11 Take a Deep Breath

"Draco hit Hermione with a leg-locker curse, but then a giant came by and chased off Draco. Then, the giant tried to attack Hermione and Sally-Anne, the former of whom couldn't run because of said curse, and the latter of whom wouldn't leave the former. I happened to come by, and blinded the giant with a dust eggshell grenade long enough for the girls to escape. The boys here bravely ran in to cover their escape by throwing rocks. The giant slammed Ronald into a wall, but I think he's alive." She turned to Ronald. "Ronald! You alive?"

The boy let out a quiet groan.

"Yup! He's alive!" Rose said cheerfully, turning back to the Headmaster. "Anyway, after everyone was clear, I disarmed it, then finished it off."

Albus watched all five students as Rose explained what had happened. Hermione, Sally-Anne, and Harry were all shaken up, but still looked alright. Hermione had cuts and bruises all over her, as did Sally-Anne. Harry looked worn, but there were no obvious indicators of injury on him. Ronald, or Ron as Albus was sure he preferred, was the worst off of them all. He required the immediate attention of a mediwitch.

Albus also noticed that as Rose explained the events that had befallen the children, each of the conscious students looked at her in confusion, and it wasn't just because of the flying ferret that flew into the picnic basket that hadn't been there a moment ago. Clearly, there was something about her story that wasn't entirely true, but whatever it was, the other students were keeping quiet. For the moment, Albus decided it was more important to get everyone moving again. Ron needed to be brought to Poppy, and the rest of the staff needed to be updated. The faster everything could be put right, the better. Luckily, he had someone that would be perfect for the job of messenger.

"Atrien!"

A few seconds later, the Head Elf appeared. Albus didn't necessarily approve of the house elves' situation, as slavery had never sat well with him, but being able to call out and summon a creature capable of apparating within the castle grounds at will was beyond useful.

"Salutations, Atrien!" Rose exclaimed.

The other three conscious Gryffindors stared at her, then at the Head Elf. It occurred to Albus that Harry, Hermione, and Sally-Anne did not know about house-elves, so the short, pale green creature in front of them would probably come as a shock to the first-years. Although, about 10 years ago an American film writer had based a character from one of his science fiction films off of house elves (creating an uproar due to the Statute of Secrecy), so it was possible that they had seen the character, and thus might not be as intimidated by Atrien. What was that character's name again? Yogurt? Yoga?

"Hello, Miss Rose. What is it you be needing from Atrien, Headmaster?"

Albus made a note to ask Rose how Atrien knew her name, and how Rose knew Atrien's name. Atrien didn't tend to stray from the House-Elf Common Room, unless she was making her rounds about the castle. Even then, that didn't typically involve her interacting with the students. Rose would have had to have found Atrien in the House-Elf Common Room, which most likely meant that Rose knew about the House-Elf Common Room, and had been up there at least once already. That was rare, since most students spent their entire academic careers not having the faintest idea that the house-elves slept right above the Great Hall. Today probably wasn't the day for it, though.

"Atrien, tell Poppy to start moving towards the Great Hall, and that we'll be heading in her direction. We have an injured student who requires her immediate attention. It shouldn't be fatal, but the sooner he receives said attention, the better. After that, tell the other house-elves to spread the word that the troll–"

"Giant," Rose said. "It was a giant."

"Rose," Hermione whispered. "It was a troll."

"No, trolls are green and thin, with arms that stretch down to the ground, and–"

"No, Rose, that was a troll," Hermione said, cutting off her friend before the girl rambled on for too long.

"Really?"

"Yes, Rose," Professor Dumbledore said gently.

"Oh. Your trolls look like my giants!"

"Quite alright," Albus said, turning back to Atrien, whose head was attentively following them all. "As I was saying, spread the word that the troll is contained. Find Quirinius and Severus and tell them to check over the troll to verify that it is in fact handled, as Rose has led me to believe, and remove it as soon as possible. Have Argus look over the damage here, then finally have the staff meet me in my office."

"Right away, Headmaster!"

Without saying another word, Atrien vanished.

Albus turned back to the students. Sally-Anne looked startled by all of this, Hermione looked both stunned and intrigued, and Harry looked dazed. Rose had returned to what Albus was certain was her default state of happy.

