"Have a seat please, everyone!"
Harry glanced up at the diminutive professor as stowed his bag under his seat in the Charms classroom. All around him the other students bobbed and chatted excitedly; today was the day that they got to actually make something fly. Everyone had been waiting for this since Professor Flitwick had flown Trevor the toad around the room on their first day of classes. Harry was also looking forward to it, although not with the same level of enthusiasm. He could already hold and move objects with his power, even if he had never done the charm itself. Nonetheless, actually performing a charm in Charms class was bound to be more interesting than the usual lectures.
"Now everyone, remember to swish and flick," Professor Flitwick reminded the class, before assigning everyone partners to begin working on levitating their feathers. Harry got partnered with Seamus and vowed to stay at least a meter away from the end of his wand at all times. He didn't need to spend his afternoon figuring out how to regrow eyebrows.
Hermione got partnered with Ron Weasley and didn't look very pleased about it. Harry smiled encouragingly at her behind Ron's back and got an unsure grin in return before he turned back to his feather.
Harry pulled out his wand and felt its familiar tug on his magic. He marveled once again just how easy it was to perform such delicate tasks with the help of his wand. Flooding his magic through his limbs felt glorious and sending out tendrils of raw magic worked for simple tasks, but his wand still occasionally surprised him. The fine control that his wand offered had already taught him so much about using his magic for the little things. When using his wand, it didn't even feel like he was letting the magic out, more like the wand was actively pulling it out of him instead. He still wasn't particularly fond of using it for everything, but he did admit that it had its advantages. He often found that he could wandlessly mimic a spell much more easily after he mastered it with his wand.
Harry gave an approximation of the swish and flick gesture that Flitwick had ingrained into them for the last few days.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
He felt the motion and the words twist and shape his magic, flowing through the wand and into the unsuspecting feather on the desk. It immediately jumped off the desk obediently, hovering at the level of his wand as if awaiting further orders. Harry grinned as he floated it up a little more, over a dumbstruck Seamus' head.
"Look everyone, Mr. Potter has done it!" Flitwick exclaimed from the other side of the room.
Harry looked around at the rest of the class. All of their feathers seemed to be remaining rather uncooperative. Harry saw Hermione looking put out. Harry sent another cheeky grin her way and she gave him a mock glare that didn't seem to hold any real irritation.
Harry's grin widened. She was finally starting to get over her jealousy. Excellent.
Ron, on the other hand, looked legitimately annoyed.
Oh well, I'll talk to him later.
Harry sat back in his chair and observed for the rest of the class. He quickly intervened when it was clear that Seamus was approaching disaster a couple times, but he didn't feel the need to show off more than he already had. He looked over at Ron and Hermione, who didn't seem to be making much progress. It was clear that Ron was getting more and more frustrated by the feather's lack of response, to the point of waving his arms wildly and shouting the incantation.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Hermione yelled at him "You're going to hurt someone. Besides, it's not your wand movement that's wrong, it's how you're saying it. It's Wingardium Levi-o-sa, not Levios-ah."
"Well, you do it then, if you're so clever," Ron sneered back at her.
She looked a little taken aback at his lashing out but pointed her wand at the feather and clearly said "Wingardium Leviosa!" with a very neat swish and flick of her wand. The feather rose a little shakily, but it floated its way up past their heads.
"Oh, congratulations!" Flitwick squeaked, "Miss Granger has managed it as well! Very well done."
Ron looked downright murderous.
...
"It's levi-o-sa, not levios-ah" Harry overheard Ron say mockingly to Dean. "She's a nightmare, honestly! It's no wonder nobody likes her!" Harry also saw Hermione, clearly within earshot, turn red and run out the classroom door before everyone else. Harry tried to call out to her, but his voice got lost in the throng of students trying to cram through the door. He would have to check to make sure she was okay in their next class.
But Hermione didn't show up for their next class. Or the one after that.
It wasn't until after their last class of the day that Harry overheard Parvati talking about how Hermione was holed up in a bathroom crying and wouldn't come out. Harry approached them.
