Can Things Change

Everyone back in their spots, Charlie and Dora rejoining the group so that Teddy, Percy and Cedric could nap in the nursery, Marlene started.

“Chapter 10 - Halloween

Malfoy couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw that Aurora and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful. 

“Oh that wasn’t his issue,” Blaise laughed. “He was honestly surprised that he was being punished for not showing up to the duel that he challenged you too.” Draco just sent Aurora a glare that said ‘I told you so’ before moving his glare to Blaise.

Indeed, by the next morning Aurora and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one. 

“No!” Sirius declared. “You don’t need adventures like that.”

James and Lily looked incredulously at Sirius. He defended himself by saying, “It’s one thing to explore in the middle of the night in the castle that isn’t hiding a dangerous artifact being guarded by a cerberus and who knows what else. It is something completely different to go looking for dangerous situations.” He huffed and crossed his arms. James, Lily, Marlene and Aurora smiled softly at him

In the meantime, Aurora filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection.

“It’s either really valuable or really dangerous,” said Ron.

“Or both,” said Aurora.

“That’s a good deduction with the little amount of information that you have,” Kingsley said, rather impressed with this girl's thinking even at eleven.

But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn’t have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again, and he urged Aurora to not go near it either. When he realized that she had found the adventure fun, all he asked of her was to be careful.

“It’s pointless to argue with Ro when she gets an idea into her head,” Neville said. “Sometimes it's better to try and keep the damage to a minimum rather than spend days trying to talk her out of something and she goes and does it anyway.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Alice and Marlene said at the same time looking at Lily. Lily just smiled, holding back a laugh and looked down trying to look contrite.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Aurora and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus. It had made things in the dorm a little awkward at times, but since Aurora was spending so much time with the boys they hardly saw each other outside of classes. 

“I swear you spent more time in the boys dorm than you did in ours our entire time at Hogwarts,” Hermione said, Aurora just shrugged, she might love Hermione, but she couldn’t stand to be around Lavender and Parvati’s gossiping about boys in the early years and her in the later years. 

“Most of my friends are boys,” Aurora replied.

“It’s really not fair that girls can come into our dorms whenever they want, and we can’t get into theirs,” Peter groaned.

All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy - outside of the punishment magic had decided to bestow upon him - and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.

As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone’s attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. 

“It was not subtle what it was,” Blaise said. “Adrian had also heard Wood telling Alicia and Angelina that you were on the team, so the other teams knew as well.”

“Like Gideon said, ‘Nothing stays secret at Hogwarts’,” Regulus drawled.

“Oh I can think of a couple secrets that people don’t know,” Aurora, Ron, Hermione and Neville said together.

At the curious looks, they all just said they would have to read all the books.

Aurora was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of her, knocking her bacon to the floor. 

“A waste of perfectly good bacon,” Aurora moaned. After treacle tart, bacon was her second favorite food.

They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.

Aurora ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don’t want everybody knowing you’ve got a broomstick or they’ll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o’clock for your first training session.

Professor McGonagall

“You bought her her first broom!” James asked, extremely appreciative.

“It does appear that way.”

“She told me later that it was to make up for the years of birthday and Christmas presents that she missed,” Aurora clarified. She and Professor McGonagall had had a long conversation during the rebuilding of Hogwarts after the war.

Aurora had difficulty hiding her glee as she handed the note to Ron to read. She couldn’t wait to get on a broom again, there was nothing like the feeling of the wind whipping through her hair as she raced through the sky. And the diving, there was nothing like it that she had ever felt before.

“A Nimbus Two Thousand!” Ron moaned enviously. “I’ve never even touched one.”

They left the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomstick in private before their first class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle.

Malfoy seized the package from Aurora and felt it. Aurora was starting to wonder if Malfoy’s mother had ever taught him any manners because this was now the second time he had grabbed something that didn’t belong to him out of the owner's hands.

“You are not the only one wondering that,” Narcissa glared at her son.

“He wasn’t much better in the common room,” Blaise added.

“Blaise!” Draco shouted. “Can you pretend to be on my side for one chapter! Please!”

Blaise laughed, shaking his head no.

“He gets this from you,” Narcissa said warningly, turning her glare to Lucius. Lucius shrunk back from her in fear.

“That’s a broomstick,” he said, throwing it back to Aurora with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. “You’ll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren’t allowed them.”

Ron couldn’t resist it.