"We had best get moving towards the Hospital Wing, to make sure that Ron gets the attention he requires," he told the students.

Rose paused for a second, her eyes looking up at the ceiling. She began to count on her fingers, silently moving her mouth. The crimson-haired girl paused at three, then brought up a forth finger.

Albus wasn't sure what she was counting, but if he wasn't mistaken, she had mouthed the words "legs", "discern", and "disintegrate". He wasn't sure what those words meant, but he was confident that with the right context, it would make perfect sense to him.

"Something wrong, Rose?" asked Albus. When talking only with students, he always made it a habit to use their first names. He preferred that students not see him as some intimidating authority figure, but rather as their friend and ally. Over the years, he had found that humor and sweets also helped in this endeavor. As such, he was always prepared with both, just in case the need arose.

"Just counting the charges I've used on Serendipity," she replied, putting her fingers down. Her hand remained raised in front of her. "I've used three so far: One to fix Hermione's legs, one to find you, and a third to help with the troll." As she spoke, she counted off on her fingers. "I've got one left, but I'm already planning on using it, assuming we return to Gryffindor Tower in less than 35 minutes." She grinned, putting her hand down. "It's been a while since I've gotten this much use out of a single power surge!"

From what Minerva had told him about Rose, Serendipity was the girl's wand. Albus wasn't sure what she meant by "charges", but whatever the case, she was able to use magic to fix Hermione's legs, the proof of which stood in front of him, which was no easy task for a first-year. This further supported Albus' theory that Rose used a different type of magic than everyone else did.

"I see no reason why the four of you shouldn't be able to make it back before then," Albus replied. "Unfortunately, Ron may not be able to make it back tonight, but we will see after Madame Pomfrey looks over him."

Rose beamed, and the other three Gryffindors nodded.

Albus waved his wand, and Ron was gently lifted up into the air. The six of them walked towards the Hospital Wing, moving slowly to not move Ron too abruptly. As they passed the troll, Albus quickly looked over it. Rose had said that she had disarmed it, but Albus now saw that she had literally disarmed it; its entire right forearm had been separated from its body. He also noted that there was a rather large amount of blood around its face, enough that he couldn't quite make out the wound, assuming there was one. He saw no other wounds on the creature's body, so he assumed that it was from those two injuries that it had died.

Albus glanced over at Rose, who was skipping along beside him. She certainly was an interesting little girl. Not only was she capable of killing a mountain troll, but she did so casually, as if she had done so hundreds of times before. Looking at her now, there was only a hint of anything other than enthusiasm on her face. Albus had spent many years learning to read students, and, while Rose was certainly a talented liar, at that moment her smile seemed slightly forced. It wasn't the troll; passing by its corpse served to make the girl's smile bigger. Albus wasn't sure what was bothering her, but there was another question on his mind: If the troll had been killed here, what were the students doing back there? Had the other four students just started running? And why did the area in which he had found the students look so clean?

After a minute, Poppy met them in the hallway. She looked as she always did when there was trouble, which was a mixture of panicked, frantic, determined, and slightly angry. Poppy immediately began to assess Ron as their growing group continued on towards the Hospital Wing.

"What happened?!" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the boy.

"He was slammed into the wall by the troll," Harry said.

"What?!" Poppy shouted. "You five found the troll?! Are you all alright?!"

"Harry took some pretty decent damage, but he's still conscious," Rose said. "Sally-Anne and Hermione took some hits too, but nothing major."

"Then there's no time to waste!" Poppy exclaimed, picking up her own pace a little. "His spine is alright. So long as we don't run him into any more walls, he should be alright to move."

The group picked up their pace. Once they reached the Wing a few minutes later, Poppy moved Ron straight over to the closest of the beds.

"Lay him down right here, Albus," she instructed.

Albus levitated the young Gryffindor over to the bed, and laid him down gently. Poppy continued to examine the boy, muttering charms and spells under her breath as she waved her wand over him.

"Mr. Weasley will be fine," she said finally. "He has a few cracked ribs, and several bruises, but he'll be alright. I'll keep him here for the time being, but he won't need to be here for more than a few days. If you all wouldn't mind, I'd like to check each of you over."

