Chapter 23: Halloween Mishaps
Harry POV
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry called out, and smile of pure joy and awe flickered across his face as he watched the feather jump up and stay floating in the air in front of him.
"Excellent work, Mr. Potter! Five points to Gryffindor!" Professor Flitwick said, the short Charms Professor grinning widely at the second success of the class. Hermione, of course, being the first student to figure out the Levitation Charm.
Harry just nodded, and stayed focused on keeping the feather aloft as long as he could, while also feeling how it felt to do so. One of the things Harry wanted to do was learn to cast spells wandlessly, and to do so, he'd begun keeping a close eye on the way his magic felt and flowed whenever he did magic. Occlumency helped immensely with this endeavor.
His concentration faltered however when Seamus caused his feather to explode. Again. Somehow.
"No, no, Ron, it's 'Levi-osa,' not 'Levi-o-sa,'" Harry heard beside him, and he glanced to right where Ron and Hermione were sitting.
"Ugh, I am saying it!" Ron grumbled in annoyance, swishing his wand about in an angry motion.
"Clearly you're not," she retorted.
"You do it, then!" the red-head said in exasperation.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she intoned, giving the proper swish and flick as well as properly enunciating. The feather flew up almost to the ceiling before fluttering back down.
"There, see? Not so hard when you say the incantation right," she said with a smug grin that had Ron fuming and looking down at his feather in annoyance.
"Hermione, remember what I said about not gloating?" Harry said to her, and she deflated a bit.
Seeing her mood drop, Ron winced and turned back to her. "Hey, that was still a good job," he assured her.
"It was," Harry agreed. "Ron will figure it out, too. If he can beat all of us in chess, he can find a way to cast the spell."
That made Ron and Hermione both smile, and the former to sit up straighter and try again.
"Can you show me how to do the swish and flick motions?" Neville requested from Hermione, leaning across his seat to ask her after a bit. "I just can't seem to get it right."
She smiled weakly at the two, and then gave the pudgy boy with a nod. "Of course, Neville. Here, watch my wand…"
She then demonstrated for her friend, and Harry smiled a bit at the sight before going back to practicing the spell again.
The days at Hogwarts felt like they'd passed by in a blur, and September had turned into October before he knew it.
Harry had become fast friends with Ron, Neville, and Hermione. While he was friendly and on good terms with all of the Gryffindor First Years, the three he spent the most time with were definitely Ron, Neville, and Hermione. They ate together, did homework together, and did classes together.
He often had to play peacemaker between them, though, especially Ron and Hermione. The bushy haired girl was simply too smart, and she didn't understand how hard it was for kids her own age to do certain things, or think like her. Ron also had a bit of an inferiority complex, something he shared with Neville sadly, but where the Longbottom boy got depressed when things went wrong, Ron got snippy.
Harry didn't mind doing so, however. In fact, it felt nice being able to act as a sort of bridge between the two and help them get along. Helping people get along felt like he was actually doing something, and it really helped his own self-esteem, knowing that his actions had tangible effects.
Not to mention his work was paying off. Ron was starting to recognize whenever he went too far with his comments, and was quick to apologize, in his own way, without Harry needing to prompt him anymore. And Hermione was also slowly realizing that people learned at their own paces, and that sometimes her 'helpful advice' sounded a bit too much like being a know-it-all.
And Neville? He was still shy and withdrawn, but Harry had found a way to help the boy open up by tutoring him in Potions, and then letting Neville tutor him in Herbology in return. It let Neville build his confidence, and he was no longer causing as many accidents in Snape's class.
Neville had really begun to hang around them after an 'accident' during Flying Class. Draco Malfoy hadn't gotten over being snubbed on the Hogwarts Express, and seemed to have made it his mission in life to be an annoying ponce for Harry and the other Gryffindors.
Draco (Harry refused to call him by his last name because the blond twit seemed to have an inordinate amount of pride in being a Malfoy) had stolen something from Neville, a Rememberall, and then tried to chuck it away towards the Forbidden Forest.
Harry had not let that happened, zooming off on his broom to catch it. He caught the ball before it got anywhere near the spooky forest on the edge of the school grounds, and found he had a knack for broom riding.
