Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
ChaosLord SilverLink310, Draconica will appear in sixth and (indirectly) in the seventh chapters, but, yeah, till the third year she won't be playing a really major role in the story.
The Sinful, don't know whether this will reassure you or not, but there WILL be lemons in this story... =)
Dark Dragen, thanks, hopefully, I will manage not to disappoint you with the later chapters.
Still Not Dead Yet, heh.
mitremlap, Reishin Amara, naruchan84, thanks.
3domfields, sorry, tough luck there for you. 'Cause it appears that I have both of those in the story.
xavierp, there IS Dragon constellation, though maybe it should have been changed into a female name some other way... Oh well, too late to change that. As for Draconica being too 'girly'... Don't even know what to say there. I will correct the errors you've pointed, but knowing how lazy I'm, it'll be some time before that is done.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

Special thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this story.

chapter 5: Halloween

The Sunday practice was, well, brutal. Oliver allowed harry to use his Cleansweep six, but Weasley twins still managed to give the green-eyed wizard hard time as they relentlessly attacked him with bludgers. And the bloody snitch saw to Harry zipping around the stadium in a very cold wind for almost an hour, before it was caught. Still, the practice went well, and Harry decided that he might love the game, even if just flying still was better...

On Tuesday morning Harry was sitting between Alicia and Katie and across from Oliver as the team protected their new seeker from 'attacks' from a jealous red-haired prat, the two beaters unfortunately called their brother... When the morning post arrived, a group of seven owls, carrying a large package – a broomstick in a paper wraps – headed towards where the Griffindor quidditch team was sitting, which immediately caused many students and some teachers turn their heads to look there. An one potions master decided to pay a visit to the red and gold table, hoping to take some points from Potter...

"First years are forbidden from owning their own brooms." Snape sneered, looking at the still wrapped broom lying between Harry and Oliver. "I think that twenty points from Griffindor and a life-long confiscation of the broom should be enough to teach you, Potter, that even you are not above the rules."

"But, professor Snape, this broom is mine." Wood said, showing the order tag, that was attached to the package. "And as there is no rule against owning more than one broomstick for older students, I would be thankful if you restored our house points that you have taken on an empty assumption." The potions master let out an annoyed sneer and restored twenty points he had just taken from Griffindor, before taking ten for 'making him come there' and stalking back to the teachers' table.

The Griffindor quidditch team grinned almost simultaneously as their captain and seeker managed to circumvent one of Hogwarts' more enforced rules: they got a broom for their first year seeker!

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Between his classes, homework, self-study and quidditch practices, Harry had little time to worry about anything else, which saved him from lots of headaches that would stem from the need to avoid Ron the prat whenever possible and remain calm in face of his tirades about being a glory-seeking bastard when he was not...

The time progressed from sunny and warm September to cool and windy October, and before he knew it, Halloween came. The castle was now decorated with live bats, spider webs and the likes. And, of course, there were pumpkins with scary faces carved on them and candles inside hovering here and there – most of those, though, were in the Great hall – bringing the atmosphere to levels that Harry had never felt before. Of course, as great as this holiday was there, the green-eyed wizard felt no desire to celebrate as this also was the day his parents were murdered by Voldemort... But it was only noon now, and he still had two periods and then some more time before the feast.

Herbology was OK: Neville was understanding of his situation and kept strictly to the lesson topics. Dean and Parvati, who worked on extracting seeds from red-stem brier berries at the same table, were a bit too cheerful for Harry's tastes, but he understood that they had no dark memories associated with this day and couldn't be faulted for waiting anxiously for the evening feast...

Charms, that on Thursdays Griffindors shared with Ravenclaws, on the other hand, took the green-eyed wizard's mind completely off of brooding about his Halloween bad memories: professor Flitwick had them practicing wingardium leviosa, a charm that allowed things to be levitated– big white feathers in this case. Already knowing from his experiments in transfiguration that intent was an important part of any spell, it took Harry only six tries, before he successfully levitated his feather, earning Griffindor five points. A minute later Padma and Su from Ravenclaw and Hermione form his own house too succeeded in performing the charm. And another couple of tries later Neville joined the 'club'...

While the two Griffindor boys and some of the more 'playful' Ravenclaws were having their feathers race against each other above the tables, Hermione was trying to be helpful in giving some tips to Ron, who was having troubles with the spell – no wonder there, as the redhead was shouting the incantation with his pronunciation not even close to the correct one, while waving his arms like a windmill... Unfortunately for the bushy-haired girl, her help wasn't appreciated there, and it only made the Weasley boy more irritated.

By the end of the period, the red-haired boy was in such a bad mood, that snapped at the poor girl, when she tried to help him once again.

"For Merlin's sake, leave me alone, you stupid annoying bitch! No one can stand you, you walking nightmare that will never have any friends! Go disappear somewhere so normal people won't have to suffer you..." Ron's tirade was stopped by Harry's fist connecting with his cheek.