Before waiting for a reply, Poppy went to work looking over each student. She found that some of Potter's ribs were bruised as well, but no broken bones. Granger and Perks had cuts and bruises all over, but no real damage there.

The one that surprised her most was Peta-Lorrum. There wasn't a scratch on her. The others were all covered with dirt or dust to some degree, but the crimson-haired girl was pristine. If Poppy didn't know any better, she would think that the young Gryffindor had just had her dress and cloak cleaned.

"The rest of you check out," Poppy said after finishing with Rose. "You may, and I might add should, return to your common room."

"Very good," Albus said, smiling. "If you four would follow me, I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower. I think we could all do with a good night's rest."

The walk back to Gryffindor Tower was a quiet one. After climbing up six flights of stairs, they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. Professor Dumbledore wished them good night, and began to walk back the way they came. As the four Gryffindors climbed through the portrait, they were met by a crowd of 65 Gryffindors waiting for them in the common room. Hermione wasn't sure how they had all managed to cram themselves into the room, but her question was answered when she noticed that there were about a dozen students sitting on the stairs. Most of the other first-years had positioned themselves at the front of the crowd.

"What happened?!" asked Lavender.

"Are you four okay?" asked Parvati.

"Did you see the troll?!" asked Neville.

"Everyone, back up!" shouted Alex.

"Give them space!" added Percy.

Six students, including Alex and Percy, cleared space to the couch, and shooed everyone away from it so the four first-years could sit down. Rose took note of each of them. Six students probably meant the six prefects, supported by the presence of Alex and Percy among them. That meant that not only did she now have faces for all six, but that the Professors weren't even allowing the prefects to leave their respective common rooms at the moment. Rose couldn't help but feel a little respect for the staff; when it came to the students, they did not mess around. She was sure that her brother and uncle would be pleased to hear that.

Rose was the most calm of the four of them, and sat right down on the couch. The other three first-years slowly took their places. Rose was also the only one that didn't care that all the students were staring at them.

"Are you–?" Alex started to ask, but Percy cut her off.

"Where's Ronald?" Percy asked, looking at each of them.

"He's in the Hospital Wing," Harry said. "Madame Pomfrey said he had… er… a few… cracked ribs." He paused for a moment, then added, "But he's alright otherwise!"

This generated several gasps from the listening crowd.

"Have all of you eaten?" Alex asked.

Harry nodded, but Sally-Anne and Hermione shook their heads.

"I'm alright, thank you," Rose said, still smiling.

"I'll see if I can get you girls some food," Alex said. She started towards the common room entrance.

"We can't go anywhere," Percy reminded her. "School's still on lock down til tomorrow morning."

"I think I can get some food," Rose said. She briefly wondered why Alex and Percy were doing most of the talking, rather than the other prefects, all of whom outranked the fifth-years. Was it because it was five of the first-years, all of whom were charges of either Alex or Percy, that had encountered the troll? Rose decided to worry about it later and work on getting the girls some food.

<Dripty, would you please come to the Gryffindor Common Room when you get the chance?>

Rose, never really knowing when to stop adding items to existing items, used a war wizard cloak as one component of her cloak. As such, she could use the spell sending once per day. It was really rather handy to have, even if the casting time was supposed to be 10 minutes. For some reason, although Rose wasn't sure why, the cloak allowed her to cast it as a standard action. Professor Ozerl had explained it to her once, but she hadn't been paying attention.

"What do you mean, Rose?" asked Alex.

On cue, Dripty appeared in the middle of the common room. Several students gasped as the house-elf appeared in front of them.

"Is that a house-elf?" Alex asked. "Why is it here?"

Dripty looked around, and, after spotting Rose, approached the crimson-haired girl.

"Was you calling Dripty, Miss Rose? Or is Dripty going nutters?"

"I used sending. It's nifty!" Rose exclaimed. She mentally patted herself on the back for using the word 'nifty', then continued. "Dripty, would you please bring some food up here for Hermione and Sally-Anne? They didn't get a chance to eat because they were too busy being attacked by a gi– troll." She motioned to Sally-Anne and Hermione as she spoke.

"Is you being one of the students that was attacked?!" gasped Dripty. "The other elves was saying that students was getting attacked! Is Miss Rose being okay?"

