October 31st, 1991

Halloween. For some reason, nothing good every happened to Harry on Halloween. Halloween had always been a bad holiday for him. All the worst moments of his life happened on Halloween. The worst nightmares came on Halloween. A woman being struck with green light and then falling dead, the shouts of a man, a huge man carrying him on a flying bike, these were the nightmares that always came frequently around Halloween. Then there were the tricks Dudley and his gang played on him. When Neville told him the significance of Halloween in his life, his belief just got stronger. Halloween had never been good for him and he hated it. But unknown to him, this Halloween was going to be different.

He and Neville were both in the Great Hall, enjoying the special Halloween themed feast. He would have wanted to sit and enjoy the feast with his friend, but it was ok. He and Neville had still spent the entire day roaming the castle, looking at the special decorations for it. They had been also been pranked by some spells, most probably by the Weasley twins, the two known pranksters in the castle.

When Harry was eating his favourite dish, the treacle tart, he saw professor Quirrell running into the hall. He was shouting, "Troll in the castle. There is a troll in the castle." He looked as if he was going to faint any second. He stopped in the middle of hall and said weakly, "Just wanted to say there is a troll in the third floor." He then fell in the middle of the Great hall.

Panic spread across the hall as students began getting up to leave the hall. Dumbledore immediately shouted, "Prefects, take the students to their dorms. Head Boy and Head Girls, make sure every student is in their dorms. No one is allowed to leave the dorms. Professors with me. Hagrid, take Professor Quirrell to his office." He then dashed out of the door, with other professors following him.

In all this commotion, Harry remembered something that immediately sent a chill down his spine. The troll was in the third floor. And in the third-floor girls' bathroom, Hermione was there, not knowing that there was a loose troll in the castle. In the morning, during the charms class, she and Ron Weasley had an argument over the pronunciation of the levitating charm. It continued after the class got over. Ron, in a moment of anger, without thinking, had said, "It is because of your bossy, nagging, miss know-it-all attitude that no one likes you and want to be friends with you Hermione. Now go annoy someone else." His words had deeply hurt her. Hermione had said nothing, but she left the class and was not seen in any other class for the remaining of the day by anyone. Later, Neville told Harry that he heard some girls say that they had found Hermione crying in the third-floor bathroom.

Hermione didn't know that the troll was in the third floor. And neither did anyone else know that Hermione was in the third floor, except him. He quickly ran to Neville. In the commotion, no one noticed this. Harry found Neville and said, "Neville, Hermione is in third floor." Realization dawned on Neville's face, before fear took over, "And the troll is in the third floor." Harry said, "We need to help her." Neville agreed and said, "Let me get Ron. He is after all the reason she is there. You follow us but keep hiding. Any sign of trouble, just give a whistle and leave." Harry nodded.

Neville quickly found Ron, not at all surprised seeing him following his brother Percy towards the Gryffindor Tower. Neville made his way to him, then grabbed and pulled him away. Ron angrily swatted Neville's hand and said, "What are you doing Neville? Didn't you hear what Dumbledore said?" Neville said, "Hermione is in the third-floor bathroom." Ron replied, "So, what do you want me to do? I didn't tell her to be there." Neville angrily said, "No you didn't. But she is there because of your comments Ron. If you don't help me now, I will tell everything to Dumbledore." Neville wasn't sure but he felt that he saw some remorse and guilt in Ron's face when he said, "Fine. Have it your way Neville. Let's go help her."

The two of them made their way to the third-floor. Harry followed them carefully, making sure he was hidden. When the three of them reached the third floor, to their horror, they saw the troll going towards the girl's bathroom. They quickly ran towards it. Neville said to Ron, "I will distract the troll. You figure out a way to hit him on the head." Ron nodded and said, "Hermione is still in the bathroom. Let's keep it that way. Take him away from the bathroom." Neville went near the troll and shouted, "Hey ugly. Look here." The troll looked at Neville, who began running away from the bathroom. Ron meanwhile was thinking of ways to hit the troll when he saw that the troll had a huge stick in his hand. His swings were wild. If Ron timed his spell correctly, he could levitate the stick and drop it on the troll's head. Remembering the spell, he had learnt earlier, he said the spell. It didn't work. Cursing under his breath he ran towards the troll, trying the spell again and again.

Meanwhile, as Neville and Ron managed to drag the troll few meters away from the washroom, Harry quickly went and opened the door. Seeing that neither Neville nor Ron was looking his way, he stood beside the door. He tried changing his voice and said, "There is a troll nearby. Quickly run away." He said it once more before leaving the bathroom. He gave a whistle, hoping Neville would be able to hear it. He then started running towards the dungeons, hoping to be able to sneak his way in.