Also, he became the Youngest Seeker in Hogwarts history when Professor McGonagall saw him doing so from her office window. Which was neat, but felt a little too much like favoritism. Still, the chance to rub it in Draco's face was too great to pass up, so he agreed. Something he slightly came to regret after being run into the ground during training by Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain, but he'd gritted his teeth and kept at it. Harry Potter was not a quitter!
Ever since then, Neville had been an integral part of their team, and more than once, Harry had overheard the magical portraits and teachers, especially the older ones, whisper amongst themselves about some group called 'The Marauders' who'd apparently gone to Hogwarts in the past. He didn't know why his friendship with Ron, Hermione, and Neville made people compare them to that group, but it felt nice in a way. Though Snape certainly didn't seem to like the comparison. Whoever the Marauders had been, he wasn't a fan, and his glaring just got worse whenever it came up around the Potion's Professor.
Eventually, the Charms lesson was over and the class was dismissed. It was also the last lesson of the day, leaving them free to head directly to the Great Hall.
"Finally, I'm starving," Ron said, rubbing his stomach eagerly at the thought of the Halloween Feast as the four of them walked out of the classroom.
"Mmm. I'm curious about what sort of food they'll have. Even more pumpkin based stuff, I'll bet," Hermione said with a shake of her head.
Harry and Neville shared a look. Not because of the food, although Harry agreed with Hermione's opinion on the overabundance of gourd-base foodstuffs. It was because he and Neville weren't particularly fond of October 31st. For obvious reasons.
Ron and Hermione both noticed their silence, and winced.
"Oh, uh, I'm sorry," Hermione apologize.
"No, it's fine," Harry said with a shake of his head.
"We could always skip the feast," Ron suggested, even though it looked like it physically hurt him to suggest such a thing.
"Right! I've heard that there's a kitchen somewhere, we can get food from it and eat somewhere if you don't want to be around so many people," Hermione offered.
"You don't have to do that for us," Neville said softly. "We don't want to be a bother."
At that, Ron and Hermione both shared a look with each other, then nodded as if they'd spoken telepathically.
"Wait right here," she ordered the boys, before jogging off down the hallway towards a cluster of Hufflepuffs who were also making their way to the Great Hall. "Susan! Hannah!"
The two girls in question, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot, both turned at the sound of their names being called, and smiled when they saw who it was.
"Oh, hi, Hermione, what's up?" Hannah asked curiously. She had blonde hair, and wore it long and loose.
"I read in Hogwarts, A History that the kitchens are near the Hufflepuff common room," Hermione said.
"Yes, that's true," Susan replied with a nod. Susan wore her brown hair in a plaited braid, and it was shorter than her friend's hair. She was also shorter than Hannah in height as well. In fact, Susan was the shortest witch among the First Years, Harry noted.
"Do you think you could show us? We're not going to the feast tonight."
"You're not? Why?" Hannah asked, surprised.
"We just wanted to have a quiet dinner amongst ourselves," she replied.
"Oh," Susan said, eyes widening as she looked past Hermione at Harry and Neville, realization flickering within. "I see."
"Sure, I guess," Hannah said, shrugging at the response.
"Actually, do you think we could join you guys?" Susan asked suddenly, causing Hermione and Hannah to both blink in surprise.
"I don't see why not," Hermione said slowly. "I'll have to ask them." She ran back to her friends, and then a moment later they all came walking over.
"It's fine with us," Harry said, noticing how Susan had tensed up before relaxing when she heard his answer.
"Thanks," Susan said with a faint smile. Hannah suddenly seemed to understand why Harry and Neville wouldn't want to be around other people for Halloween, and she quickly nodded her thanks as well.
"Come on, the kitchens are this way," Hannah said, leading the group down to the first-floor corridor where a large painting of a fruit bowl was hanging.
"Oddly fitting," Harry muttered as he watched the Hufflepuff girl tickle the pear and have it laugh, then turn into a doorknob.
Hannah then opened the painting up, which had become a door. Harry thought that it wasn't the most secret of entrances since the painting was big enough to conceal a door behind it, but he didn't say anything as he went inside with the rest.
"Oh, House Elves," Harry said as he looked around at the bustling kitchens. "Neat."
'I wonder how Inky is doing?' the Boy-Who-Lived idly mused, reminded of the old but funny House Elf that helped Edward.
"How can Sweepy helps youses?" a House Elf asked, popping over to them as they entered.