"Miss Rose is being fine!" Rose replied cheerfully. "But Miss Hermione and Miss Sally-Anne is needing food right now. Would you please bring some up for them?"

"Right away, Miss Rose!" exclaimed the elf immediately before he vanished.

"Rose, how did you summon a house-elf?" Alex asked. "Only the professors are supposed to be able to do that."

"Like I said, I used sending!"

"What's sending?" Percy asked.

"The evocation spell that allows people to send a message to another creature," Rose replied. She looked around at the confused faces of her housemates. "No one's heard of sending?"

All around the room heads were shaking and shoulders were shrugging.

"Weird," Rose said.

"What about the troll?" Fred asked.

"We wanna hear about the troll!" George added.

"You two–!" Percy started.

"It's alright!" Rose said. "It'll be a few minutes until the food arrives–"

Once again on cue, Dripty reappeared in the same spot as before, carrying two plates full of food. It looked like he had grabbed a bit of everything from the Hallowe'en feast. He walked over to the girls, balancing them on his hands with little difficulty and handed them to Sally-Anne and Hermione. From his tea towel, Dripty also produced silverware for each girl, along with cloths for a napkins.

"Wow," Rose said, genuinely impressed. "That was quick. Good work, Dripty!"

"Thank you, Miss Rose! Miss Hermione, Miss Sally-Anne, is this being enough food?"

Both girls stared wide-eyed at the plates in front of them.

"Er… yeah, thank you… Dripty," Hermione said.

"Thank you," Sally-Anne added.

"You are both being welcome," Dripty said. "Now Dripty must be going to help the other elves."

"Thank you very much, Dripty," Rose said, grinning.

"You is being very welcome, Miss Rose!"

Beaming, Dripty vanished once again.

Rose looked at the two girls. She looked around at the food in front of them, and something occurred to her.

"I know what's missing!" she exclaimed. She pulled off her portable hole from her bracelet. As the attention of most of Gryffindor House was on her, the students were clearly able to see her charm grow into its full size. She reached inside with her left hand, and muttered under her breath. She drew her hand back out of the hole, expending the last charge from Serendipity to create the Drink of Ultimate Comfort™: Hot cocoa.

"Here you are, girls!" she said. In her hand was a plate with four mugs, each white with a different design on them. One had a red rose, another had a pink bunny's head, a third had an eclipse on it, and the last one had an indigo eye on it.

"I'm sort of out of hands," Hermione said.

"I've got you," Alex said, pulling out her wand. Waving it in a small, circular pattern, similar to what they had just learned in charms class for the levitation charm, she pointed it at the plate resting on Hermione's lap.

"Arnofio Bilat!"

Hermione's plate began to hover on its own. Alex turned and did the same to Sally-Anne's plate.

"Thank you," Hermione said quietly.

"Don't mention it," Alex replied kindly. "I'm just so sorry that you all had to face a troll on your own."

"Love to hear about it," grumbled the Weasley Twins. This earned them a glare from their older brother.

"Don't worry about it!" Rose exclaimed. "The entire party survived!"

"What is this?" Hermione asked Rose as the bushy-haired girl took the mug with the eye, wafting in some air. Rose took the mug with the rose on it, and passed it to Sally-Anne. She took the bunny mug, leaving Harry with the eclipse mug.

"Hot cocoa," the crimson-haired girl replied, replacing the charm on her bracelet. "My sister, Alice, always made me hot cocoa when I had had a stressful day."

Hermione nodded, and took a sip of the cocoa. It had certainly been a stressful day.

"Now, onto the story of the troll!" Rose exclaimed. The Weasley Twins cheered as Rose took a sip of her cocoa.

Just like Wonder Girl used to make.

As Rose gave a slightly exaggerated recollection of their encounter, once again sans dragon, Hermione and Sally-Anne picked at their food. It was a lot easier to eat with less attention on them. Harry seemed to share their sentiments, as he stayed quiet through Rose's reenactment, which included her jumping up and physically reenacting parts of it.

Hermione was grateful to have attention off of her. It had been a really long day, and she was looking forward to getting some rest. If she survived Potions Class tomorrow, she was going to start on a letter to home, asking her parents to fill out the forms for transfer. She figured she'd give it another go at Beauxbatons before giving up on the Magical World entirely.

