Chapter 28— Troll in the Dungeons?

*No fun fact today, but this chapter is dedicated to my buddy Outer God who has a non-cancerous Brain Tumour. His right eye has taken the brunt of the blow so whether or not he'll see out of it is up in the air and there's a 40% chance he walks away from surgery unscathed. It frustrates me that I can't do much else for him since my hands are quite literally tied economically just for me and my family so this chapter is for him. Outer, good luck and I hope you get well soon!

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On Hallowe'en morning I awoke to the chill of the British winter, once again running around the grounds and completing some bodyweight exercises before returning to the castle. Once my workout was completed, I made my way towards the common room, marvelling at the castle and its tranquillity in the early morning.

'I think I prefer the castle when no-one's around,' I thought as I walked along the corridor and approached the kitchen, my clothes damp as they clung to me, almost instantly picking up on the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting from the kitchens.

'I know that I've just worked out, but I'm going to have to break my rule of not eating until I've showered…'

Walking down the stairs leading to the Hufflepuff common room, I turned to the large fruit painting and tickled the pear as a childish giggle echoed down the corridor.

'Well that wasn't creepy at all…'

The pear then morphed into a green door handle. Wasting no time, I opened the door and was face to face with our very own zero-hour contract employees. The Hogwarts kitchens was a high-ceilinged room, as large as the Great Hall above it, with stacks of glimmering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls and a great brick fireplace at the other end of the room. There was the expected clamouring of the House Elves as they rushed here and there in order to prepare today's breakfast so it took a moment for the Elves to notice my presence. The first to do so was a young looking house elf, shorter than its compatriots. It had leathery grey skin, bat like ears and large tennis ball-like blue eyes. A few moments later, the work around the kitchen ceased as all the Elves turned to look at me.

'Their gaze is a little disconcerting, no?'

"W-What is young Wizard wanting today?" The little Elf stammered out.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your work," I said kindly to the Elf. When compared to its peers, I was certain that it was a child. "What can I call you?"

"M-My name is being Shorty sir," The Elf said, obviously still nervous to be in my presence despite my cordial treatment.

"How long have you been working here?" I said, suppressing my urge to pat his head, he was a cute little guy.

"Shorty is being here his whole life," He began, his stammer slowly fading away as he hopefully began warming up to me. "But we is not allowed to bond with Hoggy until we is adults."

"Is that so?" I said, stroking my chin in thought. "Well then, would you like to bond with me?"

Shorty stood in front of me completely taken off guard before he understood what I had asked.

"S-Shorty, bond with Mr Wizard?!" He stammered out, completely shocked. "Is you being sure?!"

"I'm sure, Shorty," I said, reaffirming my decision. "The better question is whether or not I'm allowed to have you bond with me."

"Shorty is not bonded with Hoggy yet," He began, looking somewhat nervously around him. "So Shorty is supposing it is fine."

He looked up at me with his huge, baby-blue eyes filled with resolve and that was all the confirmation I needed.

"How do I go about bonding with you Shorty," I asked him politely.

"You is just needing to put your hand Shorty's head and Shorty is being able to be doing the rest." He replied.

I extended my right hand, resting my palm on his bald head— his skin smooth to touch as I felt the bone beneath.

'Why does his head feel so weird…?'

Almost immediately, I felt the trickling of magic as it travelled up my arm— growing weaker the further up it went before it faded away completely.

"It is done Mr Wizard," Shorty said, looking up at me with his startlingly intelligent blue eyes.

Looking at Shorty's eyes, I felt the connection between him and I however it posed a question. Although Shorty wasn't bonded to Hogwarts, he was still an Elf here. I wondered if him being bonded to me would make him unable to take sanctuary in the school. I pondered for a few moments more before deciding to voice my opinions out to the small Elf.

"Shorty," I said, gathering his attention. "Now that you've bonded with me, would it still be possible for you to stay at Hogwarts?"

"Yes," Came the Elf's reply. "Shorty is being able to stay in the castle."

"Oh, that's good," I replied, smiling at the Elf. "Now, any chance you could have me clean and dry my clothes?"

Shorty smiled and nodded his head, snapping his fingers. In an instant, my clothes dried and I felt as if I had come out of a shower.

'House Elves are fucking broken!'