"Which bathroom is she in?" Harry demanded, internally cursing himself for being so awkward.
"Umm... the one on the 4th floor by the Charms corridor." Parvati replied, looking a little surprised.
"Thank you," Harry said as he walked away, heading up the stairs away from the Halloween feast to the 4th floor.
When he arrived at the bathroom, he stuck his head in the door and heard sniffling coming from one of the stalls.
"Hermione?" he called out.
"Who's there," came a startled reply.
"It's Harry, are you okay?" He asked. Stupid question, he scolded himself, obviously she wouldn't be crying in a bathroom if everything was sunshine and rainbows.
"You can't be in here; this is the girl's room. You'll get in trouble."
"It will be fine; everyone is at the feast." Harry silently hoped that he was right. It would be kind of awkward if someone found him in here. "You missed Transfiguration and History of Magic; what's wrong?"
"Just… go away, okay?" Hermione whimpered.
"Not until you at least tell me what's wrong."
"No!"
"I'm not leaving until you talk to meeee." Harry said with a lilt to his voice, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
"Ugh... fine!" Hermione said, exiting the stall and facing Harry. She looked... rather awful actually. Her eyes were red and almost swollen shut, her face was blotchy, and her hair was even more frightful than usual.
"This is about what Ron said, right? He's an idiot, and he was jealous that he couldn't do the spell right. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Harry said.
"No! Yes! I don't know" Hermione half-shouted, "it's just... He's right! I don't belong here. No one likes me and everyone acts like our classwork doesn't matter even though it's magic and I just... I thought that this was finally going to be a place where I could belong after hiding what I could do for so long, but everyone hates me and it's all just… UGH!" Her shoulders slumped and she seemed on the verge of starting to cry again. "I've tried so hard to learn everything and help everyone, but it never helps." She actually stomped her foot, which would have been a little funny if she wasn't so miserable.
"Hey," Harry said. "I might not be able to tell you if you belong here or not, but you're the smartest person I know. And everyone doesn't hate you; I certainly don't." Harry stopped and smiled at her, furiously trying to find reassuring words that didn't sound stupid. "You're my best friend, so if you don't belong here, that means I don't either."
"Really?" Hermione asked, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
"Really." Harry said, smiling wider.
Hermione rushed over and hugged him. Harry was momentarily stunned; no one ever hugged him. It felt... nice.
His scar burned.
Oh, bloody hell. This is absolutely not the time.
He quickly pushed Hermione away and had just started to turn to face the door when it was smashed completely off its hinges and into the opposite wall.
Hermione screamed as the monster forced its way through the too small door frame. Its skin was dull gray, its legs as thick as tree trunks and its chest huge and muscular. Its arms hung down to its knees and it carried a massive wooden club. Its tiny head on top may have been comical if its eyes weren't glowing red and crazed with a murderous rage.
Red eyes that were unfortunately familiar to Harry.
Harry half turned to Hermione, "I'll distract it, as soon as you can, run for-" That was all that he got out before the massive club hit him from the side, throwing him clear through the wall into the boys' bathroom next door with a crash and a sickening crunch as his body broke against the stone.
Damn.
He was vaguely aware of Hermione screaming, although most of his brain was focused on the myriad of bones that had been reduced to powder, not even accounting for his internal injuries. He quickly let his magic flow through his broken body, wincing as he felt his bones crack and realign. He rolled over onto one knee as his internal organs put themselves back together and looked back through the hole into the girl's bathroom.
His blood ran cold.
The troll's club was in a deadly downward arc towards Hermione. She stood there, staring at the troll in shock, unmoving. Harry had lost his wand at some point during his flight through the wall, and even if he had it, he wouldn't have time to raise it anyway. He was too far away, and Hermione was going to be crushed by one of his monsters, his demons, and she would be dead and it would be all his fault but there was nothing he could do!
No.
This couldn't be happening.
This couldn't be real.
It couldn't.
Harry's eyes were frozen open, taking in the scene before him.
He wouldn't let this happen.
