20 First Ripple

[Hogwarts, Great Hall, October 31st, 1991]

Halloween, the season of revengeful ghosts and peaceful spirits. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter.

The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. Within the confines of the Great Hall of Hogwarts, the students of different Houses are gathered for this year's Halloween feast—all but one. One Hermione Granger.

It's been quite a few days since Moses asked Wednesday to terrorize Draco Malfoy's life, and it looks like she did it. Considering that Draco has spent the past few days looking at Ron and Harry fearfully and weirdly, many can say that his plan had worked, even Moses himself. When Moses asked Wednesday what she had done to Draco? She answered,

"I gave him a potion that turns your most hateful things or someone into their counterpart. I've come to observe from other girls of my age that they tend to avoid their crushes from frontal confrontation. That's why I sneak a potion into his drink that allows him to see his enemy, or in this case, Harry and Ron, into—for a better word, a lover's gaze."

"...So you're telling me that right now, Draco has an infatuation with Harry, Ron...and possibly... me?"

"Yes, yes he is."

"How bad is it?"

"Obsessive bad."

"...Daym."

"Yes."

They were having their weird conversation when suddenly the entrance door to the Great Hall was violently opened by a running Professor Squirrel wearing his usual turban.

He stopped in the middle of the hall, panting as he uttered the words that shook many to their cores.

"Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know." He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. The chaos only stopped when Headmaster Dumbledore shouted with undeniable authority,

"SILENCE!"

With his shout, one by one, each of the students from the different houses stopped their movement.

In the midst of this, one golden-blonde boy was busy eating his favorite potatoes when he looked around his left and noticed someone was missing.

"Where did Wednesday go again? I swear that girl had some sort of teleportation ability on her." He muttered, frowning as he continued his feast.

"Prefects," Dumbledore rumbled, "lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Percy was in his element.

"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"

"What are you still doing here, boy?! Go on now," A cold voice spoke behind him, causing him to turn around.

"Oh! Professor Snape, how are you doing?" Moses asked as he stopped his endeavor, the moment that he stopped was also the moment that the dishes from his table vanished, causing Moses to be disheartened.

"I said—What are you still doing here?" Snape inquired, growing more annoyed at the boy in front of him.

"Nothing Prof, by the way, the dungeons are where the troll is, right? And the Slytherin dormitories are also in the dungeons; I don't think it's a good idea to send the students to their doom, Professor, but you do you. Anyway, I have to leave now; I miss Penelope, wonder what she's up to." Moses muttered those last sentences without a care in the world as he skedaddled away from the growingly confused professor.

'What was the headmaster thinking, sending my students back to their dormitories?' was what was on the professor's mind while looking at the headmaster questioningly.

"Ms. Farley!" He called, and the girl in question looked back at his head house and marched her way through.

"What's the matter, Professor Snape?"

"Stay here. The troll is in the dungeon. I'll ask Professor Flitwick to take care of the rest of you. I'll need to go, I have some matters to attend to." He ordered the girl. He turned around and strutted his way, his robes floating with his every step as he vanished from the shadows.

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A long line of Ravenclaw students passed through their tower; among them was Moses, whistling and wondering where Wednesday was.

'I guess she wants to see a troll; I wanted to see one before, but when I read that they are supposed to have a nasty smell, I changed my mind.' He thought to himself while taking his step on the staircase.

"Moses!" A voice called out to him. He turned around to see who had called him.

"Yow, Neville, what are you doing here?"

Neville stopped his steps as he panted,

"Harry—Ron..."

"Well? What is it?" Moses hastily asked, he was feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Hermione's in danger! She was still in the bathroom when Professor Quirrell shouted about a troll, and Harry and Ron ran to warn her about the tr—" He uttered it while panting, but before he could finish, Moses grabbed his shoulder and looked at him dead in the eye.

"Where is she?" He inquired grievously.

"Girl's Bathroom!" Neville answered,

After receiving Neville's answer, Moses ran as fast as he could, straddling from the hallway to the hallway, when suddenly he heard a loud series of thuds and smelled a nauseating stench.

THUD!* THUD!*

He turned around and faced a thirteen-foot-high monstrosity. It has a humanoid appearance and dull, granite gray skin, a big, lumpy body like a rock, and a little bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs as thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet—it was clutching a massive wooden club that dragged on the floor because its arms were so long. It was wearing a rather dirty clothes that you could mistake for a rag.

{I can control the elements.} Moses whispered to himself.

"GGRHH?" It growled as it tilted its head and looked at its new meal.

Although its appearance and stench are as bad—or maybe worse—than the book says, Moses is currently not focused on that.

What he was focused on, however, was the Gryfindor robe that was sticking in the thorny club that it was holding.

"You...what did you do to them...?" He uttered the words in a cold voice while looking emotionlessly at the monstrosity that was standing before him.

"I'll ask one. More. Time." He uttered every syllable with a brief stop as he held his head down and clenched his fist. The troll, the mindless beast that he is, didn't answer but instead growled again while slowly running towards him.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Them?" The troll didn't answer. It raised its thorny club, intending to swing it at Moses, but before he could do so,

SQWELP!* SQWELP!* SQWELP!*

Spikes after spikes of transfigured rocks were stabbed in its body, creating numerous holes. Its blood gushed out, creating a rain of droplets, but before it could touch Moses, it simmered into smoke.

