It was the morning of October 31st, otherwise known as Halloween.
Y/N got up along with the other Gryffindor first years and began to walk to her first class of the day; charms with Professor Flitwick.
She had seated herself off in the front table right hand side, and was the furthest away from Professor Flitwick, so he wouldn't see how bad she was doing. Surprisingly she was doing okay in potions and was a little better than she expected in transfigurations but charms... was her weak point.
She was sat outside near the training grounds, a book of spells in her hands. "Leviosa!" She pronounced over and over to herself as she moved her hand as though she were holding a wand.
Sighing in discontent she turned to the context page looking for another spell that would benefit her.
'Homenum revelio.'
"Used to reveal human presence and detect intruders." She read aloud before bookmarking the page. She turned to the context again.
"Alohomara. Used to open locks on various objects, beneficial for thiefs." Her eyes scanned the page and read it's contents. She could practice this one right now. "Alo-" "Hello Y/N. What're you doing out here? Everyone's inside." A familiar voice questioned and Y/N looked up to see the bright, cheerful, red-cheeked Hagrid.
Slightly shocked she didn't respond for five seconds before she gave a small smile. "Oh h-hello, Hagrid. It's nice to see you again." She greeted politely. The large man smiled before pointing at her book. "What's that you've got there?" He asks gesturing his head towards the book. Y/N glances at the book before replying. "A book of spells, I'm not doing too great in charms and so I thought I'd use the free time to practice." Hagrid nods in understanding but the frowns slightly. "How come I haven't seen you with the other two?" Y/N is confused as to who he's talking about?
'Draco, and Crabbe or Draco and Goyle?'
Hagrid then speaks again clearing up the confusion. "Harry and Ron" He says as though it's obvious but not in a malicious way. Y/N felt uncomfortable when he said their names. "I guess we just don't have much in common." Y/N shrugged awkwardly with a fake smile. Hagrid rose an eyebrow before shaking his head.
"Come with me." He requested and beckoned her to follow with his hand. He began to walk away but Y/N just sat there not knowing what to do. Hagrid turned back around."Come on now, what are you waiting for a hand-held invitation?!" He exclaimed. Y/N hurriedly stood and grabbed her books before she ran over to Hagrid.
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They had both walked to Hagrid's house which was a hut. He opened the door for Y/N to enter and she did. She immediately rushed over to the table in the centre of the room and dropped her books on it, her hands sore. "I would'a carried them had you told me they were heavy." Hagrid stated before he closed the door and made his way over to the kitchen. Y/N sat in one of the chairs sitting at a dining table.
A loud, tumultuous noise came from the left side of the room. Y/N turned to see it was a large hound. "I see you've met Fang there. A good dog, 'e really is, just a big scaredy cat is all." Hagrid states as he grabs a tray with a teapot and two teacups on it. "Wouldn't hurt a fly, my Fang. Ain't that right, boy?" Hagrid coos looking over at the dog, he plops the tray down beside Y/N's books causing a few spots of tea to exit the teapot. "Sorry 'bout that." He says before he sits down in one of the other chairs, opposite Y/N.
He picks up a teacup and goes to take a sip. "Go on." He motions to the teacup on the tray before he starts to drink his own. Y/N picks it up and takes a big gulp though almost immediately regrets it.
The tea burns her throat and she swallows it as fast she can. "For the love of-" Hagrid says before he pats her back a little. "You alright there?" He asks concerned. Y/N nods before speaking with a slightly hoarse voice. "Just drank it too fast."
"That ye did. Didn't your parents ever tell you to-" Hagrid suddenly stopped speaking realising who he was speaking to and who her parents were. "My apologies." He says awkwardly taking another sip of his tea.
"That's alright Hagrid." Y/N smiled but then began to speak again. "Though I am wondering why you asked me to come here..." She trailed off, worried she'd come across as rude. Hagrid sighed before he spoke. "Harry and Ron are meddling in business that ought not to be meddled with and I just don't want you getting involved, many things are being said about you, Y/N. Don't want to be adding more to the list." Hagrid states and Y/N can tell he regrets it as he scrunches his eyes in frustration.
"What things?" Y/N asks intrigued yet sceptical. She didn't want people to be talking about her.
"Nope. I ain't saying nothing. I just think it would perhaps be wise to watch yerself Y/N, keep yer friends close, and yer-"
"Enemies closer." Y/N interrupted having heard the phrase many times. Hagrid looked at her as though she had did something strange but she ignored him and continued to sip her tea.
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After her little talk with Hagrid they both drank their tea and began to talk about more light-hearted subjects such as Hagrid's love for animals and Y/N's subjects that she did or didn't like and they even spoke about the professors.
Once the sun had started to set, Hagrid walked with her to the castle.