Harry wildly plunged himself into his magic, wrenching on his power and forcing it to gather to him like never before. His magic swirled to him like an endless cloak, a churning hurricane of power thundering with him at the center of its eye. He felt like a dam had broken and the river of power flowed through him. He reveled in it, breathing deeply. He felt it sing in his blood, flooding through his newly reconstructed bones. He forced his magic to infuse every inch, every atom of his body and every corner of his soul. He brought his power to bear, and for a moment felt oddly detached as he forced the universe to bend to his will. The earth still orbited the sun, but in that brief second it felt like all of time and space revolved around him.
And he decided.
Harry decided that Hermione Granger would not die. He would not lose his first real friend. This creature from his nightmare would not take her away from him.
And Fate ceded to his demands.
Harry opened his eyes. The troll's club was still descending towards Hermione; it was less than a foot from her head.
But it didn't matter.
It would never reach her.
Time slowed as Harry breathed, taking a moment longer to float in this detached calm.
Then he moved.
...
Hermione was absolutely bewildered. One second everything seemed okay, Harry was telling her he didn't hate her, and she belonged here as much as he did. He wanted her here. He wanted her to stay. Until he came to talk to her, her rational side was losing the argument to stay and learn. But he thought she belonged here, and maybe if he was so sure, she could convince herself as well.
Then suddenly he was pushing her away. She looked down at him, a little hurt, but he wasn't even looking at her. He was turning toward the door just as it exploded inward.
She screamed. She couldn't help it.
The troll lumbered into the room, looking for its target. Harry turned and tried to tell her to run, but the troll was much faster than it looked. The club struck Harry and he was just... gone. Hermione felt numb. He was dead. He had to be dead. No one could have survived getting hit by that club, let alone through a stone wall. He had been right there in front of her and now he was gone.
She looked up at the troll towering above her, club raised.
Magically resistant hide. High density muscle groups are invulnerable to blunt damage aside from the skull. Recommended approach: utilize a team of at least four trained witches or wizards and focus on conjured or transfigured implements of a sharp or bladed variety to immobilize and impair from a safe distance.
She was going to die.
There was nothing she could do. She managed to get her wand into her hand, but even if she could raise it fast enough, she didn't know any spells that could possibly work against this creature. The club started to descend, and her brilliant mind went blank with terror.
Then she felt... something.
She didn't know what it was, but it felt like home and Christmas and chocolate, and it felt safe. The alien feeling washed over her soul, and even though she was about to die, she couldn't bring herself to be scared. She didn't understand why, but she was suddenly sure that everything was going to be okay.
She refocused just in time to see a blurred figure impact the troll, throwing the monster's entire enormous bulk through both the wooden stalls and the stone wall into the classroom on the other side of the bathroom. She stumbled through the rubble to the new hole in the wall.
A part of her noted that the troll didn't even seem injured as it picked itself up from where it had struck the far wall of the classroom. However, most of her attention was focused on Harry. He stood casually in the center of the room, bouncing on the balls of his feet, green tendrils and sparks of magic flowing and gathering around his arms and down to his clenched fists. The air around him seemed to vibrate and warp with the waves of magic rolling off him. His messy black hair whipped around his face as he glared at the troll. He glanced back at her, and she almost stumbled backwards.
His eyes were solid, glowing, brilliant green.
Not just his irises, but his entire eye. No white or pupil was showing, just a blazing green light that cast the rest of his face into shadow. His scar also glowed, standing out stark on his forehead. It would have been absolutely terrifying if she hadn't felt his magic singing, wave after wave of safety and happiness rolling through her. She could hardly believe that this creature of magic in front of her was Harry. It couldn't be the same short, scrawny eleven-year-old she had been crying to minutes earlier.
But despite everything, he grinned his cheeky, stupid smile at her.
The troll was on its feet by the time Harry turned back to it. It lunged forward at him, but Harry was already moving. He moved impossibly fast, so quickly that he blurred again as he raced forward. His magic churned and warped around him as he casually dodged the club and launched himself upward, striking the troll under the chin with a booming thunderclap of emerald lightning. It was almost comical to watch the blow from his tiny fist lift the troll clean off the ground and back into the wall.