Neville did hear the whistle. But the troll gabbed him right at that instant. Holding him up to his face, he looked angrily at the Neville. Ron started panicking, if he didn't use the spell correctly, the troll would hit Neville. He heard a familiar voice say, "It's Levi-o-sa, not Levio-sa." Concentrating on the spell, he bellowed, "Wingardium Leviosa."

The troll was just about to hit Neville when his stick started levitating. The confused troll looked at the levitating stick. Seeing the troll was not looking at him, Neville took his wand out and used a tickling charm on the troll. The troll started laughing and his grip on Neville loosened. Neville quickly escaped and ran towards Ron and Hermione. But the spell didn't last long and once it was over, the troll turned to look at the trio. The troll was now mad, anger clearly visible on his face. But he didn't see his stick levitating right above his head. Hermione said, "Stop the spell now Ronald." Ron did as Hermione said and the heavy stick fell on the troll's head, knocking him out. Just as the trio was about to take sigh of relief, they heard footsteps behind them. They turned around to see professors coming towards them. To their horror, in the front was an angry professor McGonagall.

Snape had a smirk on his face and said, "Three Gryffindors outside the tower. Looks like the three of them felt they were above the headmaster's instructions and fought the troll." McGonagall ignored Snape and said, "What are the three of you doing here? Why didn't you follow your prefects back to the tower?" Before either Ron or Neville could say anything, Hermione said, "It's my fault professor. I was in the bathroom. I didn't know there was a troll in the castle. Neville and Ron came to help me." McGonagall said, "What happened to the troll?" Neville said, "Ron used the levitating charm to strike the troll with his own stick." Ron said, "Hermione helped professor. She told me how to say the spell correctly." McGonagall looked at the three of them. Snape meanwhile scowled, not happy the three Gryffindors might escape punishment. Before either of them could say something, they heard Dumbledore say, "I believe these young students should be rewarded. Don't you Minerva? What do you think Severus?" Snape was not looking happy when he said, "They broke the rules headmaster." Dumbledore gave them his benign grandfatherly smile and said, "For a noble cause Severus. I am sure you would agree." Severus scowled and said, "Whatever you wish Headmaster. I will go and check my students." He then left in usual dramatic style.

Dumbledore then said to McGonagall, "Why don't you take the kids back to the tower Minerva? I will check the rest of the castle." After Dumbledore left, McGonagall turned to the kids and said, "What you did was reckless and irresponsible. Fighting a fully grown troll alone is very dangerous. Without proper knowledge and skill, even more dangerous. But you showed intelligence and clever thinking while dealing with the troll. 10 points to each of you. But never ever repeat this. You may not be this lucky next time." Neville, Hermione and Ron said, "Yes Professor McGonagall." She then said, "Now go straight to the tower. I have to talk with professor Dumbledore." McGonagall then left and after that, Neville, Ron and Hermione made their way back to their dorms.

One their way to the tower, various thoughts were going on in Ron's head. What he had said to Hermione had been in a moment of anger. Yes there was a bit of truth in what he said, but he shouldn't have said it regardless. Seeing the troll and then seeing how close it came to hit not only her, but Neville made Ron realize the enormity of his actions. Once they reached the tower, Ron turned to Hermione and said, "Hermione, I am sorry what I said to you in the morning. I shouldn't have said what I did. It is because of me that you were in that bathroom. It would have been my fault if anything had happened to you. I am sorry." Turning to Neville, he said, "You were right." He then left the two and went to his bed. A shocked Hermione looked at Neville and asked, "What did you tell him? What made him change this much?" Neville said, "I just said that you were in that bathroom because of what he said. He did look guilty and remorseful then." Hermione said, "That is a huge change in him." Neville said, "That it is." Hermione then said, "Thank you Neville. You really saved my life. Merlin knows what would have happened if you and Ron weren't there." Neville said, "No need to thank me Hermione. Afterall, if you hadn't told Ron how to say the spell correctly, he wouldn't have been able to knock the troll out." Hermione laughed and said, "Maybe." After that she said, "We should go sleep before professor McGonagall comes to check." Neville nodded and both left for their beds. When he was in his bed, Neville thought how the dynamics between the three of them would change now. Both Ron and Hermione had not been friends with him before. But after today, he felt that things were about to change after today. The things that worried him was how this would affect the friendship between him and Harry.

Authors Note
I will not upload new parts this coming week. I have exams and will resume update from next Saturday
Also I am working on the second part of this novel. But do write what you all would like to see in the second book.