Author's Note:

Hey all,

Sorry I couldn't post in a while. Weather's been really bad and I didn't have access to wifi. Hope you like the chapter!

Chapter 12: A Taste of Adventure

The days and weeks flew by. Before Harry knew it, two months had passed since his arrival at the school. The castle had begun to feel like home, a wonderfully strange and extraordinarily magical home that Harry loved very much. Sumptuous meals, owl post, days filled with magic lessons, evenings of fun and laughter in the Gryffindor common room, hours whiled away with his best mate Ron as they explored the castle and grounds; these things were beginning to feel normal rather than seeming like a rare treat. For the first time in his life Harry was truly happy with his lot.

There were some snags of course. Harry's academic success was mixed. Protective Magic had become Harry's best subject and Quirrel had quickly become his favorite teacher. He had also come to appreciate Charms where they were learning all sorts of handy things from locking and unlocking spells to manipulating wind, water, earth and fire. He'd decided that he didn't mind Magizoology and Herbology and made a decent effort there. The other three classes were a different matter. Harry had, over fifty hours of classes with Snape, acquired a solid dislike for both the man and his subject. He was also less than enthusiastic about Transfiguration, which was at least as complex a subject as Potions. And he had ceased to make an effort with History of Magic, deeming it the only completely boring aspect of the magical world.

And then there were his nemesis, Malfoy. To Harry's and Ron's dismay, Malfoy and some of his pals like Anthony Goldstein and the Ravenclaw girls had proved excellent students. Malfoy outdid Harry in every class except Protective Magic. During their first meeting, Malfoy had reminded Harry of Dudley. But where Dudley was fat, ugly and stupid, Malfoy was good-looking, intelligent and talented, while also possessing the same instincts for bullying. Malfoy was also even more popular among the first years than Dudley had been in Harry's primary school. All of this meant that Malfoy had usurped Dudley's place as the boy Harry most hated.

Harry had dearly wanted a chance to make Malfoy envious of him and just such a chance had fallen into Harry's lap when October and with it, the Quidditch season had begun. Quidditch, played on broomsticks, wasthesport in the magical world. Everyone constantly talked about it. The school held a Quidditch tournament each year, with one team from each house playing, and it was a core event of the school year. Only students from second year onwards were allowed on the teams; Malfoy had already boasted to everyone that he'd be on the team next year. But Harry, who'd flown well on his first day, showing himself to be a natural, and who'd continued to fly well during Saturday flying lessons with Madam Hooch, had been accepted into the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year itself, making him the youngest house player in about a century.

Word had gotten around the school quickly bringing even more attention and stardom to Harry. First years who'd been thoroughly impressed with Malfoy's ability to hold parties in the hall reserved for prefects and the endless parcels of sweets, cakes and treats that he got from home, were a lot more impressed that Harry was going to play for Gryffindor. Malfoy had turned green with envy the first time he'd heard about Harry's selection and continued to shoot jealous looks every-time he saw Harry surrounded by a gaggle of admirers, some of whom followed Harry right onto the Quidditch pitch to watch his training sessions with the rest of the team.

All in all, Harry's indirect battle with Malfoy was going in Harry's favour, for, as Harry told Ron, who wanted to be better at academics when you could be better at Quidditch and be selected for the house team?

On the last day of October, Harry and Ron rose early, woken by the delicious smells wafting into their dormitory. When they headed down to the common room, they saw that Halloween breakfast had been sent up to them while the Great Hall was decorated for the evening feast.

After breakfast, Harry and Ron headed to their Thursday classes. They had double Potions first. The approaching festivities had not mellowed Snape one whit. He kept them working until the very last minute and then set them their largest pile of homework yet. McGonagall was every bit as bad during double Transfiguration but she did at least wish them a happy Halloween.

Quirrel on the other hand, seemed to know that everyone's mind was on the feast. He let the class have a couple of free hours. He even handed out Halloween candy to the students.