"Thank you all for meeting on such short notice," Albus opened the emergency teacher's meeting.

The entirety of the staff had been packed into his office. Even Rubeus, as big as he was, had been able to cram inside. It helped that Cuthbert Binns, the ghostly History Professor, could simply phase in and out as he chose.

The Weasley Flask floated (literally) around the room. No one quite remembered how, but it had become an unofficial sharing stick. It wasn't necessarily required that anyone drink from it, but one had to hold it in order to speak. As such, Filius had enchanted it to respond to the first person who reached for it at a time, so long as it was relinquished willingly. Albus allowed it because it kept a degree of order in their meetings.

"As you all know," Albus continued. "We have the issue of how the troll penetrated our defences." He briefly explained what he knew, including Rose's tale.

"Have we made any headway on determining how it got in?" Minerva asked.

"After examining the wards," Septima said. "It seems that they had been altered to allow trolls to enter the grounds unhindered."

All eyes turned towards Quirinius. Rule One in Hogwarts: Always blame the Defence Professor. If something went wrong, then it was a safe bet that the Defence Professor had something to do with it.

"I l-l-lowered the w-w-wards to bring a t-t-t-troll in t-to p-p-prot-t-tect the P-p-package," he stammered. "I m-m-must have f-f-forg-g-gotten to res-s-store them after I was f-f-f-finished."

The entire room groaned. No one was surprised by this; before he was the Defence Professor, Quirinius had been the Muggle Studies Professor. After a year long sabbatical, he had returned and applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, which had supposedly been cursed by Voldemort himself. Unfortunately, given their turnover of Defence Professors, Albus found it hard to get anyone for the job, except for Severus, who applied every year. That being the case, Albus had had no choice but to hire Quirinius for the position, as he didn't want to lose his Potions Master.

"You're lucky that we haven't got a replacement, Quirinius," Minerva growled. "Otherwise you'd be out of here before–"

"Minerva, that's enough," Albus said calmly. "No more can be done about the situation. The students are safe, and the damage was fairly minimal."

Minerva continued to fume silently as Albus turned to Quirinius.

"Quirinius, the point does still stand that your mistake endangered the lives of five of our students. This will not happen again. Do I make myself clear?"

Quirinius shakily nodded his understanding. Albus didn't even need to raise his voice; the staff knew what happened to teachers when Albus Dumbledore didn't approve of them. Albus calmly turned to the Ancient Runes and Arithmancy Professors.

"Bathsheda, Septima, did you two rectify the situation?"

"We did, Albus," Bathsheda replied, nodding. "No more trolls will be finding their way onto the castle grounds any time soon."

"We also took the liberty and checked the state of the other wards," Septima added. "The rest of them are intact."

"What of the students?" Charity Burbage, the current Muggle Studies professor, asked. "You mentioned that there were five Gryffindors attacked by the troll. How are they faring?"

"They seem to be doing alright, given the circumstances," Albus said. "Poppy has already looked them over, and apart from Mr. Weasley, none of them needed medical attention. Mr. Weasley himself suffered only a few cracked ribs, but Poppy assured me that he would be fine. They are certainly shaken, but alright." He turned to Severus. "Severus, Quirinius, did you two dispose of the troll?"

"I banished its body after looking it over," Severus replied in his monotone voice. He smirked. "Quirinius passed out."

Most of the staff had to suppress smirks of their own. It wasn't just that Quirinius had applied for the historically dangerous position of Defence Professor that concerned Albus; it was the fact that the former Muggle Studies Professor was so incredibly timid. He had no spine whatsoever, and wasn't particularly competent in defence. Albus had seen students like him before; students that tried so hard to be tough, but were truly scared beneath it. They undoubtedly got in over their heads at some time or another.

"What did you find?" Albus inquired.

"As you said, its forearm had been completely removed. It was a clean cut, but I saw no signs of Sectumsempra or any similar spell being used. Further of interest was the wound on its face. It was stabbed, although I don't know what with."

"Who was it you said did this, Albus?" Bathsheda asked.

"Rose Peta-Lorrum."

There were collective groans from Severus, Minerva, and Aurora, and slightly quieter groans from Pomona and Filius.

