An American at Hogwarts

The Worst of Days

A couple days after my birthday, Halloween rolled around. I was never really much of a costume guy, so I was rather glad that I wouldn't be expected to have one this year, and I was very much looking forward to the feast. First, however, we had classes. No days off for holidays at Hogwarts, I suppose. Not that I minded, since today we were going to finally use the levitation charm in Flitwick's class.

"Alright class, remember, the incantation is wingardium leviosa! Be sure to be clear with your pronunciation! Remember the tragic tale of Baruffio!"

He smirked at me as we set everything up. He had had me practicing it recently in our one on one lessons, and I had more or less figured it out, so I spent most of my time helping Marie through it. Ron was rather horrified to find out he would he paired up with Hermione, who was equally upset at this decision. Twenty or so minutes into the lesson, nobody had quite been able to make their feather float. A couple students managed a bit of a jiggle, but nothing more. Hermione seemed to be rather upset at Ron's inability to get it right.

"Its wingardium levio-suh, not levio-sar!"

"If you're so bloody brilliant why don't you do it yourself?"

Hermione huffed and drew her wand

Wingardium leviosa!

The feather floated a foot or so off the desk, much to Professor Flitwick and Hermione's delight, and much to Ron's dismay.

"Look, look everyone! Miss Granger has done it! Ten points to Gryffindor, splendid job!"

As we left the class I was walking with Marie and Hermione when we heard Ron talking to Harry a couple feet away.

"She's insufferable I tell you! 'It's levio-sah, not levio-sar!'" Said Ron with an annoyed, mocking tone. "It's no wonder she had no friends."

I turned to Hermione, trying to tell her Ron was just being an idiotic jerk, but she ran off, tears in her eyes. I slapped Ron across the back of the head.

"You damn idiot, look what you've done to her! That was too far Ron, you have to apologize next time we see her."

Ron sighed but agreed. Even he realized it was a bit mean of him. We didn't see Hermione the rest of the day. We got word from some of the girls that she was crying in the bathroom, so I asked Marie to go check on her, which she happily agreed to, seemingly just as concerned as I was. Still, though, as the feast rolled around, they had not returned. I sat with Harry and Ron, still a bit mad at Ron but willing to forgive him if he apologized. I was telling them about my progress with the banishing charm when suddenly Professor Quirrell burst into the Hall, stumbling down the main aisle before taking a quick breath.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you might want to know..."

With that, he collapsed to the floor, as the Great Hall broke out into screams and panic. Dumbledore quickly organized the prefects and ordered them to take us back to our common rooms as the staff dealt with the troll. We were about halfway back when I had a sudden realization. I grabbed Harry and Ron and pulled them into a side corridor.

"Hermione and Marie. They're probably still in the bathroom. They don't know about the troll. We've got to go warn them."

Ron's eyes went wide. "Bloody hell. Alright, but we'd better not get in trouble."

We rushed off to the bathroom we had heard that Hermione was in, and were almost there when Harry yanked me and Ron behind a pillar on the side of the hallway.

"Footsteps."

We peeked out and saw perhaps the last thing we were expecting. Snape was off on his own, heading away from the room where the three headed dog was kept.

Harry's eyes went wide. "What the hell is he up to?"

I shook my head. "No idea, but we don't have time to investigate right now, we've got to find the girls."

We went off again, finally making it to the bathroom when we were suddenly hit by an incredible stench. My jaw dropped, but quickly closed as I nearly vomited. "You have got to be kidding me."

We burst into the bathroom to find the troll already in there. Marie and Hermione were on the other side of the room, pinned against the wall, frozen in fear.

Harry jumped into action. "Distract it!"

He ran over to a smashed faucet and heaved it at the hulking, twelve foot beast. "Oi! Stinky! Leave them alone!"

The troll spun around, letting out a brief confused grunt before narrowing it's eyes at Harry.

Ron tossed another smashed piece of a faucet. "Over here you ugly bastard!"

The troll spun again, seemingly even more confused now. For as intimidating as it was, it didn't seem particularly smart. I raised my wand at it, aiming for the eyes, since that was really the only area on a troll that wasn't resistant to spells. Before I could do anything, though, Harry leapt onto it's back and clambered up to its head, wrapping his arms around its neck and trying to strangle it. I rushed over to Hermione and Marie and shoved them a bit further away from the troll  and hopefully out of danger as it screamed out in pain. Somehow, Harry had managed to jab his wand straight up the troll's nose. The troll dropped its rather comedically large club in shock, finally managing to toss Harry off of it in the process, and Hermione finally woke from her daze.

"Ron! Use the levitation charm!"

Ron whipped his wand out and aimed it at the club.

Wingardium leviosa!

Thankfully, this time he got it right, and before I knew it, the club slammed down onto the troll's head, sending it crumbling to the ground.

I bent over, breathing heavily, as Harry retrieved his wand from the troll's nose.

"Ugh, troll bogies." He said, wiping it off on his robes.

I turned to Hermione and Marie and began leading them to the door. "You two ok?"

Marie gave me an appreciative smile and nodded. "Yeah, thanks to you three. Thanks for coming to help, Y/N. What are you guys doing here anyways?"

I finally stood upright. "Well we heard from Quirrell about the troll back in the Great Hall and I realized you two were probably still in here. I couldn't exactly leave you to fend for yourselves now, could I?"

Marie blushed and opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted as the door to the bathroom flew open. I didn't react to the door, however, as I heard the troll move slightly behind me. I spun around, leveling my wand at it's face and casting the first spell that came to mind.

Confringo!

A small bolt of fire shot from my wand and blew up directly in the right eye of the troll, knocking it back into unconsciousness.

I heard a familiar voice from behind me. Professor McGonagall.

"Whatever do the five of you think you're doing?"

I spun around, my eyes wide, trying to think of a reasonable excuse for running off during the evacuation. Before I could speak, though, Hermione stepped forward.

"It's my fault professor. I thought I could deal with it since I had read so much about trolls. If they hadn't come to rescue me, I'd be dead right now."

McGonagall seemed in shock for a moment, but quickly regained her composure. All the other professors were there as well. "Very well. Off to your common room now. Five points from Miss Granger for sheer recklessness. And five each to the rest of you for your bravery and dumb luck."

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment before turning to me. "An extra five to Mr. L/N for a weak but successful use of the blasting curse. You ought to be very proud of that at your age."

I blushed slightly, quickly following my friends out of the bathroom and up to the Gryffindor common room. We were all still rather terrified, but something good came out of it: from that day forward, Hermione was once again friends with Ron and Harry. Turns out, fighting a twelve foot tall troll that reeked of sewage was something you couldn't quite get through without being drawn closer together.