15 The Boy To Fear and Admire

Weeks passed and there was no hiding that the Hollow Family acquired the House of Teach. But still, no one could put faces to names. But the change was slowly coming.

The lives of Cho, Hermione, and Cotton became very quiet. Cotton didn't tell them a thing about what happened on the ship after they had left. This caused Hermione to get angry and she and Cotton had falling out. She believed that Houses of Conquest was barbaric and that the right thing to do was relinquish the said title.

The two didn't speak for a week until she came to her senses and apologized. She figured that Cotton didn't tell her because he couldn't and that keeping the title must be a necessary evil. Cotton never pretended to be anything with her, so her reasons were for her alone as Cotton never bothered to explain himself.

During these weeks, Cotton finished the Ravenclaw library and began to study the languages of Parlsetounge, Draconian, Gobbldegook, Latin, Greek, and Mermish. But he stopped there as he wanted to digest the knowledge he had acquired.

Cotton had become a scholarly maniac. The ladies couldn't keep up with his retention speed. At the same time, Snape was serious about being his mentor. Snape felt that he had let down one child of great promise and didn't plan on failing another one. The mentoring wasn't vicious, but it was still intense as Cotton trained in potions and defense against the dark arts.

When he wasn't in his free time, with the girls, or Snape, Cotton had Qudittch practice three times a week, his first-year classes, thankfully, he left House affairs to his father. Speaking of that, Royal Hollow had successfully garnered attention and partnered with a big aerospace company to build his jet. At the same time, Vanessa's designs were starting to gain traction with the help of the Dobreva family. With modern cuts made on a sacred geometric scale, the clothes themselves were magical. Enchantments were just bonuses.

It was finally Halloween, Cotton woke up in a king-size bed in the Hollow Cottage. He started to call the place home. After finishing the Ravenclaw library, Ravenclaw tower only served to annoy him. The cottage was a pleasant getaway.

He put on his record player, showered, made some breakfast. After waiting he trained with blue crest for a few hours. The broad cutlass fit his style well, but the power it generated took some getting used to.

When Sword training was over, he practiced his dueling with dummies. Getting accustomed to spell-slinging and changes. There were only a few spells that he could do without words, so he practiced articulation and wand motioning like a mad man. After rattling off the third or fourth spell, the tongue gets lazy, so he trained to withstand that and overcome it until the day came when his arsenal was entire second nature.

By the time he finished, the first class was over and the sun was pretty high. Crossing the Black Lake, Cotton decided to skip class as he was feed listening to teacher drown on about what already knew without providing any other own experiences to further his education. Instead, he spent the day hunting for the school kitchens, a place he knew he would find the true keepers of the school.

After much work and pushing his magical sense to sense the wards that hid doors and passageways, Cotton found the kitchen.

The school kitchens were accessible by going through a door in the entrance hall and taking the stairs downwards. Downstairs, in a broad stone basement corridor, brightly lit and decorated with food-themed paintings, one could tickle a pear on a painting of a bowl of fruit. The pear would giggle and turned into a large green door handle, revealing the entrance to the Hogwarts kitchens.

Ever since he became Lord of Teach and Dark Lord of Tides, Murder, and Mayhem, his sense of magic became deadlier. He carried his sword everywhere now and he was sensitive to intentions, especially ill intentions be it for him or another.

Cotton stepped through the entrance and found many house-elves preparing the evening Dinner. Cotton looked around the kitchen and found a drunken house elf. He walked over nicely and sat next to her. He then picked up a goblet of water and turned it into rum. He then started drinking with her.

"Cotton Hollow. What's your name?" Cotton slurred.

"I be Winky," she replied with pride.

"Ahh, Winky. Pleasure meeting you. I was wondering if Winky knows the best way to travel the castle to find the room of gold." Cotton asked about a random room.

"Winky knows it all. And she don't know no room of gold. There's a room with a mirror, a room of keys that fly, a room with a three-headed dog, a room stuffs, a room of cauldrons, a room of books, a room of brooms...." Winky went on for fifteen minutes until she finally said, "But no rooms of gold. Nope, Nope, Nope, Winky knows nothing bout no rooms of gold."

"Three head dog? What room is that?" Cotton asked.

"3rd floor." she sang.

"The room of books?"

"Library of course."

"How about the room of stuff."

"Seventh floor in the left corridor of the Hogwarts castle and has a hidden entrance opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet."

Cotton sighed there was no door there according to his memory. He finally realized that Winky was too drunk to get information from. But he was interested in the three-headed dog. It would make a good beast to protect the estate and breed.

Cotton supposed he could ask Snape about it, but he still didn't know if he could fully trust snape. His mentorship was going good and he learned a lot, but he decided to try again when Winky was less drunk. Cotton left the kitchen and made his way to the great hall. When he arrived, people looked at him and whispered.

When he finally sat down. Cho and a few students shared glances.

"Just spill it," he said.

"Weasley made Hermione cry. We tried to talk to her but she just wouldn't come out," said Melissa Gentry, a Ravenclaw student.

