chapter six
Harry awoke on the day of halloween. Draco had already left their room, so Harry quickly changed into his day robes and got to the bathrooms. There, he brushed his teeth and tried -and failed- to comb his hair into submission. It was a futile effort.
Making his way to the common room, Harry found Blaise Zabini sitting in one of the leather chairs strewn all about the room.
Blaise was a kind, if a bit shy boy with dark skin and hair. He wore the same robes as every other slytherin, black and green with silver accents, the slytherin crest on his chest. He was currently reading their potions textbook, with parchment laid in front of him on the table. He was probably doing Snape’s most recent assignment, Harry concluded. It was a rather difficult text on the basic remedies against skin irritation. Harry had completed the assignment yesterday, right after he practiced his transfiguration a bit. Draco had worked with him on the assignment, so their texts were pretty similar from bouncing ideas and knowledge off of each other.
Some older students were gathered around a boy with a box in his arm.
Harry paid them no mind and simply read his charms textbook a bit more. The spell he was on right now was the water charm Aguamenti. It was a handy little charm which summoned fresh water from the air moisture. There was also a different version of the charm which pulled from the nearest lake instead Aguamenti limni. That one was most practical in dry areas like the sahara desert for example. Most of the time though, Aguamenti was enough to do the job.
He spent a few more minutes reading before the Slytherins began walking towards the feast in the great hall.
{Gryffindor Common room}
Ron Weasley sat in a corner of the gryffindor common room, his wizarding chess set propped up. He was playing a game against Seamus Finnigan, one of his fellow first years. He was so engrossed by the game that he didn’t notice Dursley until he was right next to him, delivering a playful punch to the arm, “come weasley, it’s time to get to the feast”
“Not now dursley”, Ron shut him down, “I’m in the middle of something”
“Whatever, more food for me”, Dursley left the common room on his quest for ever more food to stuff his fat face with.
“I can’t stand that guy *Sigh*”, Seamus explained, “how can you keep your cool with him?”
“I can’t”, Ron groaned in frustration, “I’m always so close to smacking him, you can’t imagine how I’m tempted every moment mate. But- Actually I’m not sure why he keeps trying to be my friend, he just does and I can’t shoot him down, he’s denser than that slimy slytherin, what’s his name? Gargoyle or something? Really, he just doesn’t get my hints that I want nothing to do with him. I want as much to do with him as I want with that insufferable know-it-all Granger”
It just so happened that Hermione Granger heard him say that and, with tears running down her face, she sprinted out of the common room.
{Great hall, several hours later}
Later, at the Halloween feast, which had been going for a few hours already, Harry sat with Draco and Blaise, talking about what they were doing for the winter holidays. It seemed as though Harry was the only one to stay over the holidays out of the group of three. Draco and his family were hosting a big party for the important political figures of England and a few European politicians as well. Blaise on the other hand was going on holiday in Germany with his mother and step father. The other first years also shared their plans with them. Goyle and Crabbe were staying in Albania, their families staying at the same place for the time. Theodore Nott was staying at his home in southern england. Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were staying at the Greengrass estate, the other girls didn’t see the need to disclose where they would be going, just ensuring they wouldn’t stay at Hogwarts. It looked as though Harry was the only first year Slytherin to stay at Hogwarts.
The conversation shifted to their opinion about school so far.
Crabbe and Goyle did not have much to say except that they enjoyed the food. Draco on the other hand had a much more in-deep opinion on the curriculum, “I enjoy most of it, potions especially. Herbology is… well let’s say I have had more than enough bites from chomping cabbages. Defense against the dark arts is a joke, especially with p-p-poor s- s- s- stuttering q- quirrel. Everything else is good, not great but not horrible either”
“Yeah, I agree with draco on this one”, Pansy Parkinson chimed in, “Defense against the dark arts is by far the worst class, closely followed by herbology. Potions isn’t really my cup of tea though, I enjoy charms a lot more”
“Well, I don’t hate any of the classes. Yes some are- uniquely taught, Defense and History come to mind, but I like them still, there is so much to learn”, Harry explained to his friends, who all started snickering.
“We knew you would say something like that”, Draco told him, “you are a real overachiever, best in class and always lost in those books. How you ended up wearing green and not blue, I will never understand”
Their friendly banter was interrupted by the doors to the great hall swinging open dramatically. Quirrel was seen stumbling his way out of them, panicked and out of breath, “Trolls in the dungeons! Trolls! Thought you ought to know”
His voice faltered and died down at the end, till he collapsed to the floor.
One moment everything was quiet and the next, pandemonium was breaking out, children running for their lives screaming at the top of their lungs.
It took the headmaster more than a dozen minutes to calm everyone down enough to make an announcement, “Quiet everyone, Quiet! Everyone stay calm and don’t leave the hall. Professor Flitwick, McGonagall and myself will find and neutralize the trolls. All other professors currently present will stay here to protect you, so keep calm and enjoy the feast whilst we handle the danger”
{Later that night, Slytherin common room}
Rumors were floating around in the common room as to what had happened earlier that day. Some thought peeves had let the trolls in whilst others suspected Hagrid, the groundskeeper known for his love of dangerous beasts. There were rumors that told Dumbledore to have single handedly taken out three grown trolls, whilst others said that Dumbledore had been too late and the trolls had killed a group of students in the toilets. No one knew for sure what had transpired that day and so, with uneasy thoughts still ravaging their minds, they eventually got to sleep.