Chapter 8
The next day we all had charms with Professor Flitwick. We’d already learned quite a lot in previous weeks but today we were finally learning a new charm. I’d heard from the other Slytherin’s that Flitwick was nice and one of the more patient professors and it was true. He was one of the more encouraging professors. In our very first lesson we talked about how charms were creative to the person using them, meaning that every spell we cast would be slightly different than someone else's. He also mentioned that many charms would come handy when we started dueling in our later years.
“Good morning class. Today we’ll be learning about levitation or the ability to make objects fly. Does anyone know who invented the levitation charm?” I raise my hand.
“Jarleth Hobart, on mistake actually.” I say. Reading that Charms book over the summer had really come in handy.
“Very good! Five points to Slytherin house.” He says and I get a few pats on the back from Greg and Vincent who were behind me. I had quickly learned that only a few of us students liked answering questions. Hermione always knew the answer to every question which actually helped me raise my hand more.
"Now, today we’ll be learning the charm Wingardium Leviosa. It’s all in the pronunciation there. Leviosa. Alright how about we all give it a go. Uh, do you all have your feathers?” Professor Flitwick asks and we hold them up.
“Good. Now don’t forget the wrist movement we’ve been practicing hmm? The swish and flick. Everyone,” We repeat after him. “Good, remember to enunciate. Wingardium Leviosa, off you go then.”
Draco is the first at our table to attempt the spell but nothing happens. I turn to my feather and let out a breath.
“Wingardium Leviosa.” I say from beside him and flick my wand and the feather gives a little flutter like it wanted to move.
I clear my throat and try once more. "Wingardium Leviosa." THe feather flutters slowly then rises gentley into the air which makes me smile.
“Oh well done! See here everyone. Miss Granger and Miss Lupin have done it! Oh, splendid!” Flitwick exclaims and I look across the room at Hermione who sure enough was holding her wand aloft, feather high in the air while Ron turned away from her with a huff. We smile at one another.
“Well done bo-“ Suddenly an explosion erupts from across the room. Seamus’ face was covered in soot. Had his feather exploded?
“He manages that quite a lot.” I whisper to Draco as I looked at Harry who also had some soot on his face from the blast.
"He's definitely cursed." Someone says from behind me as I see a feather float up from my left.
“Yay Daph you got it.” I exclaim and pat my friend on the shoulder.
“Great job guys!” I exclaim as I see Draco's feather move to meet ours.
“Now class, eventually your feathers will come back to you. This all depends on the strength of the charm. Now, take your feathers and practice for next class. “ Flitwick says I hurriedly pack up my supplies and catch up with Hermione.
“Hey great job in there.”
“You too.” She says as we walk through the adjoining hall. I see Harry, Ron, and Seamus ahead.
"Ron looked a bit peeved."
"I was trying to help him but I don't think he wanted it." She said and jostled her books so they wouldn't fall out of her arms. She had quite a few large tombs that were almosot bigger than her
We skip to catch up with them before they ducked into the next hall.
“It’s Leviosa, not leviosar. Honestly, she’s a nightmare. No wonder she hasn’t got any friends!” Ron laughs. Hermione bustles past before I can confront Ron.
“I think she heard you.” Harry said.
“Ronald!” I scolded and ran past the both of them to catch up with Hermione. She could run quite fast even though she was carrying those books. She makes it to one of the bathrooms and I duck inside after her but she’s not there. I could’ve sworn I saw her large hair go this way.
“Hermione?” I ask and hear a whimper come from one of the stalls.
“Hey, don’t listen to anything he says. He’d dumb and jealous of how smart you are.” I say and walk towards the stalls and look under them to see which one she had secluded herself in. After finding nothing in the first two I move to the third stall and easily open the door.
“I never had many friends growing up,” She says as she wipes her face. I place my books down and sit beside her. “So, I turned to books. They were better than actual people.”
“I’m the same. I went to a smaller school because my uncle and I live in village with a lot of older people. The kids didn't like me very much, not that it really mattered, I have my Uncle. We've made the best out of it.” I say and she cries some more.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s okay to cry.” I say and pat her shoulder. “So, what’s your favorite subject so far?” I ask to lighten the mood by changing the subject.
“Transfiguration is my favorite. McGonagall is an excellent teacher.”
“I’m a little worried about her class actually. The concepts remind me a little of math. I’m not looking forward to Arithmancy.” I frown. Maths weren't my strong suit.
“You don’t have to take it. It is an elective” She said.
“I placed my own goal on taking every class offered here to keep up with the Purebloods.”
“You’re not-?” Hermione’s eyes widened in shock.
“You probably know that my parents died when I was younger. Uncle told me I’m a half blood, my mom actually was a Muggleborn.”
“If we’re sharing family history then you should know I’m a Muggleborn too.” Hermione whispers. I blink. If she thought I was a Pureblood no wonder she had been acting weird around me.
“I would never be mean to you for that. I don’t care that you’re parents aren’t wizards.” I tell her.
“I can help you, if you want with transfiguration. We can study together.”
