Chapter 11 – Halloween
There was something foreboding this Halloween night, lightning and thunder could be heard throughout the Great Hall this night. The feast was lit up by Jacko lanterns that floated above each house table as everyone on each table laughed and joked around, eating and enjoying all the different types of foods.
Everyone was having a blast, everyone besides one – Hadriana couldn't help but be sad, it was like everyone had forgotten that she had lost her parents this night eleven years ago. Every now and again, she was trying to keep up a conversation with Ron, but it was impossible to even manage to talk with him with his awful table manners.
"HEY!" Ron exclaimed with a laugh because it was true.
"Love, you were awful back then," Hermione told him with a snicker.
"Yeah, you were!" Hadriana snickered together with the others, knowing it hadn't gotten any better until our eight years. "Hope you will be better." She softly whispered to Teddy.
"Let's face it, you or dad wouldn't let me." Teddy gave a grimace over Uncle Ron's habits.
"You're right!" Sirius laughed, letting him snuggle back into his arms with a soft sigh wondering how quickly he was growing.
"Where's Hermione?" Hadriana questioned, still somewhat feeling guilty about not chasing after her. "Has anyone seen her?" she asked those around her. Neville looked up and faced Hadriana telling her what he had heard. "Parvati Patil said she wouldn't come out of the girl's bathroom. She said that she'd been in there all afternoon crying."
She once again glared at Ron, but he only shrugged his shoulders in response. When Hadriana was about to say something, she was interrupted by Professor Quirrell. The professor was running into the great hall, with a terrified look on his face.
"Troll in the dungeon! Troll in the dungeon!" yelled the professor as he ran stopping halfway down the aisle, "thought you ought to know." he said, before fainting forwards in the middle.
At that, there was complete chaos in the great hall, and all Hadriana could think was that Hermione didn't know and who faints forwards instead of backwards.
Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore stood up in alarm, then there was a loud roar of thunder that caused everyone again to scream, even yell. Perfects were trying to calm everyone down, to no effect.
"You were extremely calm, dear!" Sirius addressed, *You are going to become a wonderful teacher… * he said through their link, and he really thought it because his wife could be extremely calm in situations like that.
"I've always been too shocked to do anything, but things never seemed to shock me anymore!" Hadriana told them, and things hadn't always been like that.
"You have that calmness from Remus and Lily, I would never have been that calm," James said with a nod, he had never been a calm person.
"Wasn't he the DADA teacher? Isn't this his bloody job?" many of the grown-ups asked the five people from the future.
"Yeah, he was. More is explained at the end." Draco told them and looked at the trio of best friends that looked at one another because of the old rumour of them stopping the troll.
"I am going to regret asking this, what did you three do?" Lily asked and eyed every one of the suspiciously.
"You'll see!" said the three of them with a smirk.
"SILENCE!" Yelled Dumbledore, causing everyone to freeze. "Perfects will lead, their house back to their own dormitories. Teachers follow me down to the dungeons.
Percy rushed around like a little bit headless, around to the other perfects, and led their house out of the great hall, and towards the dormitory, while Snape looked alarmed, and rushed to the back exiting through the teachers' passageways.
"Gryffindors keep up, please stay alert," Percy said to them, as they walked through the corridors. Percy holding his wand out just in case.
"How could a troll get in?" asked Hadriana with wonder out loud, while Ron just shrugged.
"Not on its own. Trolls are stupid. Probably people playing jokes." Ron told her before Hadriana's eyes widened and grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side. Ron stared at him in shock. "What?" he questioned and looked around.
"Hermione! She doesn't know!" with that Ron's eyes widened.
"Hadriana's right! Hermione wouldn't have known; she wasn't at the feast." Yelled someone, while Molly, Lily and Euphemia sighed knowing that the trio did something.
"If they hadn't done anything, I wouldn't have been here," Hermione said in their defence, the teachers were so far behind that she wonders if they at all know what was happening in the school.
They were running toward the second bathroom, and when they turned a corner, they heard a loud groan. Hadriana and Ron turned around to see the troll in the middle of the hall. They were hiding behind a statue. "I think the troll has left the dungeon," Ron told her, Hadriana gave him the most sarcastic glare she could muster. "Really? How did you figure?" she asked, as he scowled.