The beast recovered more quickly this time and immediately targeted Harry with a deadly swing of its massive club.
Harry reached up and caught the club.
He grinned maniacally at the troll as he ripped it from the monster's grasp. The brute didn't waste any time trying to grab Harry with one of its enormous hands, but Harry was already gone. He leapt straight up above the troll's head, tossing the club as he went before catching it by the handle and bringing it down in a brutal arc. The heavy wooden rod hit the troll's head so hard that it broke in two and drove the creature to its knees.
Harry tossed the remains of the broken club aside as he fell, landing on the troll's shoulders. He gripped the monster's battered head in both hands and focused his power. Hermione saw his magic pulse and coil down his skinny arms before it burst through his hands like a cannon blast, a blinding discharge of pure white-green magic that completely engulfed the troll's head.
The force of the blast threw Harry free, and the troll's body slumped forward. Hermione almost screamed again when she saw its head.
Well, really the lack thereof.
Nothing remained but the charred stump of the troll's almost nonexistent neck; its head was completely burned away. Harry stood above it, staring apathetically down at the monster's body as his eyes gradually returned to normal and his magic stopped rippling off him in waves. His face was blank, but he looked... conflicted. Without the ethereal power swirling around him, he just looked like a very tired, bloody, dirty boy.
But she knew that he was special.
They were both still in the exact same spot when the professors arrived a minute later.
...
Minerva McGonagall was prepared for the worst. While searching the school for the troll, a portrait had alerted her to the ruckus occurring on the fourth floor. She, along with Snape and Quirrell, immediately headed that way. Once there it was fairly easy to follow the path of destruction.
"Oh my..." McGonagall said faintly.
She didn't know what she had expected to find, but it certainly was not this. Hermione Granger and Harry Potter standing over… what appeared to be the headless body of a fully grown mountain troll. Then the smell hit her, and she felt a little faint. Trolls did not smell appealing on their best days, and burned troll was definitely not an improvement. Quirrell actually did faint, while Severus' sneer just became more pronounced.
She wasn't quite sure how to handle this. It certainly was not a situation she had come across before.
"What on earth... What happened here?" she demanded, peering first at Harry and then at Hermione.
"Erm… well..." Harry started, but Hermione cut him off.
"I just stopped to use the loo on the way to the feast, Professor, and Harry was waiting for me. Then the troll attacked us and..." Hermione petered off, losing steam and not quite sure exactly how to describe the mayhem that followed.
"The troll tried to kill us, so I killed it." Harry finished quietly.
"Excuse me?" McGonagall said, taken aback. Snape looked up in disbelief from where he was kneeling down examining the burned remains.
"The troll would have killed us, so I killed it first." Harry said a little more confidently this time.
"Why, for heaven's sake, didn't you run and find a teacher?" McGonagall asked.
"Please, Professor, there wasn't enough time," Hermione said. "It was blocking the door, and it all happened so fast… I would definitely be dead if it weren't for Harry." Harry looked a little shocked at this, although she couldn't imagine why.
McGonagall took a deep breath. She simply did not know the best way to deal with this. On one hand, encouraging this kind of behavior was out of the question but on the other hand... These two eleven-year-olds had taken down a fully grown mountain troll. They had possibly saved the lives of other students if the troll had been allowed to continue its rampage.
"How did you do this?" McGonagall asked, looking pointedly at Harry this time. He shifted nervously.
"I think it was accidental magic, honestly. The troll knocked me aside and was about to hit Hermione with its club and I couldn't let her get hurt so I just...stopped it." Harry said, lowering his voice to a mumble near the end.
McGonagall sniffed in displeasure, then immediately regretted it due to the rather pungent odor in the room.
"Well then Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, it sounds like you have both had a rather trying night. I think a quick stop at the hospital wing is required, then off to your common room. Will you be able to manage that, or do I need to escort you?" She eyed them both sternly.