Kettleburn insisted on doing something productive but after ten minutes of lecture, he gave up. Most of the class wasn't paying attention. Instead, he announced a pop quiz on topics they'd already covered, offering a large box of candy as a prize. This elicited more interest and many students did their best to answer. To nobody's surprise, Hermione ended up answering more than half the questions, standing on tiptoes and raising her hand as far as it would go every time a question was asked. Ron who'd tried answering one question, only to get it wrong and then be corrected by Hermione, was in a foul mood at the end of the lesson.

"It's no wonder she hasn't got any friends" he told Harry rather loudly as they were heading back to the castle. "She's a nightmare. No one would want to be around her a second longer than they absolutely had to." Harry glanced back and sure enough, Hermione had caught Ron's comment. She had gone very red in the face and as Harry watched, tears pooled in the corner of her eyes. She rushed away from them, running as fast she could towards the castle, her heavy book bag slapping her on the back with every step she took. Ron looked a little abashed but didn't say anything.

When Harry and Ron had dropped off their book bags, Harry changed into a brand-new set of clothes for the feast – a t-shirt with a Halloween theme and a pair of black jeans. They headed down to the feast with the other Gryffindors. Parvati Patil (Harry was finally learning to tell the twins apart) informed them that Hermione was crying in the abandoned girl's bathroom in the fifth floor of the west wing. Parvati looked pointedly at Ron while she said it, and he shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. Harry felt bad for Hermione but couldn't dwell on it. They'd reached the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was a treat to see. Giant hollowed out pumpkins, with lanterns placed inside of them, hung from the enchanted ceiling which looked like a pitch black, starless, night sky. More lanterns had been placed at intervals along all of the tables. A thousand live bats fluttered around the Great Hall. Vases filled with orange Snarling Snapdragons stood on tall stands along the walls of the Hall. The tablecloths had been changed and chair covers had been added to suit the Halloween theme; orange and black. And the feast, already laid out on the tables, matched the theme. Harry saw that the usual juices had been replaced by black and orange mocktails. Desserts included vampire cupcakes, spider crescent rolls, brain shaped jelly and eyeball pudding. Even the cutlery and crockery had changed. The normally golden utensils now sported Halloween themes.

Harry sat down in front of a plate that depicted a score humans dressed up as ghosts, standing in a magical glade full of pumpkin lanterns. Next to his place was a box with the marking: Warlock cracker.

"We each get one" said Fred, sitting down at the Gryffindor table opposite to Harry.

"They last for minutes and at the end you get a collection of presents" Added George. "Go on, try it out."

George showed Harry how to set off the cracker. It exploded with a bang and something shot towards the ceiling. A shower of sparks appeared forming the image of a roaring lion. The sparks changed colour and formation a moment later, to show the crest of Hogwarts, followed by a sequence with the four founders that depicted them founding the school.

"A classic" said Fred when the cracked finally fizzled out. As the last sparks faded, something dropped down towards Harry. Harry snatched all three objects out of the air, his reflexes kicking in. When he'd ripped away the orange and black gift wrappers, he saw that he'd gotten a chess board and a set of live chessmen, a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans with Halloween themed flavors, a golden snitch which he played with for several minutes, letting it fly off for a few feet before snatching it out of the air, and a white mouse. Deciding Hedwig, would not take kindly to another pet, Harry set the mouse free. A moment later, Harry remembered Madam Norris. Hoping it wouldn't become her Halloween dinner, Harry began loading a plate with food.

The Hall soon filled up and the students took turns setting of their crackers so that there was a continuous display of fireworks for a few hours. Ron was one of the last to burst his crackers, setting it off just as the feast was cleared away. His cracker put up a display of Hengist of Woodcroft taming a werewolf in a thrilling duel. When the sparks vanished, Ron got a box of Chocolate Frogs, a glow-in-the-dark light stick, and a pack of self-shuffling playing cards. Ron eagerly shared out the Frogs and then dashed up to the Gryffindor dormitory. Harry, Fred, George, Dean and Seamus handed back the collectibles that had come with the frogs to Ron when he re-appeared five minutes later, holding a box with more collectibles. Ron fiddled around with them for a while before letting out a loud "Yes!" and punching the air.

