1.4| battling a literal mountain troll
"I'm telling you, it's spooky" Ron whispered to Harry, so that Alex and Hermione couldn't hear him. "She knows more about you and Alex than either of you do"
"Who doesn't?" Harry said
"Honestly Ron, I could hear you! That's so rude, she didn't do anything wrong!" Alex said, walking up to the two of them. But before Ron could say anything the staircases started to move, making Ron screech, Alex gripped the thing closest to her so she wouldn't fall, it was Harry's arm and a railing.
"What's happening?" Harry said, clinging into Alex's arm, because she was the closest to him, so he wouldn't fall.
"The staircases change, remember?" Hermione said, completely calm.
"Let's go this way!" Harry said, leading the way to a dimly lit corridor.
"Before the staircases move again" Ron added.
The corridor changed and they walked into a room with no light, gloomy and dark. It felt like they shouldn't be there. It felt wrong and just a feeling in their gut telling them to go away.
"Does anyone else get a feeling that we aren't supposed to be here?" Ron asked, confused.
"Because we aren't, it's the third floor corridor" Hermione said, in a matter of fact tone.
"We should leave, now!" Alex said, but before they could leave, before she could, she heard a meow. Looking around she found Filch's cat looking at them, as if she knew they're in trouble.
"If it's Filch's cat which means he must be here somewhere too" Ron said.
"Run!" Harry said, and they all began to run towards the opposite direction, towards another door.
"It's locked!" Ron says, trying to break the lock.
"Oh move over" Hermione said. "Alohomora" And the door swings open and all of them get inside, and they swung the door back, shut.
"Lumos" Alex mutters under her breath, and a good amount of light shined through her wand, good enough so that they can see what was around them.
"I think Filch isn't here anymore" Ron says, his ear pressed against the door, he looked up to look at the rest and something caught his eyes. He stands there, his jaw on the floor, staring at the huge creature in front of him, frozen with fear. He looked to his right and saw Harry also looking at it.
"Alex" He whispers, his voice cracking because of fright. Alex looked at him, confused until she followed his gaze. Hermione finally looks over at where they were looking at too, a scream left her mouth in no time. Unlocking the door that she locked while also keeping an eye on the creature, she ran as soon as the door flew open. Ron followed behind. Harry ran following Ron but stopped when he noticed that Alex wasn't coming, running back to the room, he saw her standing there, too stunned to move. He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her along with her. And the last thing she saw was the dog growling. He dragged her along with him, following the two other Gryffindors back to the common room.
"Are you out of your mind?" Harry asked Alex, following behind the other two Gryffindors.
"Oh I'm sorry, I got scared by a giant beast with three heads, which was like fifteen times bigger than me!"
_
"What do you think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school? '' Ron panted, when They reached the common room.
"You don't use your eyes do you?" Hermione said. "Didn't you see it was standing on something"
"I wasn't looking at its feet, I was a bit preoccupied with its heads, or if you didn't noticed there were three!"
"It wasn't there by accident, it was standing on a trap door that means it was guarding something" Hermione said.
"How did you even notice that?" Alex asked, still trying to catch her breath.
"Guarding something?" Harry asked, and earned a nod from Hermione.
"That's right, now if you don't mind I'm going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea of getting us killed, or worse expelled" Hermione said, climbing up the girls dorm rooms.
"You're coming?" She asked Alex.
"I mean I would" Alex said and gestured at Harry's hand tightly holding onto her wrist. "If Potter decides to let go of me"
Immediately Harry let go of her wrist, a blush rising up his neck. She left as soon as he did, wishing a goodbye to Ron, following Hermione behind with a sigh.
"She needs to sort out her priorities" Ron said, and Harry nodded.
_
Alex made her way to the Quidditch grounds, where Oliver would be waiting for her for the Quidditch practice. "Hey Wood, sorry I'm late" Alex said, noticing that Harry was already present there with him.
"No it's fine, you're not actually late" Oliver said. "Now" Oliver started "Quidditch is easy enough to understand, each team has seven players; there's chasers—" he said and pointed at Alex.
