a halloween troll
About two months had gone by, and we had all gotten closer over time as well. I loved my three best friends. One of them was certainly catching my eye more than the others though. I'd been doing well in my classes, and I had Hermione to thank for that, as she was always offering to help me study.
"One of a wizard's most rudimentary skills is levitation," Professor Flitwick lectured in Charms class, standing atop the pile of books on his desk while we listened. "Or the ability to make objects fly," Flitwick continued. "Do you all have your feathers?" He glanced around and saw we did. "Good, now don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practicing, hmm? The swish and flick."
Ron leaned his head on his textbook in front of him, already tired out for the day. I sat next to him, trying to pay attention instead of staring at Ron. Something I accidentally found myself doing quite often.
"Everyone!" Flitwick commanded, causing everyone to pick up the wands and mimick the simple motion we'd learned. "Swish and flick! Good! And enunciate, wingardium leviosa! Off you go then."
Everyone began swishing their wands and muttering the incantation, no one having much success.
"Wingaridium leviosar," Ron said, tiredly, not bothering to pronounce it correctly. He flicked his wand around quickly, not even close to the movement we were taught. I smiled and shook my head at him, trying not to laugh.
"No, stop, stop, stop!" Hermione said, putting her hand out to stop him. "You're going to take someone's eye out." Ron gave her a look and dropped his wand. "Besides you're saying it wrong. It's levi-Osa, not levio-sAr!"
"You do it, then if you're so clever! Go on. Go on," Ron encouraged.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Hermione said, swishing her wand perfectly. Her feather began to float in front of her and my eyes widened along with Ron's.
"Oh, well done!" Flitwick called out as her feather floated higher and higher. "See here, everyone! Miss Granger's done it! Splendid!"
Hermione gave Ron an I-told-you-so look and Ron huffed, leaning his head back in his arms atop his textbook.
"Wingard leviosa!" Seamus tried again, causing the feather to explode in his face. All eyes quickly turned to him. How did he even manage that?
The class went on, and eventually, I was able to cast the spell and my feather floated around the room gracefully. I smiled widely, realizing this was the first real magic I'd done.
"Good job, Harper!" Harry congratulated me. I smiled widely.
After class, we walked through the courtyard, glad to be done with classes for the day.
"Did you hear Hermione in class today?" Ron said to me incredulously.
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously with my eyebrows furrowed.
"It's levi-Osa, not levio-sAr," Ron mocked Hermione. "She's a nightmare honestly," Ron shook his head. "No wonder she hasn't got any friends."
"I'm her friend," I quickly corrected, giving him a nasty glare. Just then Hermione stormed past, and we could hear her sniffles.
"I think she heard you," Harry muttered.
"I didn't realize you were so cruel, Ron," I said angrily before following after Hermione. The way I had looked at him made him regret saying anything.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"No, he's right," she cried, "I don't have any friends. I'm—"
"No, he's wrong!" I insisted, trying to keep up with Hermione's fast pace. "I'm your friend! I love being your friend!"
Soon we made it into the girls' bathroom and I followed Hermione into a stall and locked it. Once the door closed Hermione's sobs got louder and I wrapped my arms around Hermione to comfort her. She leaned against me and I held her up while running my fingers through her hair to calm her down. We stayed like that for a while before we sat down on the bathroom floor, talking about anything and everything. At this point, we knew we were missing dinner but we didn't care. Hermione didn't want to leave yet, and I wasn't going to leave her.
"Ron's a real prick for what he said," I said after a silence.
"A prick that you fancy," Hermione teased.
"Do not!" I insisted, looking at her like she was crazy.
"I see the way you guys look at each other," she said softly.
"I don't, I'm not, I—" I stuttered. Lying was never my strong suit.
"It's fine," Hermione shrugged, "I think it's cute."
"Really?" I asked, looking over at her. Hermione nodded her head. "I'm still upset with him for saying what he did. He better apologize to you," I added in a firmer tone. Hermione smiled at that, glad that I was sticking up for her, even if I might have a crush on the boy.
Finally, Hermione and I agreed to get up and leave the stall. We opened the door before coming out to something terrifying. A super-tall creature almost reached the high ceiling. He was green with thick and crooked toenails and covered in spots and lumps. His ears were huge and he was drooling all over. He was chubby and only wearing a vest and was also holding a massive bat as well. We gulped. "Is that...?" I started, the fear taking my voice away.
