, he realized it was the Weasleys, all 4 of them. To their right was Hermione with a concerned look on her face, and Neville who just looked happy he was awake.

"Hey guys." he said as he forced himself into a sitting position. His joints ached from the movement and he began to move his arms and legs to try and get his blood circulation back to normal.

"How do you feel?" Hermione asked.

Harry grimaced as one of his joints gave a crunching sound, singaling that it really was not in shape at the moment.

"Stiff as a stick, but otherwise pretty fine. I suppose I should be happy to be alive at all." he said, trying to sound as if it didn't bother him.

He noticed that the others shared a look at this, but didn't say anything and instead attempted to stand up. His legs were a bit tricky at first, but after steadying himself with support form the Weasley twins, he managed to walk a few times back anf forth to try and loosen up the last of his joints and get his body back to full function.

"So, you remember what happened?" Hermione asked.

Harry looked at them, seeing that they all looked worried about him for some reason. Well, he couldn't really blame them, but right now he felt that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Yes I do, but I don't want to talk about it right now. We'll talk later, but right now, I want to do something to keep my mind of off that. Ok?" he asked.

To be honest, he hoped he wouldn't need to talk about it at all. What he had done yesterday... the thought that he had taken another life cut into his chest like a burning dagger and made him feel sick in himself.

"Well, if that's how you feel, then its your lucky day because Wood won't let you off playing the match, even if you would have died yesterday." Fred said with an attempted grin.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks. The quidditch match! He had completely forgotten about it in all the chaos yesterday!

"Fred you insensitive idiot! Harry needs to talk about..." Hermione began, but was cut of by Harry.

"NO! Harry doesn't need to talk about anything right now! Harry needs to get his mind off the fact that he almost got killed yesterday, but instead ended up killing a bloody troll!" he said sharply. While he wasn't angry with Hermione, quidditch sounded like a great idea to get his mind off of things.

With that, he went up to his dorm to get his quidditch gear. As soon as he was fully geared, he went back into the common room to find, Ron, Hermione and Neville waiting for him. It would seem the twins and Percy had gone down to breakfast by now. Without uttering a word, Harry climbed out through the portait hole and was on his way, with his friends close behind. He noticed that he seemed to recieve even more stares as he passed by in the corridors. He supposed it was his quidditch uniform. Only a select few Gryffindors knew that he was the house's seeker.

When he entered teh Great Hall, he immediately found himself at the recieving end of many stares. However, his gaze was fixed on one certain person who had risen from his seat at the staff table and was now making his way towards him with his black robes billowing behind him.

"Can I talk to you for a moment Harry?" Severus asked as he stopped in front of the group.

Harry just nodded and whispered to his friends to wait for him at the table. With that, he followed Severus who led him to an empty classroom. Once inside, Severus locked the door and cast a privacy charm on it so no one would be able to eavesdrop. With that done, he turned to Harry.

"How do you feel Harry?" he asked.

"Fine." Harry answere automatically.

Severus sighed.

"Ok, now tell me how you really feel?" he said with a firmer tone in his voice.

Harry flinched slightly from the harshness in the voice with which Severus spoke to him. Uncle Sev had never spoken to him like that. With a sigh, Harry finally faced what he had been trying to put off all morning.

"I don't feel good at all. I bloody killed another living being!"

Deciding to ignore Harry's use of swear words for now, Severus shook his head.

"Harry, what happened yesterday was out of your control. Trolls may not be the most intelligent of beings, but if it had not attacked you first, then you wouldn't have had to resort to violence at all. The troll could also have done something to prevent its death." he said with a firm tone, hoping this would get through to Harry.

"It was still me who cast the curse." Harry muttered.

Seeing that Harry wasn't going to give in, Severus sighed and sat down on a chair and motioned for Harry to do the same, which the boy reluctantly agreed to. As soon as he was seated, Severus grabbed Harry's shoulders and turned his head so that their eyes met.

"Who cast the curse doesn't matter. A lot of people died during the war and thought very few of them were killed directly by him, Voldemort carries a ceratin responsability in their deaths because he was still a key player to the fact that they died. If he hadn't decided to wage war, then those people wouldn't have died in the war. And the same goes for the troll. If it hadn't attacked you first, then you wouldn't have been forced to curse it. Got me?"

Harry still felt guilty about it all, but Uncle Sev was right. He always was. He hadn't gone looking for the troll and he hadn't picked a fight with it when he ran into it either. Seeing that Harry was starting to see reason, Severus continued.

"What you did when you stood up to protect the house elfs was very brave Harry. Not many 11 year old wizards would go up against a fully grown mountain troll in any situaiton, let alone do it to protect house elfs."

Starting to see reason, Harry felt like a large blob of black ink had just been removed from his chest. He hadn't realized how much this actually weighed down on him. He looked up at Uncle Sev and gave him a grateful smile before throwing his arms around the older man's neck. Severus looked shocked at first but soon returned the embrace.

"This is going to take time to digest, but you can always talk to me or your friends whenever you feel like it. I will even arrange for you to talk to Ginny face to face if that is what you want." he said in a soothing tone.

"Thanks Uncle Sev." Harry murmured before breaking away and standing up.

Severus too rose from his seat and pulled out his wand and waved it, which caused the chairs to jump back into place. For a few moments, they just looked at each other, Harry taking comfort in the knowledge that he had someone who understood him so well. Perhaps he should take Severus up on that offer to talk to Ginny? But before that, there was something else he wanted to make clear.

"Uncle Sev? Can I ask you a favour?"

"Of course Harry. What is it?" Severus asked with a smile.

Harry pondered how to say this, not wanting to sound like he was ungrateful towards the man, but decided it was best just to say what he felt.

"Would it be ok if you taught me another spell to use for wand practise?" he asked while blushing slightly in embarrasment.

Severus looked at him for a moment. He had acutally foreseen this question coming. After what had happened with the troll, he had figured Harry would rather use a less dangerous curse or spell for practise. So he had thought about it all night and come up with another spell that should be strong enough not to break down from Harry's current power level and control ( or lack of?).

"Of course. I got a good one in mind. Now, I believe you got a quidditch match to win, right?" he said with a smile.

Harry felt the tension that had been located in his chest since he woke up ease away and he couldn't help but grin as Severus took down the privacy wards and unlocked the door, before they went back to the Great hall, where Harry sat down with his friends.

A/N: Well, I don't have much to say. I hope the action or explanations in this chapter dont make the story go higher than its rating. If you think it does, tell me and I will change the rating for it.

Once more, thanks to all who reviewed. As you may have noticed, I've taken to answering questions in PM and will only bring up questions here that I feel many people have asked or that I feel all should know.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as the others and hope to see you back for chapter 11! Take care!