Chapter 14:

It was Halloween in 1991.

Classes were progressing at the usual pace, and Harry for one was glad to be almost done with the day. Today more than normal people were making owl eyes at him, making him feel super uncomfortable.

Normally this time of year the Potters stayed out of the public, but with Harry being in school, it wasn't quite possible.

In charms that day, Harry was sitting next to Susan, and Hannah, while the rest of his friends were lined up in rows, instead of the usual desk of three. Today they were going over the levitation charm, Wingadium Leviosa, and to say the class was struggling would be an understatement.

Harry and Neville of course had the charm down, but they were having difficulty even trying to help people. This spell was all about the wand movement, and then the correct pronunciation. It was for sure a difficult beginner spell, but other than the two of them Susan, and Hermione were the only ones to establish the spell.

As he was helping his housemates around the room he briefly caught a conversation between Ron Weasley and Hermione, "It's Leviosa, not levy-o-saar. Come on Ron, your going to poke someone's out eye out with that thing."

"If you're so great why don't you show us how it is done. Come on!"

Harry couldn't see the girl's reaction, but by the wow factor in the room, it was clear she had done it tremendously well, as even Professor Flitwick gave her five points for it. Harry turned to grin at the girl as she had clearly done her work well and then continued to help his housemates until they were at least able to get it off the table.

At the end of class, they were all distractedly talking about the charm work they had done, when they heard shouting behind them, "There is no wonder you don't have any friends outside of your house. Always thinking you are better than everyone else just because you were born with a golden spoon in your mouth. I'll stick to my own business thanks, and I'd appreciate it if you keep you and your stupid bucktooth mouth out of it!"

Hermione suddenly looked like she had been slapped, and Harry started to walk over towards them to confront the red-haired idiot, but before he could get over there Hermione had taken off into a run, with some of the Gryffindors laughing at her back.

Seeing the girl running away from him, sparked some flames in Harry's gut, and walked straight over to Ron and struck him in the face, and then shoved him up against the wall, Harry growled, "What the hell is wrong with you? She was just trying to help you, you emotionless prat."

Ron was now pinned against the wall, bleeding from his mouth, and the other Gryffindor saw their fellow classmate get smashed, and some drew their wands while the whole first year Hufflepuff drew theirs pointing them at the house of Lions clearly not happy about what had been said to Hermione, "If any of you throw a spell at me, you better knock me out, because if you don't I will retaliate with full force."

This seems to convince the other Gryffindors to stand down, and suddenly Neville was there, clearly having not seen the confrontation, "Harry what the bloody hell happened is happening here? Why are your housemates pointing their wands at mine?"

Sighing the oldest Potter scion explained what had been said, when Neville whirled around on the boy, "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here Ron, Harry let him go."

Harry shook his head slamming the boy against the wall, "You better watch yourself Weasley had you said that to one of my housemates you'd be spending the next month in the Hospital Wing. I will only give you one chance to apologize to Hermione, and if you don't I swear you are going to regret being born."

Harry then spun the boy around and pushed him towards Neville, "Control him Neville, or I will."

With that, Harry stormed off in the direction that Hermione had gone in. Thankfully Susan and Hannah were on his heels the whole way, yet still, they could not find the bushy-haired girl. Harry growled, "That idiot. I can't believe he said that to Hermione who was just trying to help him."

Both girls sensing Harry's ire did not bother to say anything to him just yet, as they checked the last place, the girl's bathroom.

Harry sat outside for a few minutes taking a sigh of relief knowing that they must have found Hermione, and that was why it was taking them so long. He knew dinner must be well on its way, and he flicked his wrist casting his Patronus to his head of the house, "Professor Sprout, we are on the third-floor corridor, at the girl's bathroom. We have a distraught Hermione Granger with us, and we will be late joining the feast. Susan and Hannah are with me."

With that, the blast of the Patronus started flying down the hallway, and Harry sighed as Hannah came out, "Sue is better at comforting people, she is talking to Hermione inside. The girl is pretty distraught. Mandy must have been sick today, because I didn't see her in class, and I am sure Hermione would like to be with her friend right now."

Harry pondered this for a moment then responded, "Most of the Brocklehurst family was wiped out by the Dark Lord, I wouldn't be surprised if she took the day off, and stayed in their dormitory."

Hannah took that at face value and understood what Harry was saying. The two sat together for a moment, before she said, "That was nice of you to stand up for her Harry. We told her about what you did to Ron, and what you said."

Harry gave the pretty girl a firm look, "I hate bullies. I am glad Neville showed up or no telling what I would've done to the idiot. Had he said that to you, Sue, or Megan I would've kicked his teeth in. It's one thing when guys give each other crap, or even when girls give other girls crap, but a boy should never say words like those to a girl."

