Harriet Potter and the New Fangs
Chapter 7: Halloween
The leadup to Halloween seemed to pass like a blur to Harriet as she attended classes, practiced Quidditch, listened to Ron and Hermione's constant bickering and arguing, went on 'escapades' into the forest with Hagrid, and more.
As the term continued, the various classes taught at Hogwarts progressed into harder material and more complex theory work. For example, in Transfigurations, Professor McGonagall had them memorising transfiguration formula and applying it to the match to needle spell she had taught them. Most were now able to transfigure their matches into needles effortlessly, Harriet excelling and being able to make the needle far more ornate – even with some engravings – and Hermione not far behind, though some, such as Neville still struggled to even get a partial transfiguration.
Flitwick had them practising proper enunciation of incantations, as well as correct performance of wand motions. Sinistra had them memorising and tracing star charts in their weekly classes. In herbology, Sprout had them assessing the use of charms in the subject. Binns' endless droning continued putting them all to sleep – except Hermione and a few stubborn Ravenclaws – and finally, Snape was obsessive in his hunt for anything to deduct points from Gryffindor for as they brewed potions and went over proper ingredient preparations.
In regards the Quidditch practise, Wood finally allowed her to use an actual snitch during their third training session, and though it took her a while to adjust to it, she was soon darting around the pitch like a missile and hunting down the tiny golden ball with the small glints it made as it reflected sunlight. Even when the twins started pelting bludgers at her, she still managed to avoid every last one with grace as she pursued the snitch.
However, as much as she enjoyed the practises themselves, she found the best part came afterwards, when her snowy owl, Hedwig – aka Her Majesty the Queen in Harriet's eyes – joined her for some extra flying around the pitch and the grounds, even up around the castle's many towers. Her owl actually taught her a lot about flying in these little sessions, such as how to read and use air currents, as well as good surveyal techniques. Of course, Harriet had only been flying for about a month, and so wouldn't be catching up to Hedwig's mastery anytime soon, but she had still managed to pick up a few things at a serviceable level.
Harriet didn't like to think about or dwell on her and Hagrid's weekly trips into the Forbidden Forest much, seeing as they only served to remind her of her cursed existence, but there were a few enjoyable or memorable moments during them. For example, there was that time he had introduced her to the centaurs – the trio of Bane (a black haired and bodiedandwild looking individual, with a black beard and a clear disdain for humans), Ronan (an individual with red hair and a red beard, who was distrustful but gentle) and Firenze (a centaur with a palomino horse hindbody and pale blondhuman hair. He had blue eyes and looked younger than both Bane and Ronan, and he was a rather courageous, bold and outspoken individual among his herd) specifically – which had been rather interesting. Then again, he had also introduced her to an acromantula colony within the woods, consisting of Aragog – who he had raised from an egg since before he was expelled from Hogwarts – Morag (Aragog's mate), and their brood. That had certainly been terrifying. She could still remember the blinding speed of her heartbeat and the way she had been rooted firmly to the ground for most of the interaction.
Ron and Hermione's almost constant arguing amongst themselves over pretty much nothing definitely ground on Harriet's nerves however, meaning she frequently had to sneak away from them to decompress or risk blowing up at them like she did with Malfoy on the train. She definitely did not like that side of her so tried to supress it as much as possible, though this just made the explosion worse when it was finally released. In fact, she had almost let it out on multiple occasions during the bickering, all of these near misses being caused by Ron as he was the main instigator. Hermione clearly disliked some of Ron's worse habits, this extending to him at times, but she didn't let it get to her. They both wanted to be around Harriet, and the girl wanted them both around, so Hermione tried to remain civil with the boy.
Ron, however, would take almost every opportunity to take digs at Hermione, be it due to her dedication to schoolwork (though Harriet's was near to the other girl's, so why he'd insult Hermione for it, the vampire had no idea), her large front teeth (inadvertently making Harriet anxious in the process), or her 'attitude' and 'bossiness'. He didn't seem to understand that the attitude he complained about was caused by him constantly pushing her buttons, or that her bossiness was just her way of trying to help.
This all eventually came to a head on the day of Halloween.
That day, Harriet had woken up in a sombre mood, only made worse by people celebrating the holiday without a care in the world. Among other things, they were celebrating the downfall of Voldemort – Harriet's triumph over the dark lord. It was like they completely forgot about her parents' deaths that night. To Harriet, it was as if they were celebrating the murder of her family.
