Chapter 24 - Mountain Troll

(1st October 1991 )

Like normal the Great Hall is filled with the laughter of many students, since I've arrived it's been very rare if you see someone with a frown on their faces. Nevertheless, the Gryffindor table was probably the loudest. The voices that were mainly heard belonged to George and Fred; the both of them are trying to get students to try the new sweets they made. One of the sweets are called ' Ton Tongue Toffee'. The toffee like sweet is one of best known sweets made by the Twins; the toffee was covered with colours of the rainbow. I overheard George say that the sweet has the power of the Engorgement Charm, this can make anyone's tongue swell to an indeterminate size (at least four feet long).

" I don't think anyone is going to buy that stupid sweet off you, Weasley." Oliver spoke, raising a spoonful of a liquid type substance to his mouth. His eyes fazed on the Twins. There still has to be some rivalry between the three of them. Also, I'm still suspicious on why they all became friends all of a sudden. Tesha believes it's because the three of them have a 'Crush' on me but I'm still unsure if that's true or not.

"How about something not dangerous?" Tesha recommends whilst taking a bite out of her cheese sandwich.

" How is it dangerous?" Fred questions her.

" Well, no offence and all boys, but I don't think anyone wants a tongue that's four feet long." Tesha defends herself.

" Who doesn't?" George adds, sticking up for his brother.

" I don't," Tesha snaps back.

" Me too," Avery speaks up.

" Me three," Lillian says, taking her head out of an revision book she's been invested in the whole time.

" Me four," Cherry chips in after she finishes applying her lip-gloss.

" Me five," Oliver backs the group of girls up.

I cross my elbows and rest them on the table before leaning forward towards the Twins slowly.

" Me six."

The Twins look at me in disbelief, don't get me wrong, I'm certain that the other sweets they sell will be good but this one can be dangerous. Yes it can get you out of class but at the same time who knows if your tongue will go back to normal. Like Tesha said, nobody is going to want a four feet long tongue. I remove my focus from Fred and George and turn towards Harry who is sat to the left of me.

" Anyways, how was Quidditch training? Did Oliver give you the long lecture?"

Oliver's head shoots up from his plate, his eyes wide. "What long lecture ?"

" Oh darling, I've told Iris all about them long lectures. The way you tell every new player the history of Gryffindor's Quidditch team and how important it is to pay attention in training." Cherry informs him.

" She's not wrong about that," Harry adds to the conversation.

" Harry!"

"What? It's true." Harry shrugs his shoulders. He then proceeds to quickly finish his food then turn to me, he then rubs his hands together to try and get whatever crumbs that are on them off. "Quidditch training was good, I've learned all the rules. I know how to score, how to grab the Golden Snitch."

" That's great to hear, at least Oliver hasn't bored you to death." I reply back to him. Harry's facial expression changes in a matter of seconds. He is scanning his surroundings in a hurry, his nose and eyebrows are all scrunched up.

"Wait..." He says in a whisper before speaking up. " Where's Hermione?"

" Parvati Patil said that she wouldn't come out of the girl's bathroom. She said that she'd been in there crying." Neville tells us. This causes Harry to glance at Ron with a disapproving look on his face; Ron shrugs as he then continues to shovel big amounts of food into his mouth.

Suddenly, a loud noise comes from the doors of the Great Hall. Looking over my shoulder in the direction the noise came from, I saw Professor Quirrell standing there in great panic. Hands shaking vigorously at his sides as droplets of sweat fall from his forehead. The Professor screams out as he stutters upon his words.

" TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! T-TROOLLL IN THE DUNGEON!!" His voice bellows across the room. The fear in his voice causes students to jump out of their seats and flee out of the hall screaming. I turn to towards the table where the Professors are always seated in hope that they will reassure us students. Professor Dumbledore rises from his seat and forcefully brings his hands down onto the dining table.

" SILENCE!" He demands.

All the students, including myself, freeze. Tesha rushes to my side in a hurry and grabs a hold of my arm. I pat her hand in a way to let her knw that we'll be alright. I lean forward and grab a hold of Harry and bring him towards my side in a protective manner. Before I could try and do the same with Ron; Fred leaps across the table along with George and grabs a hold of Ron's shoulders.

" Whatever happens we must stick together, do I make myself clear?" Oliver says from behind me as he lays a comforting hand on my shoulder. I turn my head slightly to the side and look up at him. "Crystal clear."

The Twins and Oliver form some sort of a circle around myself and the girls and then push Ron towards me. Tesha quickly lets go of my arm so I can grab a hold of Ron.

"Everyone will please, not panic. Now, Prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons." Professor Dumbledore announces.

Percy steps forward and starts ordering Gryffindor students to follow him back to our dormitory, "Come on Gryffindor, stay close and follow me."

Neville is the first one to rush forward and follow Percy, then others copy him. I look at Harry and Ron and grab a tight hold of their hands before dragging them through the massive crowds and towards the doors of the Great Hall.

" Wait! Iris, we've lost the others!" Ron shouts as he pulls on my hand. I look behind me and try to see if I can spot the others but I have no luck. None of them are in sight, I stand there for a few seconds in hope that I will rather see a tall boy in a Quidditch Captain jumper or two red headed twins. But I didn't.

" It's okay, we'll find them shortly but the have to get out of here."

" Wait, Hermione doesn't know about the troll. Iris we have to find her!" Harry begs. Tightening my hold on their hands I down the corridor.

