October 31st, 1991

Harry flipped the silver coin in his hand as he looked at the intricate design on it before flipping it over and continuing to stare at its back. Despite the simplicity of its appearance, Harry couldn't help the smile that was on his face as he continued to look at it.

"Harry, are you okay over here? Why are you looking at that Sickle so much?"

Harry looked up and saw Hermione approaching his work area. They were currently in their new clubroom where they had moved most of their activities. Harry loved it already. It wasn't quite the peaceful save haven his library at Potter Manor or his mindscape was but it wasn't as far away in feeling as he thought.

Originally, he was worried that his friends may in fact ruin the atmosphere for him. When it came to his personal projects, he liked to remain as focused as possible on them. That being said, most of his friends had not actually done much to bother him. Hermione often used this time to start reading ahead on certain topics, Ron had finally finished reading his first Alchemy book and had taken up a beginners Arithmancy book, and Neville really just used this time to work on his homework. He had not found a particular thing he was passionate about.

Needless to say, though, it was actually rather nice to have a place that was still somewhat private yet allowed him to work in peace. He had made sure to implement some rules that the club would not be advertised nor would it be spoken of in the halls near others. If others found out, they would apply and he would need to present legitimate reasons why they could not join. As the club overseer, Dumbledore had made it clear he could be removed if he was bias so Harry had to figure out some way around that.

Luckily, the excitement from having him join Hogwarts had mostly died down and most people were now used to his presence… somewhat. People still sometimes whispered about him though. Apparently with how quiet and private he was, people had taken to making rumors to fill in the blanks about his life. That was still better than them bothering him about it though.

"It's not a Sickle. It's not technically a coin either, it just looks like one at first glance. Although, it is made out of silver… No, what this truly is… It's the first magical item I have managed to create." Harry said proudly. Hermione looked surprised at that and it seems like his words had reached Ron and Neville as he noticed both their heads shoot up as they stopped what they were doing and quickly came over to see his work.

"Your first item? Well, don't leave us in suspense. What does it do?" Ron asked with excitement. Harry held up the coin looking object for him to take. Ron grabbed it and held it up near his face to observe it. Both Hermione and Neville got in close to look at it.

"It has the time on it?"

"Not just the time, it also tells the season on it as well. See it says Autumn right there." Hermione pointed out. Ron looked back at him.

"Why did you want a coin to tell the time?" He asked. Harry just smiled.

"The coin is a little more complicated than that… It doesn't simply tell the time; it can tell where I am on the planet and adjust itself with no input. It knows where the planet is relative to the sun and where I am on said planet to give me the most accurate time of day." Harry explained rather proud of his work.

"Woah, that's actually really cool." Neville chimed in as he continued to marvel at the coin. Hermione nodded in agreement before looking at him.

"Was it complicated to do?"

"Not really, there were already existing runes that measured such things like time and where we currently are in space. European seafarers use to carry something similar to tell them the positions of the stars no matter where they were or the time of day." Harry explained easily.

"Why did you decide on this to be your first project?"

"It was small, easier to make then other things, yet still could be useful to me." Harry pointed out. Useful specifically if he ever hopped to a different world in particular.

"So, more of a proof of concept then?"

"Yep."

"What makes it an enchanted item versus just a normal charmed item?" Neville asked.

"Enchanted items are permanently imbued with magic most commonly by runes which one puts on said item but, in very rare cases, can also be created through rituals. Basically, I don't need to feed it magic through myself or something else for it to continue working. It uses the ambient magic around us." Harry explained to them.

Most people incorrectly assumed enchantments were similar to charms. Well, that wasn't fully true at least. They were actually more similar to a complicated version of charms where instead of a wand where you created instant results, you would use runes as a building block to build up the unique effect you wanted to produce. It's probably why Harry enjoyed runes so much more.

"It's most impressive. Given your knowledge of Runes, what level would you say this is?" Hermione asked. Harry frowned in thought as he rubbed his chin.

"It's not the easiest thing to make but it's not exactly difficult for someone who knows what they're doing either. Certainly, a fourth or fifth year in Ancient Runes could do something similar if they wanted." Harry answered.

"It's bonkers that you're that far ahead."

