It was October 31st and Harry's time at Hogwarts had been great so far.
There was that moment near the end of September when Harry was visiting the Slytherin common room to see Cassius that Draco Malfoy decided to open his mouth. He had called Harry a 'wannabe girl' and a 'retard', things that Harry was pretty used to hearing so it didn't bother him, but it had bothered Cassius and the other 3rd and 4th years.
Cassius went muggle and punched Draco in the nose and the others hexed him, it took Madame Pomfrey a week to undo all the magic cast on the Malfoy heir. Draco hadn't talked to or about Harry again after that. Most people had stopped trying to bully Harry altogether due to the protective upper years in both Slytherin and Hufflepuff, neither house was against hexing bullies black and blue for daring open their mouths.
Harry had never felt so safe in his life.
Except for the times the Headmaster tries to corner him, then Harry has to go running for Bea or Cassy otherwise the man might take his eyes.
But now it was Halloween, or Samhain as the Slytherins called it, and Harry was excited. Halloween had always been one of his favorite holidays since he got the candy that Dudley didn't like, but this year he got to have all of the candy he wanted.
Several of the upper years had tried to baby Harry today though since it is the day his parents were apparently killed, but he didn't remember them, so he had to firmly tell them to stop it and give him more candy instead of pointless condolences.
Marcus Flint laughed so hard until he was red in the face after hearing Harry's proclamation.
The feast was one of those meals where he wasn't allowed to sit with his Slytherins which was kinda sad but the promise of more sweets kept Harry happy enough. That was until their feast was interrupted by smelly Professor Quirrell of all people.
"Troll! In the dungeons… thought you ought to know…" Professor Quirrell for once didn't stutter but he did faint dead away. Harry wondered if that was the man's price for not stuttering, he would stutter too if it kept him from fainting.
There was a moment of stunned silence after Professor Quirrell's statement and then everyone broke out into a cacophony of panic. Harry was confused, they had a troop of dancing skeletons performing for the Halloween feast but a troll was one step too far? Wixen didn't make any sense.
What did a troll even look like?
Dumbledore quickly silenced everyone and gave the orders for everyone to return to their common rooms.
But wasn't the troll in the dungeons?
The Slytherin common room was in the dungeons.
Oh no.
The headmaster had moved on from Harry's eyes and was trying to kill Harry's Slytherins instead!
Harry bolted across the great hall, ducking and dodging other panicked students so he could reach the Slytherins.
Why were their tables so far away?!
"Cassy! Cassy!" Harry shouted, spotting the green robes of Slytherin.
"Woah there squirt, you should be with your house." Marcus Flint caught the panicked Hufflepuff.
"Dumbledore is trying to kill my Slytherins." Harry whimpered tears in his eyes.
"What do you mean kid?" Adrian Pucey asked confused.
"The troll is in the dungeons but Slytherin is also in the dungeons. You can't go!" Harry practically wailed.
Cassius had been fetched by a concerned Graham Montague, and he caught the end of Harry's panicked tirade.
"Woah okay, breath Harry. Deep breathe in and deep breathe out. No need to panic. Thank you for worrying about us, but thankfully our Head of House knows better than the Headmaster and told us to stay put here in the great hall." Cassius comforted the small boy, wrapping him up in his arms.
"R-really?" Harry sniffled.
"Yep. Promise the old man won't kill us today. Now I bet Beatrice is about to lose her head when she does a headcount and you aren't there. We need to send a house elf to tell her you are staying with us until the danger passes okay?" Cassius ran his fingers through Harry's soft bright hair, further calming the boy down. The other Slytherins watched on in amusement but not surprise since this had become a common occurrence for Cassius to comfort the small badger.
Harry nodded and cuddled against Cassius, happy to not let his Slytherins go for the moment.
"Rizzy!" Cassius summoned the house elf he knew belonged to Professor Sprout.
"What does sneaky snakeys want of Rizzy?" the house elf asked suspiciously after popping in.
"I need you to take a message to Prefect Beatrice Haywood and Professor Sprout and let them know I have Harry and he is safe." Cassius requested with amusement.
"Rizzy be doing so!" the house elf nodded and popped away.
"Well, things will never be boring with you around squirt," Marcus commented, ruffling Harry's hair, drawing a giggle from the boy.
They all took their seats at the Slytherin table again, Harry curled up in Cassius' lap, not even interested in pursuing more sweets.