Sometime during our conversation, the other Elves returned to their work and the general hubbub of the kitchen resumed.

"Hey Shorty, one last thing," I said. "Could I get something to eat?"

Shorty's oversized head perked up.

"Of course," He replied. "Shorty is getting Master Yan some pumpkin pie."

'Ooh, I've never had that before. In both lives…' I thought. 'Hold on, I haven't told him my name! How… it's probably the bonding process, isn't it.'

Shorty then proceeded to lead me to a low wooden table— presumably made out of oak before walking off to get me a slice of the pie. A few minutes later, he returned with two slices of pumpkin pie, a goblet of orange juice and the appropriate cutlery.

'He remembered that I love orange juice,' I thought, warmth blossoming in my chest. 'What a cute little thing he is…'

*****

The day passed without a hitch and it was finally time for the Hallowe'en feast. Us students were seated within the confines of the Great Hall when 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. There was a moment of deathly silence before the feast in question appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. There was a brief round of applause before Dumbledore stood up to speak, his cobalt blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles.

'The man has an impressive beard. Not one I would choose to have but impressive regardless…'

"Students of Hogwarts," He began. His voice filled the hall and enraptured the attention of all who dwelled within it. "We have gathered here yet again to celebrate All Hallows' Eve. I hope that your education has been enjoyable thus far and that you have gained much from it…"

Dumbledore continued on to talk about the joys of teaching and wished for a happy year of learning before commencing the feast. Turning to my plate, I heaped a slice of turkey and some roast potato onto the plate before drizzling some gravy on top. Smacking my lips together, I got ready to dig in before I was disturbed by the slam of the entrance to the hall opening. In came Professor Quirrell himself, huffing and puffing in a mad sprint towards the teacher's table. He gathered his breath for a moment before facing Dumbledore.

"Troll —in the Dungeons— thought you ought to know!" He cried, terror plastered across his face before slumping down on the floor, unconscious.

There was a moment of silence in the Great Hall so quiet that I thought it would be possible to hear a pin drop. There was a snort somewhere in the hall, breaking the silence and bringing on a bout of laughter across the hall.

"He got us good, this one did!" Cried a Gryffindor.

"Blimey," Muttered Justin who was sitting across from me. "I thought he was serious for a second."

'If only you knew buddy…'

The laughter went on for a minute longer before being brought to an end courtesy of Dumbledore who let off several fireworks from the end of his wand.

"Prefects," He ordered, his eyes alight with a seriousness that I had yet to see— taking me aback. "Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Our prefect, Gabriel Truman, got up from his seat and turned to us.

"Don't worry little firsties, we'll get you back to the common room!" He said, a nervous grin plastered across his face. I could tell that he was trying to be confident for our sake. Similarly, the female Prefect was gathering the older students.

"But hold on," I said, stopping the Hufflepuffs from going any further. "The Troll is near the Dungeons no? Then what about us?"

Gabriel's face paled as the blood quickly rushed from his face.

"But it gets even worse," I continued, completely oblivious to the growing fear of my companions. "What about the Slytherins? As much as I find some of them annoying, I don't think I'd want them ground to paste by a twelve-foot mountain troll and need I mention that my best friend is a Slytherin?"

Alarm flashed across Gabriel's face as he sprinted off to find Professor Dumbledore.

"Go follow the other prefect, Rosie you guys! She's the blonde girl standing next to Cedric and the others!" He shouted, as he ran off to the figures of the Professors in the distance.

Looking around myself, I saw the fear that was evident on my friends' faces.

'I might have fucked up there.'

"Come on guys," I said, prompting them to move. "It'll all be fine. After all, Hogwarts is the safest place in Wizarding Britain outside of maybe Gringotts."

'Safest place my arse!'

Assuaging their worries, my friends and I followed Rosie and the older students towards the common room. The further we strayed from the Great Hall, the more our pace sped up until we were walking briskly, almost running towards what we presumed to be our safety. Eventually, we reached the common room where we went through the passage as fast as possible.

We were huddled around the common room fireplace when the passage opened and we were able to make out the figure of our prefect Gabriel Truman.

"Don't worry guys, it's all okay now," He said to us, seemingly out of breath. "All the students are safe, including the Slytherins."

The tension in the room faded as soon as the words left his lips.