"He's farther technically. After all, this is just your first practical application. In theory your closer to a fifth or sixth year, right Harry?" Hermione said with a smirk. Harry just shrugged and gave her a small smile. The girl was definitely the smartest and most astute of their group. When it came to knowledge, she was certainly behind him, but in intelligence he'd put her as his equal if not superior. She just had less of a head start was all.

"Man, I can't wait to get Arithmancy down so I can start trying out some Alchemy experiments. You know, Dumbledore said if I manage to make sand by the end of the year, he would allow me to read some books from his private collection." Ron told them excitedly. Harry didn't bother to point out that they were all there when the Headmaster had said that. No need to spoil the boy's good time. Harry turned to Hermione.

"What about you? Have you found anything you want to look into or are you still sticking with just practicing?" Harry asked her.

"I'm still just practicing. I still need to get better at Arithmancy before I start to create anything myself…" Hermione said looking down with frustration. Harry lifted his hand and patted her shoulder comfortingly.

'You're a very intelligent girl, don't think just because you're not where I am means you're any less intelligent. You just started later is all. Find your own place in the world, don't keep measuring yourself to the accomplishments of others." Harry told her seriously.

Harry was rather lucky that he didn't worry about things like that. His goals had nothing to do with his peers but rather to do with helping his best and first friend. Everything else was less important in his eyes.

"I know you're right but still…" Hermione pouted. Harry felt his lips twitch in a small smile and shook his head in amusement. She would get it eventually. At least Ron had calmed down and worried less about his place in the world. Harry was actually surprised how well he was sticking to the whole Alchemy thing. Alchemy wasn't easy and it was built almost entirely on self-study. Ron wasn't the most studious of individuals but he actually worked to study the topic. That being said, it was likely because he was hoping to earn money through the magical branch.

"So, what are you going to make next then?" Ron asked. Harry shrugged.

"This was more to make sure the calculations I made in theory were correct when put into practice. The next step then would be to start working on efficiency."

"Efficiency?" Hermione asked as Ron passed her his coin to look at.

"Yes. The problem with enchanting usually comes up when you need to make something powerful. There is a limit to how much magic an enchanted item can suck in so for the truly powerful enchantments, you need to figure out a way to use the power it can suck in as efficient a way as possible. Dumbledore once told me that it was said that half the runes carved into Excalibur were to help it use its power as efficiently as possible rather than dictating what its power actually was." Harry explained to them. Hermione looked the most interested while Ron and Neville seemed to just be trying to keep up.

"So that's why some people say high level enchantments become needlessly complicated?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. That's usually said by people who only know the bare minimum of enchantment or none at all which is… most people." Harry pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

"I see. That must be rather hard."

"It can be after a while, at the beginning it's not too hard, it's when you start reusing runic chains within the same overall scheme that it becomes problematic. You have to begin changing the order without disrupting the flow. If done incorrectly, the results have been known to be… explosive." Harry commented without true worry within him.

"Should you not do this with Professor Dumbledore present then?"

"No, this is still rather low level so, it should be fine." Harry said to her. Hermione looked like she was contemplating saying something but thought better of it and instead just nodded her agreement.

"Now that you're done, can we go to the feast? I'm starving." Ron groaned. Harry looked over to his gluttonous friend and smirked.

"The black hole needs food then?" Hermione asked rhetorically.

"Call it what you want, it doesn't change the fact that I'm starving." Ron shot back.

"I told you, you should've gone to the kitchens before we got here and grabbed a snack to hold you off. What would you have done if this had gone through the night?" Harry questioned. Ron frowned at him.

"Dragged you out by force and down to the feast." Ron said in an even tone showing his seriousness.

"While I may not agree with his reasons, I do agree about the dragging out part if it looked like you were trying to spend the night here." Hermione said with a glare. Neville didn't verbally say anything but he crossed his arms and nodded in agreement. Harry's eyes flicked between the three of them as he frowned.

"Traitors…"

"I don't think allowing you to exhaust yourself through the night for no reason makes us traitors." Hermione pointed out.

"Psh. It does… Fine, let me just pack my things and we can go down to the feast." Harry said as he snatched his coin out of his bushy haired friends' hands and pocketed it. He was debating putting it on a chain and using it similarly to a pocket watch. He then turned to his desk and started collecting the papers on it and putting them into a nice and neat stack. He then placed them in a folder her had labelled 'Enchanted Coin' and then placed it in a drawer. He then placed all his schoolwork into his book bag and placed back on his robe. Since the Halloween Feast was ceremonial, he needed to be fully dressed for it. With that, he turned back to his waiting friends.

