13 Chapter 13: Suspicion of Snape

Professor McGonagall looked at the four there with Argus looking at the dead troll and the 3 other kids looking at the other way. It was truly a frightening, but an odd sight.

"What in the world happened here?!" Professor McGonagall asked furiously. "Why aren't you guys in your dormitory?!"

"I'm sorry Professor McGonagall. I was trying to look for the troll to defeat it. I was confident since I read some books on it. If it wasn't for Argus, Ron, and Harry, I would have been dead by now,"

"Hermione, how could you do such a dangerous thing like trying to fight a mountain troll. I thought you knew better. I'm deducting 5 points for such dangerous act. Go back to Gryffindor Tower if you are not hurt. The students are finishing their feast there,"

"Harry and Ron, you guys will be awarded 5 points for your bravery in trying to save your fellow student. Now you two go on as well,"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the bathroom.

"Professor Snape, can you please see if the troll is still alive?"

Snape went to the troll and pressed his finger onto his neck to check for vital signs.

"It's dead," Snape said. "From the cut used, it seems to be the Severing Charm,"

"Mr. Nidma, is this your doing?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Yes ma'am, I was thinking about using Wingardium Leviosa to make the club fly and hit him, but it was too risky as I have a decent chance of missing the troll. However, by using the Severing Charm, I could have a relatively high chance of defeating or even killing it like I did right now," Argus said in a calm manner.

"Well, I have to say. You have done an excellent job in defeating the troll and also using a charm that is taught in your second year. Although you did kill it, I will award you 50 points for both using an advanced spell for your age and being the person to save your house member's life," Professor McGonagall said.

"But Professor McGonagall, this is way too much points for a student to have," Snape said trying to make sure that he can get Gryffindor the least amount of points from this.

"No, I think 50 points is sufficient for this achievement. I think you and I would have both been shaking if we were facing a mountain troll at his age let alone kill it like Argus. What do you think Professor Quirrell?"

"I-I-I t-think i-it's f-fine," Professor Quirrell said.

"Yes, so 50 points will be awarded to Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall said. "And Professor Snape, do not think I'm awarding extra points because it's my house. If it was Mr. Malfoy standing right here in this position, I would have awarded him 50 points as well for his achievement. Now Mr. Nidma, you can leave now. I will report to Professor Dumbledore about your achievement,"

Argus left the bathroom to see Harry, and Ron waiting for him.

"Nice job Argus. 50 points! Even with Hermione losing 5 points, we still got a 55 point increase which might actually have us be above Slytherin right now," Ron said.

"Yeah Argus. Nice job!" Harry said.

"It was nice of Hermione to get us out of trouble even though we did technically save her," Ron said.

"Yeah, but she wouldn't have needed that saving if we hadn't locked her in," Harry said.

The three of them got to the portrait and said the password and went in. They saw everybody eagerly eating their food except for Hermione who was waiting for them at the door.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione would not talk to each other. They only said thanks and went to go get their plates.

Argus didn't really want to eat and when he saw that Hermione sat down, he went straight to her.

"Hey Hermione are you alright?" Argus asked.

"Yeah, I'm doing well. Thank you for saving me. Also, Severing Charm you did there. That's a second year charm isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I started reading the The Standard Books of Spells Grade 2. That's one of the spells that I learned so far," Argus said. "Although it does need a little practice though. I could have been a lot more thorough with the cut,"

"No, I think you did quite well considering we're barely in our second month of school," Hermione said with a smile.

"Thanks Hermione. And by the way, you're quite strong to not immediately faint at the smell of that troll. It was quite disgusting and we were quite far away from it too. Even I almost fainted when we were about to fight it,"

Hermione laughed and the two of them talked a lot until meal time was over. However, even though Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't talk at all tonight, Argus knew that it was a start of a beautiful friendship that would last their entire lifetime.

...

As October has now turned into November, the temperature got extremely cold. The mountains have become gray and even the lake has frozen up. The ground was now chilled and Hagrid had to go defrost the brooms while wearing extremely thick clothings.

