Magic of the All Hallows Eve

Trick or Troll!

Harry was feeling enchanted and calm. He tried feeling the line as was told, but it was way harder actively seeking it than innately feeling it. So that's what he did. He put powerful silencing charms all over his bed and shut down his eyes for about an hour or so. The main problem was actually trying not to sleep.

Then suddenly, in that entranced state, where he was devoid of all thought, a big rush of magic entered him and went by, really slowly. Slowly enough to enchant a long spell like Spiritus Maris or Protego Maxima or Ignis Infernum.

He stayed like that through lunch time, full from the picnic brunch earlier and after about an hour, it again started welling up inside him and leaving. He immediately cast the Tempus charm — yes! It was exactly an hour after the previous one! He noted it down in his journal.

This continued till four more pulses, when he was too tired to do anything further. He went to the library — which didn't have any books on the subject except the restricted section. Harry thought better than to splutter it out that Dumbledore asked him to study it. He'd already missed today's classes — not that he minded anyways, basic levitation charms and pin to hair-clip transfiguration. Too easy!

The Halloween feast was soon beginning. He didn't know whether to go down there or not. Frankly, nowadays most of the time he felt like what he was doing greatly resembled Sir Isaac Newton. Locked up for almost the entire day most days, studying or thinking alone about various different subjects and studying way further ahead than one normally does.

Anyways, he finally decided it'd be better if he saw what the feast was all about. And he wasn't disappointed of his decision.

Hundreds of live bats were fluttering down the enchanted ceiling, which looked surprisingly spooky. Jack-o-lanterns were lighting up instead of half of the candles. Thousands of more bats were circling continuously around those lit-up lanterns and candles, making them flutter.

The feast too was incredible. He nibbled it down delightfully and all was good.

But in the Potters' life, saying that is the biggest sin of all.

Professor Quirell, who wasn't present in the feast, suddenly ran up through half of the Great Hall and started speaking,

"Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know", before fainting.

Chaos reigned the Great Hall as if the troll was right beside everyone. Professor Dumbledore ordered everyone to go back to their dorms, but Harry found something odd. Throughout the feast, he hadn't seen the flock of bushy hair anywhere. And as Harry had observed all the first years, she never had missed a single meal down in the Hall.

He asked Lavender and Parvati while walking towards the Fat Lady, "Have you seem Granger anywhere?"

They suddenly panicked and almost shouted, "Ron had teased him and she was upset! Last I heard — Oh no! — she's down in the ground floor girls' bathroom crying!"

And the bathroom was much closer to the dungeons. Heck!

He ran through the shortest path plausible without breaking through the stone walls. He didn't know why exactly, but he really wanted to save that person from being squashed to death. The rational side of him shouted, 'Why are you doing it?! Why aren't you telling the teachers instead?!'

'Because I might be too late', the quick response part of his mind retorted and he agreed.

He reached the bathroom just in time. The Granger girl was cornered beneath a sink. Not knowing what to do, he threw a piece of tile from the floor to the trolls back hard. It didn't cut him, but it certainly made him angry. And an angry troll was now in pursuit of the human who dare interrupt him.

Harry thought of sending a Banishing hex but then again, 'Quick response unit' of his mind added, 'Troll skin is resistant to most charms, jinxes and hexes — a simple fact in Newt Scamander's book'.

And so he did what he shouldn't ever do in such a situation. He jumped to the back of it and stuck the wand in his nose. It didn't affect him as much if you leave the fact that it really, really pissed him off.

In a second, Harry found himself on the cold stone floor and saw what might've been the last of Hermione Jean Granger. His wand broken, his mind went auto-pilot and he whispered, "Fiendfyre"

The enchanted dark fire made a boundary between the troll and Hermione. A mighty chimera emerged from it and the lion's head crunched the troll's neck hard while the goat stuck its fire horns into its sides. Within ten seconds of a troll's unimaginable wailing, the troll was never to be seen again — not even its ashes.

"Is it just me — or are you really a knight in shining armour?", she asked, completely dazed. She quickly stabilised herself and when she did, she blushed deeper than the gryffindor colours.

'People tend to think odd things in traumatic circumstances', his rational side quipped.

Moments later, the professors arrived. The amount of panic they had might not have a word in any language. Especially Great Aunt Min.

"Harry! Within your first two months you've almost given me heart attacks thrice", she gasped.

"Mr. Potter", Snape added hesitantly. The addition of 'Mr.' was after the snake was burnt to ashes. "Where exactly is the troll?", he scowled.

"I-I-I", he couldn't speak. The ramifications of his actions were sinking in. 'I've murdered a living being! And that too a magical half-sentient one! I'm a bloody killer!'

And he broke down. He fell on the stone floor, almost, for Snape tugged on his shoulders to keep him standing.

"Mr. Potter", he said in a tone so soft that Harry imagined Snape's vocal cords undergoing a transfiguration. "Stay awake. No one will ever think bad of you"

"I burnt it", he said to several gasps. "N-not b-burnt t-to ash-shes b-bu-ut t-to n-noth-nothing!", and he broke again.

"Mr. Potter, it's fine! It is, really. You saved the brightest witch of our age from a troll without a neuron in his head", and he saw Snape (Professor Snape from now, he added) do something no one could ever imagine, he smiled and chuckled.

After a few consolations and a trade of points leading to a profit of 50, they went back slowly to the common room. Harry dosed himself his 7th pepper-up, which he drank like goblin ale. 

"Stop Harry! You'd receive horrible headaches, foggy thinking and inability to grasp anything from an overdose of pepper-up without supplements", she blurted out from the textbook flawlessly. He couldn't help but smile. The effects were indeed showing, for he like to think that way after this was done,and he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. She let out a small gasp and Harry drunkenly said, "Duon't iever shange 'Mione", before he walked up to his dorm and slept despite the potion. 

'Overdose of more than 5% of body weight can lead to drowsiness, reduced nervous functionality, severe headaches, steaming like dragons for two days or more, and in more severe cases acute memory loss', his fact-check part of mind stated and that's what exactly happened when he woke up.