Chapter 31: Troll

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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31 October 1991, Hogwarts

Of course, that hope was dashed when Harry saw Filch, the caretaker, slam open the hall doors and sprint into the hall with an expression of terror on his face, "Troll – in the school grounds – thought you ought to know." The man then sank to the floor in a dead faint and with him any hope he had that Hermione would be safe.

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!"

Well, that was a stupid idea. The Great Hall was a fortified position, and any competent adult professor should be able to defeat a troll easily, in case it attacked. That would leave the other staff members to hunt down the trolls and look for any missing students, like Hermione.

Of course, the prefects started yelling about trying to get a semblance of order. Each prefect seemed to be responsible for a year. The sixth-year prefect boy was shouting, "Follow me! Stick together, first-years! Make way, first-years coming through! Prefect coming through! Excuse me! First-years! Prefect!"

The sad thing was it didn't work, which wasn't really unexpected considering that this was a single teenager that's responsible for a dozen of scared students that he doesn't know in the middle of a chaotic great hall where everyone is running around like headless chickens.

Honestly, the moment they left the Great Hall, everyone was practically lost in the endless crowd of students. However, Harry was mostly worried about his crying friend that was fated to be attacked by the troll in another life.

Harry ducked down, becoming invisible in the crowd, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off to the bathroom he knew Hermione was crying in earlier. He ran towards it and that was when the smell hit him. It smelt more like old unwashed socks mixed with a dirty toilet smell. It was a foul stench and Harry resisted the urge to gag and throw up.

The troll was near, and he needed to get Hermione out of there. He ran inside the classroom to see a hysterical Hermione that seem to have been catatonic while the troll loomed in front of her. The troll was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, 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.

But what was breathtaking was the troll's song. Harry had never listened to the song of a magical creature, at least not closely. The song was dull, repetitive, and slow, but also strong. It felt like a slow set of drums, with a distinct feeling of rocks and mountains. Oh, it was savage, but it felt more like a brute than anything else.

But this was not the time for contemplation, and with a flick of his wrist, Hermione was pushed away from the creature and into one of the stalls. He really needed to find a way to get Hermione out of there.

From what he had read about them, trolls didn't have the greatest sense of smell, hence why they were almost extremely smelly. They didn't revel in being dirty or smelly, just didn't particularly care about it.

That meant that the creature mostly relied on sight and hearing. A semblance of a plan started to form in his mind, but it was all ruined when Hermione finally regained her courage and cast, "Flipendo!" at the troll. Of course, the creature barely blinked at the spell hit its head and splashed back as if nothing happened. What the hell was that girl thinking? Trolls are notoriously known to have magic resistant skin which was why it was recommended to use indirect attacks and not directly cast at them.

The girl froze, as if not believing that her spell didn't work, and Harry did his best to stop the situation but casting, 'Lumos Maxima'.

The spell actually a variation of the Lumos charm without any limitation on the output and where the ball of light can leave the wand and be controlled at the caster's will. Harry moved the ball towards the face of the troll and overpowered the spell massively, blinding the troll, and Hermione as well probably; Harry was closing his eyes in preparation.

The troll screamed in pain, and from the sound of it, Hermione yelped. Again, Harry pushed her into the stall and weaved the biggest illusion he could manage around himself and Hermione's stall. The troll blinked as he regained his eyesight and looked around probably still looking for Hermione.

Honestly, the young Potter was struggling while maintaining the spell. It wasn't designed to be used on something of this scale, and Harry, while very strong for his age, is still not strong enough for many feats of magic.

The troll sniffed, growled, and prepared to leave. Of course, that was when Longbottom and Weasley barged in with their wands in hand and cast a spell at the troll. Honestly, Harry didn't even see them cast, which was useless since the spells splashed on the creature's magic resistant skin.

However, they seemed to have angered the troll who lashed around with his club and smashed the stall Hermione was under. The girl's scream reassured Harry, and from the look of it, she was able to duck underneath the monster's swing. Longbottom yelled out to Weasley, "Confuse it!"

Harry didn't know what he expected to happen, but it wasn't for Weasley to grab and Dung bomb and send it at the troll's head. The damn creature barely had a sense of smell, but the smoke seemed to hurt the troll's eyes. The bomb seemed to have driven the troll berserk, as it started to stamp around blindingly as if trying to hit an invisible opponent.

Longbottom seemed to realize something, "The eyes, try to send spells at his eyes."