"I've collected all the parts for two magical objects!" he told them excitedly, his fingers deftly assembling the pieces. When he was finished, he had a coin box with anti-theft properties; an alarm that would scream and wail if anyone but Ron touched the box while the fangs popped out of the box and clamped onto the hand of the thief. His second object was a fake wand. When Ron tried to cast spells with it, it changed shape to resemble different animals and made animal sounds. Harry thought both were cool and decided to send Hedwig off with a large order for Chocolate Frogs that night itself.

They were just debating whether Ron could trade pieces with other students to complete a third magical object (he had nearly enough for a couple) when the double doors to the Entrance Hall burst open. Professor Quirrel rushed in, bleeding from a head wound. "Cave trolls in the school!" he gasped. "I downed a couple of them but then I took this injury and they scattered all over. Came to warn you." Blood leaked down from his brow as he spoke and when he was finished, he sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar at once and it took several loud bursts of sparks emitted by Dumbledore's wand to restore order. "Prefects lead your houses back to the dormitories. Teachers, spread out and search the school. Deal with any trolls you encounter but avoid killing them if you can; they are an endangered species."

A moment later, Oliver, Livvy and the older Gryffindor prefects were chivvying the Gryffindors out of the Great Hall, instructing them to stick close to one another. But getting seventy students into a group wasn't an easy task. Many students had already left the Great Hall and the Entrance Hall was a confused mix of all houses.

"Ron?" said Harry, tugging at Ron's sleeve.

"What?" he asked, trying not to let the jostling crowd separate him from Harry.

"I've only just remembered. Hermione. She doesn't know about the trolls."

"Let's tell a teacher," suggested Ron.

Harry scanned the Entrance Hall but all the teachers were already gone, having split up into groups and Quirrel was still lying on the floor of the Great Hall.

"We could tell Percy, he's the Ravenclaw prefect, Hermione's his responsibility" suggested Ron.

"But most of the Ravenclaws had already left the Hall and Percy was no-where in sight. Oliver wasn't either. And the Entrance Hall was quickly emptying. Not wanting to be noticed by a prefect of another house, Harry pulled Ron into one of the alcoves set into the Entrance Hall walls.

"It's got to be us" he told Ron.

Ron looked like wanted to protest this but after a moment he nodded. "Alright. I suppose it's my fault she's in the bathroom in the first place. We've got to help. But we can't just rush off. We've got to have a plan."

"There's no time to plan" protested Harry.

"Good thing, I've already got one then. What we need is someone with some powerful magic." Without explaining anything further to Harry, Ron stuck his hand into his pocket, pulled out a spare quill, took aim and chucked it at the head of a Slytherin girl. The girl turned around and Harry saw that it was Irene. She looked in the direction the quill had come from, a furious look on her face. It only mellowed a little when she saw that it was Ron. Ron waved her over towards their alcove.

Irene glanced at a tall girl standing a few feet away from her. There was a prefect badge pinned to the collar of her Slytherin uniform and she was chivvying a number of younger Slytherin's out of the Entrance Hall towards the Main Courtyard. When she was sure that the prefect wasn't looking her way, Irene darted away and made for their alcove.

"What is it, Ron?" she hissed at him the moment she was concealed in shadow. "The prefects will do head counts the moment they get to Slytherin quarters and if I'm not there, Professor Snape will hear about it."

"McGonagall isn't going to be pleased with Harry and me, either" Ron hissed back, "But we have no choice. It's Hermione." Quickly, he explained the situation.

"Cave trolls" mused Irene. "We'd have to be lucky just to handle one of them Ron. If we stumble into a bunch of them…"

"What if Hermione stumbles into a bunch of them?" demanded Harry. "Look, I know you like her. I heard you try to make friends with her. You've got to help us." When Irene still looked hesitant, he added, "Ron says you've got powerful magic and I know you're really good too. I've seen you in class. Help us help Hermione? Please?"