"And you're just a self-centered prat that insulted his classmate into tears just for trying to help." The green-eyed wizard hissed through his teeth as he glared at the Weasley boy. "I'm ashamed of being in the same house with you." Deciding that he could continue berating the redhead later, Harry ran out of the classroom, hoping that he could help Hermione, but the crying girl was nowhere to be seen, and going looking for her in the castle that had hundreds of rooms, some of those inaccessible to him didn't seem like a good idea... Hopefully, the bushy-haired witch would be sensible enough not to do something really stupid.

Hermione didn't show up at the Halloween feast – not that Harry was there to celebrate. For him it was just an obligation – and the young wizard was starting to get worried about his classmate. From two of his Hufflepuff yearmates, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot, he had heard that Hermione was in the one of the girls' toilets crying her eyes out and telling everyone to leave her the hell alone.

'Oh, well...' The green-eyed boy sighed. He decided to give the girl some more time to herself. But were she not at the common room an hour before the curfew, he would go get her... Looking around the Great hall, Harry noticed that not only Hermione was missing: professor Quirrell too wasn't present, being the only one from the staff not there. Shrugging, the green-eyed wizard returned his attention to the meal... Twenty or so minutes after the headmaster finished his speech and the feast started, professor Quirrell came sprinting into the great hall with his turban askew on his head and terror on his face.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons!" The turban-wearing man shouted in a (fake-) terrified voice. "Thought you ought to know..." And then the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor sank to the floor in a dead faint. Students immediately started shouting in terror – professor Quirrell acted too good for it to be just a joke – and it took Dumbledore a powerful booming spell to bring silence.

"Prefects!" The old man rumbled. "Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!" Something just seemed off about this order... Then it hit Harry like a sledgehammer: Hufflepuff and Slytherin dormitories were in dungeons! And while the 'Hufflepuff' part of the dungeons was safe, because it consisted of the 'puffs' dormitories, the kitchen, several storerooms and a couple of not currently used classrooms, the 'Slytherin' part was not. As such, Slytherins had a chance of being attacked by the troll, which more likely than not would lead to several students spending some time in the hospital wing... Or worse.

'What is the headmaster thinking? It's almost like he doesn't care about that quarter of the students.' Then another thought occurred to the green-eyed wizard: 'Hermione doesn't know about the troll! I have to warn her!' While Percy was trying to navigate Griffindors onto the way towards their common room, Harry mixed up with Hufflepuffs to separate from them later to go warn Hermione... Neville, though, saw his dorm mate's maneuver and followed him.

"Hey, Harry, where are you going?" The scion of the house Longbottom asked as he caught up with him. Not stopping so that he won't waste any precious time, the green-eyed wizard answered:

"Hermione doesn't know about the troll. We must take her to the safety of the Griffindor common room, or anywhere else the thing can't reach us at." Neville nodded and continued running alongside his housemate.

Thankfully, the 'coordinates' Susan and Hannah had 'provided' were indeed correct – the two Griffindor wizards could hear Hermione still crying in the girls' toilet. The boys looked at each other, before entering the toilet.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" The bushy-haired witch pleaded from the stall she was occupying. Harry approached that stall and knocked on the door.

"Hermione, you should go back to the common room." He said in a soft yet commanding tone. Unfortunately, the only effect it had on Hermione was her recognizing that there was a male in girls' toilet, which forced the girl into her bossy rule-following mode.

"What are you doing here?" She asked through her sobs. "You aren't allowed there!" Harry sighed and tried again.

"Hermione, there is an emergency in the school: the troll found its way into the dungeons and you might be in danger there!" This finally had the effect on the Griffindor witch, and she opened the stall's door, only to freeze in place and scream. At the same time the green-eyed wizard finally felt Neville tapping his shoulder.

"Um... W-We have a big problem there." The pudgy boy said. The next moment the troll – it had found the trio of first-years in the toilet – let out a roar and attacked. Harry threw himself and Neville on the floor while Hermione dumbly stepped backwards. The troll's club nearly hit the witch as it passed just several inches in front of her face, showering the girl with splinters from the smashed wood partitions.

Knowing that fighting the troll was a suicide – no one under fifth or sixth year was taught in the classes any spells that could overcome the magical resistance of the beast's hide – Harry decided to use the other way out of their current predicament: running away. The problem there was in the fact that the said troll was standing between them and the door out of the toilet. And with the beast already attacking again, the young wizard knew that without getting its attention off him and his housemates getting past the troll was a suicide too. But so far they weren't taught any spells that could be used for averting beast's attention. Or were they? Transfiguration, color changing spells and levitation charm were pretty much useless there as they either couldn't achieve the desired effect or required too much concentration to be of any use in the current situation. His nox spell so far had too little radius of the effect to hide three first-years. That pretty much left him with just lumos spell. But the said charm created the ball of light at the tip of the wand, while Harry needed it somewhere behind troll's head...