“It’s not any old broomstick,” he said, “it’s a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you’ve got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?” Ron grinned at Aurora. “Comets look flashy, but they’re not in the same league as the Nimbus.”

“Now you’re just challenging him to come back next year with a better broom,” James, Sirius and Remus said.

The time travelers all laughed, ‘they weren’t wrong,’ they all thought.

“What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn’t afford half the handle,” Malfoy snapped back. “I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig.”

Molly and Arthur blushed brightly, while Fabian and Gideon looked at the two worriedly. They were making due with three kids, but they were about to have another two in the spring, and from the looks of it two more after the twins. 

Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy’s elbow.

“Not arguing, I hope, boys and girls?” he squeaked.

“Potter’s been sent a broomstick, Professor,” said Malfoy quickly.

“Yes, yes, that’s right,” said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Aurora. “Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?”

“A Nimbus Two Thousand, it is,” said Aurora, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy’s face. “And it’s really thanks to Malfoy here that I’ve got it,” she added. 

“Well I hope this taught you a lesson,” Narcissa scolded Draco.

“It really did,” Draco commented. He was much more careful in the next couple of years about only doing things that would make Aurora look bad, not something that could turn in her favor.

Aurora and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Malfoy’s obvious rage and confusion.

“Well, it’s true,” Aurora chortled as they reached the top of the marble staircase, “If he hadn’t stolen Neville’s Remembrall I wouldn’t be on the team…”

“So I suppose you think that’s a reward for breaking rules?” came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the package in Aurora’s hand.

“Looking back on it, it really wasn’t much of a reward,” Hermione said. 

At the curious looks from everyone she clarified, “Because of being on the team, Aurora lost a lot of her free time, plus she had to maintain an E average in classes, and with Potions being how it was she basically had to have O’s in all her other classes, so the free time she did have she spent a good portion of it studying.” The others in the room nodded in agreement, they could understand why making the team in their first year wouldn’t be that great when put that way.

“Yea we didn’t exactly have a lot of non-practice time after this year,” Fred and Aurora grumbled.

“And as great as you are at the practical side of magic, your theory needs help,” Amice added.

“That’s one of the issues with having the amount of raw power that she has,” Luna said. 

“I thought you weren’t speaking to us?” said Aurora.

“Yes, don’t stop now,” said Ron, “it’s doing us so much good.”

Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.

Hermione smacked Ron and Aurora in the back of their heads with pillows, before imitating her younger self and sticking her nose up in the air.

Aurora had a lot of trouble keeping her mind on her lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where her new broomstick was lying under Neville’s bed, 

“Why did you put it there?” James asked.

“Lavender and Pavarti had no sense of boundaries and liked to go through everyone’s things,” Hermione explained. “We ended up keeping most of our valuables in their room in our later years.” This caused Lily and Alice to glare, they had a roommate like that, but they never thought of putting their things in the boys dorm. They might have to do that when they got out of this room. With Lily and Alice dating James and Frank they now had a reason to be in the boys dorm too.

“Yeah, Seamus and Dean really didn’t care, so they left everything alone,” Neville added.

or straying off to the Quidditch field where she’d be learning to play that night. She bolted her dinner that evening without noticing what she was eating, and then rushed upstairs with Ron and Neville to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.

“Wow,” Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled onto Neville’s bedspread.

Even Aurora, who knew nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.

All the quidditch plays in the room sighed dreamily, a glazed look in their eyes.

As seven o’clock drew nearer, Aurora left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. She’d never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Aurora of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high.

“I thought that too the first time I saw them,” Hermione, Lily, and Ted all said.

Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Aurora mounted her broomstick and kicked off from the ground. She flew up high above the goal posts and once she reached her peak, quickly turned her broom nose first to the ground. She could see almost in slow motion the ground approaching, but didn’t pull up. She waited until she was no more than three feet from the ground and pulled hard on the broom, and leveled out, a whoop of excitement leaving her. She shot back into the air again. 

“Wow!” The quidditch players all sighed.

“Your second time on a broom and you perform a perfect Wronski Feint!” James exclaimed.

“Do you play professionally?” Barty asked, very impressed with her flying ability.

“I’ve been asked to be on the national team, but I don’t play for any of the regional British-Irish Leagues.”

“Puddlemere and Holyhead both tried their best to recruit her but she's content playing for the national team in the upcoming world cup,” Ginny said.

“I like my job,” Aurora shrugged, not elaborating for the curious people staring at her.   