To say she was unsociable that day would be an understatement. Harriet would just idly listen to the chatter going on around her, not really taking any of it in as both Ron and Hermione attempted to converse with her. She didn't even attempt to touch her breakfast.
It was as they were walking to charms that the arguments started up once more.
"Oh c'mon, mate! Cheer up already, it's Halloween! We only have lessons until lunch!" Ron said jovially, lightly punching her shoulder, only to receive a low hum in response. "What's there to be so down about? Today's a day to celebrate!" he exclaimed.
Hermione just looked at the boy, aghast. "What do you mean, there's nothing to be down about? How insensitive can you get? To most of the wizarding world, Halloween marks the downfall of You-Know-Who, but to her, it's just the day her parents were murdered, Ronald! How would you like it if everyone around you was celebrating an event that directly led to your parents' deaths!?" she whisper yelled at him.
"I, uhhh-" he tried to stutter out but was cut off.
"To her, all this probably feels like people celebrating the loss of her family, you imbecile!" Hermione finished before leading Harriet away from a stunned Ron, who just stood in the middle of the hallway trying to comprehend what just happened.
Hermione didn't take the girl to Charms class, instead leading her to the first-floor girls' bathroom as she noticed tears pooling in her friend's eyes. She gently set Harriet down in a cubicle before speaking to her.
"You should be away from all that nonsense in here," she said quietly, her voice carrying a soothing tone Harriet had never heard before. "Would you like me to stay here with you or would you prefer being alone for now?"
"Alone, please," Harriet shook her head and muttered almost silently. Hermione just smiled down at her.
"Alright. I'll come check on you after Charms, okay?"
"Ok."
And with that, Hermione left the bathroom, the door creaking close behind her as Harriet hugged her knees to her chest and sobbed noiselessly in the empty room.
Left alone with her thoughts, Harriet tried desperately to recall their faces from the pictures she had seen, but anytime she could actually bring them into focus, her mind was plagued by images of blinding green lights, loud whooshing noises as if there were powerful winds and storm clouds, and a high-pitched laughter that reverberated in the almost deafening silence of the room.
She didn't know how much time passed before there came the sound of a door opening and Hermione's voice was heard again. "Harriet? Do you feel up for History of Magic?"
The vampire girl did indeed not feel up for History of Magic. In fact, she didn't even feel up to responding affirmative or not. Fortunately for her, her bushy-haired friend correctly read her silence and left once more.
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Harriet didn't know when or how she fell asleep, but as she woke up, she was greeted with the most acrid smell that had ever entered her nostrils. Even as she tried to squeeze them shut, it somehow managed to continue its assault on her senses.
Deciding to get up and investigate, if only to distract herself from her still rampaging thoughts and feelings, she unfurled her knees and stretched her sore muscles, joints popping as she did so. She then exited the cubicle and wiped at her eyes to clear them of the remnants of her tears before slowly raising her head only to be met with a truly horrible sight.
Illuminated by the dim candlelight of the room and the flashes of lightning outside was undeniably a troll. It stood taller than Hagrid at a good twelve feet and its bluish-grey skin looked like rock. It had unnaturally long arms, its hands passing its knees, with a large wooden club held in one hand that was being dragged due to the arm length. Its feet looked like small boulders with two obscenely large and disgusting toenails each and its bald head had ears as large as an elephant's with a somewhat squashed and rather stupid looking face.
Vampire and troll stared at each other for a brief moment before Harriet turned back around and re-entered her cubicle, sitting down on the toilet once more.
"It's just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream…" she mumbled to herself, silently praying this was, in fact, just a dream.
The troll just stood there another moment before determining what it saw was moving and so raised its club and swung in a wide arc with one arm, smashing the wood of every stall and almost burying the girl under the debris as she screamed.
It was at this moment, as the troll prepared for another wild swing that there came the running of a single set of footsteps. "Run, Harriet!" screamed the voice of Hermione Granger.
Harriet only had a split second to react as she tried to crawl to the remains of the next stall over, only to buried under over more splintered wood.
"Help!" the girl screamed even as she continued crawling.
"Ok, uh, think, Hermione, think!" Hermione said to herself before deciding to just screw it. "Lumos!" she yelled as a bright light appeared at the tip of her wand, which she began waving around like a flare. "Hey! Over here! Come and get me!"