"That's a relief," Said the second Hufflepuff prefect, Rosie. A blonde girl with warm maroon eyes.

"I'd have to agree," Whispered Zacharias, who happened to be standing next to me at that moment. "It wouldn't bode well for a Mountain Troll to be roaming around the school…"

"You're not wrong," I replied with a wry smile, staring at the dancing flame in the fireplace.

"Alrighty everyone!" Said Gabriel in an upbeat voice. "Since our feast was so rudely interrupted, the Professors have asked that we eat our food in the common room since they don't want to risk us running into something else on our way back to the Great Hall. I'm sure many of you are hungry, I know I am!"

This elicited a laugh from everyone as Gabriel walked towards the fireplace.

"Yan," Called out Hannah without stammering. After much effort, I had finally succeeded in getting the girl to not be so skittish around me. "Do you mind if I use your DADA homework to help me write mine? I can't really understand Professor Quirrell well sometimes."

"I don't blame you to be honest," I said to the girl, alleviating her guilt somewhat or at least I hoped it did. "His stutter annoys me so much that I sometimes feel like making the library my new DADA Professor…"

"Ah…" The girl trailed off, unsure of how to reply to my mini rant.

"Ahem, sorry about that.." I said, somewhat abashed. "Just make sure to not make it obvious that you used mine."

She nodded in affirmation, sealing the deal.

"Alright I'll give it to you once we're finished eating."

*****

As Christmas neared and the weather became even colder, I found myself faced with a dilemma the likes of which would change the course of canon completely. For the last few weeks I had been debating whether or not I should steal the Philosopher's Stone. My reason being that Harry was vastly different to his canon counterpart. Who's to say that he would risk his neck to stop Quirrell and Voldemort, as insane he is, having the Stone would be bad for everybody. Stealing the Stone posed absolutely no problems for me. If it was real then I would only benefit and if it wasn't there would be nothing to lose. After all, I had Shorty now. He could quite literally get in and out without a hitch and then store the Stone somewhere safe, the location of which was to be decided.

For this to work, however, I needed Shorty to know every nook and cranny of the trials. I wasn't sure whether or not Elf magic would let him skip the trials altogether and apparate directly to the mirror, but I didn't want to run the risk. From what I had seen from the original works, Dobby was able to apparate into the Malfoy Manor, regardless of whatever wards that they had in place. This was well after he was set free by Lucius Malfoy and I assume his release meant that he would be keyed off the wards. Meaning that I'd need Shorty to experiment with apparition a few weeks prior to our heist.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of shoes against the stone floor. Turning around in curiosity, I found Harry running towards me. Upon reaching me, he paused to collect his breath.

"Yan," He said, his chest rising and falling. "I've been invited to a hut by a man named Hagrid during the Christmas Holidays. I'm pretty sure he's the Groundskeeper. Want to come?"

I paused for a moment, stroking my chin.

'Shouldn't that have happened earlier?'

"Nah I'm alright," I replied after a moment of hesitation. The reason being that the food he makes isn't fit for human consumption. I also didn't want to become a crutch for Harry since I had my own life to live. "But first I'd like to show you something."

"Oh, what is it?" He asked with a curious expression on his face.

"You'll have to wait and see." I said, turning on my heel and walking towards the staircase.

*****

"Yan," Asked Harry. "Why are you walking in front of a wall? You do realise there's nothing there, right?"

I ignored him in favour of focusing my thoughts.

'I'd like a place to study efficiently.' I repeated thrice in my head before a door formed in front of me.

Opening it, I held the door open for Harry, whose jaw was hanging open in shock.

"You might want to get in here before we're spotted." I said, prompting him to move.

As he crossed the threshold, I closed the door and turned around to see what the Room of Requirement had provided me with. In front of me was a cosy looking room. On one side of the room was a fireplace set next to a table. Across from the table was a multi-layered shelf of books. On the other side of the room was a familiar row of straw dummies.

'Exactly what I had in mind.' I thought appreciatively, walking up next to Harry.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement, Harry." I said whilst patting his shoulder, jarring him from his shock. "A room that surprisingly no-one knows about."

"W-Wait this is a secret room that nobody knows about? How?!" He exclaimed.

"I found it once on one of my explorations of the castle." I replied casually. "The room can bring anything from the castle to it as well as suit the needs of the occupant exactly."