What a feeling — she swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever she wanted at her lightest touch. 

“Hey, Potter, come down!”

Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Aurora landed next to him. 

“Very nice,” said Wood, his eyes glinting. “I see what McGonagall meant… you really are a natural. I’m just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you’ll be joining team practice three times a week.”

“That sounds reasonable,” James said. “That's what I have the team at.”

“Three times a week is tame for Oliver,” Fred moaned.

He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls.

“Right,” said Wood. “Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it’s not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers.”

“Three Chasers,” Aurora repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball.

“This ball’s called the Quaffle,” said Wood. “The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?”

“The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score,” Aurora recited. “So — that’s sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn’t it?”

“What’s basketball?” said Wood curiously.

“Never mind,” said Aurora quickly.

“Now, there’s another player on each side who’s called the Keeper — I’m Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring.”

“Keeper’s aren’t usually the captains,” James said. “He must be good.”

“He was recruited to Puddlemere right after Hogwarts and was only on the reserve team for a year,” Aurora said.

“He was also the only member of the team higher than a 3rd year,” Fred elaborated.

“That’s a young team,” Remus whistled.

“Three Chasers, one Keeper,” said Aurora, who was determined to remember it all. “And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?” He pointed at the three balls left inside the box.

“I’ll show you now,” said Wood. “Take this.”

He handed Aurora a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat.

“He’s not really going to release a Bludger on you is he?” Pandora asked.

“There’s really no other way to learn what they do then to see it.”

“I’m going to show you what the Bludgers do,” Wood said. “These two are the Bludgers.”

He showed Aurora two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Aurora noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

“Stand back,” Wood warned Aurora. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. 

At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Aurora’s face. Aurora swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking her nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air — 

“Well done Ro,” Sirius complemented. “You would make a good beater.”

“Better than McLaggen,” Ginny giggled, setting the other travelers off too.

it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.

“See?” Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. “The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That’s why you have two Beaters on each team — the Weasley twins are ours — it’s their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So — think you’ve got all that?”

“Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team,” Aurora reeled off.

“Very good,” said Wood.

“Er — have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?” Aurora asked, hoping she sounded offhand.

“Never at Hogwarts. We’ve had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That’s you. And you don’t have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers —”

“— unless they crack my head open.”

“Don’t worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers — I mean, they’re like a pair of human Bludgers themselves.”

Fred stood and bowed, “Thank you. Thank you. The praise is much appreciated.” Many of the people there laughed.

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings.

“This,” said Wood, “is the Golden Snitch, and it’s the most important ball of the lot. It’s very hard to catch because it’s so fast and difficult to see. It’s the Seeker’s job to catch it. You’ve got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team’s Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. 

“I would love to see a game where the person catching the snitch their team didn’t win,” the Marauders all sighed.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Hermione said. “And I’m not the biggest quidditch fan, I just watch for Ray and Ron and Ginny.”

That’s why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages — I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.

“Well, that’s it any questions?”

Aurora shook her head. She understood what she had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem.

“Yes, catching the snitch is such a problem for you,” Blaise snorted. “How many have you missed?”

Aurora just sniffed and turned away from him.

“We won’t practice with the Snitch yet,” said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, “it’s too dark, we might lose it. Let’s try you out with a few of these.”

He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and Aurora were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Aurora to catch.

Aurora didn’t miss a single one, and Wood was delighted. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn’t carry on.

“Well done Ro!” James and Sirius cheered. 

“That Quidditch Cup’ll have our name on it this year,” said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn’t gone off chasing dragons.”

“Oh, why do my children have to have such dangerous jobs,” Molly moaned, paling at the reminder that her son worked with dragons for a living.

Perhaps it was because she was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all her homework, but Aurora could hardly believe it when she realized that she’d already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had. Her lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics. The stares were also starting to die down. Cedric or the Weasley twins still showed up to escort her to almost all of her classes but the twins were no longer pranking anyone whose gaze lingered too long and Cedric was no longer glaring at everyone who dared to look at her. 

“They take their job to protect you very seriously don’t they,” Andromeda asked.

“I wasn’t without an escort between classes for my first two years. And then there was a situation in third year which made them even worse, and even earned me extra guards.”

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they’d seen him make Neville’s toad zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice.

Aurora’s partner was Neville, which both appreciated very much, neither wanting to work with Seamus who was known to set everything on fire without meaning to. Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn’t spoken to either of them since the day Aurora’s broomstick had arrived.

“Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” squeaked Professor

Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick.

And saying the magic words properly is very important, too — never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ‘s’ instead of ‘f’ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.”

“That’s not true!” Peter boasted. “We tried it and it didn’t work.”

Flitwick sighed fondly at the Marauders, “Of course you boys did.”

It didn’t seem very difficult. Aurora and Neville swished and flicked, but their feather barely moved off the table. Neville got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it — Aurora had to put it out with her hat, and jokingly called him Seamus.

Ron, at the next table, wasn’t having much more luck.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. 

“You’re saying it wrong,” Aurora heard Hermione snap. “It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”

“You do it, then, if you’re so clever,” Ron snarled.

“Oh never challenge the know it all’s,” Alice and Marlene groaned. “It never ends well for you.”

Lily just laughed at her two friends.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, “Wingardium Leviosa!”

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

“Oh, well done!” cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. “Everyone see here, Miss Granger’s done it!”

Aurora and Neville, having had their feather replaced, managed shortly after Hermione to levitate their feather, along with Amice and Susan Bones who were partnered together, and two other Hufflepuff boys, who Aurora thought were named Justin and Ernie. Despite her best effort, Aurora hadn’t made many friends outside of Gryffindor, and even though one of her best friends was a Hufflepuff, the house that touted loyalty and fair-play didn’t seem very welcoming to Aurora, who had had all her efforts to befriend others in the house - outside the Diggory siblings - rebuffed by most of its members.

“Why?” Sprout asked, looking very confused.

“I honestly don’t know,” Amice said. “I know that some of the issues all the girls had with Ro had to do with the attention my brother paid to her. He was considered one of the catches of Hogwarts, especially as he got older.”

“Her being sorted into Gryffindor was the biggest issue,” Blaise explained. He was one of the outsiders so he saw and heard more than most. “Gryffindor was already thought to get special treatment from the Headmaster, so when Aurora was sorted into that house everyone just thought that it would get much worse. And it did.” He glared at Dumbledore. “Things eventually calmed down when a lot of the people in other houses saw that Ro didn’t ask for or want the attention.” Here he glared at Draco. “But by then a lot of the damage had been done and Ro just gave up on making new friends unless they put in the effort first.”

“That and I had a couple people trying to be my friend because I was famous and Fred and George, plus Cedric put a stop to that,” Aurora added. “I eventually make friends with the other houses”

Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.

“It’s no wonder no one can stand her,” he said to Aurora as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, “she’s a nightmare, honestly.”

“Ronald!” Molly, Arthur, Fabian and Gideon yelled.

Someone knocked into Aurora as they hurried past her. It was Hermione. Aurora caught a glimpse of her face — and was startled to see that she was in tears.

“I think she heard you.” Aurora tried to go after the girl. As much as she wished that Hermione would calm down about things and realize that some people learned differently than she did, Aurora didn’t want the girl's feelings to be hurt. Ron grabbed Aurora’s arm though before she could go after the crying girl.

“Why did you stop her?” Pandora asked.

“I didn’t mean to stop her,” Ron assured. “She was about to run into a suit of armor.”

“So?” said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. “She must’ve noticed she’s got no friends.”

“Ron!” Aurora scolded, pulling her arm out of Ron’s grip. “I never had any friends before either.” She quickly walked in the same direction that Hermione went.

Aurora couldn’t find her and Hermione didn’t turn up for the next class and wasn’t seen all afternoon. Aurora would much rather be looking for Hermione than go celebrate Halloween but on their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Aurora and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls’ bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked still more awkward at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall. 

Until this last summer the only thing that Aurora had known about her parents was that they died on Halloween. She had never been allowed to trick or treat when she was younger, and she honestly had no wish to. She would rather think about how things would have been if she had parents. Then, since learning that she was a witch, Aurora was reading more about Samhain and Yule, and their importance in wizarding society and how they were being phased out of celebration in Wizarding Britain for holidays like Halloween and Christmas. But she didn’t want to disappoint Ron and Neville so she joined the two for the Halloween feast instead of moping in the dorm, and put on a happy face.

“I hate Halloween,” Aurora practically spat. The other travelers nodded sympathetically.

“But the feast is the best,” Sirius argued. Aurora just shrugged, looking away.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Aurora was just helping herself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore’s chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, “Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know.”

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore’s wand to bring silence. 

“Prefects,” he rumbled, “lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!”