"A troll," Hermione finished as we stared up at the creature. He began walking forward and we stepped backward, too scared to make any sudden movements. The storm and lightning outside created a flashing light in the bathroom, making the scene even scarier.
We quickly turned around and locked ourselves in the stall again before crouching down to hide. That's when the beast swung the bat, destroying all of the bathroom stalls. We laid on the ground with bits of the stall doors covering us, screaming for help. I was certain I was going to die. That's when I heard the bathroom door open.
"Harper! Hermione!" Harry shouted.
"Move!" Ron and Harry shouted in sync just as the troll continued smashing more stalls. The boys ran in and began throwing pieces of the broken stall at the troll to distract him.
"Help!" Hermione and I shouted desperately, trying to crawl away.
"Hey! Pea brain!" Ron shouted before hitting him in the face with a particularly large piece. If it weren't for the circumstances, I probably would've laughed. Hermione and I took the chance to crawl under the sinks, but the troll spotted us and immediately hit the sink we were under. Luckily, we had time to move before getting crushed.
"Help!" Hermione screamed out as I screamed loudly in fear. Harry pulled out his wand before grabbing onto the troll's bat and then being thrown up onto the troll's shoulders. Confused, it jerked around, trying to knock Harry off. Hermione and I pushed against each other tightly, absolutely terrified. Somehow, Harry's wand landed up the troll's nose.
"Ew!" Ron shouted, grimacing in disgust. This only aggravated the troll further, so he grabbed Harry's leg, holding him upside down. He was attempting to hit Harry with the bat, but Harry kept moving out of the way, and the troll wasn't very bright.
"Do something!" he shouted.
"What?" Ron asked, desperately looking around. I began looking around too, trying to find anything I could use to help.
"Anything!" Harry replied quickly. Ron reached into his robe and pulled out his wand. Honestly forgot we could do magic in my sheer panic.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron said calmly, pulling the bat out of the troll's grasp and above his head. I smiled widely at the boy currently saving my life. I was mad at him, but that didn't mean I couldn't be impressed. The bat then fell, knocking the troll out. He fell to the ground with a loud thud, letting go of Harry.
"Cool," Ron said, nodding his head. Harry crawled away quickly before the troll could fall and squish him. Hermione and I crawled out from under the sink and ran over to the boys.
Without thinking about it, I ran and wrapped my arms around Ron's shoulders engulfing him in a hug. "You saved our lives," I whispered. "You saved my life." I pulled away just as quickly as I grabbed on, realizing what I was doing. Ron was too stunned to hug back, and he just stood there in shock blinking.
"Uh—well—er..." he stuttered out scratching the back of his neck, his cheeks flushed completely red.
"Thank you," I said softly and smiled.
"Oh—well—er—I'm glad you're okay," Ron replied, giving me a smile. "I—um—well, you know—it'd be bad if you were hurt..." he trailed off. I smiled back at him, finding his awkwardness adorable as both of us blushed.
"Is it...dead?" Hermione asked, staring down at it and pulling me out of my conversation with Ron.
"I don't think so," Harry answered. "Just knocked out." He grabbed the wand from out of the troll's nose, a trail of snot connecting the two. "Ew, troll bogies," he grimaced, examining his wand.
"Oh!" Professor McGonagall said, rushing into the room, followed by Snape and Quirrell, after hearing all the commotion. "Oh my goodness!" She looked around, examining the demolished bathroom and knocked out troll, as well as the four students standing beside it. "Explain yourselves!"
"It's my fault, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said, stepping forward. The three of us looked at her and then at each other in disbelief.
"Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked in disbelief.
"I went looking for the troll. I'd read about them and thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. If Harry, Ron, and Harper hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead," Hermione pretended to confess. We all looked at each other with our mouths agape.
"Be that as it may," McGonagall replied, "It was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would have expected more rational behavior on your part, and I am very disappointed in you Miss Granger. 5 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgment. As for you three," she continued, turning to face us, "I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many first-year students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points...will be awarded to each of you..." We all smiled at each other. "...for sheer dumb luck."
Everyone quickly exited the room and the four of us walked back to our dormitories.
"That was incredible of you," I smiled at Hermione. "Thank you for taking the blame."
