Chapter 005

Harry froze. The rest of his classmates flowed around him and a few steps later Ron and Neville turned back to look at him stopped in the middle of the corridor. Harry's hands clenched and his teeth ground together. "You," he stepped forward and his mouth curled into a snarl, as he jabbed a finger accusingly in the redhead's chest not even realizing he was still holding his wand. Or that it was glowing. "You want her to make herself dumber just so she doesn't look better than lazy idiots like you." Harry's voice was like ice. Neville hurriedly took a few steps away from Ron and worriedly tried to get his wand out though he seemed nervous about which boy he should be pointing it at. "You're jealous that she's better than you. That she understands the subject while you can't even be bothered to try. How dare you! Dudley was bad enough! I can't do anything about him yet but, I can do something about you!" Harry thrust his hand forward not even realizing his wand was in it. "You stay the hell away from, Hermione! And stay the hell away from me too!"

"Wha – " Ron sputtered backing away from Harry. He tripped over his robes and landed on his butt on the floor. "Harry – "

"Shut up, Ronald! I don't like bullies and that's all you are. You're just like Dudley! Stay away from us!" Harry turned on his heel and scanned the small crowd that had formed nearby as the rest of the class had gathered to view the rising chaos. "Lavender! Did you see where she went?"

The girl's eyes widened, afraid to be in his sights, and she quickly shook her head. "Um, no, but she usually goes into the second floor bathroom to cry. She should be out by the end of the feast though…"

"If you see her before I do tell her to stay away from Ron and that I want to talk to her," Harry's voice had dropped back down to a normal volume and he had stopped breathing heavily. Lavender nodded and the crowd slowly started to mill away towards the Great Hall, the show apparently over.

"You coming, Neville?" Harry asked as he walked off.

Neville jerked and stared at Harry. "Yeah. Coming." He sent a baleful glare at Ron who was still staring up from the floor before hurrying after his friend.

Harry had kept watching the doors to the Great Hall during the entire feast. Halloween was turning into a right awful day. Flitwick was still casting glances at him from the staff table. Everyone was celebrating his parents' death. He'd thrown aside one of his few friends. Hermione still hadn't shown up. What the hell else could happen to make this day worse?

"Troll! There's a troll in the dungeons!" Professor Quirrell yelled as he ran into the room and barely even reaching the center of the room before fainting.

'Note to self: never ever tempt fate. Even in my head. She obviously hates me – or at minimum – loves to play around with me, all the while cackling madly in the background.'

The Great Hall exploded into chaos as the professors called for the Houses to follow their prefects back to the dorm rooms. As they left the room, Harry scowled and shifted to the back of the crowd. Neville noticed his friend slowing down and leaned over to whisper, "Harry, what's going on?"

"Hermione doesn't know about the troll, Nev. What if she's still in the bathroom?"

"Shouldn't we tell the prefects?" he suggested with a slight quaver.

"They're busy with everyone else. Come on, it's only a few corridors over. We can get there faster if we just go ourselves. The troll isn't even supposed to up here anyway. I don't want Hermione to get into trouble for something Ron did!"

Harry saw Neville's face drain of color and gave a sad smile. "It's okay, Nev. I'll go get her and we'll meet you guys up in the Common Room." He turned to run away from the staircase but Neville grabbed his arm.

"No – no. I'm coming too. I may not be much help but, I'm not letting you go alone and I don't want Hermione to get in trouble either." Harry smiled back in reply and the two sprinted off. Harry's opinion of Neville jumped up several notches seeing the boy would actually stand up for himself and others when push came to shove.

As they got closer to the bathroom an awful smell drifted toward them. "Neville, do trolls smell?" Harry tried to keep his voice calm but there was a small tremor running through it.

"Yeah..." Neville's face had reached nearly pure white.

"Maybe we should've gotten a prefect…"

They twisted around the last turn just in time to see a twelve foot tall troll amble through the door to the bathroom, a giant club half as big dragging in its wake. Harry's face joined Neville's in color loss. "That's the girls' bathroom…" A scream rang through the air from the room the troll had entered.

"Hermione!" Both boys shouted and sprinted straight through the door.

In front of them the troll was standing and raising its club. Hermione was crouched on the floor among broken toilets and stall doors. Harry didn't think; he just immediately jumped onto the troll's back and grabbed its head trying to twist it away from Hermione and back towards the door. "Neville! Distract it! Hermione, run!"

Hermione didn't run. She stayed frozen and whimpering in the corner of the room. Neville stayed frozen for a moment too before he snapped out it. He grabbed his wand and tried to shout out a spell but only a weak red light came out that bounced harmlessly off the troll's skin. The troll's club swiped out and Neville jumped back. He managed to avoid getting hit but his wand wasn't so lucky. As the boy fell back, his wand got caught by the edge of the club and snapped right in half.

It had bought enough time though. Harry, one hand wrapped around the troll's neck, the other digging through his pack, triumphantly raised his arm clutching his incomplete Extravagance Rune Show. Thrusting his hand around the troll's head Harry activated the rune stone and thrust it into the troll's open mouth. He dropped off the back of the troll and rolled away just as a dull bang sounded through the bathroom. Covering his head, Harry felt himself splattered with something sticky and smelly as a second later there was a great crash when the troll fell to the floor, its loincloth passing so close that it brushed against Harry's arm.

Slowly, Harry lowered his arms and scanned the room. Neville was sitting on the floor staring dumbly. Hermione was still crouched in the corner but with her mouth wide open. Next to Harry, on the floor was the troll. Most of the top of its head was missing. Steaming meat chunks squelched down the wall of the bathroom and dripped off the ceiling.

Without the Extinguisher and Soften runes weaved into the cluster, the Extravagance Rune Show was still rather explosive.

"Umm…" Anything else Harry was going to say was cut off as a blurry, bushy, brown bullet slammed into his chest nearly knocking him over. Hermione's arms wrapped around him and her head buried into his chest. Harry froze; this was the first hug he could ever remember receiving. "Hermione? Are you okay?" Cautiously Harry reaching a hand out and patted her head. A small nod was the only answer he got as the girl's arms tightened around his chest and he felt his stomach get wet. She was sobbing right through his shirt. "Neville? You good?"

"I'm okay. I broke my wand but, I'm okay. Did you blow off its head?" Neville's voice was strained – like he couldn't decide between whether to cry or laugh. Harry commiserated.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I did."

"Did you mean to do that?"

"Um, maybe? I knew it would explode. I didn't mean to kill it but…I didn't know what else to do. Did I kill it?"

"Mr. Potter? Mr. Longbottom? Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall's shocked voice sounded into the small bathroom. "Is that…? How…? Are…are you three hurt?" she finally managed to say.

"We're okay, Professor. Neville's wand got broken though."

"How did this…?" The teacher abruptly cut off as a piece of brain from the ceiling dropped an inch in front of her face.

"What the blazes?" Professor Flitwick squeaked as he came around the older woman. "What happened to its head?"

"Obviously it smacked itself with an errant swing," Snape drawled swishing in behind the other two.

"No it didn't, Sir," Neville said softly from the floor, still staring at the troll. He shook his head, stood up, grabbed his broken wand and moved to stand with Harry and Hermione. "Harry killed it, Sir."

"Impossible!" Snape sneered.

"Mr. Potter? Perhaps you should explain what just happened," Professor McGonagall could barely tear her eyes from the troll's twitching remains long enough to glance at the trio of students.