“But Hufflepuff and Slytherin are in the dungeons!” Amos, Ted, Andromeda and Narcissa yelled, sending a glare at Dumbledore.

Percy was in his element. Aurora was worried though, why wouldn’t they just be kept confined to the Great Hall. The Slytherins and the Hufflepuff dorms were in the dungeons. Surely it was safer for everyone to stay where they were and just have several of the teachers leave to deal with the troll.

“That is very sound logic Miss Potter,” Amelia praised. “It would be the most effective thing to do as well.”

“Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I’m a prefect!”

“How could a troll get in?” Aurora asked as they climbed the stairs.

“Don’t ask me, they’re supposed to be really stupid,” said Ron. “Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke.”

“No. He knows the quickest way to being exorcized is to cause actual harm to the students,” McGonagall explained.

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Aurora suddenly grabbed Ron’s arm.

“I’ve just thought — Hermione.”

“What about her?”

“She doesn’t know about the troll.”

Ron bit his lip.

“Oh, all right,” he snapped. “But Percy’d better not see us.”

“YOU HAD TO THINK ABOUT IT!” Hermione shouted while attacking Ron with a pillow.

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls’ bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

“Percy!” hissed Ron, pulling Aurora behind a large stone griffin.

Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

“What are you doing Sev?” Lily asked.

Severus' head snapped up at the use of the old nickname. “I don’t know,” he softly replied.

“What’s he doing?” Aurora whispered. “Why isn’t he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?”

“Search me.”

Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape’s fading footsteps.

“He’s heading for the third floor,” Aurora said, but Ron held up his hand. 

“Can you smell something?”

Aurora sniffed and a foul stench reached her nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.

“It’s not in the dungeons anymore,” Remus announced. Lily whimpered and hid her head in James’ shoulder.

And then they heard it — a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed — at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

“The keys in the lock,” Aurora muttered. “We could lock it in.”

“Good idea,” said Ron nervously.

“That is a rather good idea,” Kingsley said.

“And like we said, Aurora has good ideas, they just never go to plan,” Ron and Hermione grumbled.

They edged toward the open door, mouths dry, praying the troll wasn’t about to come out of it.

With one great leap, Aurora managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.

“Yes!”

Flushed with their victory, they started to run back up the passage, but as they reached the corner they heard something that made their hearts stop — a high, petrified scream — and it was coming from the chamber they’d just chained up.

“Oh, no,” said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron.

“It’s the girls’ bathroom!” Aurora gasped.

“Hermione!” they said together.

All the women in the room looked to Hermione, as if to check and see if she was hurt.

Without any other thought, Aurora wheeled around, Ron right be her, they sprinted back to the door and turned the key, fumbling in their panic. Aurora pulled the door open and they ran inside.

“Why didn’t you go get a teacher?” Sprout asked.

“There wasn’t time, except for Snape, all the others were in the dungeons, and we were on the second floor.” Ron answered.

At the news that they were on the second floor all the girls in the room groaned. It was a good bathroom to go cry in.

Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as if she was about to faint.

The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went. 

“Confuse it!” Aurora said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, she threw it as hard as she could against the wall.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Aurora. It hesitated, then made for her instead, lifting its club as it went.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Lily chanted. She had one of James’ hands in a death grip, and was still hiding her face. James himself was looking rather pale, but trying his best to comfort Lily, despite his panic. Sirius had pulled Marlene close, and was rocking them back and forth, causing her to have issues reading.

Molly and Arthur were doing no better, both extremely worried for their youngest son.

“Oy, pea-brain!” yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it.

The troll didn’t even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Aurora time to run around it.

“Come on, run, run!” Aurora yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn’t move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror. Honestly Aurora didn’t blame her. If it wasn’t for the adrenaline and the need to save Hermione, she might have been frozen if she was in the girls place.

“We all quickly get over that don’t we,” Ron tried to joke.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

Seeing that his mother looked about ready to faint, Ron walked over to her and sat on the floor next to her feet.

Aurora then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: 

“Isn’t that your motto in life,” Blaise asked, laughing. 

She took a great running jump and managed to fasten her arms around the troll’s neck from behind. The troll couldn’t feel Aurora hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Aurora’s wand had still been in her hand when she’d jumped – it had gone straight up one of the troll’s nostrils.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Aurora clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip her off or catch her a terrible blow with the club.

