Link of Hogwarts

Seven

Link laid on one of the Hospital Wing's bed, the famous Madam Pomfrey fussing over him. So much for hiding his body from his friends. Now not only does Ron, Neville and Hermione saw his freakish body, even the professors who finally tracked down the missing troll saw his body in all its horrid glory. As to how he ended up in the Hospital Wing instead of Hermione or the others, one need to go back to last night after the fiasco that Quirrel caused at the feast.

After Link saw the club smashing down, bless fully missing Hermione but crushing the sink under which she tried to crawl under towards the exit, his mind blanked out. All he saw was a tall hulking figure with a singular eye preying on a holy figure with a golden harp. All he felt were fierce fury and deep terror that surged through his body like a tsunami of all consuming emotions. Then he was moving.

Ron will never tell him, or anyone long after the years gone by, the fear that scalded his bone with freezing ice as his skull rattled with the sound of Link's roar. Neville will never tell him, or anyone long after the years of Hogwarts passed by, how that roar also gave him the burst of courage needed to rush towards Hermione. Hermione will never tell him, only recalling privately in her later days, how that same roar of fury gave her hope that help have arrived. Strange, how Link's great roar not only inspire terror but also courage and hope.

The troll had staggered as Neville and Ron raced towards Hermione, mind racing as they held their wand with amateur skill lacking the true ability of a full grown wizard. How should they do this? How can they get out of this? All they know were the charm to levitate and the crude skill to transfigure a toothpick into a needle. What use was a needle in such a situation? And they barely have enough control and mastery of the levitation spell, what good was it in this sort of scene? They know little recipes for potion making but they do not have the time or the ingredients nor the skills needed to brew the right potion. In fact, what recipe they knew have little use against a troll.

But a second roar break the three out of their stupor and they looked up to see Link, both hands holding a wand of different shades; one in gold and the other silver. He brandished them both and with pure magical energy concentrated into blade-like energy, he unleashed his fury on the troll who had been frozen in its spot by the first roar and came to itself with the second. Link moved unlike anyone they have ever seen, it was like watching a dance but rather than simple grace each movement reminded them of deadly wind blades.

He mercilessly cut at the troll's ankle, immobilizing it as he began to climb up and aimed for the thick throat. But in the troll's pained trashing, he was torn off the troll's chest and thrown into the wall. Ron made his move then; he charmed the troll's forgotten club before it could claim it and take it far from the beast. Breaking out of the instinctual numbness, Neville trusted his aim as he took chunks of the broken sink and stalls and threw it towards the troll.

Hermione called out to her fallen friend as the only thing she can do; her limbs too numb to move and her mind cut short by the horror she felt, "Link! Come on, Link!"

They forgot their own fear as they worked together to make sure the troll does not finish off their brave friend. Ron pulled the club further from the troll as it tried to claw for its flying weapon. Neville continued to distract the troll with his diminishing weapons, calling out to it and taunting it in a way so unlike him his family won't recognize the usually timid boy. Hermione began praying, begging and pleading for her friend to wake up, that he's not yet gone from this world.

Just as the troll finally grabbed unto its flying club with a victorious roar, causing Ron to stumble into Neville from losing the short tug war with the troll, Link dashed out from under broken stalls and climbed the troll once more. Surprised, the troll tried to smack him with its club. Link nimbly avoided, each resounding smack causing his friends to cry in terror for him. His eyes on his target, his magic honed to its limit and his body moved instinctually...