“Really?” I asked her, shocked. “You’d help a Slytherin?”
“I admit when you were sorted into Slytherin, I thought you wouldn’t want to be my friend. We all kind of did since our houses are rivals.”
“I don’t care for stuff like that.” I shook my head at her words.
“I know that now. So, friends then?” She asks and sticks out her hand for a shake and I easily slide mine into hers.
“Of course.” Hermione was the type of person that was genuine. I was happy she’d chosen to be my friend even though it took someone bullying her to guide us here.
"I saw those large books you were carrying."
"Oh these, just some light reading. The essay we did in Defense talked about about Grytrashes mentioned the Verdimillious Charm. I was looking for more information on it that wasn't in our required text."
"The dueling spell? Do you think we'll have to duel one another?" I ask, not particularly finding the idea of it appealing.
“Oh what time is it? We've all but missed Astronomy and History of Magic.” She frowned.
“Missing one class won’t hurt us. My friend Daphne is pretty good with notes.” I put it out there. “Besides I think making sure you were okay was more important than studying up on ancient moon charts or more on the Gargoyle rebellion.” History of magic was mostly events that had happened in the wizarding world through the years and our teacher Professor Binns liked to talk a lot. I’d already been through two quills somehow because we were constantly writing in his class. Hermione looked like she was going to be sick.
“Hermione, it was one class and it's already passed. I’m sure it won’t happen again. How about we talk about something else?” I ask her. “What do you think about healing magic?”
“I really haven’t thought about it before honestly.”
“When Neville and I went to the hospital wing, I watched her heal his arm. It seemed so easy for her but it has to be complicated magic. I mean she had to mend his bones.”
“I bet there are books in the library on it. I always think that with enough practice I can accomplish anything so why not.” She says and I give her a hug. She reminded me of my uncle just a little, always knowing what to say.
“Sorry it’s just. That made me feel a lot better. I’ll have to search the library for those books.”
I found myself liking Hermione more and more as we talked. Suddenly a loud noise like something was being torn apart came from the doorway. We freeze and I glance over my shoulder. A troll? was standing before us.
“What in Merlin’s beard? How did that get in here?” I whisper and Hermione’s eyes widened in fear.
“Is that a-?”
“Yes.” I say as we back up into a nearby wall just as the troll raises it’s club and cleavers the tops halves of all the stalls. We scream and hold on to one another. What spell would stop such a creature. We were supposed to learn the knockback jinx soon in defense class but I hadn’t even practiced it yet. There was no way it would work.
“Hermione Emery, move!” A familiar voice shouts as the troll smashes another stall.
“Harry?” I ask and look for him. Currently him and Ron were throwing wooden debris at the troll. I grab onto Hermione and haul her up.
“Come on.” I say as we slip past the troll.
“Hey pea brain!” Ron yells as a distraction as a piece of the stall hits the thing on the head.
“What’s a mountain troll doing inside the castle?” I yell over to them as we take cover under the sinks that were spurting water into the air. It wasn’t the best thing to do as it brought the trolls attention to us.
The troll turns towards us and brings his club down but it only destroys the sinks closest to him. Maybe it couldn’t see all that well which could work as an advantage. Before I could call out to the boys again Harry jumps through the air onto the troll and is lifted into the air.
“Bloody hell.” I hear Ron mutter and I nudge Hermione.
“Hermione, it's now distracted. We have to get to Ron.” I say and she nods. We move from the sinks as the troll picks Harry up from the leg and tries to swing it’s club at him. I grasp my wand and pointed it upwards. I didn’t want to hurt Harry but I had to do something.
“Hermione do you know Lumos Solem?” I asked hurriedly. The young witch didn’t say anything back but took out her wand. I took a breath and looked back at the troll and performed it.
“Lumos Solem!”
The troll shook it’s head and tried to slam his club in our direction. He doesn’t make it far enough but debris does and I’m thrown back, losing my wand in the process.
“Bloody Hell.” I curse as I crawl along the floor, trying to avoid the flying debris.
“Do something else.” Harry yells and I look up to see the troll swinging the club towards him again.
“Like what?”
“Anything!”
“Ron, use Wingardium Leviosa.” I say as I huddle with Hermione.
“I don’t think I can-”
“Swish and Flick!” Hermione yells. Ron flicks the wand and shouts the spell. The club is lifted into the air away from the troll. The troll itself looked up as the club came crashing back down on top of his head. The troll wavers and then drops within a meter in front of Ron. Hermione and I move from the sinks, soaked in water and approach it carefully. It was definitely knocked out that was for sure.
“Is it dead?” She asks as I spy my wand on the floor.
“There you are.” I say as I pluck it from the floor and then turn to poke the troll in the face.
“I don’t think so, just knocked out.” Harry says and grabs his own wand that had somehow found its way into the troll’s nose.
“Ron, that was amazing! You saved us.” I say with a smile and hold up my hand for a high five. He smiles back at me and smacks his hand with mine.
“What’s it doing here anyway?” He asks.