"GGRHG" It growled weakly, not moving an inch due to being punctured in place.

The place was engulfed in silence as Moses took one step after another until his back was facing the punctured troll. As raindrops fell on the ground, lightning strikes rumbled violently into the sky.

GUSHH!* With the quick movement of spiky earth, its head was penetrated from below, completely severing it from its body. A fountain of blood, the severed head of a troll, and the body of a troll full of holes were what Moses left behind on the scene. He was walking rather lifelessly, his thoughts unknown. He kneeled below the thorny club of the troll and took the robe stuck on it and as he was observing it, he noticed that there was no blood of humans' on it, gaining him a bit of hope.

"I hope—fuck." He muttered uncomfortably as he ran towards the girl's bathroom.

{Robe, take me to your owner.} Moses commanded, and as those words came out of his mouth, the lifeless robe levitated itself from Moses' grasp as it flew across the hallway, Moses levitated himself for flight and followed it with a speed that was as fast as the wind.

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[3 Hours Ago]

One bushy-haired girl was strolling through a quiet library, looking for a good book to read and give to Moses when she noticed a pigtailed girl stealthily talking to someone rather seriously in a corner.

She tried to steer clear away from her but when she suddenly noticed the girl receiving a letter from someone's hand. Her curiosity suddenly rose to its peak. She stayed behind moving sneakingly and watched the girl intently, but before she could pick a place to hide, she swayed a book from the book shelf, causing it to fall hard on the ground and make an audible thud.

She widened her eyes at her mistake and tried to make a run for it, but she was too late to do so. Once she turned around, the goth girl pigtailed girl —Wednesday, was already behind her, looking at her quite intensely.

"I thought you were only a bossy know-it-all, but I guess you're a nosy meddler too; is that how you operate your crime? Intruding, prying, spying, poking your nose into something that you shouldn't?"

"Wha—I didn't mean to,"

"And a liar, I see... I don't know why Moses befriended someone like you, but I guess he can also make mistakes too, huh?"

"Don't say that!" Hermione angrily whispered, denying Wednesday's claim.

"Or what? I can see right through you; you're the girl who is determined to prove herself to others despite the fact that there is nothing to prove. The truth is, being a know-it-all won't be enough, Granger. And you know it. If Moses, Harry, and Ron weren't in your life, you would just be a girl who was destined to be alone forever. You will forever grovel into someone's shoes, living your everyday life like a worm before someone's boots. Everyone will hate you, Granger—Well, it's not like they didn't hate you before. At least something will not change, huh?" Wednesday finished with an impassive taunting tone in her voice while looking at Hermione's moistening eyes.

"You—" muttered Hermione, but she was not able to finish her sentence when a single tear fell from her eyes. With a visible hurtful look written in her eyes, she wiped her tears and dashed away from Wednesday.

Once she was out of Wednesday's view, a strange and impossibly moving disembodied arm of a corpse suddenly sat on Wednesday's shoulder. It made hand gestures, seemingly telling Wednesday something. Wednesday saw it and replied with an impassive tone of voice,

"I need to do that, Thing; she saw me talking to you. Now that we're finally getting into something intriguing, I can't allow anyone to hinder my investigations."

Thing replied by creating a series of gestures again, to which Wednesday replied,

"I don't care if Moses will despise me, it's about time that I detach my connections to him. I'll forever be a lone wolf, Thing. Or in my case, a lone raven..." said Wednesday with her usual emotionless expression as she made her way to the Great Hall with heavy steps.

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"Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know."

With Quirrel's sharp cry, the Great Hall fell into pandemonium.

'Troll? Hmm...its blood, whiskers, skin...its whole body will be appreciated in my experimentation.' Wednesday thought to herself, but after pondering, she widened her eyes, seemingly in shock.

"That girl...don't tell me." She uttered in suspense, her suspicion, however, was answered when he saw Harry and Ron sneak away somewhere.

With her questions answered, she rushed towards Harry and Ron as she followed them from behind.

While following them, she made a mental note of Snape, who was on his way to the third floor.

After following them, she smelled a foul stench in the direction that they intended to go and readied herself.

And then they heard it—a low grunting and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body was like a boulder, with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs as thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet—It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

The troll peered inside the doorway and made its way while slouching inside. Harry and Ron were supposed to lock the door when a cold, pale hand stopped them from doing so. They looked behind them with widened eyes.

"Wednesday?", "Addams?" Both of them whispered in shock while looking at the pigtailed girl in front of them.

"Hermione's insi—" said Wednesday, but before she could finish, a high, petrified scream was heard inside the chamber.

The two boys looked at each other in horror as they shouted,

"Hermione!"

"Idiots..." Wednesday uttered as he grabbed and stopped the two boys.

"Occultare." With her spell, the three of them vanished from others' views, including their smell and sound. When the two boys noticed that they were invisible, they widened their eyes and showed a little admiration for Wednesday.

As the three of them slowly came inside the chamber, the two boys were horrified, while Wednesday wore a grievous expression on her pale face. Why? Find out next time on Drago— in our next chapter. Peace✌️

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[]Please give me stones![]

[]You can read 5 advanced chapters ahead on my p@treon.[]