"Of course it was her," Aurora Sinistra said. "The girl's been giving me suspicious looks that remind me of Severus every Wednesday for the past two months."

"Please don't use her name and mine in the same sentence," Severus said.

"Why can't she just act like a normal student?" muttered Minerva.

"Ms. Peta-Lorrum told me that she 'disarmed it, then finished it off'," Albus said, hoping to regain control of the room before his staff got too out of hand. It was late, after all, and he was certain that they'd all feel better after some rest. "She did not elaborate on how she did this."

"Are we suggesting that the girl has a sword on her person?" asked Filius.

"I don't see how else she could have done the damage she did," Severus replied coolly. "Unless she is a lot more advanced than we believed."

"How did you determine that Sectumsempra hadn't been used?" Septima asked, with just a hint of condescension in her voice.

"Standard analysis charms," Severus replied. A little more irritably, he added, "And I think I know a thing or two about the effects of Sectumsempra. It could have been used on its arm, but not its forehead."

Septima nodded.

"I did not see anywhere that she could have been storing a weapon on her person," Albus said. "She was wearing her standard attire."

"Could she have transfigured it?" Severus asked, turning to Minerva.

"It's possible, but that would be rather advanced for a first-year. She's good, but I don't believe that she's that good."

"What if she's not actually a first-year?"

"Severus, we've been down this road before," Pomona said gently.

"But now we've got new information," Septima said. "Before, she was just a lost, possibly deluded little girl, correct? Now she's had some sort of psychotic episode, and possibly carries a concealed weapon on her person. I think it's time we rethink our decision to allow Ms. Peta-Lorrum to stay here."

The other staff members shifted around uncomfortably. Albus could tell from the looks on their faces that most of them were thinking the same thing.

"I quite agree," Albus said. "However, I don't think now is the best time. We are all tired, and there are still a few more matters I'd like to discuss with you all. We can discuss Ms. Peta-Lorrum's future here tomorrow."

The rest of the staff nodded their agreement. It was getting late, and the additional stress of the troll had only served to make most of them tired, especially now that the rush of adrenaline was wearing off.

"Severus, were you able to verify that the Package is safe?" Albus asked.

"It appears so," Severus said. He glared at Rubeus. "I was only able to do a brief search, since Hagrid's bloody dog interfered. I had to get out quick before it took off my leg."

"Fluffy was just doin' 'is job," Rubeus argued. "Not 'is fault! He 'asn't been 'imself for a few weeks now!"

"Is it possible someone already made an attempt on the Package?" Pomona suggested. "Could that be why your dog is on edge?"

"The alarm runes on the trapdoor haven't notified me of anything," Bathsheda said. "No one has entered the trapdoor since I set them up in August; that includes tonight. And if they've somehow managed to bypass them, I doubt that they'll find any of the other alarm runes I've placed throughout that area."

"Very good," Albus replied. He turned to the Caretaker. "Argus, did you have a chance to assess the damage to the corridor?"

"Made a bloody mess of things, that troll did," Argus Filch grumbled. "Chunks taken out o' the walls all over the place, and there's some dust that wasn't there before. The dust should only take a few minutes to clear, but one o' you lot is gonna 'ave ta fix up the corridor. It'd take me weeks ta get it fixed up properly. I'd 'ave ta remove a lot o' the surrounding stone from where the troll smashed its club and refit it. I've got the proper tools, except for the new rock, which would take me days to get a 'old of. So if you want it done right, and want it done quick, you'll have to do it yourself."

"Thank you, Argus," Albus said. "Severus, Minerva, please stay; the rest of you may leave. Well done, everyone."

As the rest of the staff shuffled out of the Headmaster's office, Minerva and Severus approached his desk. Albus waited until his other staff members had left before talking to his second- and third-in-command.

"The troll wasn't the only thing here tonight."

Minerva looked at him with mild shock.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"The dust of which Argus spoke is what remains of it, I suspect," he said. "That corridor was far too clean. I suspect someone cleaned the corridor up to hide the evidence."

"The girl," growled Severus.

"Why is she covering it up?" Minerva asked. "Why not report it?"

"Obviously, she let it in," Severus said. "The troll, and whatever else was there."