"I'm one of them" she said as he threw her a quaffle which she caught with ease.
"—a keeper; who defends the hoops, that's me" Oliver explained.
"What are those?" Harry asked, pointing at two black balls inside the quidditch case.
"You better take these" he said, handing him a bat. He releases the ball, and it goes up into the air with a growl. "Careful, it's coming back now" he said and the ball zooms back towards their direction, but before it could hit any of them, Harry hits it, hard and it zooms back into the air, when it comes back again, Oliver catches it, struggles a bit, but finally succeeds to put it back inside.
"Not bad Potter, you'd make a fair beater. Nasty little bludger, but the only ball I want you to worry about is this" he said and took out a golden ball which soon begins to flutter around Alex, she catches it and hands it to Harry.
"I like this ball" Harry said.
"You like it now, just wait it's wicked fast and damn near impossible to see"
"What do I do with it?" He asked.
"Catch it before the other team's seeker does, you catch this the game is over the team is awarded one hundred and fifty points and the team with most points win"
_
"One of the wizards most rudimentary skills is levitation" Professor Flitwick lectured. "The ability to make objects fly. Uh do you have your feathers?—" he asked and the students nodded and raised their feather. "—Good now, don't forget the nice wrist moment I taught you. Swish and flick. Repeat after me" Flitwick lectured them. For the class they have been paired up with people and unfortunately Alex's partner was none other than Harry James Potter. Being the 31st of October, her day was already not going well, she got looks as she passed through corridors or ate lunch with her friends. It was the day she truly missed her mum a lot. And the day she feels the most angry at her dad. Remus even sent her extra chocolates from the owl post.
"Swish and flick" the class chanted.
Alex looked over to Ron and Hermione, and snorted. Harry looked at her.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Don't worry I'm not laughing at you Potter"
"Come-on" he said, she rolled her eyes and pointed at Ron and Hermione.
"Stop, stop, stop, you're going to take someone's eyes out besides you are saying it wrong, it's leviOsa not leviosAR"
"You do it if you're so clever, go on do it" Ron said.
"Wingardium leviOsa" Hermione said and her feather began floating in the air. Ron looked at her with bewilderment.
"Oh look everyone Miss Granger has done it, oh splendid! 10 points to Gryffindor!" Flitwick exclaimed.
Harry raised his wand and pointed to the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa" he muttered but nothing happened. Alex couldn't help but chuckle at him, he shot her a glare. "What?"
"It's so easy, Potter" she said, rolling her eyes. "Swish and Flick" she said and her feather flew up in the air. Harry stared at it with amusement. But suddenly the feather shot downwards as Alex flinched because of an explosion that took place beside Harry, she covered her ears with her hands and looked at the Direction of the sound of the explosion. It was Seamus Finnigan and his face was covered in black soot. His partner Cepheus, awkwardly handed him his handkerchief. But what was even funnier was Harry's face.
"Look at your expression Potter'' Alex commented. Trying to wipe off some soot that made it's way into his face. "You've also got soot all over your face"
"Well I don't think you'd find it pleasing to have an explosion right next to your face either" he said making her laugh.
_
After the class was over Alex didn't wait for her friends this time but instead immediately left. She needed some time alone. Charms was her last class anyway. She made her way to the black lake, looking for the least crowded spot, she spotted a tree near the lake where people won't be able to see her. She went to the tree and sat down sighing. Merlin, she missed Remus. He would make Halloween a lot better. They'd go visit muggle towns and see decorations and eat a lot of sweets. Putting her bag down she took out her favourite book that Remus got her for her 9th Birthday, it looked a little torn and old in some places, but she loved the book alot. It was her comfort book ever since she got it. Taking out a muggle chocolate—mars bars—from her bag (the ones Remus sent to her, because he knew that was her favourite muggle chocolate) she began re-reading the book for Merlin knows what time.