Furthermore, Quidditch season has begun and it so happened that Harry got found out for being the Seeker of the Gryffindor team. His popularity has grown so much that people were willing to carry him to his classes if he so wished which Harry promptly declined.

However, Argus' popularity has also grown due to the new Nidma family broom: the Hermes 500. The previous broom Hermes 250 was a bit slower than the Nimbus 2000, but now the Hermes 500 could reach 110 miles per hour in 10 seconds which was slightly faster than the Nimbus 2000. Furthermore, it had the exact same features as the Nimbus 2000 so the Hermes 500 was essentially a faster version of the Nimbus 2000. As for price, it was the same amount as the Nimbus 2000. This shocked the entire Wizarding World as one could imagine how much profit this could bring to the Nidma family.

However, Argus did not really care about this. He cared more about the fact that Hermione started to talk to him again. Furthermore, it was better now that he wouldn't have to choose between Hermione and Harry and Ron. The only bad part was that before he would just stay in the library, but now that Hermione was here, she would help Harry with his homework while he would help Ron with his. Honestly, it was like doing two sets of homework.

"Hey Argus, you have to let me try one of your broom," Ron said when they were at the courtyard during break. It was freezing so Hermione put a bluebell flame into a jam jar so that they could warm up.

"I'll talk to my father about it. I'm sure he'll gift you guys a broom or 2. My words are not a promise so don't you say that I guaranteed you guys brooms. They cost a couple hundred Galleons each," Argus said jokingly.

"You know I knew that your family is rich, but just how rich are you?" Hermione asked. "I mean I did research about your family, but all it really said was that in terms of wealth, it surpassed that of the Malfoy Family's wealth,"

"Hermione, the amount of wealth his family has is no joke," Ron said. "His father owns so many companies that even he gave his broom company to our family, it won't even make a dent into their yearly salary,"

"Well enough about my family. There's nothing interesting about them. More importantly, is that Snape over there?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all huddled up closer so that he wouldn't see the fire. However, Snape started to walk slowly towards them. While he didn't see the fire, he did see the book in Harry's hands.

"Potter what is that in your hands?"

"Quidditch Through the Ages... sir," Harry said.

"No library books are to be taken outside the school. Minus 5 points from Gryffindor. Hand that book over Potter," Snape said.

"He probably just created that rule to hurt me," Harry said. "I wonder what hurt his leg,"

"I don't know, but I hope it's permanent," Ron said.

In the Gryffindor Common Room that evening, Hermione and Argus was helping Ron and Harry with their charms homework. While he was basically giving them the answers, Argus noticed Harry seemed a bit nervous.

"What? Nervous about your match tomorrow?" Argus asked.

"Yeah, it's my first one and it had to be against Slytherin too. Also, we have to win if we want to push ahead further in the house championship so I'm feeling a bit pressured. You know what I'm going to ask Snape for my book back," Harry said.

"Alright," Ron said.

"Better you than any of us," Hermione added in.

Harry left.

Argus just continued helping Ron with his Charms homework while Hermione just fiddled with her wand. However, in about 5 minutes, Argus saw Harry back disheveled and worn out.

"What in the world happened to you?" Argus asked not remembering this in the film.

"Snape started talking about trying to get the thing that Dumbledore tried to protect. He said he didn't know how to avoid all three heads. You know what that means? It means that he also let that troll in," Harry said.

"Not that it was that bad of a thing," Argus muttered under his breath. Fortunately no one heard it.

"There's no way that Snape would do that. He's not a very kind person, but he wouldn't betray Dumbledore,"

"Honestly Hermione, not all teachers are good. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. I'm starting to wonder even more on what that package is," Ron said.

"Well instead of worrying about something we can't really do anything about, how about you guys fix your charms homework because it's a hot mess right now from what I'm seeing," Argus said while holding up Ron and Harry's homework.

That night Argus saw that Harry was tossing and turning and unable to sleep.