A/N: Okay, all caught up! The next chapter will be up sometime Sept 10th! Enjoy!

TROLL IN THE CASTLE

After weeks spent in a hot and dry desert the change to hot and humid was both invigorating and refreshing in comparison. At least, that was until the car the Ox King had given them as a thank-you for their troubles ran out of gas- as was the fate of all vehicles, Goku noticed- and there were no more towns or cities to pass through before they'd reach their destination, which was well and truly out in the middle of nowhere.

Behind him Bulma moaned about having to walk places with the same amount of passion that Oolong had towards women's undergarments, both of which Goku simply didn't understand. If anything it annoyed him having to listen to it, especially since he'd given up riding his Nimbus to walk with the other two and at their insistence that he do so. It hadn't been his fault that neither could ride the cloud but they walked so slow he'd be doing loops around them anyhow, so there wouldn't have been much point in riding Nimbus anyways.

Then there was the matter of Yamcha and Puar, who Goku had spotted several times tailing after them. He still wasn't sure what they wanted, but they'd given Bulma a car to help get them partially out of the desert after Oolong's camper blew up and hadn't tried to attack them since said explosion, so Goku had decided to leave them be until they did something that required his attention. Like trying to steal from them again.

Goku lifted a hand to his chest, feeling the smoothed wood under the fabric of his gi. While the weather stayed warm here, he knew that it was cold where Harri was and that for her winter meant snowy months ahead. He'd never seen this so called 'snow' but Harri had promised to show him now that she could take pictures of everything. The giant castle she called a school somewhat resembled the one the Ox King had owned- before Roshi the Turtle Hermit blew it up along with the rest of Fire Mountain.

"Goku, we're stopping here!" Bulma called out as she went over to sit in the shade under a nearby tree. Goku stopped, looked back, and frowned.

"Already, Bulma?" He asked, but walked over anyways. "You've stopped ten times now."

"Yes!" The blue haired teen answered, exasperated. "I'm not from the countryside like you! I grew up in the city! There's no need for me to walk anywhere there!"

"Best leave it be, little buddy." Oolong added, though he looked just as tired as Bulma, and sat down beside the teen.

Goku let out a sigh through his nose.

"Fine. But we should get moving again as soon as you catch your breath. We'll never get there otherwise!"

He sat butterfly under the tree's shade, leaned up against the bark and looked up at the many leaves of the canopy that reminded him of his friend's eyes. His gut twisted, once again reminded what today was for Harri. Not for the first time today he wished for time to pass a little faster so that she'd finally open the Window and he could get to see for himself how she was doing.

Professor McGonagall's office was just as neatly organized as the classroom she ran. Several thick books lined the shelves off to one side while a hearth that had a fire burning was directly across from it. She had a large mahogany desk near the center of the room, where important-looking papers were placed near an inkwell and quill. The woman herself was tall, thin and had her graying hair tied atop her head in a tight bun. Her emerald green robes glinted in the fire light, much like the stern look in her eyes as she watched Harri, Neville and Hermione who had sat down in chairs on the opposite side of her desk with their backs to the door.

"I understand the three of you weren't in the great hall for the feast?" One of McGonagall's brows rose in question, looking between the three of them. On her desk she had put a pile of loose photos and a broken magical camera.

"No Professor." Harri confirmed when the other two simply stared down at their laps. Hermione's face was red and puffy from crying all afternoon. Neville looked stricken, black Hogwarts robes covered with white dust. There was a long cut in his robe just above his hip, blood soaked in the cloth making the area slightly darker, but Madam Pomfry had healed him up so there was nothing but a thin white scar where he had been injured.

Not looking much better than the other two, with her lengthening hair all tangled and stuck together with a green-white film and the white dust on her robes, Harri knew that if circumstances were different, she'd be just as mousey as Hermione under that stare. As it was Harri had a Calming Draught in her system, forced down her throat before she could leave the Hospital Wing by Madam Pomfry when it was discovered just how fast Harri's heart had been beating from the encounter. Harri reckoned that one of the three of them should be brave and since the other two didn't take that roll Harri found herself doing so instead.