"..." Hoping for the best, the green-eyed wizard willed a ball of light flash into the existence behind beast's left ear. The troll, being as dumb as it was, switched its attention to it, allowing three first-years to run for their lives, actually managing to get past it and out of the toilet, before it realized that its prey was gone...

"Harry, where are you running? Griffindor common room is the other way." Neville asked as the young Potter led them towards a narrow and steep stair that led onto the fourth floor north wing.

"Trolls may be extremely stupid, but they are generally faster that we can run, and they can track us by our scent." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But the narrow stairs will give us a tactical advantage over the troll. Just believe me." Neville nodded unsurely while Hermione said nothing, just tried to keep up with the boys... It took the three of them almost two minutes to reach the top of the stairs... At the same time the troll appeared at the bottom of these stairs.

"What now?" Hermione asked as she tried to pull the doors into the north wing open, but failed to do so. "We have nowhere to run!" Harry ignored her for a moment and talked to Neville, who stood to his right, instead.

"When I say 'three', levitate its right leg forward and upwards and to the right. I'll levitate the left one to the left." Having no other option than to rely on his classmate, the Longbottom scion nodded. "One... Two..." Harry waited for the troll to get high enough so that dropping it down from the stairs would have some effect. "Three..."

"Wingardium leviosa!" Two boys cried simultaneously, while guiding troll's lower limbs in a fashion they needed. And like Harry thought, the beast dropped down onto the stairs with a loud 'thud', before it started sliding downwards, gaining quite a speed thanks to the steep slope of the stairs... There was the second 'thud' as the troll's head hit the floor at the stairs' bottom with the power that should have had knocked the giant out, maybe even kill it.

"It worked." Neville observed, too mentally tired after the race against death for any serious emotion. Harry just nodded in agreement with his housemate... Suddenly the three first-years hear approaching clatter of heels, and a couple of seconds later professor McGonnagal walked out of the corridor and stopped next to the downed troll. The transfiguration professor studied the troll with her eyes, just to make sure that the beast wouldn't be of any danger, before looking upwards, at the three members of her house.

"What are you doing here? The headmaster ordered everyone to back to the common rooms." McGonnagal asked sternly. The bushy-haired witch opened her mouth to say something, but Neville was faster.

"Professor, Hermione wasn't at the feast and didn't know about the troll, but she was... um... reported to be at the lower levels of the castle, she was in danger. So Harry and I went to warn her. Unfortunately, the troll found us before we could take Hermione away from where she was. So... um... We kinda had to fight it." The pudgy boy explained. Professor McGonnagal rubbed her temples, no doubt trying to fight a coming headache.

"And how in the seven hells did you manage to defeat it?" She asked, already fearing the answer a bit... Harry ruffled the hair on the back of his head as he answered sheepishly.

"We used levitation spell to drop it from the stairs." The transfiguration professor sighed. If the things continue like this, her hair will be completely gray before these three will sit their OWLs...

"Very well..." She said with another sigh. "Potter, Longbottom, ten points from Griffindor each for acting recklessly and not telling anyone where you went. And ten points to Griffindor each for helping your classmate. And another thirty points to Griffindor for the sheer dumb luck of taking down a grown up mountain troll and living to tell the tale." The three first-years looked at each other, not completely believing that they had just earned thirty points to their house. "Now, return to the common room, before I'm forced to take those points away for been out during the early curfew." Harry, Neville and Hermione nodded and hurried towards the Griffindor tower...

When they were finally in the safety of the red and gold common room of their house, Hermione turned to face two boys that very well could have saved her life tonight. Ron's hurtful words were still at the forefront of her mind, making her confused as to why someone would fight a troll for her. Of course, she had already thanked Harry and Neville several times while they were still on their way towards the Griffindor tower, but...

"Um... Not to sound unappreciative of you or anything, but... Why did you save me?" She asked. Harry looked up from the book he was currently reading into her eyes.

"Do we need a reason to save our classmate? Besides, aren't you our friend?" He said.

"Am I?" The bushy-haired witch asked. Harry and Neville nodded, making the girl smile brightly. The she enveloped her two saviors into a hug, before running up to the girl's dormitories, leaving two stunned, a bit confused and blushing boys behind...

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Albus Dumbledore wasn't having the best evening tonight. He let Quirrell guide the troll into the castle, hoping that one of the possible 'chosen' ones would run and save that muggleborn witch – Granger? – from the beast. He just never expected both to do that... From Severus's report the troll died from its skull being crashed against the marble floor as the beast was dropped from the stairs. And neither Potter nor Longbottom used anything more powerful that the levitation charm to do that...

'Who are you, the chosen one?' The ancient headmaster asked himself as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth. 'If you don't appear soon, the world will be doomed to the darkness Tom will spread once again.' He needed to do something to find The One, but he needed to do it from the shadows if his plan was to succeed. And so, Albus Dumbledore started scheming his next move...

That's all, folks!
The sixth chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.