Hermione's Halloween

Time passed at Hogwarts and tensions decreased, violence receded back to just the surface. The ICW decided the date of hearing on Ember Proposal to be postponed till next year, by no small parts thanks to the effort of the Supreme Mugwump. Dumbledore has many important projects running this year after all.

On the other hand, Harry's time passed in relative peace. He did not bother anyone and no one bothered him. The only interaction he had with anyone was in form of Hermione, who was perhaps his only intellectual equal. In most of their conversation, they spent bouncing about ideas among themselves.

As the school year passed, Harry's paranoia eased a bit, although he still avoided Dumbledore every opportunity he could get away with. His status as a Demigod still rattled him a bit, and it did not help that the Letter to Ember had no reply. He waited for months, but the letter is still the same until today.

Harry woke up early in the morning like he always did, and went off to freshen up. His roommates were still sleeping, and after not long, he was ready for the day. Just then he felt a familiar pull on his magic, and his eyes widened in joy.

Going back into bed, he closed the curtains and cast all anti-scrying charms he learned last month. They were not much, but they were far better than nothing. Summoning the letter and holding it with care, he began to read,

"Dear Harry,

Don't worry about Dumbledore, my sister will handle him."

Harry scratched his head, puzzled. Who was her sister and how will she help him? He knew letters had to be as short as possible to send through the wards but at least tell him a little more.

Harry sighed, "Wanda was right, she is quite an airhead!"

Sighing again, he put back the parchment letter and left for the great hall. By the time he reached there, the sun was peeking through the horizon and the castle was still dark. Entering the hall, he noticed it devoid of any students, like always but was filled with a lot of house-elves busy decorating the great hall along with Professor Flitwick.

Harry stopped, suddenly realizing today was that day; the day of Halloween, the day his parents died, the day he was orphaned, the day he was cursed in more ways than one.

All appetite gone, he turned around and left the great hall.

No one saw him again that day.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hermione left her charms class, worried about Harry. So far the school had been much different than she imagined. With indifferent teachers, fascist government, wizard supremacists, dangerous corridors, and what not, she was on edge every day. The only solace was when she was in the library or in the club room and could let her guard down. Students were apathetic at best and downright cruel at worst, and not even her own housemates spared her any pain. McGonagall, nono Professor McGonagall said House is like family. Guess Hogwarts is quite an ideal model of an abusive family.

Through this madness, Harry had been the only one who supported her. Although he came off as standoffish at first, he is quite nice once she came to know him more; quite intelligent too. Although she never quite understood his obsession with mastering magical theory beyond any reason, the last time she checked he was reading master-level books on the subject. He even ignores classes, reading arcane tomes during lectures, and doing a barebones amount of homework.

During their time in Hogwarts, they formed a tentative understanding, not quite friendship but close. So when he did not come to classes on Halloween, it did not take her long to understand why. Anyone will be understandably upset on the day of their parent's death anniversary.

"Oh hey there buck teeth." a teasing voice brought her out of her thoughts. Rolling her eyes, she continued on her way, ignoring Ron and his gang. The start of the first year was quite violent, with curses and jinxes flying all proud the school corridors. To survive students formed groups, finding safety in number. Ron became the center of Gryffindor, every first-year Gryffindor boy except Harry joined him. Strange as it may sound, Ron does have charisma for that if you ignore his table manners.

"...and she was like 'NOO, it is leh-vee-ooh-sa, levioosa' and I was like, 'who cares' and then bOOm, Seamus's father exploded."

"Hahahaha", the rest of the Gryffindor gang laughed in her earshot, making her face go red.

"She is just so insufferable, no wonder she has no friends," Hermione stopped, her jaw clenched. She slid her wand in her hand, a hex right at the tip of her tongue just when she stopped herself. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself,

'Don't hex idiots, it's not worth it. Don't hex idiots, it's not worth it. Don't hex idiots, its not worth it. Don't hex idiots, it's not worth it. Don't...'

"Well look at buck teeth, bossy, know-it-all..."

'That's it" Turning around she raised her wand straight into Wesley's face and cast, "Entomorphis"

Ron covered his face in surprise only to feel nothing as a spell struck him. Lowering his hand, he was about to gloat when he found he could not speak. His fellow Gryffindor looked at him with horror.

Hermione looked on as Ron found extra weight on his head and found insect feelers growing off his head and mouth. Giving an inhuman shriek, he ran away. She crossed her arms and looked at the rest of the gang, "Anyone else,"

And they ran away faster than she could blink.

Shaking her head, she left for Gryffindor dorms, perhaps Harry will be there.

.

.

Soon it was night and feast was about to start, but she had not seen Harry anywhere. He was not in his dorm, nor in the club room, library, or anywhere he usually hangs out. This made her more anxious, as even for him, this was too odd.

Leaving the library, she was making her way towards the feast when an awful stench assaulted her nostrils. Pinching her nose, she turned back to get away only to come face to face with a troll.

She stopped breathing, freezing in fear. For one singular moment, the girl looked at the troll and the troll looked at the girl. Regrettably, it did not last. The troll identified his target and attacked.

"ROOOooOrR", with a loud cry, it swung its club at the defenseless girl, fully intent on crushing her.

Hermione just stood there, her mind working a mile a minute but her body refused to bulge. She watched her death approach a club struck her head.

Just then her body lurched back, pulled by a sudden force trying to move her out of the way of the club. But it was not enough, the glancing blow of club struck the side of her face with enough force to break the side of her skull and throw her into the sidewall.

Pain filled her world as she went into a desperate struggle to remain conscious, her subconscious acknowledging that if she slept now, she may never wake up. She tried to move but her body betrayed her once more, refusing to budge even an inch. It took her all her willpower to open her eyes, only to hold out for a moment before her mind acceded to oblivion.

Before she succumbed to unconsciousness, she got one look, one blurry picture of that moment, a picture she would never forget. She saw a feminine figure standing protectively in front of her, and troll split in half, its blood coating the entire corridor like a bad piece of modern art.