Harry Potter and the Girl Who Never Died

Chapter Seventeen: Troll In The Dungeons

The month went quickly, as they prepared for Charms, on Halloween's day.

"Hello class! Today you will learn a simple spell. It is a levitation spell! Everyone! Get out your wands!"
The old man squeaked. His voice as high as a mouse's.

The children did as they were told,and murmured their excitement when a feather appeared in front of them.

"Now copy me! Swish and flick! Don't forget the hand movements! And say, all together, Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Swish and flick, Wingardium Leviosa" the class repeated. Then, to Flitwick's and everyone's surprise, one single feather floated off the table. It slowly reached the ceiling, and then drifted down once more.
It landed in front of, the one and only...

"Ten points to Slytherin! Well done Miss Riddle! Have you practiced this spell before?"

"Well, I revised for all the spells we would be learning this year sir..."

"All of them!? My my! We might as well have a genius among us!" The clubbable professor piped.

"The rest of you, don't forget to keep practicing!" He floated himself up, and hovered around the room, telling the students to 'make the flick more dynamic', or to 'pronounce the words clearly'.

Camellia helped with her friends, who all got it in a few tries, and talked about how the rest of the year may be like. Though they heard a snotty voice, teaching another, a boy who had an Irish accent, and seemed to be good at exploding things.

"No no no! You're going to take someone's eye out, besides, you're saying it wrong," they heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing- gar -dium Levi- o -sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Seamus snarled.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather floated high up, before floating back down again.

Seamus sulked for the rest of the lesson, not talking to the poor girl who had only wanted to be the best at what she liked. Seamus talked with Harry on the way back, excluding Hermione, who was walking a few steps behind.

"No wonder no one can stand her! She's a nightmare! Honestly!" Hermione pushed passed them, tears streaming down her face.

"I think she heard you." Harry replied lamely.

"Don't you consider a person's feelings? Finnegan?" Camellia asked, stopping the two boys walking in front of her, having witnessed the scene fully.

"What does a Slytherin want with us, miss perfect?" Seamus asked.

"Aww, you think I'm perfect!? How cute!" She teased sarcastically, laughing as the boy became bright red.

"Shove off will you? Besides, who cares about her!? She's just a girl who's trying to be a goody two shoes and suck up to teachers like a leech!"

"That's enough! How would you feel like? In an environment which you don't know a single thing about, excited but anticipating the worst. She studied hard so that she could understand this world, trying desperately not to get left behind, and here you are, not even working hard, bad mouthing a girl, who told you how to do one of the easiest spells! I'd rather a leech than scum like you!" Camellia finished. Seamus, looked down, thinking back on his words, not before Harry decided to butt in.

"So? What if Seamus went too far? Who cares? She's in our house, Gryffindor, and you're in Slytherin! Why would you care about that girl anyway!?" His lips curled up into a nasty smirk as he taunted. "Is little Camellia Riddle a Lesbian? No wonder you're fine in a dorm with three guys!" With each comment, her face grew brighter and brighter.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ON ABOUT??? She's your housemate! Don't you care for her?? Why can't I, a fellow student care for her, which in the Muggle world is considered normal! If the magical world and Muggle world has got something different there, then I, Camellia Riddle sincerely apologise, but I don't think so! Why? because she's a girl, similar to me, and two boys, who are stupid enough to gang up on her and send her running in tears, is not what I find normal! And me, a lesbian? Boy have you got your priorities wrong! I don't care if you call me a lesbian! Lesbians a cool, if being a lesbian is all that it takes to make you into a better human; I'd be a lesbian! but it'll take a whole lot more discipline than that to straighten your bent personality! So don't you dare try and make your pathetic excuse sound valid, by attacking another student with another small minded excuse! Because that just further proves how stupid and ignorant you are!"

Camellia walked off, still fuming, to her dorm room, to cool off before supper.

Though what she hadn't heard was a whisper from a cat sitting nearby.

"Twenty points to Slytherin for defending a fellow friend."

"Where were you Camellia? You suddenly said that you'll stay behind after Charms, and I heard that you got into a fight with Potter and Finnegan." Draco asked worriedly.

"Word carries around quickly doesn't it? I'm fine Drake. Just a little angry that's all... I know he's my brother, and he's being controlled by the Imperius Curse and all, but why did he have to be such a dick!" She rambled, and her last sentence surprised the rest. Camellia was usually the calm and collected one. Draco and Ron were the rash ones and Neville often was quiet, unless he sought reason in Draco's and Ron's words.

"Did he insult Hermione?" Draco asked softly, gently patting Mellia's back as she hid behind her hair.

"Yeah... It's just that she reminds me so much of my past self... When I was at the Muggle school, I always wanted to be at the top of the class. I felt indebted to aunty and uncle Dursley, but they kept calling me a freak! I thought they would stop if I was better at something than them... But they never stopped... They made that a new reason to bully me. Not wanting a freak to be better at something than themselves. Hermione's just like me, but now our positions are reversed. I'm sure she was loved at her old school. She thought she could do brilliantly in this one, but now everyone thinks 'she' is the freak..."

Camellia told them what had happened, and they each hugged her, comforting her as she cried softly. After ten minutes, they rushed to the hall, where a Halloween banquet was going to be held. They sat down at the Slytherin table, and the first thing Camellia noticed was that Hermione was not there, and all the Gryffindor girls were whispering about a crying girl.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Camellia was just taking a bite into some pumpkin pie when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. Camellia looked at him suspiciously.

How had he known that there was a troll? Besides, if his fables during lessons were true, why didn't he defeat the troll himself?

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately"

If the troll was in the dungeons, why were Slytherins forced to go to their dormitories? They're in the dungeons!!

Camellia, Draco, Neville and Ron swiftly moved from the line, and walked in the direction of the girl's toilet.