Hermione's distraction seemed to work a little too well as the troll roared and stomped towards her, club raised. The girl was about to be crushed by a heavy swing before something else distracted the beast.
Harriet had apparently grabbed a loose piece of metal piping and jumped onto the troll's back before repeatedly hitting it over the head with a dull clang each time. The behemoth then began to look around questioning before thrashing itself around the bathroom in an attempt to get the girl off of its back. This did nothing however, as Harriet's grip remained strong until their aggressor managed to catch her legs in its own grip.
When another set of footsteps arrived at the door to the bathroom, they weren't sure what they were expecting to find, but this certainly was not it. For as Ron Weasley entered, he found his friend being held upside down by a troll that was trying to swing at her with a club, accompanied by Hermione Granger frantically yelling at the thing as she waved her lit wand about. The sight was so peculiar, in fact, that it took a moment for his brain to digest it.
"Can somebody do something!?" Harriet screamed as she narrowly dodged another massive swing. Ron's eyes looked from her to the other girl, who mouthed 'swish and flick' whilst doing the motions with her hand.
The youngest Weasley boy immediately understood and pulled out his wand before casting, "Wingardium Leviosa!" with the length of wood pointed at the club as it was pulled back for another attack.
In response to this, the troll's hand continued along its path harmlessly as its weapon rose into the air above its head, unsteadily conducted by Ron before it was dropped straight on the creature's skull with an audible thunk. It then swayed unsteadily and dropped Harriet, nearly crushing her as it finally fell to the ground with a thud.
Silence rained over the room for what seemed like an eternity before Hermione spoke up hesitantly. "Is it… dead?"
They all stared at the downed beast for another moment before there came Harriet's response. "I think it's just knocked out."
The conversation didn't get the chance to continue as there came three sets of hurried footsteps and McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape entered, the old witch looking as if she nearly had a heart attack when she saw the unconscious troll.
"My goodness! Explain yourselves, now!" she exclaimed.
"Er, well-"
"You see-"
Harriet and Hermione began talking over each other before Ron stopped them both.
"It's my fault, Professor," he said bluntly.
"Mr Weasley?" McGonagall said weakly as the two girls looked at each other in shock.
"Earlier, before Charms, I said something horrible to Harriet," Ron began, looking nothing but remorseful for his actions. "And I'm guessing Hermione led her off here to be alone and such. Then, after Charms, I said something horrible about Hermione. She must have come here to check on Harriet. So, erm, well… when Quirrell came in screaming about a troll, Hermione instantly ran off here to tell her, and I overhead Parvati say that Hermione had been coming here a lot today. So I followed her after a minute or two, instead of telling a professor or prefect. And, uh, yeah…" he trailed off, pointing to giant lump on the ground.
"Mr Weasley, you foolish boy," their Head of House sighed tiredly. "I expected better of you, after your brothers' track records – except the twins, of course. I am very disappointed in you, and will be making sure your mother hears of this. Ten points will be taken from Gryffindor, for your lack of judgement, tact, and serious carelessness," as she went off on Ron, Harriet noticed idly that Snape had a bad looking cut in his robes and his leg. What could have caused that? Regardless, Harriet could smell it and was being enticed by both the scent and sight of it, to the point where it was all she could do to stop herself from lunging at the man.
Fortunately, both Professor Snape and McGonagall noticed this, and he was quickly dismissed by the stern old witch, making the vampire sigh in relief.
"Anyway, as I was saying… I hope you all realise just how fortunate you are," she sighed once more. "Not many first years could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. "Five points to each of you… for sheer dumb luck. And, Miss Granger, take another five points for standing up for your friend and taking care of a fellow student during a difficult time for them. Now, get back to the common room, the feast should be continuing there."
McGonagall then hurried them out of the room, passing Professor Quirrell on the way. The strange thing was, he hadn't looked even the slightest bit concerned or nervous during the entirety of the time he had been there. In fact, the man even looked a tad annoyed, perhaps with a tinge of fear mixed in?
Regardless, as the trio made their way up to the common room, they could all feel something had changed about their dynamic. They all felt much closer to one another than they had previously.
It was strange what a near death experience with a troll could do for a friendship.
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Hi everyone, slightly shorter chapter this time, but this felt like the natural place to end it. I hope you enjoyed it anyway!
As always, please leave any constructive advice, feedback or criticism in the reviews, and have a good one!