Hannah nodded her head in agreement, "I didn't realize you were so protective."

"I grew up with a little sister, and if someone had said that to Rosalie, I am sure we'd be having this conversation in Azkaban," Harry said in good humor.

Hannah seemed to look at the boy in a new light at this. First, he saves her life, and now he is defending bullied girls, from persecution. She had always had respect for the boy, but today it had grown exponentially, "That's a very Hufflepuff thing to say. 'Loyalty to the end' Mr. Potter, it's an endearing trait to have."

Harry gave the girl a lopsided grin that was becoming kind of a trademark of his. The girl even blushed, which made Harry take a bit sharper notice of the girl. Her pigtails were as always tied behind her back, and her blue eyes were brighter than usual. Her face was also very smooth, with some sharp cheekbones, which was quite appealing in Harry's opinion.

Unlike most boys, with Sirius Black as your godfather, one just instantly grew up appreciating the female species.

Before Harry could ponder this thought he heard a low growl. Harry looked straight at Hannah who had gone pale with fear. Whatever was behind him clearly wasn't good. He spoke softly and quietly, "Get in the restroom Hannah."

Suddenly an ugly sound came from behind him and he screamed, "NOW!"

With a gentle push, Harry swooped around pulling out his wand and throwing the first hex he could think of, "Defodio!"

The spell flew down the hallway connecting with a fully grown mountain troll. However, this spell was barely enough to push the beast back a few feet. Harry swore under his breath as the creature then began charging him, forcing him backward and on the defensive as the monster slammed his club down in front of him.

Only having barely missed the club Harry noticed that where the weapon had collided there was quite a large hole in the ground. This caused the boy to pale and began flinging curses at it, but it simply wasn't enough as he heard a scream come from in the bathroom.

He had hoped the girls would stay quiet, but clearly, they were frightened. However then he heard spell fire coming from inside the bathroom, and he knew something else was now going horribly wrong.

Forgetting his first target he stormed into the bathroom noticing a very large spider cornering the girls in the bathroom. Hannah and Susan were standing protectively in front of Hermione both trying to keep the spider back with constant spell fire. Taking only a moment to admire the girl's bravery Harry was the only one who knew just the spell for this one, "Arania Exumai!"

This seemed to knock the spider away from the girls and sent it spiraling into the nearby wall, but it clearly wasn't dead. At this point, the troll had followed the boy into the bathroom, and he backed up where he was protecting the three girls from all sides.

The spider was even quickly regaining its wits and seemed focused on his attacker and not the fully grown troll behind him. The spider was at least four feet tall, making it undoubtedly an Acromantula. Harry called out, "I'm going to clear you all a path, and you need to run to the great hall. Do not stop, do not catch your breath, get to Neville, get to the headmaster, and don't even look back no matter what you hear."

He didn't have time to acknowledge the girls, as the spider came toward him, "Bombarda Maxima!"

This was enough to throw the spider back against the wall with absolute force, and even take part of the wall behind it. He then turned to the troll, "Defodio, Expulso, Reducto!"

The three spells impacted the troll hard, and Harry screamed, "Go now!"

The girls immediately took off at Harry's command, and he did his best to follow them. They made it out of the girl's bathroom, and to the grand central staircase before they saw another problem, and it was a dementor. Harry went deathly white at the site, screaming at the girls, "Go up! Go up!"

Thankfully the three girls were listening to him unquestioningly as they bolted up the stairs, and Harry was forced to throw up a shield to protect him from the massive troll that was above him. He didn't have much time to contemplate it, but he was sure that something big was going down. Someone was going for the stone.

Now Harry was facing a huge problem. An injured acromantula was now climbing the walls, a troll was trying to bash Harry's face in, while a dementor was now coming towards them to suck their souls.. They were dead, plain and simple.

He couldn't take all of them, not by himself.

He growled at this line of thought, he would not get his friends killed, not now. His first plan was to get rid of the troll, as it was his main problem, and he could only hope the girls would keep the acromantula back for a little bit.

The first spell Harry threw was an expelliarmus, hoping to disarm the troll from his weapon. With the luck of Merlin on his side, the troll lost control of his club and sent it to the side, causing it to fall down the grand central staircase. At this Harry watched the club fall and noticed a man in the shadows watching it all take place.

He was sure it was Quirrel and fired a gouging hex at the man, but in the blink of an eye, the man was gone.

Turning his attention back to the fifteen-foot-tall monster, he started hurtling nearly point-blank blasting curses. He then heard a scream which turned him desperate. With a prayer, he dove forward sticking his wand right at the monster's chest and screaming, "Confrigno!"

This finally had the desired effect causing the troll to fall backward clearly dead if the size of the hole in its chest indicated anything. Turning around he quickly fired his previous spell at the spider, "Arani Exumai!"