Chapter 14: 1-4: Trick or Treat

Disclaimer: Being neither British nor Japanese, it should therefore come as no surprise that I own neither Harry Potter nor Naruto, nor anything from their respective franchises.

Underlined text comes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorceror's Stone

Just as the Opening Feast had seen the Great Hall glimmering with welcome, the Halloween Feast turned it into a spectacle. Hundreds of bats swarmed through the air, and the floating candles were now ensconced inside hollowed-out pumpkins with faces carved in them, dimming the Hall significantly and casting angular, flickering shadows everywhere. Overall, the decorations gave the hall a feeling of light-hearted spookiness. Dinner was half over, and he was considering how to approach Mr. Potter after Seals tonight, when the previously-absent Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, disheveled and wide-eyed with fear. "TROLL! Troll in the dungeons!" he cried out between gasps, before adding in a tone of quiet shock, "thought you ought to know..." and collapsing to the floor in what seemed to Iruka to be a less-than-genuine faint.

The student body erupted into noise and growing panic, until several loud purple firecrackers from the Headmaster's wand caught their attention and quieted them. "Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

"STOP!" Iruka bellowed, using chakra to boost his voice as he subconsciously dropped into 'battlefield commander' mode and began barking orders rapid-fire. "All students gather by the Gryffindor table, youngest towards the corner furthest from the doors. Prefects, take a headcount and notify staff immediately if anyone is unaccounted-for. Headmaster, I recommend detailing a group of staff to defend the students here and another group to find and deal with this troll." In a much quieter voice, he continued, "I recommend against sending the students through the halls unprotected, especially when at least some would be headed into the same portion of the castle we were just told contains the threat."

Dumbledore seemed startled that someone would countermand his orders, but at Iruka's quiet rebuke he gave a grim nod and began selecting staff to accompany him in seeking out the troll. At the same time, one of the students called out, "Professors! One of our first-years is missing!" Iruka turned to see the shout came from Percy Weasley.

The next shout came from Harry Potter. "It's Hermione! She's in the girl's loo! She doesn't know about the troll!" A fellow Gryffindor first-year, Lavender Brown, called out which restroom the girl was last seen in.

Iruka addressed Professor Dumbledore. "I'll get her." He casually vaulted the Head Table and dashed for the hall doors, closing them with a wave of his wand as soon as he was through, before leaping up the stairs in a single bound and going from civilian speed to his full speed.

In under a minute, he was standing outside the restroom in question, and promptly disregarded propriety as he entered. "Ms. Granger?" His query elicited a slight squeak of surprise from one of the stalls. "I'm sorry to barge in, but there's an emergency right now and we need to get you back to the Great Hall for safety."

"Professor?" came the confused response.

Rhythmic vibrations in the floor spoke of heavy footfalls nearby. "Ms. Granger, we need to go right now." he said quietly but insistently. The stall door opened slightly and the girl's face peeked out hesitantly. Unfortunately, this action was simultaneously mirrored by the washroom door opening and a far less friendly face peering through.

The first thing that hit him was the smell, the overpowering odor of a creature with absolutely no personal hygiene. Next was its appearance: The troll was about four meters tall, with gray, stone-like skin, very little of which was covered by its ragged loincloth and vest. Its legs were short and thick, bearing the weight of its large round torso capped with a disproportionately small head. One of its long, powerful arms held a large wooden club, which it had been dragging behind it and which now would have been the third thing to hit Iruka had he not sidestepped.

A booming crash reverberated around the room as chips of stone flew and the floor shook with the force of the blow. Ms. Granger screamed in terror, and seemed on the verge of fainting, while the troll simply looked at the point of impact as if confused as to why there hadn't been the expected squishing event.

Iruka had no intention of being there when it figured things out and took another swing, especially with one of his students in danger. He dashed over to Hermione and picked her up in his arms before moving deeper into the room, trying to draw the troll away from the door it was presently blocking. Their attacker obliged, lumbering into the room and swinging its club wildly about, smashing stalls and sinks seemingly just for the sake of destruction. Once it was well clear of the door, he timed his move for the moment it committed to another heavy forehand swing.

As he and his terrified passenger maintained their tight grips on each other, he leapt up and to the left, towards the wall over the shoulder of the troll's club-wielding arm, taking advantage of the opening presented by the momentum of the swinging club. A series of chakra-charged steps bounced him off the wall and took him to the ceiling, to the opposite wall, then back to the floor at the door and dashing back down the corridors toward the Great Hall. He would have preferred to keep his abilities a secret, but never at the cost of the safety of one of his students.