"Hi, there," Harry said politely. "We were wondering if we could have some food delivered to a classroom tonight, if it's not too much trouble?"
"Oh, it be's no troubles," Sweepy said, floppy ears shaking as it spoke.
"Great! Um, do you know of a room that's unoccupied we could use?" Harry asked, turning back to the group.
"There's a room on the second floor that's empty," Susan said after thinking it over.
"There's a lot of empty, unused rooms in Hogwarts," Hannah pointed out, to which they all nodded.
It was true, after all. Hogwarts was a giant magical castle meant to hold the entirety of Britain's young magicals, but barely had around a thousand or so students spread out through all seven years and all four houses, when it could easily hold ten times as many.
"Yeah, but the one I'm thinking of has that really big window that over looks the lake," Susan said. "It has this painting of a pig with wings."
"The one near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Hannah asked for clarification. When Susan nodded, she hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess that would work."
"What do you say, Sweepy? Can you deliver some food to that room?" Harry asked, and the House Elf nodded so fast he thought their head would fly off.
"Sweepy can!"
"Alright, then," Harry said, and the group told the elves what they'd like to eat. Sweepy promised it would be there waiting for them, and the group went off the second floor.
It was a nice-looking place, with an entire wall taken up by windows that looked out over the lake, providing an amazing view of the stars reflected on the surface. And there wasn't a speck of dust to be seen, but that was to be expected with House Elves running around, Harry thought. He'd only met Inky a few times, but in that short period he'd learned they were clean-freaks of the highest order.
Tables and chairs had been set up near the windows for them, and food was already waiting for them there.
"We're going to go and freshen up a bit first," Hannah said, dragging the two girls with her down the hall. "Don't start without us!"
"Hurry, I don't know how much longer I can hold Ron back," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Oi, I'm not that bad!" the red-head protested.
Still, everyone, even Ron, laughed at the bad joke, and the girls left, leaving the boys alone in the room to wait. Which was rather hard as the meal the elves had brought up smelled amazing. The winged pig in the painting hung on the wall certainly agreed, if the eager squeals were anything to go by.
Though Harry found it was getting harder to concentrate on anything as a throbbing pain began to build up within his head. It didn't feel like any headache Harry had ever had before, as it felt sharper, like being jabbed with needles centered on his forehead.
He hid any signs of discomfort, however, and smiled and laughed along with Ron and Neville, trying to distract himself from the pain. It worked well enough, but it was very uncomfortable.
Around five minutes later the boys were interrupted by Sweepy appearing before them, looking worried.
"Students needs to be going backs to their dormsies!" he (or she? Harry wasn't good with telling the difference between House Elves since he'd only ever met two of them) said nervously.
"What? Why?" Harry asked, headache completely forgotten as he picked up on the fear and nervousness radiating from the diminutive helper.
"There's a trollsy loose in the castle!" Sweepy informed them. "Teachers said it was in the dungeons!"
"Okay, we'll go, thank you for the warning," Harry said, even as Neville and Ron gaped in shock at the House Elf, who popped away after delivering the message.
"A troll? Here? In Hogwarts?" Ron sputtered in disbelief.
"Sounds crazy, but I'm not going to stick around and find out if Sweepy was lying. Not that I think he was, just saying," Harry hastily said. "We should head back to the dorms."
"Wait, what about the girls?" Neville asked, concerned. "Do you think they know about the troll?"
Harry opened his mouth to say 'yes,' but he couldn't. Had a House Elf gone to warn them? Or had it only come to them because it knew we'd be in the room in the first place?
"Uh-oh," Harry muttered, a sentiment shared by Ron and Neville if the worry in their eyes was any clue.
"Let's go get them!" Ron said, already running for the door.
Harry caught up with him, and he recalled passing a bathroom on the way to the classroom. He ran towards it, Neville and Ron right behind him.
"Hermione! Susan! Hannah!" Harry shouted as he burst into the bathroom, only to pause, confused, when he didn't see any trace of them. "Wait, where are they? They said they were going to the bathroom!"
"Nobody uses the second-floor girl's bathroom!" Ron shouted at Harry in annoyance.
"That's right! They don't want to deal with poor old Myrtle!" a young-looking ghost wailed dramatically as she phased through a bathroom stall. "No one cares about me whether I'm living or dead!"