"Then, please, tell me where you were and why it is that I found you not five feet away from the corpse of a fully grown mountain troll."

Both Hermione and Neville flinched at the mention of the creature but Harri stayed steadfast in returning McGonagall's stare.

For Harri, the Hogwarts experience so far was much like being in that Gringotts cart heading to the vaults. She'd met both her potential fiancee's on the train over to the school, one knowing and the other not. Draco Malfoy was extremely conceited- amongst other things- from what Harri had observed in her first five seconds of meeting the bleached blond boy and since then he hasn't shown her any evidence to counter that statement. Ronald Weasley on the other hand, seemed to be lacking in self confidence and while he was easier to talk to than Draco he was very bias in his views so didn't take well to being questioned about them.

Along with Ron and Draco, Harri had also met Hermione and Neville. The two had been looking for Neville's toad on the train and introduced themselves when they had passed Harri and Ron's car. As soon as Hermione saw that Ron was about to do magic she had sat herself down to watch, fascinated, and explained soon after that she came from a family without magic. Hearing of the similar situation she had been in, Harri had volunteered to help both Hermione and Neville find the missing toad and struck up a conversation with the bushy haired witch. Mostly Neville had listened to what the two would say as they searched but he'd also add facts or add tidbits of information to what they already knew since he'd come from an all magical family that was considered to be very old.

When they'd gotten to the school and she, along with Hermione and Neville, had all been sorted into Gryffindor Harri had been very pleased. It was an entirely new experience having friends that could spend an entire day at your side without having to worry that someone would overhear your conversation.

She loved Goku, Harri really truly did. They spent the entirety of August talking to one another on a near constant basis and Harri had fallen asleep several times with a smile on her face after the conversation. But along with the prolonged time together came the thick tiredness that accompanied using so much magic for so long a time and Harri couldn't keep up with the new freedom she'd been given.

With the exception of Potions, History and Defense Against the Dark Arts- which might as well have been a joke with how much class material the Professor actually got through with all the stuttering- Harri loved all her classes, absorbing what the Professors had to teach her like a dry sponge introduced to water and then regurgitating it all to Goku later that same night.

While flying class lasted only until everyone in the year knew how to do it without injury, Harri had gained the permission to try out for a quidditch position on the Gryffindor House team by managing to save Neville from a nasty fall when his broom went haywire- though she did sprain her wrist and hurt her shoulder during the feat. There had been only one position to try out for, Seeker, and Harri found that she quite enjoyed the experience.

When someone sent her a Nimbus Two Thousand as a congratulatory gift for getting on the team, she'd spent a while teasing Goku about getting a broom that simply must be better than his cloud that shared a similar name.

The days seemed to slip by exceptionally fast and with Goku keeping her updated on the progress of his adventure she was sure to take in as much information about magic as she could so that she'd know what limits to cross when she was no longer in a magical school that could fix any harmful mistakes with a swish and flick of a wand.

Now it was Halloween, the very same day eleven years ago that Harri had lost her parents to a madman on a murder spree.

"Well, Professor, I myself hadn't planned on attending the feast to begin with." Harri started, then gave a gesture to the boy to her left. "Neville was there though. As for Hermione and me... well something happened in Charms class earlier today and Ron really hurt her feelings. I found Hermione in one of the bathrooms crying her eyes out. Just as I'd managed to calm her down though I heard someone come in and looked- only, that someone was the troll. That's about when Neville showed up."

"When we heard about the troll from Professor Quirrel, I snuck off to go find Harri since she told me that she was going to be looking for Hermione." Neville added on then, albeit shyly. "But I arrived too late, the troll had already found them."

"And you didn't think to go tell a teacher or even your prefect?" McGonagall asked sternly, making Neville shrink under her look.