"If you're ever feeling lonely you're always welcome to stop by, when you don't have class, of course." Hagrid offered. "Thank you Hagrid." Y/N smiled and this time it was genuine, it was great to think she had met two friends other than animals and paintings albeit they were strange.
Hagrid walked away leaving her standing in the vast hallway alone.
Y/N then began to walk down the corridor deciding she would visit her only other friend, Myrtle. "Where do you think you're going?" A voice called from behind her with malice. She turned around and saw Draco approaching, his friends nowhere to be seen.
"Nowhere." She replied quietly turning back around and beginning to wall away.
"You little liar." Draco spat before walking up to her. His hand gripped her lower arm causing her to turn around.
"I'm-I'm going to the toilet!" She called louder than she had intended.
"How dare you think you can lie to me you little wench!" He then slapped her face brutally. This resulted in the small girl taking a shuddering breath and holding her cheek. This was the worst Draco had ever been and it pained her. The fact that Draco despised her hurt more than the fact he had assaulted her.
She began to walk away, weeping quietly. Draco's angered face faltered for a moment before he walked in the opposite direction, to his utter bewilderment he could feel tears in his eyes, but he simply put it down to the fact that he was angry.
Y/N decided she wouldn't be visiting Myrtle and instead began running in the direction of the other toilets.
She only stopped running when she bumped into someone, looking up, her breath caught in her throat. It was Snape.
"Running in the hallways Miss Malfoy?" He stated calmly, his brow raised. "Ten points from Gryffindor." Y/N nodded in shame and murmured an apology to the unforgiving man that is Snape before she began to walk away.
Snape lingered a moment longer than he normally would, his mind wandering to the distress the small girl appeared to have been in. He then let the thought slide before casually slipping away to the hall.
Once she had arrived in the bathroom Y/N broke down crying, it had only been a few moments until to her horror she heard the flush of a toilet. Embarrassed she tried to wash the tears off her face before she began to hurry to a toilet stall only the stall opened and out came one of the last people she'd wanted to see.
Hermione stood looking at the ground, letting out a sniffle before her eyes averted themselves to the small H/C haired girl close-by.
"Y/N?" Hermione asked with slight bewilderment wiping at her eyes and cheeks.
Y/N kept her eyes to the ground. "I-I'm sorry." She muttered before rushing to step into a cubicle.
Hermione stepped between her and the cubicle though. "You've been crying haven't you." Hermione stated with a confused yet concerned look on her face.
Y/N nodded, ashamed. "It's alright to be upset you know. In all honesty I'm a bit upset myself." Hermione admitted quietly.
Y/N finally looked at her and noticed that she wasn't lying and she too had been crying. "Why?" Y/N asked curiously. She wondered if it was because of her brother.
"Well now that I think about it, it's really quite stupid but I suppose I'll tell you." And that she did. She explained to Y/N that Ron had been saying nasty things about her.
"But what about you why were you crying?" Hermine asked causing Y/N to become panicked.
She couldn't tell her that Draco hit her because she would only tell a professor and then he would get into trouble which would make him hate her even more.
She fumbled for an excuse. "Well I-"
Suddenly Hermione screamed, her eyes were directed behind Y/N causing her to swiftly turn around until she was stood face to face or rather face to knee with a troll.
Y/N gasped, she was beyond terrified. "Hermione!" A familiar voice called out, she immediately realised who it was; Ron Weasley.
"Ron! Harry! Help us!" Hermione cried. While they were shouting Y/N noticed the troll had lifted up his wooden bat and now had it raised over Hermione. Without thought Y/N shoved Hermione out of the way resulting in her falling to the ground, the bat had barely missed her and instead destroyed the cubicle which Hermione was previously standing in front of.
Hermione scurried over to the sinks and sat under them, terrified.
The troll looked at Y/N and grunted in a petulant manner before lifting it's bat again, this time above Y/N's head.
"Y/N look out!" Harry cried before running up to the troll. "Harry!" Ron yelled with worry. Harry picked up a piece of wood from the destroyed cubicle and chucked it at the troll. The troll remained unfazed and was solely focused on the two girls.
Ron joined in and threw a piece of wood. "Hey pea-brain!" He yelled loudly as he threw the wood with all his strength. The piece of wood hit the troll in the face causing him to become a bit dazed. It's eyes then landed on Hermione's crouched form and with all it's might it swung the bat down on the sink she had been crouched under causing Hermione to scream and crawl under the next sink.
"Help!" She screamed at the others. Y/N had no idea what to do and so she grabbed a piece of wood and repeatedly tried to stab it into the back of the troll's right leg, to her dismiss it hadn't even managed to pierce the skin.
It grunted in discomfort and turned trying to find the source of it's pain. Y/N swiftly moved through it's legs once it had turned away from Hermione and signalled for her to move. Hermione nodded and ran over to the two boys. Y/N quickly grabbed a small piece of the broken sink and stabbed it into the troll's kneecap. The troll groaned in pain reaching for it's knee before catching sight of Y/N. It snarled in distaste and began to raise it's bat for a third time.