Harry wasn't sure if it was the flattery or the pleading note in his voice that had done the trick. But Irene nodded her agreement. When the Entrance Hall had emptied, they set off up the marble staircase. They had to take a slight detour to evade Peeves who was zooming around the castle shrieking with joy about the chaos the trolls were causing, calling out suggestions on what the trolls should destroy next.

And then, as they neared the fifth-floor charms classroom, Harry saw one. The cave troll was fifteen feet tall with a body as thick as the trunk of three or four trees. It had roughly human proportions, with two arms, two legs and a head, but the head was misshapen with its left eye several inches higher up on its face than the right eye while its nose was a mere half inch above its mouth, both very low down on the face.

The troll wore no clothing except for a dirty loincloth. It did however, wear armor engraved with runes. A breastplate covered its torso and there was a spiked helm on its head. More plates covered its thighs and lower legs as well as its upper and lower arms. It wore giant wooden sandals on its feet. It held a club, tall as a grown man, in its right hand, and an even longer spear in its left hand. As it lumbered down the corridor (away from them thankfully), it used its club to scrape the wall and rip away the torches in the brackets. The torches went out as soon as the brackets were torn free of the walls, averting a fire.

The troll paused in front of an open door and sniffed loudly. Then it entered the door.

"There's a lock. We could lock it in," said Ron.

"No, we can't" whispered Irene. "That's the out of order girl's bathroom. It went in because it scented Hermione."

"Come on," shouted Harry. Heart pounding loudly against his chest, he ran into the bathroom. Ron followed, with a yelled question to Irene. "How do we beat it?"

"Trolls dislike bright lights and they have a weak spot on the top of their head which is softer than the rest of it. But we can't beat it, we'll have to distract it, grab her and leave." shouted Irene over the sounds of crashing and breaking that were emitting from the bathroom.

Barely had she finished when Harry found himself at the bathroom entrance. The sight that met his eyes was a horrible one. The troll had smashed up most of the bathroom. The stalls had all been splintered and the basins had crumbled to bits under the onslaught of its club. The torches that lit the bathroom lay on the floor, snuffed out. In the darkness, Harry could make out the outline of Hermione, who was cowering against the far wall, one trembling hand holding out her wand, pointing it at the troll which was advancing on her.

"Lumos Maxima!" yelled Harry. A bright white light flared up at the tip of his wand, illuminating the entire bathroom, the light so bright that it hurt his eyes. The troll noticed it and turned towards Harry.

Ron dashed around the troll, keeping to the walls of the bathroom. He grabbed Hermione and tried to tug her away but she was frozen with shock and refused to move.

The troll raised its club and swung it. It descended rapidly towards Harry and Irene with enough force to smash them to a pulp. Harry grabbed Irene and ducked, forcing down her head as well. Irene let herself be pushed to the ground even as she cried out something that was lost in the roar of rage the troll let loose at missing its target. Harry felt magic ebb from Irene to the floor which turned slippery at once. They slid away from the troll just in time to dodge the second swing of its club.

The troll tried to walk towards them but wasn't able to manage it. It roared and grunted in frustration as it tried not to lose its footing on the slickened floor.

It hadn't been a bad move thought Harry, but the problem now was that they were all trapped inside the bathroom, with the troll blocking the exit.

"We'll have to defeat it" gasped Hermione who seemed to be recovering from her initial shock. "The head-"

"And bright light, yes we know," interrupted Harry. "But how do we get to its head? The helm is protecting it."

"Let's worry about the club and spear first" advised Ron.

There was silence for a moment and then Ron said, "Irene, your dust spell- you can do it can't you?"

"I've already thought of it buts it's too dangerous Ron. It's an advanced curse-"

"Sounds good to me" butted in Harry. "And in case you didn't notice, we're already in danger here."

Irene bit her lip again and then nodded. "Alright, but it won't work on the armor or helm, that's protected with Runes."

"Not protected from Transfiguration, I think" offered Hermione. "Runes usually don't do that. I'll get the helm."

Just then, Irene's charm stopped working and whatever had made the floor slippery vanished. She hadn't poured a lot of magic into it and the effect had worn off.