"All right, I guess we can go now." Harry called out.

"Finally! There better still be food left." Ron called out as he immediately started fast walking to the door to their club and opened it beckoning them all to exit. Harry rolled his eyes as he, Neville, and Hermione all walked over to the redhead.

Once they finally exited the room, Harry turned and made sure the illusion on the door was properly set to hide it from view. There were several other protections placed by Dumbledore himself but people wouldn't look for something that they didn't know was there in the first place.

With that finished they started walking in the direction of the Great Hall. Almost immediately Ron started trying to rush them towards it.

"Ronald, I swear, if you don't calm down, I'll place a curse on you so you can no longer taste ANY food." Hermione finally said. Ron immediately froze and looked horrified at the brunette.

"You wouldn't… No, you couldn't. We haven't even learned anything like that." Ron sounded more like he was trying to convince himself then Hermione.

"With all the studying ahead she and Harry do, do you really doubt she found something that can do that?" Neville asked pointedly. Harry ducked his head to hide his smile as he heard that. Apparently, Ron wasn't getting on just Hermione's nerves. The slightly pudgy didn't usually aid in such fun poking. Ron looked even more afraid at his words as Hermione did her best to smirk viciously at the redhead.

"Maybe you could, but you wouldn't. You would get in trouble with the teachers!"

"Some things are worth detention…"

"No! You don't…"

"Stop." Harry commanded as he stopped moving. Immediately, all three of his friends stopped and looked at him with confusion clearly written on their faces. Harry looked around in suspicion for a moment.

"Do you feel that?" He asked quietly. Immediately all of them went completely still to see if they could feel what he was talking about. There was a brief moment of silence before Harry felt it again. A slight shaking of the ground. It was so small he was surprised he had felt it the first time.

"I felt it that time."

"Me too."

"Yeah, there was definitely something…" They all confirmed quietly as they began looking around. Harry did the same as he looked up and down the hallway, they were in. As far as he knew there shouldn't be anything or anyone in this hallway at this time. They were on the second floor and there mostly empty classrooms on this floor.

"Wait… Do you hear that?" Harry said. There was another moment of silence as they all tried to strain to hear what he did.

"I… Don't hear anything." Hermione finally admitted. Harry nodded.

"Exactly, it should be the middle of the feast right now. Even on a regular day, we should be able to hear the echoes from the Great Hall quietly in the hallway. It's on the floor below us." Harry pointed out once more.

"Hey, you're right. Do you think they closed the doors?" Neville asked.

"Why would they do that?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head as he couldn't answer that either. He couldn't think of a reason they would, especially since they would leave it for any stragglers.

"Um, is anyone noticing that shaking is getting stronger." Ron pointed out nervously. Indeed, his friend was right. The shaking was getting stronger, in fact, he thought he could hear it as well.

"What is that?" Neville asked again.

"It's coming from the direction we're going." Hermione pointed out. Harry nodded at that having come to the same conclusion.

"Should we go the other way?" Neville asked anxiously shifting from foot to foot.

"It might not be anything. We are in a magic castle after all. That noise could literally be anything." Harry said back though he wasn't sure himself if it would be better to air on the side of caution.

"It's still getting closer. Why don't we go up to the turn and peak around the corner to see what we can see from there." Hermione suggested.

"I could get behind that. Let's just make sure its nothing. If it is, we go the other direction." Ron nodded. Harry squinted suspiciously at the boy. He had a feeling Ron just wanted to check it out because it was the fastest way to get to the Great Hall but he wouldn't say anything since its what he wanted anyway.

"Fine." Neville grumbled. He probably rather they went the other direction now, but he likely saw he was outvoted and decided to go with the group.

With that, they all went to the turn in the corridor as quietly as possible. As they did so, Harry noticed the way the shaking happened wasn't really in any sort of pattern he could decipher. Sometime they'd be one right after the other but sometimes it would pause for unusual moments of time before continuing. As they approached the corner, Harry took lead since if there was danger, he was the most likely to be able to fend it off. The others took no time at all to fall in behind him.