"We can manage, Professor," Hermione said, heading quickly towards the door with Harry behind her.
"Oh, and Miss Granger, Mr Potter," McGonagall called after them, "twenty points to Gryffindor." They grinned at her before turning and hurrying away.
...
"Wait, Hermione, stop," Harry said after they were well out of earshot of the Professors. Hermione was making a beeline for the hospital wing.
"What?" Hermione said, turning around to face him. He looked worried, like he thought that she was going to be mad at him.
How absurd.
"I... I need to tell you something," Harry said in a bit of a shaky voice. "I should have told you when I met you, but I… I should have stayed away from you…" he trailed off.
"Wha... Why? Why stay away from me?" Hermione said, surprised and a little hurt.
"No no no, I don't want to stay away from you, it's just... Bad things happen around me," Harry admitted. "For years, these things have been attacking me. Not just trolls, but all kinds of monsters. I knew about monsters long before I learned about magic. I didn't know what it was that I could do, as long as it saved me from those… things."
Hermione looked stunned.
"This… isn't the first time that something like that has happened to you?" she asked quietly.
"No," Harry whispered, "and I don't know if they'll ever stop hunting me." He took a deep breath. "I don't know if we should be friends," he said. "I thought that they wouldn't be able to find me here. I thought I could be normal." He gave her a small smile. "I thought I could belong here too. But they still followed me." His smile disappeared. "You'll never be safe if you're around me."
Hermione took a deep breath. An hour ago, she probably wouldn't have been so calm about this, but almost being crushed by a mountain troll had a way of putting things into perspective.
"I'm not going anywhere." she said confidently. "You said that I was your best friend, and I'm not leaving you alone to face this anymore. You're my first friend, and I'm not letting you run away over some self-sacrificing idiocy about keeping me safe." She stuck her jaw out and glared at him, "You're stuck with me, Harry Potter."
Harry looked unsure, but he finally relaxed a bit and nodded. "If you say so," he said before grinning at her again, like nothing happened. Like she hadn't just witnessed him disintegrate a sentient creature not two meters from her. She smiled back at him, relieved.
"Now what was that nonsense about accidental magic?" She said as they started walking again, "Because I was there, and it didn't look particularly accidental to me."
"Yeah, as much as I absolutely love attention, I really didn't feel up to telling them exactly what happened." Harry looked a little bit guilty. "You're the first person that I've talked to about my monster problem. Well, the first person at Hogwarts anyway. I'm worried they'll make me leave if they find out..." Harry looked absolutely miserable by the end of it.
Hermione was torn. On one hand, lying to a teacher was wrong. But she didn't want them to make Harry leave either… She decided to worry about it later. Right now, they needed to get…
"Oh my gosh we need to get you to the hospital wing!" She almost yelled. "We've been dawdling and talking, and you just got hit through a wall!"
"Oh right. About that…" Harry actually looked a bit sheepish. "I didn't mean to worry you, but I'm actually fine." He lifted up his bloody, shredded shirt a bit so she could see the unblemished skin on his side. "It may sound crazy, but that's not the worst I've ever been hurt. I heal really fast."
Hermione looked at him in shock. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. His internal organs should have been pulverized and his bones crushed. Even if he was more durable than your average boy, he should not be fine. She closed her eyes and counted to three before looking back at his stupid grinning face again. She couldn't help but smile back.
"So should we just head back to the common room then?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded. It had been an extremely long day.
...
"The brat lied to you, Minerva." Severus said as they crossed the threshold of the headmaster's office. "If that was accidental magic then I'm the minister of magic."
"Severus, please." Dumbledore said quietly from behind his desk. He looked searchingly at McGonagall and asked, "What did our young charges have to say?"
McGonagall retold her experience after finding Mr. Potter and Miss Granger standing over the troll carcass. At the time she hadn't wanted to put more pressure on the children, but upon reflection their story was vague at best. Where had the multiple holes in the walls come from? How did Harry's accidental magic incinerate the troll's head? How had the troll's club been broken in half? How did the troll end up in the classroom next door to the bathroom?
