The Eighth Weasley

Chapter 9 - Halloween

"One of a wizard's most rudimentary skills is levitation, or the ability to make objects fly," said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky voice.
As usual, he stood on a large book that was placed on a stool. A lot of the students undermined Professor Flitwick because of his short stature, but Y/N knew that whatever he lacked in height, he made up for in wisdom and excellency in Charms. 
"Uh, do you all have your feathers?" he asked.
Y/N nodded, like most of the students - Hermione waved her feather in the air.
"Good," said Professor Flitwick, "Now, uh, don't forget the nice wrist movement we've been practicing, hmm? The swish and flick. Everyone."
Everyone lifted their wands and recited, "Swish and flick," while simultaneously doing the wand movement.
"Good," said Professor Flitwick again, "Oh, and enunciate: Wingardium Leviosa. Off you go, then."

The classroom was filled with the sound of 'Wingardium Leviosa's, but nobody was able to make their feathers fly. Y/N tried a few times, but to no avail. Edmund was not having much luck either. 
"No, stop, stop, stop," an annoyingly familiar voice spoke  from across the class, "You're going to take someone's eye out."
Ron looked fed up with Hermione.
"Does she not know how irritating she is?" Y/N said to Edmund.
The two of them watched as Hermione chanted the incantation and swished and flicked her wand. And - not to their surprise - her feather began to fly higher and higher.
"Oh, well done!" shouted Professor Flitwick, "See here, everyone. Miss Granger's done it! Oh, splendid!"
Ron was absolutely cross, and turned away from Hermione.
"Wingard Leviosa!" chanted Seamus, "Wingard-"
Seamus' feather turned to ashes, as he created yet another detonation with his wand. The boy really had a knack for blowing stuff up. Last week, he had set fire to Y/N's hat, and Y/N had to ask Hermione to mend it, because nobody else had learned repairing spells.
"I think we're going to need another feather over here, Professor," said Harry.

**********

"It's Levi-o-sa, not Levio-sar," said Ron, mocking Hermione.
Harry, Y/N, Seamus and Dean laughed.
"She's a nightmare, honestly," said Y/N, "No wonder she hasn't got any friends."
Suddenly, someone pushed past Ron.
Y/N was about to say, "Watch where you're going!" until she realised that it was Hermione - and her face was wet with tears.
"I think she heard you," said Harry.

**********

"Aren't you full yet?" Harry asked, watching Y/N gobble down her food.
"Not nearly," said Y/N, as she sipped her pumpkin juice.
Harry laughed, and leaned forward to grab a handful of candy corn.
"Oh!" said Y/N suddenly, making Harry drop the few sweets in his hand.
"What?" said Ron.
Y/N looked straight at Ron and said, "Yesterday was Mum's birthday!"
Ron's eyes widened. They had forgotten to write her a birthday card or even a letter.
"Where's Hermione?" said Harry suddenly, and the twins turned to him.
"Parvati Patil said that she wouldn't come out of the girls' bathroom," said Neville, "She said that she'd been in there all afternoon, crying."
Harry and the twins shared a look. What they'd said earlier had obviously upset her.

"Troll!" shouted a loud voice suddenly, as the door to the hall burst open.
Everyone turned around, and Y/N was shocked to find that such a booming voice could belong to Professor Quirrell.
"In the dungeon!" he continued, running towards the professors' table, "Troll in the dungeon!"
The professors stood up.
"Thought you ought to know," muttered Professor Quirrell, before passing out.
Everyone was screaming in mere seconds, with panicky looks on their faces. Y/N didn't know what exactly to do, and, by chance, happened to look at the Slytherin table. And she was glad she did, because she got to see Malfoy screeching his lungs out, with a terrified look on his face. Some students had started for the door, running over poor Professor Quirrell in the process.

"Silence!" thundered Professor Dumbledore's voice throughout the hall.
"Everyone will please not panic," said Professor Dumbledore, once all eyes were on him, "Now, prefects will lead their house back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons."
The prefects began forming lines and guiding their houses out of the hall.
"What do you think this is all about?" whispered Ron, as Gryffindor separated from the other houses.
"No idea," said Harry, "But I think Snape is behind it."
"Snape?" asked Y/N, "What's he got to do with this?"
"I'm not sure yet," answered Harry, "but as soon as we started leaving the hall, he left through the teachers' door, and I don't like the look he had on his face."
Y/N was about to speak, when Percy said, "Gryffindors, keep up, please, and stay alert."