As he got to the corner, he started hugging the wall tightly as the shaking had gotten progressively stronger and louder. He had a feeling, whatever it was, was just past this turn. Harry paused for a brief moment, looked back at his friends, nodded, and then slowly poked his head around the corner. It took a moment to realize what he was seeing but when he did, he felt his eyes widen astronomically.

"Oh."

In the next corridor was some kind of dark, giant, humanoid being he was seemingly almost as tall as the corridor itself. It seemed to be looking around in confusion and wearing some sort of rags and loincloth that must pass for its attempts at clothes. Of course, the most eye-catching thing was the giant wooden club that looked as thick as a tree truck on the end of it.

"Bloody hell. That's a Mountain Troll!" Neville whispered furiously.

"A Mountain Troll? What the bloody hell is it doing in here?" Ron immediately whispered back with an audible fear.

"It must've wandered in."

"There are no Mountain Troll clans anywhere near here though." Hermione shot back just as quietly. If it weren't for the dire situation, Harry might've rolled his eyes at the fact that she knew even that random fact, though he certainly wouldn't complain as he filed that bit of information for later. Harry held out his hand behind him and gestured for them silently to back.

They seemed to get the message as they began to quietly move back which took a moment since they had practically been on top of each other so they could all see around the corner. Once they all poked their heads away, Harry looked at them.

"Move quietly but quickly back in the other direction." He whispered as calmly as he could manage. They all turned and started to head in to the other direction with Harry taking up the rear, just in case. It was all going so well too until they got around halfway through the corridor. Harry unfortunately got to watch the disaster first hand with just too little of time to actually prevent it. Ron walked a little too close to a suit of armor and got his book bag caught on one of the hilts of a sword a suit of armor was carrying. It pulled the bag and Harry had to watch in horror as he watched all of Ron's textbooks spilled out of the bag with a very loud but dull thud onto the floor.

With that, everyone froze and looked towards Ron whose face immediately went red and closed his eyes in embarrassment. For a moment, there was no noise whatsoever for maybe three second before the shaking started up again and was happening rapidly. It was clear immediately what was happening, the Troll was moving again, and it was moving FAST in their direction.

"Run!" Harry yelled as he looked back. As soon as he had the words out, he watched the massive humanoid turn the corner and look directly at them. Even at this distance, he could see the creature's eyes light up.

With that, Harry turned back and started chasing after his friends. As he did so, he immediately shed off his robes so they wouldn't slowing down his run. With them off, he easily overcame and then surpassed his friends. He frowned as he felt the giant beings' footsteps getting closer and closer. When they got to the turn leading to the next corridor, Harry spun around and examined the scene in front of them.

The troll was much closer now, perhaps only thirty feet behind Neville who was trailing the furthest behind. At this rate, it would catch them and considering the raised club it was chasing them with, it wasn't trying to make friends.

"Keep running into the next corridor. Do not look back. I shall buy some time." Harry called out as Hermione reached him. As soon as he finished speaking, he held out his hand and started forming a flame in it as he began casting his Ignitus spell. Luckily, fire was extremely easy to cast and certainly easy to make stronger because of its nature so, by the time Neville was past him he was ready.

"Ignitus" He called out as he threw the sizeable hot fireball from his hands and directly at the troll's face. Harry watched the giant's eyes widened as the ball crashed right into it's face. The ball stopped it in its tracks and even forced it to stumble backwards. He looked for a moment and noticed that the spell didn't seem to actually do that much damage to the giant which meant it was likely very thick skinned. Harry then immediately started casting an illusion spell next as the now soot faced giant roared in frustration as it recovered from the attack. Harry took close to fifteen seconds to form the spell which was almost the same amount of time it took for him to form his next spell.

"Miran Taz" He called out casting the complex illusion on the giant. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The troll should now be in an illusion that made it look like it was moving and continue to chase them as normal.

He heard his friends calling to him from down the hall so he turned and prepared to head over to them. He saw their faces and they looked rather anxious but confused. He grimaced as he would likely have to explain to them what just happened. He hadn't even bother to pull out his wand. He frowned as he realized he hadn't yet tried to attempt any of his original spells with his wand. He would need to rectify that.

"Harry watch out." Hermione yelled causing Harry to get knocked out of his thoughts. He looked at and saw her horrified expression. He barely had time to throw himself forward as hard as he could just as he heard a 'woosh' above him. As he hit the ground. He felt a violent shake as he felt something else slam into the ground right where he had just been. He recovered as fast as possible and turned back to the troll.