"I'm very sorry to hear that," Harry said, genuine sympathy in his voice for her plight. "I know what it's like to be ignored."
That caused the ghost to pause in her waterworks and to stare at him in befuddlement.
"Really?" she asked, and Harry nodded.
"Yes, but we can't stay, there's a troll loose in the school and our friends don't know about!" Neville said quickly, stepping in.
"A troll? Oh dear, looks like I won't be the newest ghost in Hogwarts," Myrtle said, sounding a bit excited at the prospect, and the boys paled at the thought.
"Please! Can you help us find them?" Harry pleaded.
"They probably went to the first-floor bathroom," Ron guessed. "This one is, uh, occupied, and the third floor's bathroom is in the West Wing, and off limits!"
"Oh, right, that whole forbidden corridor thing," Harry muttered. He then turned to Myrtle with a pleading look. "Can you please check on them?"
"Fine," she huffed, then dove into the floor. She returned a moment later, a look of concern in her eyes.
"Where did you say the troll was?" she asked, and the boys went even paler.
"Oh, shit!" Neville swore, and as one, the trio booked it for the staircase.
They made it to the stairs and rushed down to the first floor, where a foul stench slapped them in the face as they ran to the bathrooms.
"That's a troll, alright," Ron said weakly, pinching his nose as they did so. He also whipped out his wand, something that Harry and Neville copied a moment later.
Besides the smell, the trio could also hear a loud thumping, and as they turned a corner, the boys skidded to a halt, taken aback by the definitely out of place creature in front of them.
Twelve feet tall, grey-blue skin, with a tiny bald head and oddly oversized ears atop a burly body. Its feet were covered in warts, and its nails were a worrying shade of green.
Oh, and it had a massive club – probably was an entire tree at one point – that the troll was smashing against the girls bathroom.
The troll was inside the bathroom already, the doorframe ruined with bits of rubble everywhere, and it was smacking the door of a stall, trying to break it down. Screams came from within, which explained why it was focusing on it at all. Somehow, the door to the stall hadn't been turned to splinters, but flickers of light that rippled across the door told Harry that it must have been a spell of some sort.
"Oh, shit," Ron uttered in horror.
"What do we do?" Neville asked in a panic.
"We draw its attention away from the girls," Harry said defiantly, pointing his spell at it.
"Shouldn't we wait for the teachers?" Neville asked with a gulp.
"They all think it's at the dungeons, remember? That's on the other side of the castle!" Harry retorted. "Aguamenti!"
A stream of water shot from his want tip, though it didn't reach far enough and didn't even reach the trolls feet.
"Oops, I guess it's too far," Harry said awkwardly when Ron and Neville both shot him deadpan looks.
"I have an idea," Ron said, quickly formulating a plan as he looked around the hallway. "Guys, can you follow my lead?"
Harry and Neville nodded, and he swiftly explained his plan. "We have to lure the troll to the stairs in the main corridor! They're designed to trap anything that intrudes on the school. We get it onto the stairs, we've gotten it away from the girls and the teachers can deal with it later!"
"Brilliant!" Harry praised, and Neville nodded. "What do we need to do?"
"Get it's attention," Ron said grimly.
"Got it," the Boy-Who-Lived said with a nod. He then ran over to the troll, and raised his wand.
"Oi! Lard butt! Over here!" Harry shouted, running up to the troll and spraying it in the back with water from his Aguamenti spell.
The troll turned around, a look of confusion on its face as it wondered why it was wet. Was the screaming little meat-nugget the cause?
Annoyed, it stopped banging on the bathroom stall, and stomped out of the bathroom. As it bent its head to get through the door frame, Harry hit it with another Aguamenti, blasting its face with it. Sopping wet and angrier than before, the troll let out a bellow and started to stomp after Harry.
Behind the troll, the bathroom stall door creaked open, three frightened faces peeking out, and Harry made a shooing motion at them to start running. He then turned around and began to escape towards the stairs where Ron and Neville were waiting, the former halfway up a staircase and the latter waiting at the bottom.
Harry managed to keep insulting and spraying the troll with water as he ran away, and succeeded in luring it towards the main stairwell which connected almost all of the stairs in the school.
However, as the troll stomped after Harry, one of its big, dumb feet slammed down near a pile of bricks that'd been dislodged when it'd broken its way into the girl's bathroom. By sheer dumb and bad luck, the troll's foot sent a bit of stone flying towards Harry.