The Slytherins snorted at her sarcastic reply, and everyone else looked on scared of what was going to happen.
To them, the troll was large and ugly and was carrying a large wooden stick that it was dragging behind him. Towards a door that Hadriana recognized. The girl's bathroom. "It's going to the girl's bathroom," she gasped in shock.
"If we get a teacher, it will be too late!" Hadriana said, though, she was worried that even they wouldn't make it.
"No!" screamed many people in the great hall, many others right now wondered how a troll managed to get in the first place.
The screen changed again to the inside of the bathroom, where Hermione had just then walked out of a stall, drying her tears when her eyes widened in alarm. Hermione stared in shock at the two large feet in her path, as she tracked them with her eyes upwards. The troll was staring her down, with hungry eyes like she was food.
"Think, this was some of the tamest we managed to get into!" smirked Hermione to everyone and silenced everyone with these words.
"That I believe!" Sirius laughed.
"You enabled us!" Hadriana smiled in the knowledge that it was the truth, even when he hadn't said as much to them back in the day.
You could just hear the groans coming from the teachers hearing what was being said between the future students. They were just dreading having to teach them because if they were like them things would be hell.
Hermione backed away slowly from the troll, fear coursed through her as it began moving closer to her. The troll raised its club, ready as ever to hit her. Hermione ran back into the stall, locking it.
The club made contact with the stall, crushing it instantly as she screamed and fell to the ground.
Hadriana having heard a girl scream, not seeing a teacher around like she had known would happen ran forward towards where the sound was coming from, ignoring Ron's yelling to her from behind. Running into the room she was followed by Ron, as they frantically looked around for Hermione. Who removed the wood that was on top of her.
Hermione was trying to get a look at who just entered the bathroom.
"Hermione move!" Yelled Hadriana, Hermione did what she had told her to do without thinking. It was good too as the club came smashing down right where she had been.
"Oh, my Merlin! Poor girl!" Andromeda gulped, clutching onto her own baby girl tightly not wanting to let her go.
Hermione then crawled to another stall screaming for help.
Hadriana and Ron looked frantically around to see what they could do to help, like a distraction or something. As the troll walked closer to Hermione, Ron began to throw rocks and sticks at the troll yelling, "Hey, pea brain." The troll looked at him in shock and disbelief before its eyes landed on Hadriana and Ron. They were still throwing debris at its back.
Hermione then managed to crawl under a couple of the available sinks, as she noticed that it was distracted, but wasn't fast enough, the club came smashing down at the sink missing Hermione by a couple of inches. Making the girl scream again.
"Where the heck is the professors?" This time it was Euphemia that yelled it, there were many of them that wondered about this one thing forgetting that things had been said.
Hadriana acted on impulse, and ran towards the troll grabbing onto its club right as the troll raised it again, letting go, Hadriana was now sitting on the troll's shoulder. It shook its head, back and forth trying to get her off.
Looked at her wand, and stuck it up the troll's nose – the only thing it did was make the troll sneeze.
"Ew!" muttered Ron, as he and Hermione who had finally noticed them scrunched up their noses in disgust.
The troll suddenly became outraged, that the troll grabbed onto Hadriana's legs leaving her dangling upside down, while its other hand held onto the club.
"Do something!" yelled Hadriana, trying to get free from the troll's hand in mid-air, trying to avoid getting hit by it.
"What?" Ron asked, looking again for something to throw.
"ANYTHING!" Hadriana yelled, once again dodging the club. "You are a wizard, aren't you?" she asked sarcastically from above.
"You become very sarcastic when you are stressed or irritated!" Neville laughed, as it was just so them to say something like that.
Hadriana simply just shrugged and looked down at the sleepy boy who had laid his head in her lap, running her fingers softly through his hair.
Ron's eyes lit up, as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the troll.
"Swish and flick." Hermione reminded him, and Ron nodded.
"Hurry up!" Yelled Hadriana, as she still was dangling for the hand of the troll.
