a/n: Big shout out to Time Keeper and poka for taking the time to read and review! This series was a labor of love and hope you enjoy it. Thanks for the favorites and follows!

Prompt: First Rescue

Chapter 2: Rescue

Hermione was sitting with her plate in a corner. Everyone was already talking about the troll incident. Mostly courtesy of Ron. He was going on about his levitation spell. Acting out his expertly used swish and flick motion. He was really living for the attention and Hermione couldn't help but be happy for him. Being an only child she only ever knew the constant, undivided attention given her when she was home. Sometimes she would have liked to be left alone.

She didn't think that Ron was neglected, just based on things he had said, it couldn't be easy being the second youngest of such a large family. Someone had already done most everything. Head boy, prefect, captain of the quidditch team, outstanding OWLs, outstanding NEWTs…Charlie, Bill, and Percy were on the straight and narrow. The twins seemed to have decided they'd pave a new path as agents of chaos. Ginny was unique because she was the first girl. Ron deserved to be the center of attention for once. She just wished he didn't have to go into such great detail about her inability to stop the troll.

"Hey," a voice said to her right. Looking up, she smiled at Harry. He sat down next to her and motioned toward Ron. "I've made sure everyone knows the reason we had to fight the troll in the first place was because we locked him in the bathroom with you."

She waved it off. "It's okay. He did a brilliant job with that spell. He deserves to get the credit."

"He may not have appreciated you correcting his pronunciation but the lesson seemed to sink in."

Hermione groaned. "I didn't mean to embarrass him in class. Sometimes I get carried away."

"He didn't have to react the way he did," Harry told her. He felt bad that Ron's words had made her so upset she was reduced to tears and missed class. Harry felt even worse that he didn't do anything to stick up for her. Especially after what she said to him their first night in the castle. He knew she was sensitive about her struggles making friends. Ron's words would have been exceptionally hurtful. "And you didn't have to lie for us. Why didn't you just tell McGonagall you were in the girls bathroom when the troll came in?"

She looked down at her plate. She knew she could have a reputation as a know-it-all who ruthlessly followed the rules. In her mind, that wasn't quite right. She followed the rules when they served the purpose they were made to serve. She didn't have much tolerance for injustice. The risks themselves to save her. That called for some rule breaking. "That would have only explained why I was in there. What were you going to say?"

"I'm not sure we worked that out."

"Why were you on the third floor?" she asked quietly.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't want her to feel more embarrassed that she already did. "We heard you were on the third floor. You didn't know about the troll so we decided to find you."

"You could have sent a prefect or a teacher," she pressed.

"I felt like it was our fault you weren't in the Great Hall. Besides, we didn't know the troll was on the third floor. Professor Quirrell said it was in the dungeon. I guess it can move pretty fast."

"I was really scared," she said so softly he almost didn't hear her. "And then you came in. I couldn't move and you just jumped on that troll. No one has ever rescued me before."

Harry's face turned a light shade of red. "You would have done the same for me." He was certain. He wasn't why he was so sure of the truth of his words, he just was. Hermione might be overzealous in being the first person in class with the right answer, the reality was she was usually the first person with the right answer. And it wasn't just because she studied hard. She had a way of understanding the theory behind the magic they were learning. It wasn't simple memorization.

She pushed her hair nervously out of her eyes under his scrutiny. "I probably wouldn't have locked you in with a troll," she finally said.

"No," he laughed. "I should hope not."

Sitting forward she leaned in so only Harry would hear her next words. "How do you think a troll got inside the school?"

That Harry had given some thought. "It's not like a troll just wondered by the castle and found an open door. Someone let it in and it came in through the dungeons."

"You think it was Professor Snape?" she asked, knowing there were few people who could get a troll inside the potions professor's inner sanctum without knowing about it. "Why?"

"Create a distraction? Lock everyone down so he could go where he needed to without someone seeing him?"

Hermione shook her head at the thought. She couldn't quite believe Snape would put students at risk. That any of the professors would. He had been jinxing Harry's broom. That was difficult to deny. And he was cruel to Harry for no reason. Hermione noted that their first day of potions. She had been too busy at the time trying to impress the teacher. Too busy to see he was using the lesson to prove some point to just Harry. Once the lesson had continued, Hermione saw how dejected Harry had looked. He had just been taking notes. Snape wasn't what anyone would call a compassion teacher, he was mean to pretty much anyone who wasn't a Slytherin. But he was a bully toward Harry in nearly every class. She had made it a goal after that first class to be the biggest know-it-all Snape had ever seen, just to take the attention off Harry. She might not be rescuing him from a troll, but each class she liked to think she saved him from some ridicule. "He was in the bathroom right along with Professor McGonagall. If he was trying to make a distraction for some reason, I can't imagine he had time."

Harry was forced to agree. Something was off with the entire situation. He sat back and watched Ron embellish the story for some new audience members. "Each time the troll gets bigger and uglier."

"And his spell gets more powerful. How long do you suppose it will be before he claims he lifted the troll up by its ankle and dropped it on its head?" she asked.

"Maybe this time. Come on, we can't let him steal all the glory. We defeated it together," he said, standing and holding out his hand for her. When she took it, he pulled her to her feet. "We can say you lured it in and we cornered it."

His action to include her meant more than he could know. She followed behind him. Ron caught her eye, and he raised his glass of pumpkin juice in her direction. "And then Hermione distracted it so I could take it's club. Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa," he said, swishing and flicking his wand with perfect pronunciation. The chair Neville was sitting in flew up in the air, dropping its occupant. "Sorry about that!" Ron called out before moving aside to let Harry and Hermione into the circle.