Harry stumbled and fell as the brick the troll had accidentally kicked at him slammed into the back of his left leg with tremendous force. Harry tried to get up, but a howl of pain escaped his lips. The piece of masonry had broken or torn something in his leg! He was trapped.
"Neville! Cast a spell! Get it attention's away from Harry!" Ron shouted from the tops of the stairs as he looked down at the scene in horror.
"I-I can't do it!" Neville cried, frantically shaking his wand at the foot of the stairs. Sparks sputtered, but the spell he was attempting refused to work.
"Damn!" Ron swore, before looking around. His eyes landed on a suit of armor nearby at the top of the stairs on the second floor, complete with sword and shield, and he pointed his wand at it. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, and to his relief, it worked. The sword began to float, and Ron directed it over the edge of the staircase, where it fell, point down, onto the troll.
The sword stabbed into the troll's back, right between its shoulder blades. Unfortunately, it didn't drive deep enough, and the lumbering behemoth didn't even seem to notice it'd been stabbed! It just kept stomping towards Harry, murder in its eyes.
The troll roared, and swung its club to the side, trying to knock aside the black-haired boy who'd dared to stab it.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" Neville screamed, swishing and flicking his wand desperately at Harry. His wand exploded, but the spell still went off, Harry being catapult upwards into the air towards the ceiling, the club narrowly missing him.
After rising up high, Harry naturally began to fall, and straight down towards the troll. Harry desperately angled himself towards the sword, which was still stuck in the troll's back. He landed on the sword, just as he planned, and put all of his weight and strength into trying to shove the blade even deeper into the troll.
Now, Harry was not, and probably never would be, a big and meaty kind of guy like his uncle and cousin, even if he tried. However, a year of eating more food than he'd ever dreamed of getting from the Dursleys had filled him out, and his burgeoning magic and Nutrient Potions from Edward had corrected a lot of the flaws the Dursleys had left with his body.
Harry was no longer a scrawny waif a stiff breeze could knock over. He was bigger, stronger, taller, and most importantly, heavier.
And all of that meant when he landed on the sword, the full weight of his body was put behind it, driving it even deeper into the troll, the tip of the blade just barely visible poking through its chest.
A troll's heart was larger proportionally compared to a human, and the sword had managed to pierce it, severing multiple arteries instantly. Even for a beast whose brain was literally the size of a walnut, this was considered 'a bad thing.'
The troll staggered, surprise crossing its dumb face, before it toppled forward without a word. It lay still, a pool of oily black blood growing beneath it.
"Owww," Harry groaned, a hand clutching his chest where he'd landed on the sword's pommel. He then rolled over off of the troll's back, and groaned some more when the pain lanced through his leg next.
"Merlin, Harry! That was bloody mental!" Ron shouted as he and Neville ran over to him. From the hallway, Hermione, Susan, and Hannah also sprinted over to check on him, concern all over their faces.
"It worked, though," he chuckled, before wincing. He then gave Neville a concerned look. "Hey, your wand…"
Neville quietly shook his head. "Yeah, it's broken."
"Damn," Harry muttered. "Sorry."
"I'd rather have you alive than an unbroken wand," Neville replied.
At that, Hermione initiated a massive hug while sobbing in relief, drawing the boys together with her, and was joined by Susan and Hannah a moment later, all six of them hugging each other happily.
"What's all this?!"
"Professors!" Hermione shouted as she looked up and over Harry's shoulder, her bushy head poking out and staring down the hallway.
With impressive speed, the group untangled itself from the hug-pile and turned around to see a group of their teachers standing there, staring at the scene in shock. Professor McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Snape, and Quirrell, along with Headmaster Dumbledore, had just arrived in the hallway, and were taking in the damage and dead troll in disbelief.
"Can someone explain what happened here?" McGonagall finally demanded, stepping forward and glaring at the students.
For some reason that none of them could fathom, that was incredibly funny to the First Years. Harry snorted, then Susan let out a giggle, and then all six of them were laughing their asses off in front of the bemused and bewildered faculty.
"It's a long story," Hermione managed to get out between hiccups of laughter. That only caused them to laugh even harder.
The professors just shared confused looks with each other.
LINE BREAK
Author's Note:
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Enjoy some turkey and a bonus chapter!