"Honestly, Professor, would there have been any time?" Harri jumped in, raising a brow. "Like Neville said, he had arrived just as the troll found us. If it wasn't for him helping to confuse the troll before I could take it down, we would be dead. If he had taken the time to tell anyone, he would have arrived later and might not have been able to help, and if he'd run off to get someone that could have easily resulted the same. I, for one, am very thankful he arrived when he did."

The Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts seemed to loose much of her stern demeanor at this.

"Yes, while I am grateful and extremely proud that Neville arrived in time and decided to stay, I must point out that telling someone of authority is still important." She looked at all three of them carefully, before she stopped on Hermione. "Whatever could have made you so distraught, miss Granger?"

A bright blush made itself known on the brown haired girl's cheeks.

"I... well..." Hermione swallowed. "Ron got angry when I pointed out what he'd done wrong with his spell. We were trying to make feathers float with the Wingardium Charm, see. And after class... after class he told everyone that I was so annoying and stuck up, it was a wonder I had any friends at all."

There was a flash of anger that Harri felt at the reminder and she spotted Neville clench his hand in a tight fist on his lap. For a moment McGonagall seemed to suffer a loss of words.

"Well, I hope it's been made quite clear through their actions tonight that your friends are going nowhere." McGonagall pointed out. "As for the other two, I better not hear about Mr Weasley being hexed in the halls anytime soon. I will be having words with him later."

The older witch shook her head for a moment, then took out her wand. With a flick of her wrist the broken camera on her desk repaired itself. McGonagall then picked up the stack of photos and the camera off her desk and handed them to Harri.

"I believe these are yours, Miss Potter. Now, I see none of these events being any of your faults. I will take ten house points for not doing as you were told and going to your common room, Mr Longbottom, and I will award fifty points to each of you for your ingenuity and teamwork that allowed you to survive your encounter with the troll."

Carefully Harri accepted the camera back, immensely relieved that it was no longer broken. She hadn't been certain what she would have told Goku about it other than state how they'd have to wait a while before she could get more pictures. Her two friends perked up at her sides and risked glancing over at each other in their surprise. McGonagall pretended not to notice and sent them on their way.

There was a nervous look on Neville's face when they entered the corridors and started heading towards the Gryffindor Tower. He wiped his palms on his filthy robes, "I'm a little surprised she gave us so many points..."

"I think it'd be a little unfair if she'd given us just five points each for surviving such an encounter." Harri responded, throwing a tired half smile in Neville's direction. "I think the bigger question would be; how long do you reckon it will take before other students know?"

"There's a spot to each side of the notice board in the common room, actually, that shows the most amount of points earned by which students of the house on one side and the most amount of points lost by which students of the house on the other side. I heard from an older student that it was put in place to try and curb the Weasley twins pranking habits."

"Did it work?" Neville asked curiously, furrowing his brow.

"I think it just forced them to be smarter with how they execute their pranks," Harri pointed out. "They almost never get caught, do they? Even though everyone knows it's them, if you can't prove it then you can't loose points."

"Harri, you make it sound like you think it's okay to play pranks on people!" Hermione cut in, sounding incredulous.

"Well, as long as it's not malicious, I really don't see a problem with it." Harri shrugged. "Besides, my opinion isn't going to stop or encourage the Weasley twins from doing their pranking."

"I wonder what people will think when they see how many points we got." Neville redirected, looking sideways at the girls. "I hope they think its for finishing extra school or something... I don't really fancy being asked questions all day ...unless it's about Herbology."

"We'll probably find out in the morning." Hermione answered, "when the older years check out the board before lessons or when the rest of the school sees all the new points in the Gryffindor hourglass."

They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady who guarded the Gryffindor Tower and she stared at them with wide horrified eyes.

"Where on earth have you three been?!" The lady in the painting demanded, "you're absolutely filthy and the rest of your house was called back in ages ago!"

"Pig Snout." Harri responded in lieu of an actual answer.

The Fat Lady gave the group a look that clearly stated how displeased she was by this but nonetheless swung forwards to allow them entry.