"I'll distract it" yelled Harry. He made bright light appear again and charged the troll; wand held out in front of him. The troll squinted and shielded its eyes. It raised its club and spear and began to swing both at Harry.

"Reducto" yelled Irene. An inch away from Harry's throat, the blade of the spear crumbled away into dust and a moment later the club followed suit, but not until after Harry had dodged a third blow from it.

"Immuto Tria" Hermione yelled. The helm on the troll's face dissolved into a puddle of goo which dripped into its eyes. Bereft of weapons and blinded by the goo, the troll lurched to a halt.

"Wingardium Leviosa" yelled Ron, pointing his wand at a shaft of the troll's spear. It flew out of the troll's hand with some difficulty as the troll tried to hold onto it, then soared high into the air, mimicking the movements of Ron's wand. Ron gave a great downward slash with his wand and the shaft of the spear struck the unprotected Troll's head with a solid thump. The troll gave a pained moan.

"Again" said Harry.

But the Troll had other ideas. Still blinded by the goo, it began to move in random directions, lunging out with its bare hands. Harry, Ron, Irene and Hermione ducked and rolled for their lives, doing their best not to make any noise that would give away their location.

Harry glanced at a still intact toilet. Pointing his wand at it, even as he rolled away from one of the troll's grabbing hands, he incanted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The toilet ripped free of the floor with a loud noise that distracted the troll and sent it towards the toilet.

Harry, who'd been counting on that, made the toilet soar towards the troll's head with all the speed he could manage, pouring magic into the spell rapidly. The toilet crash landed on the troll's head with the loudest noise yet and then splintered to pieces. The troll gave a lurch and then crashed to the floor.

"Did you kill it?" asked Ron in an awed voice.

Harry hesitantly approached the troll and gave it a poke. It didn't move. Hermione approached it, touched a point on its bare leg and pressed. A few seconds later, she said, "it's got a pulse. It's been knocked out, not killed."

"We dealt with a cave troll" said Ron in the same awed voice.

"Imagine all the points, we'll win for this" said Harry with a grin.

Both girls gave Harry a look that suggested that he was barking mad. "Get points!" exclaimed Hermione. "You'll be lucky if you three don't get a week's worth of detentions for risking your lives and each other's coming after me… not that I'm ungrateful. You three… you saved my life. I'd never have managed on my own."

"You're welcome," said Ron. "Reckon, you're right about the detentions too."

"Let's get out of here while the teachers are still busy with the other trolls," said Irene. "Hopefully, any teacher who comes across this one will assume another teacher dealt with it and maybe our prefects will let us get away with sneaking away… I mean, if they report us, then they'll get into trouble too for giving us a chance to sneak off." Irene had a calculating look in her eyes now. "I've got to slip into our common room before Professor Snape notices."

"Yeah, McGonagall won't be pleased with us either, Harry but Oliver might just let us off. Let's go."

Hermione nodded her head fervently, no doubt thinking about Professor Flitwick.

Highly disappointed that they wouldn't get any credit, Harry was nevertheless warming to Irene's plan and was about to voice agreement when-

"A fine plan" said a soft, cold voice, behind Harry.

Heart sinking to the bottom of his shoes, Harry turned around and saw not only Snape, but also McGonagall, Flitwick and Dumbledore standing at the entrance to the bathroom.

"But you have overlooked an important element" Snape continued, his voice still soft. "It does not take very long for Hogwarts teachers to deal with a horde of trolls and then do head counts, only to find that four students are missing and track them down."

Irene did not dare to make a response. She was back to biting her lip but was otherwise holding herself very still, keeping her face carefully neutral.

"Explain yourselves," said Dumbledore. He did not sound angry. He sounded disappointed, which was far worse.

Harry opened his mouth unsure of whether he could come up with a convincing tale when Dumbledore spoke again.

"Please do not insult our intelligence with lies and tall tales. If there is not truth in your words, then we will know and it will go badly for you." His voice was still calm, but the warning note was unmistakable.

