Hogwarts: The Adventure Begins - BOOK 1 (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

6: The Troll

After another long day of lessons, it was time for the Hallowe'en Feast.

When we got in the food was already there. It was shaped as lots of different creepy characters and instead of Pumpkin Juice it was 'blood'! I had never seen so much food in my life, and the house elves had certainly gone all out with the presentation. It was like a rainbow laid out on the table and many of the dishes had been enchanted to give you a Hallowe'en surprise. For example, Nico took a spoon of mashed potatoes only to have a hand pop out and grab him before slinking back into the mash. Nico had screamed so loud that several people turned to look at him in concern, only to see me doubled over with laughter and Nico red in the face.

For dessert, there were gummy werewolves and that had immediately reminded of Remus. He had explained to me about his condition not long after my ninth birthday, expecting me to be horrified. Instead, I was glad he trusted me and swore to keep it a secret. I had no idea how I didn't notice before I was nine, but didn't question it. I must not have been very observant.

Just as everyone was about to start, Professor Quirrell came running in looking frantic.

'TROLL!' he yelled, 'TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!'

Everybody started screaming and running to the door but Dumbledore stopped them. I stared wide-eyed at Nico but he grinned back. I knew what he was thinking. And I knew it was going to get us both in serious trouble if we were caught, but that wasn't about to stop us.

'Prefects, take your house back to the common rooms. You will continue the feast there!' He said, 'Teachers, come with me!'

Me and Nico shared a glance. We were going to find out how this troll got in. It couldn't have been an accident, trolls weren't smart enough to find their way into such a well-guarded castle alone. Somebody had to have let it in, and we were determined to find out who the culprit was.

We went out the hall then snuck along with the Hufflepuffs. We saw Harry and Ron doing the same but we ignored them, they would slow us down. We would do this ourselves and we certainly wouldn't get caught because of Harry or Ron.

We peeled away from the Hufflepuffs quietly, making sure nobody noticed us. Luckily the prefects were too concerned about their well-being to see us and the teachers were elsewhere, so we managed to slip away unseen. We were about to head for the dungeons when we saw the troll heading right for us, it's large club being dragged along behind it.

Nico was about to step right in front of it but I quickly pulled him back, lunging into a small gap between a suit of armour and the wall. I didn't need the responsibility of getting him crushed by a troll on my conscience. It was huge and extremely ugly, but I didn't examine it too closely for fear of it turning round and seeing us.

I held Nico firmly and covered his mouth with my hand until I thought it was safe again. The troll was heading towards the girl's bathrooms, so it wasn't likely to run into us again. We peeled ourselves away from the wall, palms sweaty from fear, and breathed a sigh of relief.

'Look! It's Snape!' Nico said after the troll had passed. He pointed towards a dark figure exiting from where the troll had appeared from. That certainly raised my suspicions, and I wanted to know what he was doing that needed the troll released. But why did Quirrel say it was in the dungeons when this was clearly the third floor?

'Let's follow him,' I whispered and we went after him, walking lightly.

He was heading towards a door that was securely locked. It looked daunting, and I certainly would not have tried to open it. I turned to Nico with wide eyes.

'Do you remember, Dumbledore told us not to go to the third-floor corridor as it was forbidden and we would die a painful death,' I whispered and he nodded, 'We're on the third floor, Nico.'

'They must have hidden something here!' he replied, 'And Snape is trying to get it!'

'Alohamora!' Snape whispered, unlocking the door, and then snuck in the room. He didn't get a chance to close the door and we saw a big, black, snarling, three-headed dog.

All six of its eyes were on Snape and one of them bent down and bit him on the leg. It tossed him up and let go of him, but quickly advanced, ready to attack again. He yelled in pain and crawled out of the room. He slammed the door shut and me and Nico ran back to the common room. We climbed a few staircases and looked down to see McGonagall, Dumbledore and Quirrell walking right past where we had stood a moment ago.

We ran to the Fat Lady's portrait and pretty much yelled 'Caput Draconis' at her and the portrait swung open. We climbed inside and instead of going to finish our meal we went straight to bed, not believing there was a three-headed dog in Hogwarts. I was in shock, what was Snape doing trying to get past that thing? It was a suicide mission!