They talked for hours just waiting for someone to give the all-clear. Harry had fallen asleep a while ago. Just when they were beginning to wonder if they were going to have to sleep in the great hall, a grave-looking Professor Snape walked back into the great hall with a limp.
"Slytherins, thank you for waiting patiently. The headmaster will be addressing this in the morning with the rest of the school but I believe you all deserve to know this now. There was a casualty from the troll getting in. One of Gryffindor's first years was in the bathroom on the first floor. The first year had not heard the announcement and so was unprepared when a fully grown troll entered the bathroom as well. We will be canceling classes tomorrow in light of losing a student." Snape told them carefully, all of them shocked.
Hogwarts was supposed to be safe and now a first year was dead. They all thought of their own first years and even their adopted badger who was still sleeping in Cassius' arms. It could have been one of them.
Snape then saw the sleeping Harry Potter and sighed pinching his nose.
"Why is Potter here and not with his house?"
"Harry freaked out when he heard the Headmaster dismiss us to our common rooms even though Professor Quirrell had just said the troll was in the dungeons. He made his way over to us convinced that the headmaster was trying to kill us. We let the Hufflepuffs know we had their badger via house elf." Marcus reported with a grin. He knew Snape hated making nice with the Potter heir and to hear that Potter had more care for the Slytherins than the headmaster did really seem to ruffle Professor Snape's feathers.
"Yes… well, I guess five points to Hufflepuff then." Professor Snape grimaced. "Warrington, take him back to the Hufflepuffs and then return to the dorms. The rest of you get back to the common room and try to get some sleep."
Cassius nodded and carefully stood up so he wouldn't wake the boy.
Harry really was a marvel.
The next day was rather subdued once it was announced officially that Miss Hermione Granger, Gryffindor first year and muggleborn, had been killed last night by the invading mountain troll. All the houses rallied around their first years in an almost suffocating way. No one had been close to the girl that died which made it more sad Harry thought.
If Harry had died before coming to Hogwarts no one would have mourned him either. But now at Hogwarts, he knew if something were to happen to him that he would be missed for the first time in his life. He didn't know how to mourn a girl he didn't know but he figured he should try because no one deserves to be forgotten and not missed.
"Bee?" Harry said looking up at Beatrice with his large green eyes.
"Yes, my little badger?" Beatrice couldn't help but completely melt under that look.
"How do I mourn someone I didn't know?" Harry asked with a slight frown.
Beatrice was a bit taken aback but not completely surprised.
"Well, I suppose we can write condolences to her parents and make something that will memorialize her in some way so no one forgets that she attended this school even for such a short time."
"Can we please?"
"Of course. Go grab something to write with, we will start with the letters and I will get with the other prefects to discuss how to memorialize Hermione." Beatrice nudged Harry making him get up and run upstairs to his room to get things to write his letter. Beatrice knew she just signed up for a complicated project but the tiny badger made a good point. None of them knew the girl but she did deserve to be remembered in some way.
A few days later a grieving Mr. and Mrs. Granger received an owl with a letter attached to its ankle.
They wanted to ignore it at first, ignore the world that had taken their daughter so cruelly so early in her life. But finally, Mrs. Granger relieved the small owl from its letter and it flew off not expecting a reply.
The envelope was clearly made from thick parchment but the writing on the outside addressing it to them was in a child's messy handwriting and it looked to maybe be written in a red glitter pen.
Mrs. Granger opened the envelope intrigued now.
A letter was written in what was definitely red and gold glitter pens by a child.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Granger,
My name is Harry Potter and I am a first-year Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. I am sending my condolences to you because of what happened to Hermione. I didn't know her but it seems to me no one here really got the chance to know her, and that's sad.
Where I went to school before Hogwarts no one knew me either. I wanted to mourn Hermione properly since no one here knew her enough to do so. People deserve to be remembered and mourned. So my prefect helped me write this letter to you!
We are also working on making a memorial for Hermione somewhere on the school grounds. I heard she spent a lot of time in the library so I am thinking somewhere in there. I hope she is happier and with lots of friends and family on the other side.
I will send a picture of the memorial once we have it made!
Sincerely,
Harry J. Potter
Mrs. Granger broke down in tears, but instead of tears of grief, they were tears of happiness. At least someone would remember her daughter.