CHAPTER 36
A/N: If you want to donate or read up to 35 chapters ahead, you can visit my p-a-t-r-e-on/kurowashi
If you see grammar errors, please let me know so I can fix them. I'm always open to constructive criticism.
I would like it if you guys left some reviews.
Thank you for your good words and support.
------
CHAPTER 36
Hermione and Pansy got out of the bathroom and saw them. While Harry walked towards Elmi and smiled, saying,
"Wow, Elmi, you beat this troll all by yourself?" While scratching his head, he continued with an embarrassed tone of voice,
"Our spells didn't even tickle it; sorry, we weren't any help."
Elmi smiled at Harry and said, to boost his confidence,
"No, thanks to your spells, it was distracted and helped me land the last hit. You guys helped a lot."
Ron was a bit surprised and said,
"We did? Yee, we did help a lot."
He looked too proud of himself; Elmi turned towards two girls,
"Are you girls okay?"
With tremoring voices, Hermione talked,
"Yes, I am okay."
Pansy couldn't even talk; all she could do was nod her head. Elmi turned towards them and said,
"We should leave. I didn't kill it; it only knocked out."
Just as they wanted to leave, Snape, Quirrell, and McGonagall appeared at the end of the corridor,
"Oh my goodness, what is happening here? Explane yourselves, all of you!"
All the children started to explain themselves at the same time, creating a cacophony of voices. McGonagall's face turned sour from this chaos and noise, and just as she was ready to explode, Hermione raised her hand and said,
"I am sorry, Professor, it is my fault."
McGonagall looked surprised and said,
"Miss Granger?"
Elmi was not going to allow her to fall on a sword, so he said,
"I am sorry, Professor, the reason Pansy is here is because of me. I messed up her clothes while fooling around with my friends, and she had to come here to fix herself up. When Professor Quirrell informed us there was a troll, I felt obligated to inform Pansy since she didn't know."
Elmi never understood why they didn't tell the truth in the books; it was reckless, but they were there to help a friend. He thought the truth was milder than the lie they concocted out of wanting to handle a troll. McGonagall said,
"That explains why Mr. Fawley is here."
She turned towards the Gryffindors and looked at them with eyes, waiting for an answer. Hermione was determined to pull the blame on herself and lie, so she tried to talk, but Harry cut her off,
"It is our fault, Professor. We were really cruel to her this afternoon and hurt her feelings. That is why Hermione was here, and like Elmi, we couldn't just leave our friend by herself when there was a troll here, and she didn't know it."
Ron stood right next to him. At first, he was surprised he had come clean about their hurtful comments, but he knew they were at fault, so he started nodding his head in an approving manner.
Hermione said,
"Professor, if Elmi wasn't here, Pansy and I could have been hurt, or worse, we could be dead."
McGonagall said in a trembling voice. It was obvious she was still thinking about what might have happened if Elmi hadn't managed to knock it out,
"Be that as it may, Mr. Fawley, this was an extremely foolish thing to do."
She pointed at Harry, Ron, and Elmi,
"And all of you should have informed a prefect or a Professor rather than coming here by yourselves."
While McGonagall was giving a long sermon about all the things they did wrong, Harry's eyes slid toward Snape's wounded leg. McGonagall continued to admonish Elmi,
"I would expect more rational behavior from someone like you, Mr. Fawley, and I am extremely disappointed." She pointed to all of them and said,
"Five points will be taken from Slytherin and Gryffindor for each of you because of your serious lack of judgment."
She turned towards Harry, Elmi, and Ron,
"I give 5 points to each of you for fool's courage and sheer dumb luck."
At this point, Quirrell cut in and said,
"From w-what I gathered, I-I would l-like to give f-five points for ex-exemplary use of charms to Mr. F-Fawley; not many can d-down a mountain troll as a student and t-tell the tales about it."
He turned towards Elmi, smiling without his eyes, and continued,
"It l-looks like Mr. Fawley o-overcomed his ne-nervousness in the moment of n-need."
Then Quirrell screamed nervously when the troll growled. Elmi thought this guy deserved an Oscar for his acting.
...
As the Gryffindor trio was eating their breakfast, Snape left a snarking comment while he was passing by,
"Good luck today, Potter. Then again, you dared to stand up against a troll; a little game of Quidditch would be a walk in the park for you."
He showed his crooked smile and started walking towards the teacher's table while limping.
As they nibbled on their toast and eggs, Harry couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that Snape's behavior was more than just a professor disliking him.
Ron, munching on a piece of bacon, glanced at Harry. "Why do you think Snape's so interested in you, Harry? It's not like he's got a thing for every student."
Harry nodded, his mind racing. "I don't know, but I saw his leg was bleeding yesterday. What if he let the troll in as a diversion? Maybe he's after whatever's hidden on the third floor."
He thought about it a bit more and said,
"The day I was in Gringotts, Hagrid took something from Dumbledore's vaults; he said it was Hogwarts business and was very secretive about it."
Ron was listening to him while he was stuffing his mount full of things, but his eyes were glued to Harry. Hermione said,
"So you are saying that is what the dog is guarding, and Snape tried to steal it, but why?"
At this moment, Hedwig comes in with a surprise gift for Harry. Harry was surprised,
"I never get mail. Who would send me something?
Ron was more excited than Harry. It was like he was the one who received the gift,
"Let's open it. Come on, Harry, open it!"
They could guess what it was from its shape, but they still wanted to see it immediately. McGonagall was sitting at the teacher's table and having a conversation with Professor Flitwick. When she saw the parcel delivered to Harry, she smiled and returned to her conversation.