"Headmaster, upon examining the troll I found evidence of absurd amounts of residual magic. Potter didn't set the troll's head on fire with a spell or even accidental magic. He disintegrated it with raw, intentional magic. That shouldn't even be possible!" Severus exclaimed, pacing back and forth in front of the headmaster's desk.
"Have a seat please, both of you." Dumbledore said. "There are many things about Mr Potter that you are unaware of, some of which I have only recently discovered."
Minerva and Severus glanced at each other worriedly.
"When examining young Mr. Potter after the unfortunate events in Godric's Hollow on Halloween 1981, I found something most disturbing. The mark on his forehead is not, in fact, a curse scar as the public has been led to believe. It's not even the residue of Dark Magic. Its shape is unique and after extensive research I finally found the answer. It is called the Mark of Sacrifice. I could only find obscure mentions of it, but one thing is clear: any person documented with one has never lived for very long. Voldemort was trying to do something even more despicable than we thought that night. The Mark only brands those who have escaped sacrifice to a being of an… ascended plane of existence." Dumbledore looked profoundly troubled as he finished his explanation. Severus looked horrified. Minerva was concerned but a bit confused.
"I am sorry, but what do you mean by 'ascended plane of existence'"?
"I mean that Voldemort was trying to gain the attention and the power of a god."
A foreboding silence fell over them.
"What?" Minerva exclaimed. "What is this nonsense?"
"Very little is known about Planar Magic, Minerva. It is an obscure, forbidden branch of magic that involves contacting… Others. It is unknown what kinds of beings may exist in the infinite void beyond our perception of reality."
"Well then…" Minerva took a deep breath. "How does this affect Mr. Potter?"
"When I left Harry with his relatives that night, despite your protests, it was not because they were the best guardians for him. It was because the only magic I could find that would completely mask the Mark of Sacrifice was the blood ward that Lily Potter created to protect her son in the event of her death, using her own life as a sacrificial component. A stipulation of this blood magic was that Harry still called a house of his blood home. I hoped, contrary to the evidence, that he would be loved at his aunt's house. However, I made a grave error. The blood wards were imperfect. They were supposed to completely mask Harry's presence as long as he lived there, no matter where he was. Despite Harry calling Number 4 Privet Drive 'home', he was not loved there. The wards still partially held firm despite this, and Harry was safe as long as he stayed on the property. However, every time he left the premises, he was in danger."
"The Mark of Sacrifice draws all monsters, demons, and dark creatures to it. The older and more powerful Harry gets, the greater that pull will be. I was not aware that the blood wards had failed until he arrived at Hogwarts, and after going back over his primary school records… well. It is certain that this type of incident has not been uncommon. It appears Mr Potter has more experience than I ever wanted him to have on the subject of violence."
Minerva was shocked. The idea of Harry fighting for his life not just in freak situations but over and over again… it was more than any child should have to bear. Not to mention just how he had made it this long. Harry may be gifted but this was unprecedented.
"How did he manage to survive?" Minerva asked. "And why didn't we notice?"
"Harry is the most prodigal young wizard I have ever seen," Dumbledore said softly. Snape snorted. "He wields magic the same way that you or I move our limbs. It is as natural to him as breathing. The trials of his youth, his own strength of will, the magic of the Mark and the connection to Voldemort have warped his power in ways that I believe are truly unique. I don't know precisely how long he has had access to his abilities, but the first incident I could find from his primary school involved a supposed mad gunman attacking the school and ended quite the same way that the troll tonight met its untimely demise."
Dumbledore paused and looked over his glasses at both teachers. "Harry Potter will most likely grow up to be one of the most powerful wizards in recorded history, if he isn't already."
Minerva didn't quite know how to respond to that.
Notes:
And here we have our first major conflict since arriving at Hogwarts. I hope that I did it justice. POV will jump between Harry and Hermione from here on out, I'll do my best to manage it. As always, feedback and criticism are welcome. I don't own Harry Potter.