The giant was looking directly at him in anger and roared loudly right at him. What? The creature had somehow broken out of his illusion? Did it have some natural mental protections that prevented the illusion from sticking on him? That was bad. That meant his fire curse could do nothing and his complex illusions were useless. He could still use the basic Miran as it was a static illusion that didn't get cast directly on a target.

"Miran" He called out. As his original and most basic illusion, it had practically no cast time. With that, several other Harry Potters were now standing in front of the troll in the same pose as him. The giant immediately went from looking angry to looking confused. So, he was right, he still didn't have any protections as long as his attacks weren't cast directly at him. He could possibly work with that.

With a single thought, his illusionary clones all scattered and began running in all different directions. Some went to the right and left of the troll, some went and ran right under his legs, some just started to move around Harry himself to draw the attention away from him.

The trick seemed to work as the troll stumbled back and looked between all of them, clearly not sure which ones to deal with first. Harry took the chance and immediately pulled his wand out and started casting. He pointed it at a nearby bench and started casting. Immediately the bench started morphing shape and splitting itself apart. A few moments later, there was now a pile of what appeared to be wooden pikes. Harry grimaced as he looked at them.

Harry was good at Transfiguration, especially for a first year. That being said, he still couldn't cast animals, and he still couldn't animate nonliving creations. Both those things were what made most transfiguration duelist so dangerous. That being said, he could still create most non organic materials and do so rather quickly if it wasn't a metal.

Harry decided not to bother regretting his lack of ability and focus on what he could do. He pointed his wand at the pikes again and cast.

"Wingardium Leviosa." He said quietly. Immediately, all the spikes started to float into the air and Harry pushed to make them move upwards as quickly as possible while still maintaining control of the spell. Even if he was only decent at charms, this was one of the simplest charms to do so even he could manage it rather well, plus he could overpower it rather easily.

His pikes made it to the ceiling rather quickly and hung there, pointed downward. Harry had made some slight alterations to them. Well one side was extremely sharp, the other was built rounded to add weight to hopefully add more force to the fall. This troll was thick skinned so even if didn't pierce through him, it could hopefully hit him hard enough to slow him down.

It was rather lucky he got his trap into position when he did as the troll had just finished slamming down on his last illusionary clone, dispelling it. Harry started walking backwards and prepared himself. He needed the troll to walk under his traps but he couldn't be too far away or the troll might start running making it harder to hit him. He also got ready to prepare another Miran spell if he missed or his trap didn't work.

Luckily, the troll didn't run to approach him since he had only backed away slowly and it also hadn't seemed to notice his trap. It likely didn't have to worry about much things attacking from above him with its height. Harry watched it lumbered toward him. He idly heard his friends yelling, and if he was hearing right, they were getting closer. He subtly aimed his wand behind him and built up his magic within it.

"Unbracus." He whispered. He felt the motion get pulled into his wand and spring outward though he couldn't afford to turn around and see if the ward had managed to come out properly. He would just have to hope it did. He watched the troll get closer and closer to him and he kept backing up slowly to make sure the troll kept moving forward.

Finally, the troll entered within range of his trap and he silently cancelled his Wingardium Leviosa spell. Immediately, the wooden pikes that had been hanging lazily at the top of the ceiling came plummeting down. They were actually coming down surprisingly fast but not quite as straight as he imagined. He probably threw off their balance too much in his attempt to make one side more blocky and heavier than the other.

Luckily, the distance from the ceiling to the troll wasn't enough to cause to much alteration to the downward course and the eight wooden pikes came down heavily onto the troll. As soon as he watched the first one impact with its skull, he knew the battle was over. While it certainly didn't go as deep as one would expect, it clearly went at least six inches to a full foot down into the troll's skull, likely right into its brain.

The troll eyes rolled into the back of his head and it fell to the ground with such a limpness, it was almost like it had been held up by invisible strings that had just been cut. He idly noticed several other pikes stab into the body near both its shoulders and through one of its feet, not that it mattered. A moment later and the troll was fully collapsed on the floor. There was no way around it at that point, it was dead.

He looked at it with his blank eyes directly into its lifeless ones. Those eyes had just been filled with rage mere moments ago now looked completely hollow, giving nothing away to show what had been inside them only seconds previous. Out of the top of its head was a giant gaping whole leaking a dark ooze that he assumed was likely it's blood and brain matter.

