Hermione's happiness at her victory in Charms class was short-lived, however, by Potions.
The potion was simple enough – a Pepper-Up Potion – but most of the class kept confusing their beetle shells with preserved scarabs and miscounting their stirs. She and Theo finished in half the time, with a perfect potion. Snape approved of the potion, nodding once over their cauldron, before, for perhaps the first time ever, directing them to help their useless classmates, as he "couldn't possibly keep every idiot from mucking it all up at this rate."
Hermione and Theo exchanged a wordless look, before Theo went for the Slytherin side of the classroom, Hermione walking over to the Gryffindor side.
Everyone had recently started over, it seemed, and, judging from the frantic looks on faces and sweat coating brows, likely not for the first time. Hermione gently dissuaded two Gryffindor girls from putting in the wrong ingredient and helped them line up all their ingredients in the order they'd need them, receiving a grateful look in response. Dean Thomas and his partner just needed correction on their stirring speed and what "counter-clockwise" meant. Snape was berating Neville Longbottom, who had turned his cauldron into slowly-spreading red sludge, so it was with caution that Hermione carefully stepped around to Harry and Ron's cauldron.
Immediately, Hermione noticed problems: their ingredients weren't prepared correctly, their cauldron was set at the wrong temperature, and they had an oak stirring rod instead of a proper rowan one. Hermione stepped next to Harry, correcting him on how to cut and chop and crush the ingredients needed. As she pointed out the flame was too hot, which would cause everything to react faster and not mature for the needed time, she noticed Ron's face was red. By the time she got to the stirring rod, explaining that they had grabbed the wrong one, Ron was nearly shaking. Hermione felt a moment of pity; she'd be embarrassed if she'd gotten everything wrong, too, but she was their friend, so surely it wasn't that bad?
Hermione returned to her seat after helping her classmates to get started on her homework assignment. The rest of class passed uneventfully, save Neville's cauldron beginning to rumble like a volcano. After class, they all spilled out into the hallway, eager to get to the Halloween feast, Hermione following behind the crush of students.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her!"
Hermione's heart stopped. She edged forward, craning her neck around Goyle to see.
"She's a nightmare, honestly!" Ron was ranting to Harry. "No wonder the Slytherins don't want to be her friend!"
The venom in his tone caught her off guard, and betrayal lanced across Hermione's heart, sharp and painful. She could feel that her eyes were welling up, to her mortification, and she shoved past them, hurrying to get out of the hallway. There were other Slytherins here – she couldn't let them see her cry. She couldn't.
"I think she heard you," she heard Harry say behind her, but Hermione ran on.
She locked herself in the first girl's bathroom she came to and sank to the ground in a corner, crying into her knees. She'd thought they were friends. Not great, mind you, but they all studied and did homework together. And with her being in Slytherin, it wasn't like she had many friends. She cherished the few close ones she'd made (she thought she'd made) in Gryffindor - but Ron had been so vicious, and she'd only been trying to help!
Hermione stayed there, crying as quietly as she could. All her frustration at not being included and at Ron's hurtful words seeped out in the form of tears, and for once, it felt good to let go and not care about keeping up a strong front.
Hermione heard someone come in, and to her horror, it was Daphne.
"…Hermione?"
Hermione looked up defiantly, tears still brimming in her eyes. "What?"
Daphne looked thrown. "Are… are you okay?"
Hermione bit her lip and tried not to burst into tears again. "…No."
Daphne looked very uncomfortable. With a careful look back at the door, she sank to the ground next to Hermione, looking her in the face.
"What happened?"
Hermione blinked. It was very rare for Daphne to even look at her, let alone speak to her.
Haltingly, Hermione related what had happened in Potions class and Ron's vitriol afterwards. Daphne's face grew harder.
"Weasley is a piece of trash," she said. "You're worth ten of him. A hundred, even. Don't let him get to you. How dare he."
Hermione felt partially better, just hearing the venom in Daphne's tone. It felt good to know that someone else was angry and upset for her – even as weird as it was to have Daphne supporting her in her time of need.
"Weasley will get what's coming to him," Daphne pronounced. She stood. "Take your time here, Hermione – the feast will last for an hour. Come up after you've cleaned yourself up a bit and can sit there like his words meant nothing – like a proud Slytherin should."
Hermione nodded, sniffing. Daphne looked like she was considering something.
"…It's okay to cry, you know," she told her finally. "Just… only around friends and house mates, you know? Never let them know they got to you. That's how you let them win."
Daphne left the bathroom after that pronouncement, leaving Hermione to stare after her, wiping her eyes.
Ten minutes later, Hermione was feeling much better.
She'd splashed her face with water, and the puffy redness in her eyes was almost gone. She was hoping with all the flickering candlelight in the Great Hall that no one would be able to tell, when she heard a loud rumble, and a horrible, rancid smell reached her nose.
She slowly turned around.
There was a troll in the bathroom.
It stood nearly twelve feet tall, with its skin a mottled gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. The smell coming from it was horrendous. It was holding a huge, wooden club, dragging it along the floor as it walked.
Its eyes seemed to swim, before they focused on Hermione, and it lurched towards her.
She screamed.
Hermione scrambled for cover under a sink, her mind racing. The creature could reach anything in the bathroom, including her – how could she possibly escape?
The creature grunted and bashed a sink out the wall next to her, the porcelain loudly clanging to the ground, and Hermione screamed again, dashing out and crouching against the wall. The troll continued knocking sinks out of the wall as it advanced toward her, sending water spraying everywhere, and Hermine felt faint.
