...
The troll incident and its happenings, as expected, had spread through the castle faster than Fiendfyre. And as with any gossip; it, of course, took on its own form of exaggeration.
Particularly in how he'd dealt with the troll.
From vanishing it personally, out of some misplaced grudge, to setting the whole incident up himself in some misguided plot.
To him not actually doing anything, with Harry Potter having solved it himself.
Admittedly, the latter seemed to be the general consensus among the other houses, barring his own and the Boy-Who-Lived's.
His own house however seemed to be firmly behind him having 'saved the day.'
Particularly due to the sixth year prefect that had been on guard duty on the night in question.
Evidently, the student had either overheard his brief conversation with their head of house or he'd interrogated Daphne to the point she'd spilled the beans.
Which considering the girl had refused to even tell her own best friend about, at the very least without his company, said enough.
Still, he wasn't sure which of the two was preferable, all things considered.
On the one hand, the first meant there was a sixth year who knew he was 'stupid' enough to attempt one of three curses that came with an expiration date on personal freedom.
While the other meant he had a sixth year to introduce to his family's personal library of curses.
On the face.
Repeatedly.
Blaise in particular seemed to take the news far better than he did. In that, he'd practically spent hours grilling him on what had gone down.
Not that he'd chosen to believe him after he'd given him his brief account of the event.
Apparently, the idea that a first-year, could effectively deal with a magically resistant mountain troll using naught but the expulsion charm was very hard to believe.
Still, his place in the house had fallen into a rather mixed bag.
The second years, as an example, had refused to believe what had gone down.
The third and fourth years, barring one particular student who'd spent the better half of the following day watching him like a hawk, didn't want to believe it.
While the fifth and seventh years frankly couldn't care less, the poor sods too busy failing their current classes.
The sixth year, however, as well as his own, seemed to look at him in a new light.
And that wasn't even taking Malfoy's reaction into account.
The blonde's personality, quite frankly, had taken a complete dive compared to what he'd started with. The first year going as far as acknowledging his existence, going out of his own way to try and include him in anything remotely related to 'house' matters.
From genuinely going to him for advice on the best kind of curse to throw at Harry Potter, to asking him for advice on how to make the Hufflepuffs hate his existence.
Not in those words per se, but given the end result of each of those requests...
Either way, the blonde had effectively opened up to him.
Albeit, via outright ignoring the true reasons for the debacle. The blonde convinced he'd only gone after the troll to prove himself. Going as far as to completely ignore the muggle-born involved.
A small part of him had figured it was probably due to the fact Harry Potter had finally had some house points taken away by someone other than their head of house.
Still, the troll incident, aside from the... Well, everything involved with it, had overall probably put him in a better position than he'd accounted for.
His friend group, as an example, had grown by two.
And, well, aside from some grumbling from Blaise... And Daphne... And Tracey... He himself was rather indifferent to the fact Theodore Nott had started insisting he spends his free time in their company. Even if he didn't bother to include his own opinions, on frankly any subject that came up.
At least, until magic itself was brought up. The boy, to his surprise, holding a fountain of knowledge inside. Even if he didn't particularly know how any of it actually worked.
It was admittedly worrying how many steps the boy insisted on skipping to try and gain superfluous power.
He was probably going to have to talk some sense into the idiot before he blew himself and their dorm room up via practicing advanced explosions.
He refused to call anything in that horridly inept book the other had received as a 'gift' conventional magic.
The other student? Was of course one Hermione Granger. And while the girl only bothered to interact with their group in the safe confines of the school library. He had, on more than one occasion heard about the girl coming to his defense in regards to her housemates.
And... Well, he wasn't sure how to feel about that particular fact. On the one hand, he appreciated it. On the other, he was worried the girl was going to wind up without any friends from her own house.
Still, he didn't discourage the behavior.
The fact of the matter was, having her around meant his workload in helping his aloof group of friends keep up with their homework had been figuratively cut in half.
Mostly because the girl insisted on making the others do their own work, to help them learn it properly.
And frankly, he was embarrassed he hadn't thought of that particular excuse himself.
His Grandfather, on the other hand, had settled for slapping him upside the head for his reckless behavior, before showing how proud he was of his success. Via making him practice the Imperio until he 'got it right' in the safety of his dreamscape. Despite the already mountain of a headache, he'd woken up with thanks to his brief attempt at using it in the real world.
Despite that, he still refused to budge on the matter of his modified wand, the man choosing not to reveal anything about it, despite admitting he'd been well aware of the fact.
Still, none of that compared to the Headmaster's reaction.
Particularly in how he'd dealt with the troll incident itself.
And while he wasn't entirely sure why the man had insisted on him meeting him in his office, a small part of him had been somewhat fearful his professor hadn't kept his word in regards to the Imperio usage.
Still, the meeting itself had barely lasted more than a few minutes. And despite his paranoia on the matter, it turned out his head of house had in fact kept his word. Given the headmaster hadn't mentioned any unforgivable usage.
Hell, he'd dare say his Potion's professor hadn't even brought up the fact he had a modified wand, given the headmaster hadn't brought that up either.
The meeting, set in his Potion's Professor's office at that, had quite literally boiled down to a few questions regarding his lack of a second name, how he'd found the castle so far and what his home-life had consisted of. And while the first had been easy to answer, in that his orphanage had never bothered to give/ nor inform him of one- A fact that for whatever reason seemed to worry the headmaster.
The latter regarding his home life had admittedly been too uncomfortable for him to comment on, given he didn't exactly have much good to say about it. A fact the headmaster seemed to be fully understanding of. Given he'd practically offered him a freaking sweet, told him his door (whether he meant Snapes' door, or his own unknown office, was still up in the air) was always open should he be more willing to talk about it in the future, and promptly sent him on his way.
Despite his wording, the headmaster himself hadn't in fact loitered around much following said meeting. Instead, he'd effectively turned his attention towards the real culprit behind the troll incident, as well as the future safety of Hogwart's students.
In that, he'd effectively cleared the castle of any more possible dangers.
The third floor, for one example, had once again been opened up to the students of the castle. The dangers mentioned during his first feast in the castle, removed.
And that wasn't even taking into account what had wound up happening to Professor Quirrell. The culprit behind the entire debacle, as well as the man who'd tried to have him smashed by a troll.
So much for thinking he'd been one of the more sane members of faculty.
Still, the man, after a very public firing due to his 'irresponsible' actions, was currently undergoing the trial of the year for putting the lives of the future of Magical Britain at stake.
If he was lucky, the half-blood was going to find himself occupying a very comfortable cell in Azkaban.
With naught but a single call, Dumbledore had effectively destroyed any positive relation the man had with the country he lived in.
It was admittedly rather shocking to witness.
Not that his grandfather agreed.
The man genuinely believed a possible lifetime in Azkaban was too merciful for the 'rodent.' Going as far as to call the headmaster soft-hearted.
He had, of course, made the mistake of asking said man what he would've done, had he been in the headmaster's place.
Needless to say, his grandfather had very clearly earned his prison cell.
Honestly, what kind of mindset came up with quite literally feeding someone else to a werewolf, he didn't have a clue.
He just hoped it wasn't genetic.
Gods, it was as if he thrived on living up to his ruthless reputation.
...
Hope You Enjoyed! Don't Forget Feedback!