Hermione smiled. "While I have unfortunately ruined my squeaky clean record, you guys didn't deserve to be punished for trying to save me. If I hadn't run to the bathroom..."
"Nonsense Hermione," I stopped her. "I'm just glad you're all okay."
"I'm sorry for what I said," Ron stepped up. "I was just upset you're so good at magic without even trying. You're not a nightmare at all."
Hermione nodded in understanding and I smiled at Ron. He took the first opportunity to apologize. Maybe he wasn't so cruel after all. Ron locked eyes with me and gave a closed-mouth smirk when he saw how happy I was that he had done that.
The next day, it was time for the first quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor v. Slytherin. I woke up that morning and got ready quickly, adorning my outfit with lots of Gryffindor pride before heading to breakfast with Ron, Hermione, and Harry.
"Take a bit of toast, mate. Go on," Ron encouraged as Harry wasn't eating.
"Ron's right," I said, "You're gonna need your strength today."
"I'm not hungry," Harry replied, looking between the three of us.
"Good luck today, Potter," Snape said, suddenly stopping beside us. "Then again, now that you've proven yourself against a troll, a little game of quidditch should be easy work for you...even if it is against Slytherin."
He began limping away. "That explains the blood," Harry commented.
"Blood?" Hermione asked.
"Listen," Harry began, leaning into all of us, "Last night, I'm guessing Snape let the troll in as a diversion, so he could try and get past that three-headed dog. But he got himself bitten. That's why he's limping."
"But why would anyone go near that dog?" Hermione asked.
"The day we were at Gringotts, Hagrid took something out of one of the vaults. Said it was Hogwarts business, very secret," Harry explained.
"So you're saying..." Hermione clarified.
"That's what the dog's guarding," Harry and I said at the same time as I realized.
"That's what Snape wants," Harry continued. We all looked at each other, putting the pieces together, when our owl, Hedwig came flying in, dropping a giant package in front of Harry.
"Bit early for mail, isn't it?" Hermione asked.
"But I...I never get mail," Harry stated.
"Let's open it," Ron said excitedly, and the four of us tore the packaging off.
"It's a broomstick," Harry observed once the paper was off.
"That's not just a broomstick, Harry," Ron said, his eyes lighting up, "It's a Nimbus 2000!"
"But who..." Harry trailed off before looking over to where Hedwig had landed. Right in front of McGonagall. I grinned as she smiled at him. Clearly, she wanted to win this match today.
I sat between Ron and Hermione in front of Hagrid, eager for the quidditch game to start. As the doors opened, the players raced out, flying around the field. Everyone cheered in excitement as Lee Jordan announced the commencement of the game.
Chasers flew around, tossing the quaffle and throwing it through the hoops. I spotted Harry flying around looking for the snitch as well as Fred and George hitting bludgers away from their teammates. Luckily, Ron had spent the morning explaining quidditch to me, so I wasn't lost.
After only a few moments, the score was 20-0 and Slytherin decided they were going to play dirty. The captain, Marcus Flint had already kicked a few people away before stealing a beater's bat to hit a bludger directly at the Gryffindor captain and keeper Oliver Wood. He fell to the ground with a thud, causing an eruption of boos from the Gryffindor stands.
"Is that even allowed?" I asked, very upset. This game is very dangerous, although entertaining, and I didn't want Harry to get hurt. It was the first Quidditch game I'd ever seen, but I was certain you weren't allowed to do that.
"The Slytherins don't seem to care," Ron grimaced. I looked over to see most of them laughing, including Draco Malfoy. Disgusting. With no Keeper on the Gryffindor team, the Slytherins quickly began scoring and catching up. They even cornered Angelina Johnson, a Gryffindor chaser, sending her falling down one of the towers surrounding the pitch.
"This is preposterous!" Hermione exclaimed and I had to agree. Harry took off, and everyone assumed he had found the snitch, but all of the sudden his broom began shaking up and down and left to right, going in all sorts of crazy directions. It took everything Harry could not to fall off of it. My mouth dropped open as I begin fiddling with my fingers in nervousness.
"What's going on with Harry's broomstick?" Hagrid asked from behind us.
"It's Snape!" Hermione whispered to us, pulling down her binoculars. "He's jinxing the broom!"
"Jinxing the broom?" Ron repeated in a shocked tone.