"Why didn't you show me it sooner?" He asked accusingly.

I felt a stab of guilt at that before I opened my mouth to reply.

"Honestly?" I began. "I completely forgot to show you. Amongst the Prank War and learning new things, it slipped my mind."

His previous demeanour deflated.

"Oh, well that's cool I guess," He said. "Now, what are we going to do?"

"Now we're going to first duel and then go over this year and next year's curriculum. It's not really that hard."

His head perked up at the word 'duel', a grin spreading across his face.

"Alright!" He exclaimed, his face flushing in excitement. "I've wanted to duel you since I got my wand!"

I chuckled in reply, scratching the back of my head.

"Alright," I said, walking over to the practical section of the room. "Let's settle this once and for all."

For all my calmness and apparent chill, I was just as excited as Harry was. Going to the other end of the training field, I waited for Harry to arrive, reaching into my pocket and withdrew a Galleon once he did.

"Once this Galleon falls, we begin. Understood?"

Harry nodded, signalling the start of the duel. Tossing the Galleon into the air, I flicked my wrist, feeling the familiar texture of my wand in my hand.

"Verdimillious!" Cried Harry, slashing his wand forwards, causing green sparks to leap towards me.

Leaping out of harm's way, I readied my own wand.

"Incendio Tria!" I muttered, flicking my wand horizontally in his direction, summoning three jets of orange flames that rushed towards Harry.

His eyes widened in panic as he leapt backwards, rolling to his feet as the flames washed over the spot where he previously stood. There was a moment of ceasefire, the tension almost palpable in the air. Flicking my wrist in feint, Harry flinched, causing me to grin in response.

"Depulso!" I intoned, sending a jet of white light at Harry.

He threw himself to the floor, the Banishing Charm rushing over his head, fizzling out the further away it went. He jumped to his feet and readied his wand, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose after which he sent a Tickling Charm rushing towards me. I leapt to the side, successfully avoiding it however I was too slow and couldn't cast a spell back so I was forced to backpedal, the spell dispersing after colliding with the ground. I balanced myself and exhaled in relief, looking up at Harry and grinning.

"This is pretty fun, no?" I asked him, his eyes alight with excitement.

"It sure is." He replied, gripping the shaft of his wand tighter.

"But I think we both know that it's time to end this." I said, a hint of steel seeping into my voice towards the end of the sentence.

He nodded imperceptibly as the tension in the air rose. I felt the hairs on the nape of my neck prickle, sending a shiver down my spine as my heartbeat quickened— most likely the result of the adrenaline rush that I was certainly feeling. Licking my dry bottom lip, I gripped my wand tighter, trying to decide which spell to use. I sadly didn't have very long since Harry decided that now was the perfect time to cast a spell, he wasn't wrong either.

"Depulso!" He said, sending a jet of white light towards me.

I leapt to my left and sprung upwards, readying my wand as I rose.

"Expelliarmus!" I cried, a red bolt of magic leaping towards Harry, causing his wand to fly out of his hand and fall at my feet.

There was a moment of silence where only our laboured breathing was audible.

"What spell was that?!" Harry exclaimed, leaping to his feet.

"The Disarming Charm," I replied. "I thought you'd be into the second year curriculum by now."

He had the decency to look abashed.

"You really need to start reading ahead Harry," I said to him. "That's where all the cool stuff is."

"Yeah, I will. That spell was amazing!" He said, an excited grin across his face. "You sent a red spell at me and then my wand went spinning out of my hands; can you teach me it?"

"Why are you asking me?" I questioned him exasperatedly. "You realise that you're in a room that can provide you with everything and anything that you'll need to learn the Disarming Charm, right?"

He paused for a moment before his face lit up in understanding. He got up from where he was sitting and rushed to the shelf on the other side of the room. I chuckled, before getting up myself.

'That was quite fun, wasn't it. Should I become a duellist?'

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*A/N: There was the first actual fight scene, how did I do? Good I hope. Anyways, there's not much to say. I'm planning on banking up chapters so I can release them twice a week. Once on Monday and then once more on Sunday. But you guys know how procrastination works so we'll have to wait and see. Till then, I hope you guys stay safe and I'll see you guys later!

(P.S. Join the discord, it's fun there I promise! It's definitely not quiet and dead…)

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