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; Ron pulled out his own wand — not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: “Wingardium Leviosa!”

“But you can’t do that spell!” Alice cried out.

“Dangerous situations are great teachers. Besides, I had to get the club out of the troll's hands, he was doing so much damage with it, and it was the only thing that I could think of.”

The club flew suddenly out of the troll’s hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over — and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner’s head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

“That was very well done,” Arthur praised. 

“Yes, very well done, that club would not have been light,” Flitwick added his praise as well.

Ron beamed at them. He knew his dad was proud of him no matter what he did, but to earn praise from Flitwick who didn’t hand his out very often was something new.

Aurora got to her feet. She was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.

It was Hermione who spoke first.

“Is it — dead?” 

“I don’t think so,” said Aurora, “I think it’s just been knocked out.”

She bent down and pulled her wand out of the troll’s nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

“Urgh — troll boogers.”

“Ewww,” Bill, Charlie and Dora all whined, scrunching their noses in disgust. 

She wiped it on the troll’s trousers.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn’t realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll’s roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

“How can this man be the Defense teacher?” Columba questioned.

“He wasn’t the worst we ever had,” Draco replied. This did nothing to comfort any of the people in the room.

“Third year was our best teacher,” Aurora added. “Fourth wasn’t too bad at teaching, just the wrong person for the job.”

The time travelers all laughed at Aurora’s pun.

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Aurora. Aurora had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. Hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Aurora’s mind.

“What on earth were you thinking of?” said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice.

Aurora looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed. Why aren’t you in your dormitory?”

Snape gave Aurora a swift, piercing look. Aurora looked at the floor. She wished Ron would put his wand down.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

“Please, Professor McGonagall — they were looking for me.”

“Miss Granger!”

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.

“I went looking for the troll because I — I thought I could deal with it on my own — you know, because I’ve read all about them.”

“Why did you lie for them?” Lily asked. “You could have told the truth that you didn’t know about the troll because you weren’t at the feast.”

“I didn’t want them to get in trouble if anyone wanted to know why I wasn’t at the feast.”

“Not everyone goes to all the feasts,” McGonagall explained. “The only mandatory ones are the beginning and end of the year.”

“I didn’t know that then,” Hermione just shrugged.

Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher? Why didn’t she just tell the truth, that she hadn’t been at the feast and Ron and Aurora had come to let her know about the troll. 

“If they hadn’t found me, I’d be dead now. Aurora stuck her wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn’t have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived.” 

Aurora and Ron tried to look as though this story wasn’t new to them.

“Well — in that case…” said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, “Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?”

Hermione hung her head. Aurora was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble, though it was hardly their fault that the troll wasn’t where they were told it was. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

The Marauders burst into laughter. Even Lily and Lucius had small smiles on their faces. They had been or were currently friends with Severus and even they couldn’t imagine him passing out sweets.

“Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this,” said Professor McGonagall. “I’m very disappointed in you. If you’re not hurt at all, you’d better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses.”

Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Aurora and Ron.

“Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go.”

They hurried out of the chamber and didn’t speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

“We should have gotten more than ten points,” Ron grumbled.

“Five, you mean, once she’s taken off Hermione’s.”

“Good of her to get us out of trouble like that,” Ron admitted. “Mind you, we did save her.”

“She wouldn’t have needed saving if you hadn’t made her cry earlier and then miss the feast,” Pandora reminded him.

“She might not have needed saving if we hadn’t locked the thing in with her,” Aurora reminded him.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“Pig snout,” they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. 

Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said “Thanks,” and hurried off to get plates, Neville wrapped an arm around Aurora, wondering where she had been. Fred and George Weasley were watching over the now quartet, small frowns on their faces, as they looked from the group to a bit of parchment, back and forth several times.

“Do you have?” James asked.

“We did,” Fred answered.

“So my plan worked?” Sirius asked. Fred just nodded.

“What did you see that was causing the confusion?” Aurora whispered.

“Tom Riddle,” Fred whispered back.

“What do you have that has James and Sirius so excited?” Marlene asked.

“Remus and Peter too from the looks of them,” Lily said, pointing out the other two Marauders who seemed to be bouncing in their seats.

“Third book,” Fred answered.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them. 

Marlene closed the book, and said, “That’s the end of that chapter.”

Remus reached over and took it from her. “I’ll go next!”

I changed up Aurora a little, made her not so pasty white, and finally got the freckles to work right. I'm also post the picture for Amice as well.