"What do we do?" I asked hurriedly, nervously watching Harry grip his broom for dear life.
"Leave it to me," Hermione said, and before Ron or I could object, she took off down the stands.
"What's she doing?" I whispered to Ron, and he only shrugged. Harry's broom then flipped over, and he was dangling, hanging on by one hand. "Oh no."
"Come on, Hermione!" Ron said urgently. Soon enough, whatever Hermione did worked, and Harry was able to get back on his broom. He began zooming after the snitch, running directly into the Slytherin seeker who was also going for it. They shoved each other back and forth, and I was bouncing up and down on my heels with nerves, eyes glued to the two.
Somehow, Harry ended up broomsurfing as he reached for the snitch in front of him. He went to step forward to grab the golden ball, but he tumbled to the ground, flipping over and over. Harry got up and looked like he was about to vomit, and everyone gasped. My hands clasped over my mouth. All of the sudden, the snitch popped out of Harry's mouth and he caught it in his hands, winning the game for Gryffindor. I'd never been so proud of Harry.
The Gryffindor stands began jumping up and down and cheering loudly. Ron and I hugged and began jumping together in excitement. However, once we realized what we were doing, we both stopped and awkwardly shuffled away from each other, avoiding eye contact. Ron awkwardly cleared his throat.
After the game, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and I went to speak to Hagrid about what we saw Snape doing.
"Nonsense," Hagrid denied. "Why would Snape put a curse on Harry's broom?"
"Who knows?" Harry replied, "Why was he trying to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween?"
"Who told you about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked.
"Fluffy?!" Ron said incredulously. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the name.
"That thing has a name?" Hermione quipped.
"Well of course he's got a name," Hagrid responded, "He's mine. I bought him off an Irish feller I met down at the pub last year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the..."
"Yes?" Harry said, eager for him to continue.
"Shouldn't have said that," Hagrid said, glancing over at us worriedly. "No more questions! Don't ask any more questions! That's top-secret, that is."
"But, Hagrid," Harry tried, "Whatever Fluffy's guarding, Snape's trying to steal it."
"Codswallop," Hagrid replied, stopping in his tracks. "Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."
"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a spell when I see one," Hermione rebutted, "I've read all about them. You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking."
"Now you listen to me," Hagrid said, taking a deep breath, "All four of you. You're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. It's dangerous. What that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."
"Nicolas Flamel?" I asked, having never heard of the name before.
"I shouldn't have said that," Hagrid said worriedly. "I should not have said that. I shouldn't have said that." He stumbled away mumbling to himself.
"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry asked. We all turned towards Hermione, expecting her to have the answer.
"I don't know," Hermione replied, surprising us.
The next few weeks were spent scouring the library for any information on Nicolas Flamel. However, we didn't have much luck.
After an exhausting semester spent studying, watching Quidditch matches, and spending time with my best friends, it was time for the holiday break. As snow covered the grounds outside, people began packing their trunks and heading home.
"I'm going to miss you so much this break," I said, watching Hermione pack her things into her trunk.
"I'm gonna miss you," Hermione said, sadly.
We had practically been inseparable most of the year, and it was going to be weird not seeing her every day. Once she finished packing, I went with Hermione to say goodbye to Ron and Harry.
The entirety of Hogwarts had been decorated for the holiday with garland and tinsel covering all the walls. In the Great Hall, a large Christmas tree stood, and Professor Flitwick was decorating it with ornaments as Christmas music played throughout the halls. Ghosts sang carols down the hallways.
Harry and Ron were playing wizard's chess, and Hermione quickly decided it was totally barbaric.
"I see you've packed," Ron said, motioning towards the girl.
"See you haven't," Hermione quipped.
"Change of plans," Ron replied, crossing his arms, "My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother Charlie. He's studying dragons there."
"Wait, does that mean you'll be staying here too?" I said, quickly sitting down next to him, eager to hear his response. He smiled, looking over at me, before nodding.
"Good," Hermione replied before he could go on, "You can help Harry and Harper then. They're going to look in the library for information on Nicolas Flamel."
"We've looked a hundred times!" Ron said exasperated.
"Not in the restricted section," Hermione whispered, leaning into the table. "Happy Christmas," she said before grabbing her trunk and walking away.
"We're going to have such a fun Christmas!" I said excitedly looking between the two boys. They smiled back at me widely.