Whatever Harry had been about to blurt out died in his throat. Closing his mouth, he swallowed, then began speaking. The whole tale (without a single detail left out) was told in less than five minutes. Harry tried to downplay the danger but he did not think he'd fooled any of the teachers. When he was finished, silence reigned for a few moments.

Harry, who'd looked at his feet the whole time he'd spoken, dared to risk a glance at the teachers. Snape's eyes were glittering with cold fury, McGonagall's lips had gone very thin (never a good sign), Dumbledore looked grave and even genial Professor Flitwick had a stern expression on his face.

"Are any of you hurt?" asked Dumbledore finally, breaking the silence.

They shook their heads.

"In that case, I will leave doling out both reward and punishment to the Heads of Houses. I think, Hermione ought to be included in the punishment, a warning alarm was set off all through the school. She should have known better than to linger in the bathroom after hearing it. I will be writing to each of your families about this. A good evening to you all." With that he swept out of the bathroom.

"Alarm?" asked Ron.

"It was sounded when you all were still in the Great Hall, Weasley," said McGonagall.

Harry felt slightly hopeful. Dumbledore seemed to think they should be rewarded as well as punished…

"I think" said Professor McGonagall, "That Granger's idea of a week's worth of detentions is a very fine one. Starting tomorrow, you will spend every evening until the next Thursday in detention with Mr. Filch."

"Agreed" said Professor Flitwick. "And we will allow Argus to decide the number of hours, that will teach you all a sound lesson."

"And fifty points will be taken from each of you" concluded Snape.

Fifty points!

Harry looked pleadingly at Professor McGonagall.

In a slightly softer tone, she added, "not many first year students could have tackled a full-grown cave troll, not even as a group. And you have demonstrated a willingness to help a fellow student in need that is appreciable. Therefore, I will award fifty points to each of you."

No gain. No loss. Given the expressions on the teacher's faces, Harry supposed they were lucky that the loss and gain in points had been balanced out at all. But they'd have a week's worth of detention. Filch would keep them working all evening if it was up to him…

"Yes, Professor," said Hermione.

"As you say, Professor" added Irene, doing her best to look meek.

Reluctantly, Ron and Harry echoed them.

"You may head to back to your House Quarters. It's past curfew already. Off you go."

Wordlessly, the four of them filed out of the bathroom. The moment they were out of earshot of the teacher's, Ron began fuming, "a week of detentions and no points gained at all! How is that fair? How?"

"We did endanger ourselves and each other even if it was for a good reason," said Irene, in a resigned tone.

"Yes, we did." agreed Hermione. "The teachers care about our well-being. Not only that, they're responsible for it and answerable to our families. I can't imagine Professor Flitwick or Professor Dumbledore explaining to my parents that a troll almost bludgeoned me to death. My parents are going to be furious. And the teachers have got every right to be angry with us."

"I wouldn't be surprised if my mum shows up to skewer me after she gets Dumbledore's letter" said Ron, sounding highly worried.

"It won't be that bad, Ron. Fred and George get into trouble all the time for sneaking off into the Forbidden Forest. Your mum's forgiven that hasn't she?"

"Yeah" said Ron, sounding hopeful now. "Yeah, she has forgiven them. So, it's only fair that she let me off too…"

Harry and Hermione had paused mid-step and were looking at Irene and Ron with surprise. "How do you two know each other?" asked Hermione.

"And how did you know Irene could do powerful magic?" demanded Harry determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. "That changing the spear to dust thing, you knew she could do it. How?"

Irene and Ron exchanged glances. Ron nodded slightly and Irene began explaining. "I used to live in Ottery St. Catchpole. That's Ron's up in a foster home there and attended Ottery St. Catchpole Primary School from when I was four to when I was seven. Ron's mum, Madam Prewett works as a teacher in the primary school. And Ron's mum and my mother, Cecelia Snape are first cousins. So, Madam Prewett took a liking to me when I was at school. When I was seven, Madam Prewett and Mr. Weasley, that's Ron's dad, they considered adopting me. But things didn't work out that way…" Irene trailed off.