Harry couldn't take it anymore; he felt his esophagus start to spasm and something getting pushed upward and he immediately dropped his head between his knees right as he began to spill the contents of his stomach all over the floor of the hallway. Harry tried to look back up but as soon as he did, his eyes went straight back to the deadly wound on the troll which caused him to lose the rest of the strength in his legs and collapse on to his butt. He brought up his knees, buried his head, and shut his eyes as tight as he could trying to do everything in his power to forget the image currently violently replaying in his mind.

'Harry are you alright?'

'Harry?'

'HARRY, YOU ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?'

'HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! HARRY! HARRY!'

"HARRY!"

His eyes snapped up as he realized that it wasn't just the voice in his head calling his name but outside of it as well. He wearily opened his eyes and looked over to wear it was coming from. He saw Hermione, Neville, and Ron banging on an invisible wall to try and get to him. He must've been looking at them blankly for an entire minute before he realized what was happening. When he did, he slowly lifted his wand and cancelled the ward he had hastily thrown up to stop them from getting close to him during the battle. As soon as it came down, Hermione was on him, on her knees and had him wrapped in her arms.

"Oh Harry! Are you okay? Don't answer that! Of course, you're not. Oh Merlin, look at your head, you're bleeding!" Hermione said with a clear panic in her voice. Harry blinked at that. He slowly reached up and touched his forehead. He felt an uneven line going across near his hairline. He pulled back his hand and looked at it. The hand was covered in red which took him a minute to figure out was blood.

'Huh'

That was the only thing that Harry could think as he saw the liquid which represented his life force splayed all over his fingers. He couldn't even fill the wound. A small part of his brain recognized he was likely in some sort of shock.

"What is going… MR. POTTER, WHAT HAPPENED?"

That was another voice he thought he recognized. There was still a voice in his head blaring his name in what sounded like anger and wouldn't stop. He tried to tune it out though as he tried to concentrate on the group of people approaching. A woman came right up to him and kneeled down next to him.

"Mr. Potter, can you hear me?" She asked. Harry looked at her as he tried to place a name to the face. It took a moment before he finally did.

"Minerva…" He whispered remembering the kind older witch who had visited him so often. She seemed to hear him and nodded.

"Yes Harry, it is me. Are you okay? Do you know where you are? How many fingers am I holding up?" She asked him holding up her hand. Harry looked at it for a moment.

"Three?" He asked. She looked to have grimaced at that. She turned her head back to the other group of people behind her.

"It looks like he has a concussion. I shall take him to Madame Pomfrey. Are any of the rest of you hurt?" He heard Minerva ask.

"No Professor, he protected us. He distracted the troll until he we were a safe distance away. Is he going to be okay?" A frantic voice asked. He recognized that one too. He was sure it was Hermione. She must be worried about him. He had a feeling he should probably be worried about himself as well.

"Do not worry Ms. Granger, he shall be fine. He just needs the school nurse to fix him up a bit. You may come visit when you finish answering the professor's questions." Minerva said.

"Perhaps we should take this to my office, the children may not be comfortable in such a… graphic environment." A smooth and calm voice said. He was sure he recognized that one too, Albus?

"An excellent idea. I shall join you as soon as I deliver Mr. Potter."

Harry wished he could listen further but suddenly he felt his consciousness fade into a dark abyss and this time, there was no library.

One Day Later

Harry blinked as a soft light entered his vision, though, not enough to blind him. He groaned softly as he reached a hand up to his forehead. Man, he had quite the headache.

"Don't you dare move another inch Mr. Potter." A voice snapped causing him to freeze. He felt his eyes move to the direction of the voice almost on instinct where he met the stern eyes of Madam Pomfrey. Upon seeing her, he looked around the room and finally realized where I am.

"Ah… How did I get here?" He asked as he started racking his brain for what happened.

"You did something incredibly foolish and decided to take on a fully grown Mountain Troll. Have no idea what you were thinking…" She muttered angrily as she started whipping her wand over him casting what he suspected were diagnostic spells.

"Ah, yes I think remember now. My memory is kind of fuzzy though…"

"That'll be the dreamless sleep, blood-replenishing, and pain relief potions in your system. You'll likely be asleep rather soon. How tired are you? The Headmaster requested to speak with you as soon as you awoke but if you're not feeling up to it…"

"No, I'll be fine. Please call him." Harry told her politely.

