Chapter 10: Hallowe'en Encounters
A/N: Well I've got to do something if there's no Quidditch this year! I still don't own a thing!
Between studying bizarre magical creatures in the library, classes, homework and practice Harry was swamped. He could hardly believe that it'd been two months and he felt more like home than Privet Drive. He was loving the practice he was receiving in class and through dedicated focus was able to be better and better. Still no Hermione or Draco, Harry felt like his Magic was strong like his Arts in their own rights. On Halloween morning, they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin that magically made it up to the Gryffindor tower. Even better, Professor Flitwick let them truly focus on Wingardium Leviosa rather than Hover charms or Floating charms. Swish and Flick, careful with the words and... Harry's feather trembled a bit but Neville set his on fire and Harry had to rush to put it out. Hermione of course managed to get it fairly easy which pissed off Ron to no end. "I could probably get it if it weren't for this hand-me-down wand." he grumbled as they made their way to their next class. Harry felt dreadful, of his compatriots Ron's family wasn't able to get as nice of things. Harry wondered if he could Owl to Ollivander to help out as Christmas gift. Neville shrugged, "Better than an unstable Core, Gran had me tested after I bounced off the lawn..." The rest of the day was fairly normal for Holloween, except that Professor Quirrel seemed both nervous and excited about their lesson on Gnomes, stuttering even more so than usual when talking about what amounted to garden pests.
They laughed about it on the way to dinner, dodging Draco and Hermione trying to adjust their notes for all the stuttering. "Now what was it they eat again?" Hermione asked, scribbling on her paper as they walked, a trick that Harry would be hard-pressed to replicate. "Roots." Draco said looking bored, "Sorry Hermione, Gnomes and Doxies are so boring compared to Imps. I for one can't wait to get to Ghosts which are still hard to understand for modern magicians." They reached the Dining Hall, which was marvelously decorated when suddenly Professor Quirrel came sprinting into the hall, "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. Dumbledore stopped the resulting chaos easily, and sent everyone towards the dorms. Harry, Hermione and Neville got caught up in the chaos of the crowd and lost sight of Percy leading the first years up to the dorms. They followed the Hufflepuffs instead when they passed a set of stairs went up them, hoping to reach the tower. "Oh we should have just asked someone." Hermione was rocking on her feet nervously as Harry looked around. They heard some footsteps and Harry had to stop Hermione from shouting for help with his hand. "What if it's Filch?" He asked, her eyes widened as she didn't want to get in trouble either. They hid behind a statue of a large griffin as Snape passed in front of them, not noticing and seeming to move incredibly quickly. "What's he doing? Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?" Neville asked. "Who cares, we need his help." Hermione said and they went after him, realizing they were heading for the third floor.
Suddenly a foul stench made them all turn around, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it moved threw the hall. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, ugly as hell, holding a huge wooden club. A Troll. Neville did the worst thing he could do at that point. Sneeze. The troll turned around and roared as it saw them. Before Harry could react, he felt the same strange sensation roll over him that hit him when he had battled the centipedes. There was likely no escape here, the troll could easily catch them. Luckily, he felt like he could do something here.
He stepped out from the shadows to face the creature, grabbed his wand in case anyone came running down the halls, and shouted "Illustrio Collisto, Conius Sprirus!" The troll just barely seemed to get caught by the spray and roared, raising it's free arm to it's eyes, unable to do much else. "Neville, Hermione, I need your help. DO SOMETHING!" Harry shouted as he thought of what else he could do to a troll. Neville nodded and stepped forth, it was likely that the creature being stunned had something to do with his courage but he raised his wand and shouted, "Flippendo!" The knock back Jinx hit the troll dead on, but seemed to just make it pushed back by a bit. Harry heard Hermione sigh. She stepped out of the shadows, "Sorry Professor, but I have to try..." She mumbled. "Accio Professor Dumbledore!" she tried, but nothing seemed to happen. The troll blinked and roared, seeming to be coming out of it's blindness but unable to make a strike on any of taken this time to come up with a good spell, he tried one of the few Magics he had been taught, his Arts being fairly limited as well. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He swished, flicked and aimed at the club. It suddenly rocketed around, freeing itself from the trolls grasp and hit the wall with a load THUM. "Ugh... you try Neville or Hermione." he sighed at himself. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione cried and the club lifted itself neatly, and hovered over the troll to hit him square on the head. It roared and picked up the club and swung wildly at them. The club was heading straight for Hermione when Neville tried now, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The club stopped dead in the air and the troll grasped it, confused, trying desperately to push it or swing it. Harry sighed, if Magic wasn't going to work so well... "Sibru Incanterous Acidious to the eyes!" The acid orb hit dead on and Harry cheered as it seemed to hurt BAD. "Try Wingardium again, it seems to be working really well!" "Don't have to tell me twice," Hermione said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" She took control of the club again and smacked the troll across his face. The troll fell over, and the club rested neatly on the wall behind them. "What?" Hermione asked, "I thought that'd be wise in case it got up again."
It was then that Dumbledore arrived on the scene, followed closely by Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell. Quirell nearly fainted when he saw what happened to the troll. "Ah. I see Ms. Granger, talented and wise use of that summoning spell. If I were to award points, I'd probably ruin the system." He said. Hermione blushed, "But, you didn't come here... oh, right, it doesn't work as well on Wizards... I just hoped.." Dumbledore nodded, "I felt the tug towards you three and gathered the Professors I could. Looks like we arrived a bit late to help you with the troll." Snape bent over the troll, "What I can't understand, Potter, is how three first years took care of a giant troll and what you are doing out of the dorms!" He said, sounding angry and disapointed. "I'm so sorry Professor, we saw you rushing around the castle looking for the troll but couldn't catch up with you to help us. We got cut off from the crowd." He said. The professors nodded, probably having had reports of other students who got lost in the chaos as well. "So?" "Well..." Harry started, but then looked at McGonagall. "We used Wingardium Leviosa to great effect." Hermione said. "Harry managed to blind it with some well placed embers of flame." Harry looked at Hermione, who was likely lying to teachers for the first time in her life, for Harry's sake. "Amazing. 5... yes...5 points should do to Gryffindor, each." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Now if you would kindly Minerva." Professor McGonagall nodded and led them up to the Gryffindor common room itself for a make up Holloween Feast. Harry smiled, There are some things you can't share without ending up friends with each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.
A/N: working combat between D&D vs HP creatures is interesting to say the least, if anyone is interested I made a custom monster (as the Troll doesn't seem resistant to any specific damage), and rolled combat for it like a monster. Hermione and Neville followed more HP set rules but as you can tell, took one spell a turn. The initiative was Harry, Neville, Hermione, Troll, but Neville wanted to ready Wingardium if Hermione succeeded at the Club, reasoning that'd he'd do better as a back up. (which worked nicely as the Troll scored an 18 on Hermione and likely would have killed her) Harry's Acid Orb hit an aimed shot and did 3 damage to blind the Troll and Hermione finished it off. The Huge Greatclub did annoyingly poorly against it's owner, but well enough to stop the troll. As to those who are skeptical about Hermione using Accio successfully enough to tug on the Professor's robes (or whatever the real effect of someone trying to summon Professor Dumbledore is), imagine Hermione, imagine a cool spell that seems incredibly useful. Well... there you go.