Minerva sighed. "Albus, I know you don't approve of it, but I think it's time that we tried using other means of extracting information from her. I don't want to believe it, but she is oddly talented at Transfigurations. It's possible that she is using Transfiguration to hide a weapon on her person, but transfiguring a living creature is difficult."

Albus eyed his two professors.

"Are you two suggesting veritaserum?" he asked.

"It won't work," Severus said. "Albus, she's an Occlumens."

"There goes my house-elf theory," Minerva muttered. "Unless house-elves can use Occlumency now."

"I take it this means that you've been using Legilimency on students again, Severus?" Albus asked his Potions Master. "Despite me telling you many times not to?"

"Did you honestly expect that I would listen?"

"No, but it would have been a nice surprise," Albus said lightheartedly. "Like getting a toffee-flavoured Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean."

"She can use Occlumency," Severus emphasised. "She can't possibly be a first-year, Albus! No Muggle-born first-year can use Occlumency. Most of the staff can't properly use Occlumency." He briefly eyed Minerva, then turned back to Albus. "The girl must be hiding something!"

Albus folded his hands in front of his face, and stared off into space. Minerva and Severus knew that look; Albus was carefully considering his options.

"What do you think happened, Severus?" Albus asked finally.

"I think the girl let in the troll to test some sort of experiment," Severus said.

"Quirinius already said he was responsible for the wards," Minerva reminded him.

"Alright, so she stumbled upon the troll by accident. Either way, I think she unleashed some sort of creature on it, and that creature carved up the troll. Then she realized that she would get caught, so she destroyed the creature."

"Okay," Albus said, turning to Minerva. "Minerva?"

"I'm not sure what to think, but I would like to know where she keeps her wand. I've only seen it a few times, but her hand always disappears in her sleeve and emerges holding her wand. Her wand that she crafted herself. It's possible that whatever method she uses to store her wand, she is also using to store some type of blade."

"And the dust?"

"I don't believe we've got enough information to act upon it quite yet."

Albus nodded sagely.

"That will be all. Both of you get some rest; we'll discuss this further tomorrow."

As the two professors exited his office, Albus stood up and walked over to his phoenix, Fawkes.

"What do you think happened, Fawkes?" Albus asked, stroking the bird's neck.

Albus knew the girl was hiding something. She was able to use magic far too advanced for a first-year; she was an Occlumens; she had a pet ferret through which she could communicate; she was possibly carrying a sword on her person. Above all of that, she was able to hear the castle.

"What is she?"

Back in Gryffindor Tower, the wave of questions had finally subsided, and most of the other students had wandered off to bed, leaving Hermione, Harry, Sally-Anne, and Rose in the Gryffindor Common Room. The four of them were sitting by the fireplace, mostly because Rose had excitedly yelled "Fire!" and appeared at the fireplace. The other three had followed her, although none of them knew why. Hermione was really tired, but there was one question still on her mind.

"Rose, why aren't you telling anyone about the dragon?" Hermione whispered.

Rose flinched at the word "dragon".

"Hermione, what do you think Professor Dumbledore would have done if he saw the mangled mess that used to be a dragon?" Rose asked. "Especially after my 'psychotic episode' earlier this month."

"Well–" Hermione began.

"They'd have kicked you out," Harry said. "Is that why you turned it into dust?"

"I disintegrated it because I hate dragons, and you can never be too careful," Rose said. "It's significantly harder to res something when it's been turned to dust. The 'mangled mess' bit just now popped into my head. The troll was easy to explain; they knew it was there, and its body was clearly visible. The dragon was dust, and I would have had to explain how that dragon got turned to dust."

"Did you just make up that bit?" Hermione asked.

"Like I said, I hate dragons," Rose continued, without skipping a beat. "I didn't say anything because I hate talking about dragons."

"Why?" Sally-Anne asked.

"Long story," Rose said. "Don't wanna talk about it."

That makes a change, thought Hermione.

"Alright," Hermione conceded.

The four of them sat in silence for several minutes. Rose seemed mesmerized by the fire next to them, but the other three just sat in awkward silence.

"Thank you, Harry," Sally-Anne said quietly, breaking the silence. "Thank you for coming to find us."

"Sure, don't mention it," he said. "I'm sorry me and Ron weren't much help."