"Hmph, fine. But if you look like you can't handle it, I'll be kicking him out and you'll be right back to sleep mister."

"Mm. You're too kind to me Madam." He said with a smile at the nurse. She gave him a parting glare before spinning around and going to call Dumbledore. Harry immediately started organizing his memories of last night which was rather hard since many were still fuzzy. He remembered he got injured on his head somehow and instinctively reached up to where the injury had been. It seemed too no longer be there which was nice. He also suddenly remembered something else that caused him to wince.

'Ciri' He called out hesitantly into his mindscape. He waited for a moment before he felt her response start travelling to him.

'HARRY! Are you alright? What happened?" She yelled across their bond. Harry winced at the volume.

'Ciri… Calm down. I am fine. I had a bit of an accident yesterday and got injured is all. I'm okay now though, I promise.' He told her. With the delay the experienced, it would be easier just to wait until they met later in person.

'You felt scared. You better explain everything when we see each other tonight.' She demanded though Harry could tell she was actually just confirming that they would indeed be meeting.

'Yes, of course. I shall likely be asleep in a couple of hours at the latest. I shall see you then.' He said back before waiting once more.

'Fine' Was all she said back not but did not sound happy.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief at that as he waited. The Headmaster didn't make him wait long as Harry heard a noise only a few minutes later and he turned to see his guardian appear at the door to the hospital wing. He immediately fast walked over to Harry's bed and transfigured a chair from an unused night stand next to Harry's bed before sitting down.

"Harry, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, all things considered. Just a little tired. How did I get injured? I don't remember the troll hitting me." Harry asked. Dumbledore frowned a little.

"It did not. According to your friends, it happened when you blacked out."

"When did I black out?"

"After you threw up, you blacked out for a several seconds and fell on your head. After that you awoke but apparently hadn't even noticed before sitting down with your knees near your chest." Dumbledore explained. Harry thought back to that moment. He remembered seeing the dead body and indeed curling up but he couldn't remember the blackout.

"It is common for one not to exactly remember some blackouts." Dumbledore told him, seemingly sensing what he was thinking. Harry nodded slowly at that before frowning.

"So… What happened? How did a troll get into the school?" Harry asked. Dumbledore frowned before smoothly pulling out his wand and casting some sort of spell around them. Once he did, he scooted closer to Harry.

"I must apologize Harry; it seems another one of my decisions has ended with your life in danger." Albus said ducking his down in sorrow. Harry scrunched his brow in confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Albus looked up and directly at him.

"Do you remember our conversation about the hidden item on the third floor? I told you it would not present a danger to the student population. It now has become a very real danger as proven by your injury." Dumbledore told him. Harry felt his mind race as he put the puzzle pieces together in his head.

"Someone was using the troll to cause a distraction by causing havoc to go after the stone?" Harry asked seriously.

"I doubt it's point was to cause much damage. Indeed, I do believe that the troll was actually supposed to simply wander for a while to distract. It is my belief the person who released it never really expected it to attack any though I doubt they would have cared if it did either." Albus admitted. Harry looked at him for a moment.

"So, you know who the culprit is then?"

"I do indeed, although getting rid of them is a different matter. Actually, I wished to speak with you on that."

"Oh?"

"I meant to ask, how easy it for you to craft a new illusion?" Dumbledore asked seemingly out of the blue. Harry eyes widened in surprise at the question.

"It depends on the type of illusion and who it's targeting. Why?"

"Because, I wish to deal with the assailant soon and before then, I would like it if you could craft an illusion for me. Can you do that Harry?"

"… I'll do the best I can."

"Thank you, Harry. Here is what I wish you to create…"

Two Hours Later

"Oof." Was all Harry could manage to get out before something slammed into him with a lot of force behind him. He immediately wrapped his arms around the object to try and grab whatever slammed into him to slow him down. He blinked at his face was suddenly buried into a sea of soft white. It took him a moment for his brain to catch up to what was happening.

"Hey Ciri." He told her quietly as he held her for a minute. She looked up and glared at him from down by his chest causing him to blink in confusion.

"What?"

