Hostage

Harry sat for the transfiguration lecture, idly looking around as the students filtered in the ancient classroom. Professor McGonagall was late, something too uncharacteristic for her. Even students seemed more animated than usual before he soon put it out of his mind and opened a tome he charmed to look like transfiguration text.

"You know the troll attack, I heard someone died."

"I saw the corridor, it was covered in blood. I recon lot many died.'

Harry put down the tome, intrigued by the conversation. He did not come back to dorms till late in the night and had no idea something like this happened.

Professor McGonagall came and all conversations died down. Harry looked around for Hermione, only to find her missing. When McGonagall did not call her name in roll calls, he grew concerned.

"Pssst, hey Neville.", Neville turned to face Harry, "Where is Hermione?"

"Oh Harry!", Neville's face was sympathetic, "You did not hear. She was attacked by troll.'

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Sitting beside Hermione, looking at her unconscious form, bandaged head and hand; he felt numb. Suddenly everything felt surreal to him.

"She took a glancing blow from the troll, at the left side of her head. Her skull was damaged but she would heal, but that would leave a scar. Problem is that her left hand somehow got crushed in the scuffle. I did what I could but her pinky was too damaged to recover."

Thanking madam Pomfrey, he summoned a book and quietly sat beside her. He was not a fool to think a mountain troll just wandered into the school, moved through the entire castle undetected, climbed narrow stairs and how she survived, and why her hand was crushed. A lot many things make no sense, and he was not going to leave her alone when her life could be in danger again.

Dwelling into the tome, he searched for protection magics. All of them were way beyond him as of now, especially considering the face his magic was much more inclined towards destruction rather than protection. Shuffling through the yellowing pages, he came up empty for any magic he could cast.

"Mr. Potter, it is about time for curfew."

"Ok madam, just a few minutes." She nodded, leaving him alone. Taking a parchment letter, he wrote a small get well soon message. Raising his head, he checked if anyone was looking and brought out his wand. Pointing at the get-well message, he cast.

"Mente Videatur Magicae"

The parchment glowed for a brief moment, and he placed it down near the bedpost. It was not any protection magic, just a charm that records and every intent and magic cast around it.

He hated it, the feeling of inadequacy, the fact that it was all he could do.

Leaving for the dorms, he reassessed his plans. He needed to complete magical theory as soon as possible so that he could move to more dangerous aspects of magic.

Going to Griffindor tower, he made his way straight to his bed, ignoring his roommates. Closing the curtains of his four postal bed, he activated the silencing runes he sewed into curtains. Given that they were shoddy work at best, he could still hear muffled voices of his roommates talking animatedly. But at least they made Ron's snores bearable and that was good enough for him.

Soon it was late into the night, and his roommates were fast asleep. Putting down his book, he mentally commanded his trunk to appear, prompting it to materialize in front of him. Looking at the familiar lily design, he eased the tension in his shoulders he carried along the entire day.

"Library," He said out loud, although he felt he didn't need to. The trunk felt almost sentient, understanding of him at an almost instinctive level.

With a jerk, the trunk opened and Harry peered down to see long, wooden stairs going down into the dark. He stepped into the magical trunk, closing it behind him. The enchantments on his glasses activate, giving him a perfect vision despite the dark. The stairs ended, and he stepped into a cozy room with a couch by the fireplace and many, many bookshelves.

He moved towards them, and the bookshelves started to move among themselves. They glided seamlessly, in unison as a single bookshelf floated towards Harry and its glass planes opened for him.

Harry smiled and browsed through the titles before settling on a tome he had not read before. The library was not something that had what you can call normal books. Each and every tome here was rarer than rare and represented the most powerful magics and also most dangerous magics on earth. Most of them he was not even qualified to touch, yet. That is why he is relentlessly pursuing Magical Theory, for understanding magic beyond anything so he could not be lured or succumb to its power.

Even the only bookshelf he could access opened up after exhausted all theory books in the library and the club, All others were locked behind indestructible glass and they won't open for him till he reached a prerequisite level of knowledge.

Comfortably settling in, began reading and slowly lost himself in the arcane.

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A dark figure stalked the Hallways, moving under invisibility charm with all but a shimmer to it.

Entering the Hospital Wing, it checked for the presence of anyone awake before moving to Granger's bed. Taking out his wand, it casts a charm to shroud his face in the darkness before undoing the invisibility charm and cast a stinging hex to wake Granger up.

"Ahh! Cough! Cough!" Disoriented and in pain, she did not get a chance to steady herself before she saw a wand pointing at her.

"Legilimens"

Hermione cried out in pain as the powerful mental attack collided against shields she had no idea she had. The intruder immediately covered her mouth, continuing to press on her shields. But the shields did not give in, somehow growing stronger the more it was exposed to mental attack.

"Clang! Clang!" sound of something falling alerted the intruder, who swiftly ducked under the bed and recast invisibility charm. Instead of taking any risk, the intruder ran away.

Hermione was disoriented and in pain beyond anything she had before. She felt like someone had shoved hot poker in her head. Her skin burned and swelled to the aftereffect of stinging hex. Her mouth opened to scream but no voice came out.

Just then she felt a cold hand on her forehead, and she closed her eyes in panic. But to her surprise, her pain started to recede and her eyes shot open. She looked around but all she was able to make was a blurry silhouette and soft green glow above her forehead. She tried to speak but the figure cut her off.

"Shhh, you are safe. Everything is all right now.", an incredibly gentle voice consoled her, lulling her back to sleep.

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"Mister Potter never had I thought I will live to see the day you start taking your classes seriously.", Harry raised his head from the notes he was taking to look at surprised Professor McGonagall, "It is good to see you are finally taking your studies seriously."

"Don't count on it.", he mumbled under his breath, restraining his urge to roll his eyes.

In Portions class, even Snape was astonished when Harry took out parchment and quill and started taking notes; so much so that he even forgot his customary verbal and emotional abuse, even if just for a minute.

During afternoon lunch, he left to see Hermione. Arriving at Hospital Wing, he was immediately greeted by Madam Pomfrey.

"Good Afternoon Mister Potter, to meet miss Hermione?", Harry nodded.

"She just woke up. Poor Girl, it would be good for her to be around friends."

Harry made his way to Hermione's bed. She sat on her bed, leaning back against the bed back, staring listlessly into the air.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said softly.

She turned around, staring blankly at him before her face turned into an approximation of a smile even when tears glistening through her lone eye.

"Hello Harry, I read your get well letter." she answered, her voice hoarce.