"How would Snape manage to get a troll in, anyway?" said Ron, but Harry suddenly gripped him and Y/N by the sleeves.
"What is it?" asked Y/N.
"Hermione!" said Harry, "She doesn't know."
Y/N widened her eyes. Presently, she wasn't thinking of the severe hatred she had towards the girl, but only that Hermione was probably still in the girls bathroom, completely clueless about the troll.
Harry, Ron and Y/N parted from the queue of Gryffindors, and ran back to where the girls' bathroom was. As they bolted down a corridor, they came to a sudden halt, when the giant shadow of a troll was visible on the wall at the other end of the passage.

"I think the troll has left the dungeon," said Ron.
The three of them hid behind a pillar, as the troll - this time not only a shadow - came into view, dragging its heavy club behind it.
"And what a stroke of luck! It's going into the girls' bathroom," said Y/N sarcastically.
Harry, Ron and Y/N ran down the corridor as quickly as they could. They burst through the bathroom door, just in time to hear the shrill scream of Hermione, who was crouching down where the toilet cubicles used to be.
"Hermione, move!" said Harry, being the quickest to react.

Hermione crawled through the debris of the shattered wood, as the troll swung its club, crumbling the remnants of the already ruined cubicles.
"Help!" yelled Hermione, and Harry, Ron and Y/N began to throw pieces of wood at the troll.
The bits of wood simply bounced off the troll, who was preoccupied with trying to find Hermione in all the wreckage, until Ron shouted, "Hey! Pea brain!"
The troll turned towards Ron, and Hermione took that as her chance to make an escape. She inched her way to the sinks, but unfortunately caught the troll's attention once again. It brought its club down, breaking the sink above where Hermione was sitting. She dodged just in time.
"Help!" she called once again.
Suddenly, Y/N had an idea.

"You stay here and help Hermione," she said to Harry and Ron, "I'll go get help."
And before anyone could say anything else, Y/N ran out of the bathroom. Of course she knew that Harry and Ron wouldn't be able to hold off the troll for long - they wouldn't be able to hold it off even if Y/N was helping them. But if she could get a professor or an adult, the fight would be much more fair. She ran down the corridor, and then took two more turns, but she didn't have to go much further, for the professors - all of them - were standing right in front of her. They must have heard all the ruckus from the bathroom.
"Professors," panted Y/N, "you'd better come quick."
And with that, she started back in the other direction. The professors couldn't keep up with her, but she still ran as fast as she could. When she reached the bathroom, she saw the troll holding Harry upside down with a wand up its nose. It soon dropped Harry, and was standing unsteadily, before slowly beginning to fall face-first. Harry was able to move out of its way just in time.

Dust rose up in the air, and Y/N began to cough, as Hermione got up from under the sinks.
"Is it...dead?" asked Hermione.
"I don't think so," said Harry, "Just knocked out."
He bent down to pull his wand out of the troll's nose, and when he did, it was covered in slime.
"Ugh," groaned Ron, "Troll bogies."
As if on cue, all the professors stumbled into the bathroom, panting heavily.
"Oh! Oh my goodness. Explain yourselves, all three of you!" said Professor McGonagall, waving her finger in the air.
Harry, Ron and Y/N all started to speak at the same time, but Hermione said, "It's my fault, Professor McGonagall."

Everyone turned to Hermione. The professors hadn't even noticed her until she spoke up. Harry, Ron and Y/N looked at each other in shock.
"Miss Granger?" was all that Professor McGonagall could say.
"I went looking for the troll," said Hermione, "I'd read about them and thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. If Harry, Ron and Y/N hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."
"Be that as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do," said Professor McGonagall, "I would have expected more rational behaviour on your part, and I am very disappointed in you, Miss Granger. 10 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement."
She then turned to Harry, Ron and Y/N, "As for you three, I just hope you realise how fortunate you are. Not many first-year students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points will be awarded to each of you, for sheer dumb luck."

And with that, the professors left the room - all except Professor Quirrell, who said, "Perhaps you ought to go. M-Might wake up."
Harry, Ron, Y/N and Hermione headed out of the bathroom quietly, and walked towards Gryffindor common room.
"Good of you to get us out of trouble like that," said Harry to Hermione.
"Mind you, we did save her life," said Ron.
"Mind you, she might not have needed saving, if you two hadn't insulted her," Harry said to Ron and Y/N.
"What are friends for?" said Y/N, smiling at Hermione for the first time ever.