"Don't what me. You know what. What happened? I felt a whole bunch of panic and fear come from you last night and then you go silent and to reply to any of my calls. AND THEN you don't show up here last night." Ciri growled at him. Harry felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

"Ah yeah, well, it was an unfortunate series of events that started when a Mountain Troll that got into our school." Harry started.

"A Mountain Troll? I didn't know you had those in your world too." Ciri interrupted with surprise.

"I guess so, though I am not sure if it's the same as in your world. Here give me a minute and I'll show you it." Harry said as he began concentrating and began forming a basic static illusion of the creature. A few moments later and his recreation was complete and cast.

"Holy shit!"

"Language." Harry chastised though he couldn't help agree. Even when seeing a fake version of it, he felt like shirking away from the giant.

"This isn't what Mountain Trolls on our world look like. Ours are still near the height of men. This has to be close to fifteen or twenty feet in height. And that club! You'd be dead from one hit!" Ciri yelled marveling at the giant beast. Harry just nodded in agreement trying not to remember how the creature looked at the end of the night.

"Were you able to outrun it?"

"No, it can unfortunately move rather fast, especially with how much ground it can cover with each step it takes."

"So, how did you deal with it."

"I… I ended up having to kill it." Harry admitted.

"You killed it! How?" Ciri exclaimed looking at him in shock. Harry shrugged.

"Magic didn't seem to have much affect when I attacked it directly. I unfortunately had to transfigure some sharp wooden pikes. I then had them float high in the air and dropped it on top of him which killed him." Harry explained closing his eyes and trying to think of something else.

"… Are you okay?" Ciri asked. He reopened his eyes and saw she was looking at him with concern. He tried to give her a reassuring smile but judging by the frown that appeared on her face, it didn't work.

"I am, it was just… a lot, is all." Harry told her. Ciri looked at him and he suddenly felt bare before her eyes. Considering she had access to pretty much his every waking thought an emotion, that statement was probably very accurate.

"Here why don't you lay down. I'll give you a massage." Ciri told him. Harry gave her a queer eye at that.

"Ciri… You don't know how to give massages." He pointed out. She glared at him.

"I've seen it done. Just lay down already." She yelled. Harry rolled his eyes before moving over to a futon they had in their library. He placed it down into its bed form and got onto it. He silently laid on his stomach and waited.

Ciri hopped up and on top of him. She then started pushing down on his back likely simulating whatever massage she had seen done.

It turned out, Harry had been right, Ciri did not in fact know how to give massages. That being said, she was a quick learner and adjusted her technique based on either his grunts of dissatisfaction or moans of contentment. Soon, she seemed to figure out the correct way to do it and was even cracking Harry's back relieving tension in several places.

Harry idly noticed how the sensation of touch had been becoming less and less dulled the more time they seemed to spend in their fully constructed mindscape. He theorized that it was their minds adapting and thinking they were actually experiencing the full sensations and recognizing them as real. That could have interesting applications in the future.

"Well, how is it?" Ciri asked sounding pleased with herself already.

"You mean after you stopped practicing torture techniques on my back? Not so bad." Harry teased. He immediately groaned as he felt smash into his right shoulder blade as Ciri expressed her displeasure at his words.

"Say you enjoyed it or I shall never be doing this for you again." She growled. Harry chuckled at that.

"Fine. Thank you Ciri, your massage was very enjoyable. I feel a lot less tense. Are you happy?" He asked her.

"I am now, yes." Ciri said seemingly pleased. Harry rolled his eyes as she hopped off him allowing him to stand.

"So, anything else interesting happen to you? Or was it just the killer giant?"

"Hmm, my guardian asked me to craft an illusion to help him with something but other than that, not really."

"That Dumbledore fellow? What's he want you to make an illusion of."

"It's complicated. Anyway, what about you? How was your day, or days I guess?" Harry asked her as he changed the futon back into a couch and sat down on it. Ciri joined him and tilted her head up in thought.

"Hmm, not much really. We mainly just do training and studying. Nothing interesting really happened. Certainly not near what happened to you. Oh wait, didn't you say you were going to make you're first enchanted item? Did you manage to do it?" Ciri asked. Harry nodded and cast another illusion to show he what he made. She took it and looked at it.

"Interesting. Does it just tell the time and season?"

"Yes, though it's a little more complicated than that. It also updates based on wherever I am." Harry explained. She looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"Like when I enter a different time zone and such."

"What's a time zone?"

"Ah, right. Well…"