Slowing just before they reached the doors of the Hall, he turned to his shocked passenger. "This isn't a demand or an order, but I would appreciate it if you didn't share with anyone how I moved just now. It's a bit of a secret, since I'm not particularly interested in ending up as somebody's lab specimen." The girl nodded hesitantly, though he could see her shock starting to recede as her mind began to analyze the evening's events. Nodding in acceptance, Iruka knocked on the doors of the Great Hall, called "Professor Umino, coming in!" and was pleased to see a number of staff and upper-year students with their wands lowered but still in hand facing the doors.

"Poppy, would you look after Ms. Granger? She's just had a bad fright." he addressed the school Healer, before calling out, "Flippy!" The house-elf arrived with a pop. "Tell the Headmaster that the troll was last seen in the girls' toilet, first floor, west corridor." Flippy nodded and popped away. Towards Professor Sprout, he asked, "Any other students missing?" A shake of her head allowed him to relax. Finally, he turned back to the student body with a grin that mixed wry and sheepish. "I'm afraid that due to unforeseen circumstances, Sealing class will be canceled this evening."

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It was nearly midnight by the time Albus had finally finished handling the fallout from the night's excitement. Amelia Bones had been less than pleased when he had notified her of the intrusion, but grudgingly accepted his assurance that the wards had been adjusted to prevent a reoccurrence. There had been no need to inform her that the gap in the wards had been opened deliberately to admit Quirinus's contribution to the Stone's protection; the fewer people that knew the Stone was at Hogwarts, the better.

He, along with Minerva and Filius, had followed the information provided by Professor Umino via elf and found the troll on the first floor, shuffling its way in the direction of the Great Hall. The misguided creature had found itself quite overmatched and was quickly subdued before Albus had enchanted its club as a one-way portkey to a suitable preserve and sent it back to its natural habitat. It had taken all three staff members to put the girls' toilet mostly back to rights, though Argus would likely still have to spend much of the next day completing the repairs and cleanup, particularly purging the last of the troll's rather pungent odor from the area.

While the students had all come through the event unscathed, Severus had been injured by Hagrid's defense in his zeal to confirm that the corridor was still secure, as the troll was a rather obvious distraction ploy. The proud young man refused to see Poppy, unfortunately, but rather insisted upon treating the bite wound himself.

Now, as Albus carried out his evening ablutions, he contemplated the reports he'd received through the castle's portraits. Apparently Professor Umino had cleared the entirety of the Entrance Hall stairs in a single leap, then proceeded to dash through the corridors at speeds even a top-of-the-line racing broom would have been hard-pressed to match. Most of the portraits had seen him as little more than a blur of motion, with only the portrait of Elizabeth Woodbridge, who had been a professional Seeker in her youth, being able to confirm that the blur had in fact been the Adjunct Professor. Shocked at the reports, the Headmaster himself had returned to the corridor in question and cast a spell normally used by hunters and law-enforcement, which outlined and illuminated recent footprints.

The troll's large, shuffling footprints were easily distinguished and dismissed, but the floors were otherwise such a riot of traffic that he was unable to find anything of use, until he reached a corner. Here, he found a trail of footprints briefly adorning the outer wall of the corner, suggesting Professor Umino had run up onto the wall rather than slow down to take the turn. These unmarred prints were all Albus needed to isolate the Sealing Professor's tracks, which didn't show any odd stride lengths, but did frequently run up onto the walls at turns. He had followed the tracks into the girls' toilet, and was able to deduce that Professor Umino had been surprised by the troll's entrance whilst trying to coax Ms. Granger out, had retreated into the room, and then (judging by the prints on the ceiling) used another bit of impossible acrobatics to extract both himself and his student from the room safely. His return trail then led directly back to the Great Hall.

Being gainsaid in front of the entire population of the castle was not something Albus had enjoyed, but it had been the correct decision. He shuddered to think of what could have happened had a disordered and unguarded group of children come upon the troll. One of his tasks tonight had been to update the centuries-old Hogwarts policy of securing students in their Houses during an emergency, amending it to cover cases where the students are already congregated in a defensible location or where the threat is believed to be in the vicinity of one or more House Common Rooms.

The Adjunct Professor's tone had been one of command; not the tone of a teacher commanding students, but the tone Albus had heard and used among the forces opposing Gellert almost a half-century before. Combined with Alastor's insights, there could now be no question that Umino Iruka was a soldier, and quite probably one with no small amount of experience on the field of battle. While this was still concerning, as were his clear attempts to conceal his background and abilities, many of Albus's fears were allayed at least somewhat by the Professor's actions.