Inside the common room students from every year could be seen being rowdy and excited as they ate candies and generally had fun. Something in Harri seemed to deflate at the sight and she turned to her friends, "I'm going to go get cleaned up and head to bed."

"Alright, Harri." There was a frown on Hermione's face as she said this, but she and Neville had already been reminded by Harri why she didn't like Halloween.

Even before she found out that this was the night her parents had been murdered, the Dursley's had made sure she didn't like Halloween in general because they were always extra mean on this night. To her friends though, Harri only had to remind them of her parents and the fact that she'd only just found out which day it was they were taken from her, and she quickly found herself devoid of any questions to her mood.

Up the stairs the raven haired girl went and straight to her dormitory. There she whispered to her chest the key to get past the enchantments that protected it in order to grab some of her clothes. The first thing she saw in her chest was her piece of wood that allowed her to speak to Goku.

As soon as Hagrid had dropped her off at the train station, Harri had taken it upon herself to go back to Diagon Alley and visit Gringotts once more. She'd changed some of her galleons for pounds and headed back for the Dursleys. They hadn't arrived back at the house yet and Harri was almost certain it was because she and Hagrid had taken the only boat away from that lighthouse islet.

Not knowing how long she'd have until the Drusley's arrived, Harri immediately went for the thing that she had come back for. Into the cupboard under the stairs she went, taking a crowbar fetched from under the sink with her.

It took a lot of strength and effort, a few dozen splinters and crushed fingers, but Harri eventually managed to pry off the back piece of wood to the stairs. The other side was carpeted and Harri made sure to take the wood from the lowest point that she could reach. There was no chance of the Drusleys finding out what she'd done, unless they lowered themselves enough to actually go into her cupboard and check for anything amiss. Even then, Harri had moved several old paint tins and other boxed junk to hide the area well.

Without a backwards glance Harri left that house, piece of wood tucked away safely in her pocket. She'd stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the summer, traveling between London and Diagon Alley as she pleased.

A small smile graced the girl's face as she looked at the wood, the sides now smoothed so it looked more like a wide oval instead of the prickly piece of broken stair board it used to be. On it's ends Harri had stuck two precious stones- done with some stellotape- that she'd gotten from a shop in Diagon Ally, the teller informing her how they were often used by magic wielders to store energy. The bigger the stone, the more magic they could store, and the more expensive they got. These stones Harri had gotten were very small, round, no bigger than a pebble really. But they could hold just enough magic for Harri to not need to constantly touch the wood in order to get the Window to function and that's everything Harri needed it to do.

Later, when she had access to her full account at Gringotts and not just her trust fund, she'd look for better stones to use. In the mean time Harri used her free time from school things to look up ways she could improve her use of the Window. She'd found several books theorizing on improving magic in an already magical item and anything that wasn't theory was written in a language the librarian- Madam Pince- called ruins, something she was assured would be a class she'd be able to take come third year but wasn't allowed access to any books regarding it until then.

After a long shower where Harri had to battle to get the troll bogeys out of her hair for at least ten minutes, she came back to a room with a cleaner-looking Hermione waiting for her. The bushy haired witch was on her own bed, leaned back against the headboard with a pillow propped up behind her and a thick tome in her hands, but her brown eyes shot up to meet Harri's green as soon as she'd heard the shower room door close.

"Hey," Harri greeted first, her tired smile even more pronounced now that the Calming Draught had finally left her system. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Me?" Hermione responded incredulously, "I'm not the one who had a blinded troll sneeze on me and then try to kick me into a wall. I only told Neville how to cast the dust charm after it nearly smashed me along with the bathroom sinks. Besides, you managed to cast a knockback jinx on a piece of broken ceramic that then impaled the troll through it's heart! Where did you even learn that?!"

Flustered, Harri brought up a hand to brush through her clean hair while her gaze dropped to the flagstone. "Well, I learnt Flippendo from one of the books I got extra at Diagon. Trolls are largely immune to magics and I had to do something or it would have gotten you or Neville... I saw the looks on your faces... you don't hate me now do you?"