The two boys started to send stinging spells at it, most of the missing, but a few hitting enough for the troll to keep yelling in pain. Honestly, Harry didn't know what he could do. The more the two Gryffindors aggravated the troll, the more violent it became. Hermione looked almost catatonic, so she wouldn't be of any help. Hitting it with its own club was possible but unless it's a straight hit to the head at a certain angle, it was very unlikely for the troll to be knocked out from it.

Although, a hit to the back of the head could be possible. The troll still hadn't realized that he was there, and Harry was hoping for things to stay that way. The young Potter chose to close his eyes and listen to the troll's song. He tried to isolate the song of its skin and found it to be akin to a wall where spells are splashed onto. It was very strong, but songs do have an inverse. Sound can be cancelled. It wasn't anything Harry had done before but he had to try.

Harry listened to the song, understood it, felt all its nuances, its rhythms and emotions, and channelled its complete inverse. Harry was lucky that it was basic in its complexity, yet slightly surprisingly strong. All that meant was that Harry's inverse melody wouldn't be extremely complicated. Slowly, as he pictured the two melodies together, they started to cancel each other out, Harry combined his new song into a spell and murmured, "Petrificus Totalus!".

The troll who was looking at Longbottom, and hence, had his back at Harry, was hit with the spell which didn't splash on his skin like Longbottom and Weasley's spells did. It did seem to hit the troll, who stiffened and seemed to struggle to move. The troll was still able to push Longbottom away, who fell on the ground while wincing.

The spell obviously wasn't perfect, the creature must have some more protection outside his skin, but it was enough, to make it safe to get Hermione and run away, or at least, hit him with his bat in the head.

Funnily enough, Weasley seemed to take that opportunity to finally become useful and cast, "Wingardium Leviosa!' causing the club to fly out of the troll's hand and rose high up into the air, 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.

Harry used this chance to get away, not wanting to deal with Longbottom or Weasley. He especially didn't want them to know that he had saved Hermione's life. They would blab out in seconds to their friends, and Harry would need to deal with the aftermath in his own house.

Hermione didn't seem to have noticed him in the start, which was good because she was a terrible liar. Harry ran away from the scene, knowing that the professors weren't that far behind.

He snuck into one of the secret passages towards the dungeon and went to the common room. The moment he arrived he was accosted by his hysterical friends. Daphne was practically hugging him while shaking like a leaf, "Where in Merlin's name were you?"

Harry schooled his features and gave them a lazy grin, "Sorry, you wouldn't believe the traffic. There was this old woman who needed help carrying her groceries, so I couldn't just leave her alone, the poor woman, so, I helped her. She even gave me a piece of pie as a thank you."

"We're in Hogwarts. There are no old ladies carrying groceries here," Tracy answered him with a deadpan look.

"Now, that you mention it, she might have been a painting. Oh, yeah, she was definitely a painting. Her granddaughter was very rather pretty and asked me to dance for her. A lovely young woman." Harry answered wistfully.

Blaise's eye twitch, "So, you're telling me that you were busy helping an old woman in a painting carry her groceries and danced for her granddaughter, and that's why you're late?"

Harry didn't give him an answer and slowly the four friends burst into laughter. These excuses were really good at defusing tense situations. The sheer ridiculousness of them was enough to relax them. After giggling for a bit, Daphne asked, "What were you actually doing?"

Harry shrugged, "I left halfway through the feast to go to the bathroom and then when I went back to the Great Hall, no one was there. So, I just went to the kitchens asked the elves to make me some hot chocolate and walked back here. Why was the Great Hall empty anyway?"

Thankfully, they didn't notice that Harry was there during the feast until Filch came in running. The excitement and panic must have suppressed what happened before.

Tracy seemed very glad to start some gossip, "You don't know? A troll broke into the school grounds and Filch ran in yelling about it before he passed out. Dumbledore told us to come back to our common rooms while the Professors deal with the situation."

Harry gave her a weird look, "Why didn't he just make you stay in the Great Hall? Students could have been attacked on the way to the common room."

The Slytherins stiffened, "I hadn't thought of that…"

Harry shrugged, "Anyway, we're all safe and sound, so let's not think about what could have happened. But now that I think of it, saying that a troll attacked me while I was in the bathroom would be a very good excuse if I'm late."

"I will hurt you, Potter," Daphne answered while growling.

Before he could tease her further, Gemma Farley, the Slytherin fifth year prefect girl spoke up, "First years, I know that things are tense, but this is still Samhain and the ritual is ready. For those that wish to undergo the crest unlocking ceremony, please follow me."

Oh, yeah, he had forgotten about this because of the troll mess.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.