First, he had shown great presence of mind in seeing the flaw in Albus's commands, and the courage to do what was right in countermanding them. Further, he had immediately set the students to arranging a defense, with the most vulnerable among them in the most guarded position, and called for a headcount to ensure that all students were safe and accounted for. He showed good judgment in deferring to Albus's knowledge of the staff and their abilities when determining who would guard the Great Hall and who would seek the troll. Keeping the students and much of the staff together had also negated any chance for Quirinus to slip away and probe the Stone's defenses, though this was undoubtedly an accidental benefit. When informed that Ms. Granger was absent, Professor Umino had volunteered to retrieve her without hesitation, something which at the time had seemed somewhat suspicious and had contributed to Severus's haste in securing the third-floor corridor, as it would leave him alone and unsupervised during the obvious diversion. However, it was now clear that he had simply judged correctly that his superior mobility would allow him to reach his wayward student more quickly than any other member of staff could manage, and it was likely that his quick action and sound judgment had saved the young girl's life. His tracks showed that he had raced directly to his destination, and returned along the same path. That he showed his abilities in front of Ms. Granger rather than place her at greater risk by hiding them again demonstrated that his foremost priority was his student's safety, even if it meant revealing a secret he had kept hidden. Albus could not fully trust Professor Umino quite yet, as the entire episode could have been coordinated with Quirinus to cement the Seals teacher's cover, but the likelihood of the mysterious man having nefarious intentions was dwindling steadily.

Using the castle's enchantments and the privileges granted to its Headmaster, Albus had forbidden the portraits from informing anyone but himself about Professor Umino's extraordinary feats until further notice. He would continue to watch the visiting scholar, but would allow the man his secrets, for now.

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Hermione Granger was confused. No, she was downright baffled! She was lying awake in a bed in the Hospital Wing and trying to process everything that had happened the previous day. The problem was, there was just so much of it!

First, she'd successfully learned the basic Hover Charm in class, earning points and more importantly praise from Professor Flitwick. Unfortunately, she'd been partnered with Weasley. That boy had ignored much of the Professor's instructions, taken no notes, and then proceeded to flail around (nearly hitting her several times) while utterly mangling the incantation. Honestly, it wasn't like it was that hard if you actually listened to the teacher! Hermione had tried to help him, but rather than being grateful or at least decent, he'd actually complained about getting extra help! Then, when he demanded she prove that she knew what she was doing, he simply got angry when she did as he wanted, instead of continuing to work on it himself! That's not even taking into account what he said after class...

School had always been a mixed experience for the twelve-year-old. On the one hand, there was always something new to learn, some new knowledge to acquire, and her teachers were always full of praise for her intelligence and hard work. On the other hand, she had never really had friends; oh, other children had pretended to be her friends on occasion, but it was always just so that they could get her to help them with their schoolwork. On the gripping hand (she'd read that in a book over the summer), it had always felt like there was a wall between her and everyone else.

When Professor McGonagall came to tell her family about magic, Hermione had come to the obvious conclusion: It was her magic that had made her so different from the other children, left her alone and isolated. Now that she was going to a magic school, surely she'd be able to fit in and find friends there!

Right?

Wrong, unfortunately. The past two months had hammered home to her the point that it was not her magic that set her apart, nor her bushy hair nor her buck teeth - it was her intelligence and her drive to be the best academically. She just couldn't understand why nobody else craved knowledge like she did, why they seemed to want to just goof off and coast through school (except for Weasley's older brother the prefect, he was much more sensible), why they didn't see how wondrous all this magic was and want to master as much of it as possible. What did they expect to do after they graduated, play gobstones for a living?

Before Hogwarts, although Hermione might have been lonely at school, she at least came home to her parents each day, at least had their love and support. Here, two months of near-total social isolation was taking its toll, and she had already been considering not returning from Christmas hols, when Weasley's comments pushed her past the tipping point. She'd spent the rest of the day intermittently crying her eyes out in the girls' toilet, mentally composing and revising the letter she was going to send her parents to ask them to withdraw her from Hogwarts as soon as possible.

After that was when things started to get very confusing. Professor Umino had barged into the girls' loo and told her there was an emergency and started urging her to come with him to the Great Hall immediately. It all seemed very strange, but when she peeked her head out to look and try to figure out what was going on, something that could only be a mountain troll stepped in through the door! As she froze in screaming mortal terror, the troll swung its club, and she was certain she was about to see the nice professor killed.

Instead, he had dodged with almost casual ease, then suddenly he was carrying her, retreating further into the room, and with the troll between them and the way out, she was sure they were trapped. Then he suddenly jumped, and she could swear he ran across the ceiling for a moment even though that was impossible, even with magic, and they were out the door and moving down the corridor at utterly absurd speeds, and if they'd gone on much further than they had she suspected she may have sicked up all over him. Friendly, unassuming, middle-aged Professor Umino, the teacher that showed them how to create magic by writing, the man that smiled and gave her an acknowledging nod when they so often passed in the library, had suddenly moved like some sort of superhero.