"She's been in there all day" Cho added.

"Hmm. " Cotton hummed then started eating. Cho and Melissa looked at him with furrowed brows.

"What? I'm not going to starve for Hermione. She'll stop crying eventually and when that happens she'll turn that redheaded little bastard inside out." Cotton spoke as he stuffed his face.

The girls sighed and said nothing else on the matter. When Cotton finished eating, he empties to cups of Ale and git up. He walked straight to Gryiffindor's table and pulled Ron by his collar, dragging him away.

"Mr.Hollow, Mr.Weasley still looks a bit hungry," Dumbledore spoke and the great hall faced him.

Cotton glared and responded, "He made Hermione cry. So I'm going to make him apologize. If you made her Hermione cry, I'd make you apologize."

Cold, concise, and full of determination. Even the older girls swooned over the young hero. The boys thought Cotton had a death wish to speak to the headmaster that way.

"Ho ho ho. Mr.Hollow, I'm sure a young man of your caliber can comfort your friend without beating on Mr.Weasley," said Dumbledore.

Tsk, Cotton sneered then threw Weasley aside like trash. "Do it again, Weasley, and I'll feed your rat to my thunderbird."

Cotton then walked out the great hall and it erupted with gossip.

'A bit aggressive, Cotton," he thought to himself, 'Stay level headed our you might rip someone to shreds. Be calm, cool, collected, or the curse will take.'

Cotton then exhaled. After acquiring Blue Crest, the bodhi necklace was becoming less effective.

Suddenly Professor Quirell ran past him, bumping his shoulder, and Cotton sense it. The second life force within Professor Quirrell.

'Hmm. Not my business. But I do wonder what he's hiding.'

After a short walk, Cotton arrived in the third-floor girl's bathroom. He heard Hermione weeping and sat in the stall next to her.

"You're such a loser, you know?" Cotton spoke out.

"Cotton?" she asked, surprised.

"Hey, Mione. I heard Weasley mad you cry. "

"He's an arshole. A red-headed twat!" she shouted.

Cotton chuckled, "So childish. What about Cho and I? What are we?"

"M-my... Cotton what kind of question is that?" she asked.

"I don't know... Cho said that Weasly said that you don't have any friends because you're annoying. It made you cry, so I was wondering if you thought of us as friends or not."

"Of course, you're my friends. "

"The stop being a cry baby and tell that idiot you actually have more friend than him because he's a pee brain. " Cotton resorted to childish name-calling to move the girl to a better mood.

Hermione giggle. Cotton then pushed her stall door open and pull her out. Hermione hugged him tightly and Cotton sighed as he patted her wild frizzy hair. Cotton was forced to ruin the moment when he sensed a magical creature walking toward the girl's bathroom.

"Hermione, stay here." he orders and Hermione nods.

Cotton took out his methuselah wand and walked out of the bathroom to see a male Mountain Troll. Mountain Trolls are the largest breed of trolls, weighing over a ton, and the most vicious kind of their species. The beast is bald with thick, dark grey skin, extremely resistant to magic. Standing over twelve feet tall with a massive wooden club in hand, Cotton had an idea to kill it and explain it away with first-year knowledge.

Suddenly, Ron and Harry come around the corner and saw Cotton and the Troll standing across from each other.

"If you morons don't want to die, stand back!" Cotton barked.

Cotton flourished and wand and spoke, "Verdimillious Tria!"

A green wipe-like energy snapped the troll in its balls and it roared like a mad beast.

"Flipendo!"

Pah. The club was knocked from the troll's hand.

" Wingardam Leviosa."

The club levitated and was puled to Cotton, "Difindo."

The club was minced to pieces, Cotton then turned them to matches, the matches into needles. Just as the needles were made, The professor arrived and witnessed a swarm of silver needles barrow through the troll's eye, the softest part of the troll, and out the back of its head before it dropped dead.

"Well done, Mr. Hollow. 150 points for a skill full application of transfiguration and charms. And 100 points for displaying bravery in the face of danger. 200 points for killing a Mountain troll." Snape praised him.

"Prosser Snape!" McGonagall nearly blew her top. "This ---this... You all explain yourselves!"

"It was my fault!" Hermione spoke up as she walked out of the girl's birthday.

"Hermione, be quiet." Cotton snapped. "Weasley made her cry, I came to comfort her, and a mountain troll showed up. These two fools then appeared and I stopped them from jumping in. I then killed the thing. Honestly, I have no idea what they're doing here."

"Hmm...Yes... 20 points each from Gryffindor. For recklessly chasing a mountain troll." Snapped added and Cotton snickered.

"That is enough. All of you go back to your dormitories. Professor Quirrell, clean this up." Said, McGonagall.

"Oh no, the troll is mine," said Cotton, he performed a sinking spell and tossed the carcass into his enchanted wallet. He then grabbed Hermione and walked her back to her dorm.

"That guy is intense. He really needs to loosen up," said Ron.