Wretched little beggar

Troll in the Dungeons!

Immediately leaving the History of magic class, M regretted it. It would only bring more attention to her, and make the teacher ask questions. Furthermore, the subject had actually really interested her. If she could learn more about it, and learn where Godric Hollow was, maybe she could learn more about her parents.

Then she remembered her potions' professor's slip during her first week. He had accidentally called her « Pott » something. Could he have meant Potter? Maybe his subconscious thought that she looked like the dead couple.

As she went through the possible reason for her teacher's word, not once did she think about the fact that she was the same age as the Potter's dead daughter would have been.

An hour later, she made her way towards her next class, which was charms. She was rather excited, because they were going to make objects fly. They had done almost no actual practice, and M missed out on the rare occasions, and tried again later when she was alone.

But she hoped that she could learn to do magic without words. After all, if it had worked with her broom, why wouldn't it work with other types of magic?

The young girl got some weird glances as she entered the room, but she ignored them and took her usual place.

Professor Flitwick put the class in pairs to practise. The small wizard seemed to have understood his student's preferences, and left her alone. He reminded his students of the importance of the "swish and flick" and let them practise.

M looked at her classmates for an instant. They all seemed to be struggling, and no feather had taken the air yet. Then she took out her own wand, and tried it herself.

Just as she had done with her broom, she did the wand movement while mentally yelling the words. She put all her will and concentration in that spell, and her feather surprisingly started to levitate.

- "Oh well done! Who did that, please?" asked the small professor.

At first, M didn't answer. But when all her neighbours, who had understood who was the author of the spell, turned to look at her, she knew that anyway the teacher was bound to know, and she slowly raised her hand.

-"Marvellous! Would you please demonstrate to the class?"

The young witch hesitated, about to say no. But Flitwick was one of her favorite teachers, as he didn't force her to group with anybody if she didn't feel like it. So she took her wand, concentrated, and "swished and flicked" again. Her feather rose into the air once more.

Flitwick stayed stunned for a second, before clapping excitedly.

-"Amazing! Class, look at this! Five points to Gryffindor, for a perfectly well executed, wordless, levitating charm. Now, I don't expect you to do it wordlessly, that's almost a six year level. Truly wonderful, Ms. M, I haven't seen a first year do wordless magic on their first try. Now, back to work!"

Later that day, M made her way to the great hall for the Halloween feast. It was a holiday she'd never celebrated, and that seemed kind of pointless to her, but she had to admit the decorations in the castle were rather splendid. And another feast as great as the welcoming one would certainly not be unwelcome, although she was still surprised by the sheer quantity of food.

But her meal was rudely interrupted when the defense against the dark arts teacher, professor Quirrell, came in, announced that there was a troll in the dungeons, and fainted.

M didn't like that teacher. He was a stuttering idiot who seemed afraid of his very own subject. And the first time she had looked at him, or rather at his turban, which was strange, she had felt a pang in her forehead, at the spot of a lightning shaped scar. She didn't know how she had gotten that particular one, but it had always seemed irrelevant, as her whole body was covered in them.

As soon as they heard the information, the students in the hall caused an uproar. M had only a few seconds of quick thinking during the mess.

She realized she wanted to meet the troll. Her curiosity was as strong as ever, and she wanted to see all there was to see in the wizarding world.

So during those precious seconds of confusion, the young girl slipped out of the hall, unseen by anybody. But as she was wondering what a troll looked like, she accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up near the girls' bathroom.

And that's when she saw it. The stench was horrible, and she almost gagged. It was twelve feet tall, horribly ugly, and seemed to be holding an enormous wooden club.

M watched for a second, fascinated, as the troll entered a room. It was only when she heard a shriek that she realized it was the very room she'd been avoiding since charms class. The room where Hermione Granger was crying on a toilet seat.

M thought for only a second. This was the girl that, unnecessarily but kindly, had defended her. The only person that had tried to strike up a conversation with her, although she was ignored as always.

So she rushed in. The troll was advancing towards the cowering witch. It raised it's club... slowly... slowly... it was about to strike.

M reacted instinctively, and took out her wand. She didn't have the time to concentrate to do wordless magic. So, in an instant she knew she'd regret, she yelled the first spell that came to her mind. Her voice was slightly rusty from rarely using it.

-"Wingardium Leviosa! "

The club flew out of the troll's hand, rose high up in the air, before crashing back down, knocking the troll unconscious.

The young girl had a smug smirk on her face, looking at the beast... before remembering where she was, and the other girl in the room. The smile disappeared from her face, and she glared at the other witch, as to tell her not to say a word to anybody. Then she turned in her heels and slammed the door.

Hermione Granger still hadn't moved. Her brain was trying to comprehend the events that had just taken place. First of all, there was the troll, that had surged into the bathroom. She was ashamed to say that she had been completely petrified at the sight of it, not even thinking about taking out her. Then the strange girl from her class, M, who never slept in their dormitory nor handed in her homework, much to the professors' dismay, had come in the room too, probably to... save her from the troll. And anyways, she wondered, how did that troll even get in Hogwarts?

Afterwards had come the most bizarre and upsetting thing of her day, maybe even more than almost getting smashed by a troll. M, who Hermione already didn't expect to come to her aid, had taken out her wand and well... spoken.

The muggleborn witch didn't judge people too quickly, but after two month of not hearing the brunette's voice once, and the fact that she didn't answer the questions asked to her directly, Hermione had, like everybody else, assumed her classmate was mute.

The other girl obviously had a reason not to speak, and Hermione knew how to keep a secret. But still, she wondered why. Why M didn't speak when could, why she didn't hand in her homework or communicate by writing if she didn't want to speak. She wondered why she had snuck in the dormitory and taken Lavender's uniform when she thought that everyone was sleeping, and why she never slept in their dormitory. But Hermione didn't have an answer to any of her questions.

Meanwhile, M had gone all the way to the astronomy tower and decided to climb onto the roof. Up there, nobody bothered her, and she didn't bother anybody.

She was an idiot. She didn't have any other words to describe how completely angry and annoyed she was at herself. She had given herself one task, one simple task, which was not to speak to anybody or in front of anybody, and she had messed it up.

Once one person knew, it was likely that everybody would know at one point. At least, it was Hermione Granger, and not Ron Weasley or Lavender Brown.

She laid on her back back, with her hands below her head, thinking. She stared at the stars, and wondered what Jack would think of her if he saw her now. Maybe he'd be happy that she was safe and fed. Or angry that she had thrown away some of her liberty. But thanks to those men, she would never know.

A/N: Oh my god. I reached 1k yesterday and I'm so excited ! I honestly didn't think I would ever get so many reads. So thank you so much everyone who's still here! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Bye !