Just as she was trying to recall whether she'd ever read of magic allowing someone to move like that, he'd asked her not to tell anyone about it, that he was worried that someone might try to study him like some kind of lab rat. Apparently it wasn't a typical thing for magic to do. Maybe it was another kind of magic from his homeland! She'd heard about how a magical accident had transported him across the world, from a country that used magic differently, and he was still working on finding his way home.

He'd carried her into the Great Hall, and handed her off to Madam Pomfrey, who had fussed over her and cast all kinds of diagnostic spells (which Hermione would make sure to learn at some point) before calling some tiny creature (she'd ask about it later) to retrieve a Calming Draught from the Hospital Wing.

Just as the little being disappeared with a pop (and how could it do that? Hogwarts: A History clearly stated that you couldn't Apparate inside Hogwarts), Harry Potter had come up to her, along with Weasley. After a couple of nudges from Harry's elbow, Weasley had sheepishly apologized to her. He had said that he was sorry she'd been in danger because of what he'd said, and that he hoped she was all right now. What he had not said was that he was sorry for his words, something that Harry also seemed to pick up on, if the brief deepening of his frown was any indication. Still, it was only polite to accept the apology, after which he nodded stiffly and hurried off, with Harry lingering a moment longer, his eyes clearly asking 'Are you OK?'. She nodded to him as well, getting a nod in return before he left to find his friend.

It was at about that point that Madam Pomfrey held up a goblet full of what Hermione presumed to be the Calming Draught. She'd obediently drunk the lavender-colored concoction, after which she remembered very little before waking up here in the Hospital Wing. Since then, while waiting for the matron to release her, she'd been running over and over through the previous day's events, and now found herself coming to conclusions:

First, while Weasley was still a lazy, rude, ignorant boor, Harry Potter was apparently a decent human being, and she once again wondered if she might be able to one day befriend the shy boy from the train. Second, she was not leaving Hogwarts yet, not until she was certain that she'd never connect with anyone here. Finally, she was going to talk with Professor Umino and find out as much as she could about her savior...

A/N: I solemnly swear that I did not plan things out so far in advance that the Halloween chapter would fall this close to the day itself! My only Halloween-related fanfic plans involve a Sandman one-shot I will be posting on the 31st.

Anyway, this is certainly a more noticeable deviation, eh? I considered having Iruka fight the troll, but his objective was to keep Hermione safe, and fighting a troll in a confined space with her sitting there helpless would be far more dangerous to her than simply getting her out of and away from there. Hopefully my description was good enough to paint the picture I had in my head of how he handled everything.

We also now see Dumbledore taking a closer look at Iruka, after being somewhat humbled by having his orders countermanded in front of everybody. He's starting to recognize that Iruka is capable, intelligent, and on the right side. It also helps that, unlike pretty much everyone else he deals with, he's only ever met Iruka as an adult: I'm borrowing a bit from "Reunion" by Rorschach's Blot and having Dumbledore still see most of the people around him as the children they were as his students. It's part of why he has trouble listening to other people and tends to view himself as the wisest person around. By showing up already in early middle-age, Iruka has bypassed that problem, so Dumbledore sees him as an adult; it also helps that Iruka has skills and knowledge Dumbledore knows that he himself doesn't. He's certainly not going to go "Oh, Iruka, you're clearly wiser than I am, tell me exactly what we should do next!", but a foundation has been laid for him to at least consider Iruka's input on occasion.

The last scene was a lot of fun to write. Hermione's 'voice' is, for me, a very clear and easy one to write. Yes, she's using emphasis a lot, but she's also a barely-twelve-year-old girl that's been scared witless, surprised and confused, and is currently exhausted - she has every right to be a tad frazzled after all that, I'd say.

I'd like to state here that I am not bashing Ron. At this point in the series, he's an eleven-year-old boy with very little emotional maturity and several noticeable issues. He hasn't even had an encounter with a troll to drive home the consequences of his words the way he did in canon.

To a guest reviewer on Chapter 1-3: Iruka will be taking care of the people he encounters that really need that extra support, and this chapter has hopefully shown a bit more about who some of those will be.

To Guesthouse (another guest reviewer): Thanks for your support and your input!

Fic Recommendation: "Like Me" by KonohasBlackReaper - Orochimaru shares some observations about Naruto that leave Sakura seriously worried.

Posted 22 October, 2017

Updated 1 December 2019: Character-specific dividers