"What happened?" asked Hermione curiously?"

"They invited me over for a few weeks to see how I would fit in. I got on well with everybody except for Ron's brother Percy. One day, we were having an argument and suddenly the barn got set on fire. I don't know how it happened. I didn't do it and neither did Ron. We thought it must have been Percy. He'd just turned eleven and gotten a wand, he was about to start at Hogwarts. Anyways, the whole barn was burning and we were trapped inside. Ron already knew that I could control my magic to some extent. He suggested that I do something we'd seen Madam Prewett do the previous day, a vanishing spell. I closed my eyes and imagined the barn gone, flames and all. But it didn't vanish. Instead, it turned to dust. Mr. Weasley and Madam Prewett had seen the fire and they came running. I told the whole story and Ron backed me up but Percy denied starting the fire. He blamed it on me. When Mr. Weasley examined Percy's wand, there was no trace of him using any fire spell. So, everyone assumed that it was me who had done it. Maybe it was. I don't know. All I know is that I never meant to do anything…" Irene's voice had sunk to a whisper by the end. Clearly the memory was painful for her.

Harry felt a strong rush of sympathy. He knew what it was like to be blamed for things he hadn't meant to do and wasn't even aware he'd done.

"But how could Ron's parents blame you for that? Even if you started the fire, you didn't mean to!" exclaimed Hermione.

"They didn't", said Ron quickly. My mum believed Irene and told her it wasn't her fault… But…"

"But what?" asked Harry.

"My dad said that Irene was too powerful, her magic too dangerous, for her to grow up in a house that had other kids. He said that if Irene hadn't managed to turn the barn to dust, we'd all have been burnt alive. He wouldn't go through with the adoption…"

"Oh" said Hermione softly. "I've done some pretty wild things too" she said thoughtfully. "I've changed my parents into animals… I suppose I should be really grateful they put up with and stood by my side through all of it… I don't blame your parents though, Ron. I mean I was an only child. I wasn't endangering a sibling whereas your parents had to think about you and Percy."

"And my other brothers too" said Ron quickly. "Fred and George were young then too and even Charlie was still in school. Only Bill had graduated."

"I don't blame Madam Prewett and Mr. Weasley," said Irene. "Of course, they had to think of their own children's safety. But… But I'd gotten my hopes up and really come to like Ron and his family so… so it was a huge disappointment. And on top of that, it was decided that I couldn't stay in the foster home with the other girls because I was a danger to them too. They sent me to the Sky District to a foster home where I'd be the only child, and Madam Caldwell, that's the warlock who took me in, she was horrid. She became a drunk soon after I arrived. Now she spends all her time, and the gold she gets for caring for me, on drinks. I've had to cook and clean for myself for a while now."

"I can completely understand," said Harry. "The Dursley's, my aunt and her husband and son, I've lived with them my whole life, they 're right horrible to me too. I've got to do chores and never receive pocket money or presents or even new things. And they kept me in the dark about being a warlock even though they knew. Punished me every time I used magic without knowing I was."

Hermione looked sympathetic. Ron still looked awkward. A silence stretched on between them.

They reached the marble staircase and headed to the fourth floor. Harry was about to take the route to the viaduct when it occurred to him that Hermione and Irene wouldn't be going in that direction.

"I've got to go the west wing," said Irene.

"Me too," said Hermione.

There was more awkward silence. A moment later, they all spoke at once.

"I'm sorry, I was so rude Hermione"

"I shouldn't have rebuffed your attempt to make friends Irene"

"I wish I'd spoken to you sooner instead of avoiding you Ron"

"We made a really good team"

Small smiles appeared on all of their faces and then grew wider. No one said anything more but it was understood. They were friends from that moment onwards. With a muttered "see you" or "good night" they each hurried off towards their House Quarters.

Harry's step was light in spite of the punishment that awaited him tomorrow. It had always needled him that he'd only managed to make one friend in Ron. Now he had two more. Ron looked really happy as well. Smiling, they walked in silence.