"What? No!" Quickly Hermione got up and went over to grab Harri's hands. "No, I was just stunned really. I would think Neville was too, I mean it suddenly stopped moving half way to batting him with it's club and fell dead at his feet! It happened so fast there wasn't even any blood till it laid still long enough for a small puddle to form..." as she spoke Hermione's face grew pale, but there was a determined look to her eyes as she stared straight into Harri's emerald purposely. "We still want to be your friend- or, at least, I do and I'm fairly certain Neville feels the same."

There was a momentary pause as Harri took the words in. Her shoulders sagged with relief at the revelation, knowing her friends would stay her friends even if she'd killed a creature.

"Thank you, Hermione." Harri said earnestly, squeezing the other witch's hand briefly. Hermione let out a brief sigh of relief and gave Harri a smile in return. Then the bushy haired witch gave a yawn that had Harri follow along.

"Knowing our friendship is no longer in peril, I'm going to head to bed now." Hermione announced. "Will you be staying up to talk to whomever it is you talk to at night?"

Immediately Harri reddened. "Wh- what? Talk to..? Wh- whatever gave you that idea?" The raven haired girl tried to deflect but Hermione wasn't in the least bit fooled.

There was a small giggle, "did you think you were being very discrete? You need to improve your silencing charms for that. And do something about your shadow being seen too." Hermione gave a tilt of her head. "And with you being embarrassed... it's a boy, isn't it?"

When Harri could only gape and grow redder in response, Hermione gave a triumphant noise.

"I'm right, aren't I? You talk to a boy until late in the night!"

"Wh- what does it matter anyhow?" Harri eventually got out, narrowing her eyes defensively. "I know I don't bother you or the other girls during the night."

"No, but it can't be good for your health to be getting so little sleep and be working so hard at the same time." Hermione pointed out, "you get up before anyone else to do whatever it is you do in the mornings before class. And it's got be some sort of physical exercise because you always arrive at breakfast with damp hair which tells me that you either just came from a swim in the lake or you'd had a shower. What is it you do anyway?"

"I go for a run around the lake in the morning." Harri responded, looking embarrassed but unrepentant of the truth.

"Really? Why?"

"It's good for your health for one," Harri then glanced at her trunk before she began to nervously roll part of her pant leg between her fingers absently. "And I read that Quidditch players generally have stronger casting for spells which made me wonder why- until I realized that Quidditch players regularly work their bodies, which is more than any regular witch or wizard do since they can just get magic to do everything for them... which leads me to believe that the amount of magic you can control and handle correlates to how well you keep your body in shape."

What Harri didn't mention was how it was Grandpa Gohan who had taught her and Goku basic exercises to keep healthy. He'd taught Harri basic stances for fighting too, but she'd never gotten to put much of anything to practice when she'd been under the Dursley's tender care. She'd been building up her stamina since August and Goku had shown her the basic stances again, now that she could practice them enough to memorize them and without interruption. By the time summer rolled around again, Harri was sure she'd be able to keep herself safe from Dudley and his little gang once and for all. Maybe even Uncle Vernon too, if she got good enough. After all that had been Grandpa Gohan's main goal for her, Harri knew now.

Hermione seemed to blink with surprise at this. Then, "well alright." And she yawned, "I aught to head to bed now, truly, Harri." She trudged over to her bed and set herself under the covers. Just as she'd set her head on her pillow, "think I can join you in the mornings then?" She called over tiredly.

"Sure!" Harri answered, surprised. She saw Hermione nod before the other girl fell off to sleep, breathing now deep and rhythmic.

Going over to her chest once more, Harri pulled out the magic wood and reset the enchantments on her chest before she climbed into bed herself and set up her wards for the night. Drawing the curtains, Harri sat butterfly and began to concentrate, channeling her magic so it could reach across dimensions and she could finally tell her friend about her Halloween.