Halloween
Thursday, October 31st, 1991
Alex was walking side by side with Gracie to the Halloween feast. Unfortunately they couldn't sit together as it was a school rule that everyone must sit with their own houses for feasts. But, that was okay, Alex had Blaise, and Gracie had Susan and Hannah.
Today had been great. Alex had spoken with Professor Snape after his class and he had agreed to be the teacher to 'sponsor' United. Kat and Gracie had both enthusiastically agreed to do posters. In fact the first round were set to come out tomorrow, with more on Saturday, then Sunday. And all of her friends had said they would tell people about it. Alex had even gotten a place to hold the meetings as Wispy had excitedly shown her the 'Room of Requirements' after class earlier that day. The first meeting was set for this upcoming Monday. On top of all of that the girls parents had sent them each a big bag of candy, a personalized hand written card, and a toy(Alex got a yo-yo, while Gracie got a small, rainbow tie-dye cheetah stuffed animal).
Alex said goodbye to Gracie then went to sit down across from Blaise.
"Hey, Gracie." Blaise said once Alex sat down. It was a running joke within their friends to call the twins by each others names, since they looked nothing alike.
"Oh, haha. So, funny." Alex replied dryly.
"I know, right? I'm a genius."
"Definitely."
Before either eleven year old could make another remark Dumbledore stood up and made a speech. Then the food appeared.
The next 30 or so minutes was spent with the whole school eating as if they had never before. That was interrupted much before dessert was delivered, however, by Professor Quirrel barging into the room.
"Troll! In the dungeon! Thought you'd want to know!" Then he passed out.
It took a minute for Dumbledore to get everyone calmed down, but once he did he called for everyone to go to their common rooms. Before anyone could leave Alex stood on the Slytherin table and got everyone's attention herself.
"Nobody leave this room!" The ravenette said loudly.
"Harry, the students need to listen to me, not you."
"Are you daft? I know people like to joke that you're going senile, but I think they may be right. First of all my name isn't Harry. It's Alex, Alexandria if you must. Secondly, the troll is in the dungeons. Do you know what else is in the dungeons? The Slytherin Common room! Did you forget, or do you just not care about us? The Hufflepuff's aren't very safe either since they're in the basement. Heck, I wouldn't even send the Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's out, even with their rooms being in towers. I just wouldn't take the chance of them somehow getting into danger. Also, how do you even know everyone would go to their common rooms? What's stopping a couple kids from sneaking off for whatever reason? Or getting lost? And how's your bullying record? What is the chance of a student being sacrificed to the troll because some other students don't like them? And are you a hundred percent sure every student is in here? What if a student got lost on the way? Or was exploring? Or didn't come to the feast for some other reason? What are you going to do about those possible kids who aren't safe in here right now? Did you even think this plan through? Or did you just shout out what sounded right, knowing everyone would follow your orders, so you could go out and play hero?"
"Harry you will not speak to me, or any person of a higher authority than you, like that!"
"1) I'm still not Harry. 2) I'll stop talking to you like that when you stop acting like a moron. 3) Higher authority? You're just some crackpot in ugly robes that somehow stumbled into running a school. 4) As a citizen of England I have a right to free speech as long as I don't go against the royal family or use speech as a form of a hate crime, which includes things such as racism, not this. Finally, 5) Do you want to go find the troll, and protect us, or are you going to keep arguing with me?"
Dumbledore looked like he was going to pick the second option, but then ordered the students to not leave the room and left with all of the staff(excluding Quirrel who was still passed out on the floor).
The students went back to eating, though their conversation were a lot more troll focused. And Alex focused. Mean while Alex and Blaise just went back to discussing whether baked or cooked potatoes were better.
Quirrel stood up, and was sneaking out of the Great Hall about ten minutes later, but Alex noticed him.
"Ay! Were are you going, you should sit down!" Alex shouted at the purple covered man.
Professor Quirrel startled and looked over at the young girl.
Eventually he said "Uh-I'm j-just g-g-g-going to the ho-ho-h-hospital wing. N-nasty-y f-fa-fall.".
"Madame Pomphrey isn't in right now." Alex said walking over. Once there she forced the taller man to sit back down on the floor.
"That's better." Alex began "Let me just do a quick spell.". Alex quickly performed a spell she had learned in the library, in a medical text. The spell gave you a list of all of the persons health problems from the past year(or if they were less than a year old, all of the problems since birth) as well as any life long problems. Except something was wrong.
"You didn't pass out. You haven't passed out in at least a year, let alone when you just did. What's going on?"
"N-n-nothing! Y-y-you must ha-have just just don-done the sp-sp-sp-spell wro-ng. I-I ob-obv-obvi-obviou-obviousl-ly f-fain-tt-ed."
"I'm sure I didn't."
The other students were starting to whisper. Alex didn't know what was happening, or what to do.
Alex quickly pointed her wand at the man and did petrificus totalas on him. Thank the gods for out of class studying. She wasn't entirely sure it was necessary, but she wasn't taking any chances.
The rest of the staff returned about five minutes later and announced the troll had been removed. Before anything big could happen, however, Dumbledore noticed Quirrel.
"What happened here?"
Alex stood up "He woke up from his 'fainting fit' and tried to leave. I insisted he sat down and did a spell to check for any lasting damage. What I found, however, was that he had never fainted in the first place. I asked for a explanation, but he just kept denying it. He was acting really suspicious, and was making me uncomfortable, so I temporarily petrified him.".
"Harry, you shouldn't have assumed he was doing anything wrong because of the spell. You could have done it wrong."
"My name is not Harry. And I didn't do the spell wrong. Besides, isn't it better to petrify him and be wrong, then let him go free when he has done something wrong?"
"She has a point, Albus. Besides I've noticed him being suspicious for a while to." Severus cut in.
"But-"
"No buts, Albus. Smart thinking, Alex, excellent job. We will be looking more into this. Now kids if you want you can take food back to your rooms, however, you do really have to leave now. Everything out there is as safe as usual."
This time Alex didn't protest. Instead she walked beside Blaise, behind their prefects. Like the rest of the students the two friends were wondering what had happened and what would happen. Unlike the rest, however, Alex wasn't in a talkative mood. So, she walked back quietly, and immediately went to sleep.
There was school tomorrow, and today had been very long.