A loud noise came from the other side of the bathroom, and as the troll turned to look, Hermione took her chance. Climbing up on one of the few remaining sinks, she jumped and hung on to the door of the bathroom cubicle, before swinging a leg up to straddle it. Carefully, very carefully, she pulled herself towards the wall and pulled herself up using a wall sconce, before reaching for the ledge around the top of the bathroom.
Hermione had never been very strong, and had never been able to do more than three pull-ups at a time, but in this instance, fear was a great motivator, and Hermione climbed up on top of the ledge.
Leaning against the wall and taking deep breaths, Hermione looked, suddenly realizing there were other people in the bathroom now – Harry and Neville had appeared, and they were throwing things at the troll. Hermione watched as Harry took a great running jump at the troll as it started for Neville, and the troll suddenly howled in pain, thrashing about. It seemed Harry's wand had gone up its nose.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Hermione was surprised to see Neville with his wand in the air, looking shocked by his own actions, but he directed the floating piece of rubble to crash into the troll, to no obvious effect.
Neville's casting sparked a memory and Hermione whipped out her own wand.
"Harry, jump! Incendio!"
With a yell, Harry dived off the troll as its clothes caught fire, the smell of burning flesh starting to permeate the room. Hermione could see the moment the troll realized and went to make for the sinks.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Hermione felt the spell take hold as she arrested the troll's club. The troll stopped and seemed surprised by the abrupt loss of his club, even as he burned. He yelled, swiping the air for it, and Hermione let it hover for a long moment, waiting, before letting it crash down onto the troll's head.
The troll's eyes rolled up, and it crashed into the ground face-first. There was a long moment as they watched the flames die in a puddle of water, everyone waiting to see what would happen, before Harry carefully crept towards it.
"Is it dead?"
"I think it's just knocked out," Hermione ventured, and Harry whipped around to glance up at her. The quirk of his lips told her he hadn't realized where she'd gone. She watched as Harry carefully removed his wand from the troll's nose and wiped it on the troll's trousers.
"Why is there a troll in the school?" Hermione asked finally. "Are we supposed to kill it?"
"I am surprised, Miss Granger, that it did not kill you."
The three turned to look at the doorway, where Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Quirrell were standing. Professor Quirrell looked at the troll, whimpered, and sank down onto a toilet, and Hermione snorted in disgust.
Harry's eyes went wide. "How long have you been there?"
The professors ignored his question. Snape advanced toward the troll and bent over it. McGonagall was looking at them all, looking furious. Her lips were white, she was so angry.
"What on earth were you thinking?" she said, cold fury in her voice. Her eyes scanned over Neville and Harry, making them both flinch. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Professor Snape was looking at Hermione expectantly. With a sigh, Hermione sat down on the ledge, resisting the urge to swing her feet.
"Professor McGonagall, I suspect they were looking for me."
Professor McGonagall looked up, raising a prim eyebrow.
"And why, Miss Granger, were you not in your dormitory?"
Hermione bit her lip, looked to Neville and Harry, and took a careful breath.
"I never made it to the feast," she admitted. "I was in here, crying, since the end of classes. Ron said something horrible about me, and I hid so no one would see my tears."
Hermione watched as Professor McGonagall's face shifted from fury to horror to pity, though she could tell she was trying not to react.
"Miss Granger…" Professor McGonagall's voice was softer, now.
"I had just cleaned up and was going to join the feast when the troll came in. I had no idea there was a troll loose at all, or I would have been in my dormitory, I promise you."
Professor McGonagall rounded on Neville and Harry, fixing them with a stern eye.
"And I expect you two just had to come and save her?"
Obviously nervous, they babbled out something about overhearing one of the Slytherin girls tell another one that Hermione had been crying, and they realized she didn't know about the troll and was in danger. Neville was blushing horribly while trying to get the story out, while Harry looked defiant.
With a sigh, Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points, and Miss Granger, five points to Slytherin. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."
They shuffled out, Neville casting a fearful glance back at Snape as they left. Quirrell managed to get to his feet and stagger out after them, leaving Hermione alone in the bathroom with Snape and an unconscious troll.
Snape raised an eyebrow at Hermione. "Can you get down?"
"I'm not sure," Hermione admitted. "I was mostly running on adrenaline when I got up here. I'm not sure I'm dexterous enough to climb back down."
With a sigh, Snape muttered something beneath his breath, and he began to rise.
Hermione stared, unable to help herself. She'd never seen a person fly before, not without some sort of broom. But Snape – he was just floating up –
He reached the ledge, and, fixing her with a resigned look, opened his arms. Hermione hesitated only a moment before hurling herself into them, hugging him tightly around the waist.
"There will be no discussion of this with your classmates, Miss Granger." His voice was dark.
"Never," Hermione promised, as he led them into a slow descent. "I'll keep your secrets, I promise."
There was a bump as they landed, and Hermione let go, taking a step back. Snape's eyes were on her, inscrutable.
"Thank you for rescuing me," she said politely, and Snape snorted.
"If there were ever a student less in need of rescuing, it would be you, Miss Granger," he said. "I just opted for the path of least destruction – who knows what further property damage you would cause, getting down from there."
Hermione blinked in surprise, and Snape's mouth curled up at one corner, into the smallest smirk.
"Ten points to Slytherin for quick thinking and recognizing when to strategically retreat," he said. There was a pause, and his eyes hardened. "And twenty points from Gryffindor for bullying."
Hermione shivered at the murderous look in Snape's eyes. She didn't envy Ron one bit.