“That’s what I don’t understand. A forest troll would make more sense since we’re near a forest but this mountain troll would’ve had to travel a long way to get here.” It didn’t make sense that the troll had come here on it’s own.
“How’d you know it’s a mountain troll?” Harry asked.
“Funnily enough I was looking at our Defense text the other day for fun. We have a whole section on them.”
“You think someone put it here?” Hermione asks but I shrug. I wasn’t sure yet. This was a magic school, there probably was a lot of crazy stuff that happened here on a regular basis. This probably paled in comparison to things that happened in the past millennia.
“What if it was Peeves?” Ron asks which makes Hermione roll her eyes.
“And why would a poltergeist put a troll in the bathroom? How did you two even know to come down here?” Hermione turns fully to the boys and asks and I’m drawn back into the conversation.
“Well, we wanted to know where you two went and then Quirrell ran into the great hall screaming about a troll.” Speaking of Professor Quirrell, where was he? Shouldn’t he be down here himself?
“Then the plank went and fainted, right in front of everyone.” I nodded my head in understanding. Their professor wouldn't live that one down and somehow the view she’d had of him lessened even more.
“Oh! Oh, my goodness! E-Explain yourselves, all of you!” I hear McGonagall voice from the door and whip around to see her, Snape and Quirrell standing in the doorway, staring at us in shock. I internally cringed and wondered if Quirrell had heard us talking about him.
“Well, what it is...” Harry starts but is interrupted by Hermione.
“It's my fault, Professor McGonagall.” Everyone turns to look at her. There was no way I was letting her take the blame for this.
“Miss Granger?” McGonagall asks, clearly surprised. I step forward.
“We were just using the bathroom before mealtime and the troll came out of nowhere, It isn't Hermione's fault.” I say to both teachers. A look moves across Mcgonagall’s face and I point at Ron and Harry for extra measure in case she didn’t believe me.
“We’d be dead if it wasn’t for Ron and Harry.” I say and shoot the boys a smile of gratitude. They really had come at the most opportune time. It was like it was supposed to be.
“If it wasn’t for that spell then we couldn’t have done anything. Well on you Emery.” Harry said quickly as Snape and McGonagall shared a look.
“Well I hope you realize how fortunate you all are. Not many students could take on a full-grown troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points will be awarded to each of you for sheer dumb luck.” She says and we all grin at each other. A sigh came from her mouth and she brought her wand out.
“Scourgify.” The water and dirt seemed to disappear from my clothing.
“That was wicked.” I mutter and stare at Mcgonagall. Our clothes were as good as they were when they were bought.
“I suggest you all return to your dormitories.” Snape instructed as we all shuffled out of the room and passed them. I could feel three sets of eyes watching me as we left the room but I don’t acknowledge them. After we’re down the hall Ron let’s out a laugh he seemed like he was holding in.
“That could’ve been bad.” I whisper.
“You’re telling me, thanks for that back there.” Ron says and I shrug.
“I figure you’re Mum would’ve killed you if we got expelled.” I say as Ron’s eyes widen.
“That’s right on.” He mutters and I give Hermione a side hug.
“I’m glad we’re alive but I’m off to bed. Big day tomorrow Harry.” I wink at him as they climb the stairs to their dormitory.
As for me it isn’t a long walk to the dungeons. When I get back, I’m met with Daphne, Pansy, Draco, Vincent and Greg waiting for me.
“Oh Merlin, there you are.” Daphne jumps up from one of the couches and throws her arms around me squeezing me for dear life.
“Where’ve you been? We’ve been so worried.” Pansy says as Daphne leads me to the couch where everyone was watching Draco and Pansy play a game of Wizard’s chess.
“I was hiding from the troll.” I lie to them as it would be easier. Plus, they probably wouldn’t like that I was with Gryffindors.
“Did you see it?” Greg asks from across the room at one of the many tables working on an assignment no doubt.
“Just a glimpse but it was big.” I say.
“What happened?” Draco asks. It looks like they’d abandoned the chess game to listen to me.
“I guess the teacher’s handled it. I was just on my way to the great hall I heard Quirrell fainted at supper?”
“Right in front of the whole school. He’s a joke.”
“I do find him very odd.” Daphne says. Odd was one way to describe Quirrell. I already didn’t enjoy his class as much as the other ones I took and now it seemed like this incident made me lose a small amount of respect for the man.
“No real defense teacher should be scared of anything, least a troll.” He says.
“Well I don’t know about any of you but I’m so tired after hearing of this troll business. I think I’ll finish my transfiguration paper and head to bed.” I yawn and move from the comfy couch.
“We had a transfiguration paper?” Vincent asks as his eyes widened. He looked to Greg for help.
“I told you not to forget! At least you still have the weekend.” Pansy laughed and moved her chess piece forward.
“But the Quidditch match is tomorrow.”
“Alright Vin, I guess we can work together so it’s not late but you can’t copy me.” I say and walk towards my room to grab my supplies.
“A life saver you are Emery.” and I chuckle at his exclamation as it earns him a few curses from the older students in the room who thought he was being too loud.