Harry knew there was no way out for the girl and so did the only thing that he could think of. He ran up to the troll and leaped up grabbing onto the bat as the troll lifted it up. Harry jumped onto the back of the troll's neck. The troll became distressed and desperately attempted to get him off. In the midst of being wildly shook, Harry's wand had found it's way up the troll's nostril resulting in Ron groaning in disgust. Y/N took this chance to run behind the troll and to Hermione and Ron. The troll tried to snort out the wand and then progressed to shaking his head. He then grabbed Harry and held him upside down.
"Do something!" Harry exclaimed. The troll then swung the bat but Harry raised himself up and dodged the incoming attack.
"What?" Ron asked. "Anything!" Harry exclaimed once again. The troll swung again and Harry dodged again.
"Hurry up." He said impatiently. Ron pulled out his wand. "Swish and flick." Hermione instructed. "Wingardium Leviosa." Y/N spoke hurriedly, her wand aimed at the bat. The bat slid out from the troll's hand and hovered above it's head. The troll looked at it's hand bewildered to find that his bat had gone missing. He then looked up just time for the bat to fall on his face. The troll groaned and swayed a little. "Cool." Ron smirked. The troll, in a daze, dropped Harry who quickly scurried away from the troll.
The troll then proceeded to fall directly in front of Harry. The each looked at one another. Ron looked at Y/N who was staring cautiously at the troll, her hand clutching her wand. "Thanks." He spoke with a sheepish smile. She nodded at him, a small smile on her lips. "Yeah. Thanks." Harry too spoke up to which she replied in the same manner.
"Is it...dead?" Hermione asked cautiously approaching the unconscious creature. "I don't think so, just knocked out." Harry confirmed. He then proceeded to lean down and remove his wand from the troll's nostril. Both he and Ron groaned in disgust as the wand came out decorated in troll snot.
"Troll bogeys." Harry spoke looking at his wand.
Just then footsteps could be heard fast approaching and in came professor Mcgonagall, professor Quirrel and professor Snape.
Professor Mcgonagall gasped at the sight of the befallen troll. "Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed She then turned her attention to the two boys. "Explain yourselves both of you!" She demanded loudly. The boys fumbled for an excuse before Y/N shook her head and spoke up.
"It was my fault, professor." She lied quietly and all the professors turned and looked at her in shock, professor Mcgonagall was by far the most shocked. The trio also looked at her in shock, Hermione especially.
"I went looking for the troll.I was trying to be brave, to prove to myself that I belong in Gryffindor and if it weren't for Harry, Ron and Hermione, I'd most likely be dead."
"Be that as it may it was an extremely foolish thing to do. I expected more rational behaviour on your part and I am very disappointed in you Miss Malfoy." Y/N looked down in shame. "Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement."
Professor Mcgonagall then turned her attention to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "As for you three, I just hope you realise how fortunate you are. Not many first year students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale." Harry, Ron and Hermione had their eyes averted to the ground.
"Five points will be awarded to each of you." The three smiled at each other and Y/N found herself letting slip a small smile. "For sheer dumb luck." Professor Mcgonagall said before finally taking her leave.
Professor Snape followed but not before glaring at professor Quirrel. "Perhaps you ought to go.M-Might wake up." Professor Quirrel laughed nervously.
The four obliged and began to leave. "Thank you,Y/N. You didn't have to take the blame." Hermione said with a smile. "Yeah, thanks." Harry also said. Ron nodded with a sheepish small smile. "Thanks." Y/N smiled and nodded to which they all smiled back.
The trio decided to go to the common room whereas Y/N didn't know where to go. They began to walk down the hall when suddenly Hermione noticed she wasn't following them.
"Aren't you coming?" She asked slightly confused. Y/N stayed silent not knowing how to reply. Harry detecting her hesitancy finally spoke up.
"I suppose we owe you an apology as well." Harry stated to which Ron and Hermione looked down ashamed. "We should have let you be our friend, no matter who your family is." He walked towards her causing her to look up at him hesitantly.
"I really am sorry, Y/N." He stated solemnly with a sigh. "Me too." Hermione interjected. "Me too." Ron mumbled with a regretful look. Y/N for once felt hopeful that, maybe just maybe, she had found friends, friends who weren't ghosts or paintings or house-elves, who had no other option or people to talk to other than her. Real friends who actually like her.
She nodded. "Thank you." And finally for once she felt a little confident, she didn't feel as alone.
-Sorry I've taken so long to update but if it's any consolation this is the longest chapter yet, also I had written this chapter a long while ago but just forgot to publish it, also I'm trying to progress the story a little faster but I won't rush it.-