"It's fine," Hermione said.

"Everyone was level one at some point!" Rose exclaimed, not taking her eyes off of the fire.

Harry looked at Hermione in confusion. "What'd she say?"

"I think that's Rose for 'Thank you'."

"Nope! That was Rose for 'Good work'!" Rose corrected her.

"Thank you, I guess," Harry said. "Still, I didn't do much."

"Every little bit helps keep the party alive!"

"Party?" asked Hermione.

"Adventuring party!" Rose beamed. "The three of us will make a great team!"

"Three?" Harry asked.

Rose turned to Hermione.

"I'm… I'm not staying," Hermione said. "I just can't. I mean, I nearly died today! The past two months I've been harassed, threatened, and attacked! And I get insulted on a regular basis!"

"Hate to tell you," Rose said. "But you start to get used to the insult. I still respond to Singya, even though I hate it."

"Singya?" asked Sally-Anne.

"Elven for 'Worthless piece of trash'," Rose replied, just a little too cheerfully. "Also, my nickname at my old school."

Harry and Sally-Anne stared at her.

"Wow," Harry said. "Even my aunt and uncle only ever call me 'boy'."

"Right!" Rose said. "You're an orphan, too!"

"You're an orphan?" Harry asked.

"Yup," Rose replied. "Your surrogate family not treat you well?"

Sally-Anne noted that there were two things about which Rose seemed to refuse to talk: Dragons, and her parents.

"Not really," he replied. "What about you? Do you live with anyone?"

"Not exactly, but I've got a sort of surrogate family. My brother, sister, and uncle sort of raised me." She turned to the other girls. "What about you two? I'm not sure I really know much about either of your families."

"There's not much to say," Sally-Anne said. "They're both normal people. I don't know what they'll do when they find out that I was attacked by a troll. They'll probably want me to leave."

"Don't you want to?" asked Hermione.

"I did," Sally-Anne replied. "I did at first, and I thought 'Well, I'll miss using magic, but I'd rather be at home.' But then I thought 'What will happen if I run away?' I mean really, what would happen? Wouldn't it just prove that Malfoy is right? It would prove that I don't belong here, wouldn't it?"

Rose smiled.

"I don't know," Hermione replied. "Maybe you belong here, but I don't."

"Why not?" Harry asked. "Why don't you belong here? You can use magic too. You're better at it than almost anyone in our year!"

"But I don't fit in!"

"You think we do?" Rose asked. "None of us grew up with this culture! Harry was raised by his Muggle aunt and uncle, Sally-Anne was raised by her Muggle parents, and I… was not raised here."

"Like the Island of Misfit Toys!" Sally-Anne said, laughing a little.

"I'm not sure what that is, but I'm assuming that it's making our point," Rose said.

"We don't all fit in here, but we fit in with one another," Sally-Anne said. "Right?"

"Makes sense to me!" Rose said. "Harry, you?"

"Yeah, I think so," he said.

For a while, no one said anything. It wasn't the same awkward silence as before; this time everyone was trying to think of what to say next. It was getting late, and they really all wanted to go to bed.

"Friends?" Harry asked finally.

"Friends," Sally-Anne agreed.

Hermione looked at each of them. For the first time in two months, she was finally beginning to feel like she belonged in this strange world. Up until this point, almost everyone had looked at her as if she were carrying the plague. Everyone had looked down on her, but now she had three people smiling at her. They all supported her. They had all saved her. All three of these people had risked their lives to save her from a troll today. Sally-Anne, the timid girl who had the bravery to stand by Hermione instead of saving herself. Harry, the boy who had run in and thrown rocks at a creature to keep it away from her, even after it almost set him on fire. And Rose, the strange girl that had appeared between Hermione and a troll after Hermione had done nothing more than ask for help. Maybe she did belong here.

"Friends," Hermione said finally, smiling for possibly the first time all week.

Rose didn't say anything. She just grinned. She had her team again.

From deep within the castle, the Consciousness observed its pet get massacred by the Girl in Red.

Not bad for a first test, it said as it watched the creature evaporate from the girl's spell. Rose Peta-Lorrum. You may be just what I need.

It decided that it would need more information, but not quite yet. It would wait. If the Consciousness was anything, it was patient.