" You're right, Harry : we must find her. You guys do not let go of me, alright?" I look at them both and they nod their heads.

The three of us make a run down the long corridor, not looking back for a second. As we got near to the end of the first corridor, we turn right and make our way down another. It was beginning to get hard to focus, loud torturous screams came from students as they ran up staircases.

Loud heavy bangs came from another corridor to my left. I grab the boys and hide ourselves behind a doorway. Cautiously, I peaked out from behind the door and saw the horrifying creature. The long, tall and bald and dark grey troll emerged itself from a corridor and made it's way up the hall we was in.

" It's heading towards the Girl's Bathroom!" Harry shouts in a whisper tone.

I slowly follow the troll, with Harry and Ron behind me, as I took quick little steps. Trying my hardest to not be heard. However, as soon as I saw the troll make it's way into the Girl's Bathroom I bolted straight after it. Not caring how much noise I made.

" Hermione move!" I shout as I enter the bathroom. Hermione runs into a stall and the troll raises it's club then brings it down harshly and smashes all the top parts of the stalls.

" Help me!" Hermione screams as she runs out the of the stall that was about to collapse on top her. I bend down at pick up the wood that came from the stalls and throw it at the troll.

" Hey Pea Brain!" Ron says as he manages to take the troll's attention away from Hermione. She then takes this as an advantage and hides under the sink. However, the troll turned around and made it's back towards her. Luckily, Hermione manages to escape from under the sink right before the troll can grab her. Hermione runs to me and I envelope her into a tight embrace.

" It's okay, you're safe now." I reassure her. With my attention away from the actual situation, Harry sprints towards the troll and grabs it club but because the troll being almost ten times taller than him: Harry is lifted up off the ground.

" Harry!" Ron shouts towards him.

Harry is thrown onto the troll's head by the troll himself but due to the sudden movement Harry's wand ends up going right up the troll's nose. The troll begins to shake his head vigorously due to the discomfort he is in. Harry grabs onto the troll's neck tightly so he doesn't fall off and hurt himself.

" Do something!" Harry demands.

" Do what?" Ron shouts as he pulls out his wand.

" I don't know! Anything!" Harry cries out.

Hermione lets go of me and gasps as an idea comes to her mind. "Swish and flick," she tells Ron whilst making a weird movement with her hand. Ron gulps and points his wand at the troll.

" Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron says as he copies the hand movement Hermione just preformed. The club is then lifted out of the troll's hand and hovers above its head. The troll looks up, confused, just as the club comes crashing back down onto it's head. The troll stumbles backwards which causes Harry to fall of it's head. With the heavy impact of the club, the troll falls face first onto the floor and lays lifeless.

" Is it dead?" I question, taking a few steps I bend down towards the troll and pull out Harry's wand out of it's nose. Quickly, I turn around and throw the wand to Harry. He then looks at the wand in disgust and wipes it down on his robes to get the mucus off it.

" Oh! Oh, my goodness! E-Explain yourselves, all of you!"

Without hesitation, I turn around and make eye contact with the three Professors. Snape. McGonagall. Quirrell. Their eyes go wide as soon as they look at the troll, clearly thinking that the creature is dead.

" Professors it's not what it - "

" It's my fault, Professor McGonagall." Hermione interrupts Harry before he could finish. Myself and the Professors give Hermione a questioning look. She just took the blame for something that wasn't her fault and that she had no control over. Along with that, she's a good student so I know this is not going to end well.

"Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall says in shock.

"I went looking for the troll. I'd read about them and thought I could handle it. But I was wrong. If these three hadn't come and found me...I'd probably be dead." She explains herself and looks down in guilt after finishing.

" Be that as it may be...it was an extremely foolish thing to do." McGonagall says, struggling to find the right words. The female Professor looked in my direction,I automatically shot my head down to the ground in disappointment. When my eyes were attached to the ground I soon noticed that dark red liquid droplets were plastered across the floor of where I was standing, the droplets were spread out on the floor almost like a small little trail. My eyes followed the droplets and it led to an ankle with blood flowing out of it. A chunk of flesh missing. I followed the ankle and slowly followed the black trousers leg to the face of the injured person. My eyes then met the dark glossy ones that belong to Professor Snape. Once he knew that I saw his injury he grabbed his cloak and used it to cover his injury.

"I would have expected more rational behavior on your part, Miss Granger. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgment." Professor McGonagall addresses Hermione before turning to myself and the two young boys. "As for you three I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Five points...will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck." She finishes then turns to her fellow staff members then gestures for them to follow her.

Professor Snape stops as he gets to the door and turns towards me, " The detention -"

" I'll be there after dinner tonight like normal, Sir." I inform him.

" Forget it, seems to me that I was a little too harsh. Lil - Iris." Snape says before rushing out of the bathroom. This is not the first time that he has almost called me by my mother's name. If he keeps getting me mixed up with her then it means that he knew her before her death. Nevertheless, once the group of us knew that they were definitely gone and out of sight; we sighed in relief.

" Bloody hell, that was close." Ron says.

" Good for you to get us out of trouble like that," I turn to Hermione and thank her.

" Mind you, I mean, we did save her life. " Ron says proudly.

"Mind you, she didn't need saving if you hadn't insulted her." Harry snaps back at Ron as he defends Hermione. Ron and Hermione glare at one another and share a small smile.

" What are friends for?" Ron says but it comes out more like a question.