Ron very clearly stated the incantation, "Wingardium Leviosa." The club flew out of the troll's hand, and before he could swing it again, it dropped on his head, causing the troll to get dizzy. Hadriana dropped to the ground and scooted back towards her friends before the troll could crash down on her.
"Oh, thank Merlin!" James muttered relieved that it had gone well and hugged Lily who sighed in relief.
Molly and Arthur let go of each other's hands and their children. "You Ron are the child who will give me grey hairs," Molly muttered, while Arthur was amused.
"No actually, that's Fred and George," Ron said in amusement, not that he too got into trouble.
"That's worse!" Molly groaned in despair and run her hand down her face in frustration.
After this, they sighed in relief and stood together with one another and smiled. They then stared at the troll in shock.
"Is it dead?" asked Hermione, as they kept looking at it in fear.
"I don't think so, just knocked out!" Hadriana told them and reached over to grab her wand being grossed out over the snot that had claimed the wand. "Ugh. Troll boogies." She said, wiping it down on her already dirty robes when some of the school's professors came running into the bathroom.
Professor McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape rushed in, and McGonagall gasped in shock.
"Oh, my goodness! Explain yourselves, both of you." Professor McGonagall asked as she stared at Hadriana and Ron in shock. The two looked at one another, and as Hadriana was about to say something, Hermione began telling what happen with a lie.
"It's my fault, Professor McGonagall." Interjected Hermione, and they looked at her in confusion because they couldn't believe that miss perfect was going to lie to a teacher.
"Miss follow the rules, lying to a teacher now!" Young Sirius smirked and shrugged everything off of him with a smile and a nod in acknowledgement knowing that he had behaved like an idiot though, he didn't know where all the jealous thoughts had come from. Also, he liked being dramatic and he wanted to get to know his older self and wife.
Sirius and Hadriana looked at each other in fondness, though, glad that his younger counterpart had gotten the clue and out of his head for the most part.
Hermione rolled her eyes, and with a smile on her face, she couldn't wait for people to know what she did with Professor Snape's robes.
"Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked shocked, while Snape looked at her in disbelief, and Quirrell looked slightly angered for some reason.
"I went looking for the troll. I've read about them and thought that I could handle it. But I was wrong. If Hadriana and Ron hadn't come when they did, I'd probably be dead!" Hermione explained to the teacher, as Ron looked down on the ground in guilt, and Hadriana looked over the teachers.
Hadriana got a good look at her teachers, it was then she got a good look at her potion professor. His pant leg was ripped open, and blood was gushing out of his opened wound. Snape noticed her looking at him curiously, as he hurried up covering his leg with his cloak while giving her a cautious glance – one she gave him in return.
"Be this as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would have expected more rational behaviour on your part as I am very disappointed in you Ms Granger. Five points will be taken away from Gryffindor for you lack serious judgment." Stated McGonagall, as Hermione looked at the ground in shame, while the professor looked over at the other two students.
"As for you two, well I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many first-year students could take on a full-grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Five points… will be rewarded to each one of you… for sheer dumb luck." She finished, knowing that they deserved more but Dumbledore wouldn't allow it to happen.
"That was lousy, five points. They deserved more! They took down a troll, for merlin's sake!" James practically gaped in shock over how few points were given to his daughter and friends.
McGonagall wondered why the headmaster wouldn't allow her to give them more points, and that confused everyone else that had paid the last sentence attention.
"I'm just glad that you are all okay!" sighed Molly, and Andromeda nodded in agreement with that.
Before they walked out, Snape gave Quirrell a threatening look before following McGonagall out of the bathroom.
"Perhaps you ought to go! It might wake up!" Quirrell told them, and gave them a small smile, as the three of them left behind the others.
Quirrell gave the troll an annoyed look and jumped slightly when the troll groaned, before he chucked awkwardly, leaving the bathroom after the others.
"Again, for the hundreds of times, how is he the DADA professor?" Barty and some of the more outspoken Slytherin questioned.
"If you are irritated by him, wait until next year for another annoyingly stupid DADA professor!" Hadriana sing-songed, with a smirk.
A couple of others groaned hearing this, and Moody was the only one that could see that there was more going on than the other grownups could also see.