"Finally" she sighed, closing the book and stretching a little. She has been sitting there for a while. The sun had gone down and the moon was out in the sky with the stars twinkling by its side. She looked at the mesmerising night sky for a while before getting up and going back to the castle. She decided to go to the bathroom before going down to the great hall for the Halloween feast. Washing her hands, she heard someone weeping in one of the stalls. She turned the tap off and listened closely to which stall it was. When she found out which one it was she slowly knocked on it.
"Excuse me?" She called out. "Are you alright?" There was more sniffing behind the door before the person answered.
"Alex?" A familiar voice asker, the voice was hoarse from crying
"Hermione?"
"Yes"
"What happened?" She asked. "Open the door"
"Oh no I'm a nightmare"
"Who told you that?"
"Ronald of course!"
"Ron told you that?" She asked bewildered. "He lied, of course you're not a nightmare"
"I am! I'm Annoying, that's why I don't have any friends"
"Yes you do have friends" Alex said, standing close to the door.
"I really don't"
"What about me?" she answered. "Do you not think of me as a friend? Because I sure do think you're one of my greatest friends"
"You're saying that to make me feel nice"
"I'm not, I swear. And what Ron said I assure you he's just jealous of you you're not a nightmare, you're the brightest witch I've ever met, you are my friend" she said. She knew Ron's words were really hurtful, but she also knew that Ron was always the insecure type, she doesn't blame him either growing up with five older siblings is hard, when you have to constantly prove yourself, and he felt insecure of Hermione, but that doesn't excuse whatever he said to her.
"You are not lying?" Hermione managed to stutter out.
"Of Course not!"
There was silence before the door swung open and Hermione threw her hands around Alex, Alex hugged her back.
"Let's go to the great hall or the feast would be ov-" she was interrupted by a huge mountain troll smashing and breaking the bathroom. The girls turned around, screaming at the top of their lungs
"What in the—"
"Um sorry we were having a moment here?"
"Alex! Hermione! Move!" Ron said entering the bathroom, Harry following behind. "Hey pea brain!" He exclaimed, trying to catch the troll's attention so the girls could escape. They decide to crawl under the sink, but the troll found them and smashed the sinks, barely missing hurting Alex.
Harry took out his wand and grabbed the troll's club, but the troll lifted him up instead, he landed on the troll's head and the troll hurled him forward, swinging him back and forth. Harry tried to do something with his wand but instead it got stuck on its nose. The troll tried to hit Harry with his club, but Harry kept swinging back and forth. Alex took her wand out but dropped it and it rolled away behind the troll.
"Do something!" Alex exclaimed
"What!" Ron asked.
"Anything!" Harry shouted
Ron took out his wand and pointed at Harry, Gulping and looking at Hermione.
'Remember swish and flick' Hermione mouthed him. Ron nodded.
"Wingardium leviOsa" he chanted and the troll's club gets lifted into the air, he looks up to see where it went and Ron breaks the spell and it ends up failing on his head, be fell down with a loud thud.
"Ow" Harry said, when he finally hits the ground, he picked up his wand that was dirty from troll boogers. Moments later the teachers enter the bathroom with horrified expressions.
"Explain yourself, all four of you" McGonagall said, with a horrified look on her face.
"It's my fault, Professor" Hermione said before any of them had a chance to speak. The other three looked at her in bewilderment.
"Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked not believing what her ears.
"I went looking for the troll, I read about them and i thought I could handle it, if Alex, Ron and Harry weren't there, I'd probably be dead"
"It was an extremely foolish thing to do, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement, I would've expected more rational behaviour on your part"
"As for the three of you" she said looking at them, "five points will be awarded for each of you sheer dumb luck. Professor Dumbledore will be informed about this, if you four are not hurt go back to the common room the students are finishing the feast in their houses" and with that said the four students left.
"Thanks for saving our lives" Hermione said.
"Thanks for getting us out of trouble back there" Ron said. The two of them smiled at each other. There was a long silence as they walked towards the common room, before Alex decided to break it.
"Merlin, Potter! I have never seen someone make such dumb and irrational decsions ever"
"Well you've clearly never taken a look at your own decisions"