Chapter 26. Troll

Storming into the girls bathroom, I witnessed a massive mountain troll, torn up dead tree, made into a club, in hand, staring down at Hermione and the strange Hufflepuff girl I met once before. He licked his lips, showcasing his hunger for human flesh. What is that!?” Val yelled while sticking his head from my collar. “Mountain Troll. I don’t know why one is here.” I muttered before focusing on how to stop this creature from eating either of those girls.

I glanced at my dish of assorted sweets and frowned. ‘These were supposed to be for Abarrane, but…’ “HEY!!!” I screamed, getting the Troll’s attention, and both girls’ as well. I took out my wand, and focused on the plate of sweets I had. “Wingardium Leviosa.” I muttered, still needing to chant my spells to get their full effectiveness. It was then that slices of cake and pie floated in the air, and waved themselves in front of the troll.

Trolls, while strong and resilient, able to ignore half hearted spells, or get back up from my knockback charm with ease, but they were also incredibly stupid. Not even smart enough to have a real language, mostly using grunts and gestures to communicate. ‘So if a piece of food that smelled really good was in front of its face…’ The troll started grabbing at the foods I waved in front of him. However I pulled them away from him to avoid his grasp, making him have to walk closer to where I desired. Once he took a step or two away from both girls, still on the floor due to shock of the circumstances, I let him eat one to keep him satisfied for the moment.

“Get a teacher.” I spoke gently while glancing at both of them, trying not to make loud enough noise to get the troll to notice me again. Hopefully in his mind, he already forgot about us, and only cared for the food surrounding him. Just as both girls got up, the doors behind me slammed open. “Hermione!” Both Weasley and Potter yelled simultaneously while bursting into the room. The troll looked over to see all of us, his face contorted to a smile at the sight of all this ‘food’. “Bloody hell are you doing Peterson!?” Weasley yelled at me, slapping my arm away, breaking my concentration for my spell.

“No!” I yelled, trying to save some of the sweets, to keep motioning in front of the troll to keep him occupied, but only managed to catch one before it hit the floor. “Ron! No! He’s keeping the troll busy!” Hermione yelled while running over to both of her friends, bringing the Hufflepuff girl alongside her. “Too late now, he’s moved on past the appetizer.” I grumbled, seeing the troll’s eyes not bothering with the cake in front of his face, only caring about a true meal.

Just as the troll began to run towards us, I stopped my levitation spell, and began chanting one that I had learned with Quirrell. “Avis!” I yelled, a flock of ravens appearing from my wand, all cawing as they flew towards the troll. “Run!” I yelled back at everyone while the troll was busy swinging his arm, and club through the air in a crude attempt of clearing the birds, pecking at his face and ears. We all took off, and sprinted through the halls.

Just as we rounded another corner, we found the headmaster, accompanied by all the rest of the faculty. McGonagall was the first to chastise us for ‘running around’. “What are you all doing here? You are supposed to be in your houses.” Everyone stammered over each other, trying to explain the situation to her, but my eye roll moved my gaze over to Dumbledore. He was already looking at me, waiting for my explanation. “I’m keeping a troll occupied in the girls’ bathroom. However-” Just as I was about to warn that the raven’s might be destroyed, a loud scream shook the halls.

Everyone looked back to see the troll angrily charging at us again. It was then that I noticed Dumbledore gently wave his hand, and the moment he did, the troll collapsed into a heap on the floor. His breathing became stable, as he rested on the floor. Indicating he was in a deep sleep. “Well… Would anyone like to explain this now?” McGonagall asked, pointing at all of us. I wanted to defend myself, but didn’t want to take the blame myself in the act of speaking up.

Everyone was of the same mind, as we all stood mute before the teachers. “Well…” She sighed. “I suppose I’ll just have to deduct house points. 5 points, for each of you. Now off you go.” She waved us away while the rest of the faculty gathered around the troll. We all nodded and dispersed to our houses. It wasn’t long until the group of three separated to their house, leaving only the Hufflepuff girl and I to walk through the empty halls. We walked in silence for a while, until the girl mumbled something that I almost didn’t hear. “Thank you…”

I sighed, thinking that I wouldn’t have sweets for Abarrane because of this incident, but let it go due to the girl’s gratefulness. “Don’t mention it.” We were engulfed in silence again, the only noise was the clapping of our feet against the hard stone beneath us, and the taps of rain, against the windows. “How… How d-do you do it…?” She asked nervously, but I was left confused over her vague question. “Do what?” The girl was silent, pondering how to phrase her question.

“B-Be… Popular?” I rolled my eyes at her question, and shook my head. “By not being a shivering leaf?” I said back, using my poisonous words to avoid my true feelings of wishing I were unknown. However, she asked something that made me even more baffled at this strange girl I had an unusual connection to. “Y-You’re really comfortable… In your own skin…?” I looked over at her, to see her eyes already staring at me, her unblinking, silver eyes shined in through the darkness.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Peterson asked back, his expression flabbergasted Chiara. His eyes didn't have a trace of what she always carried. What her parents always carried, even if they tried to keep it hidden. The portion of herself that made it impossible to become truly close with anyone since childhood. There was no inkling of worry, fear, horror, or even disgust within himself. It didn’t make any sense, especially if he was a Slytherin. They were the most blood purists of them all. ‘Unless… He didn’t know..?’

I stared at the strange girl, backing away from me, her eyes filled with disbelief. “I- Um… I- Good bye!” She stammered before rushing off ahead of me, and taking a turn to her house. I just stared at the corner where I last saw her, wondering what could possibly be going through her head to be so strange. I eventually shook my thoughts away, and made it to my house not long after. “Pureblood.”

After giving the password, I walked inside the common area to see Pansy rushing over to me. “There you are!” She cheered in relief, looking me over to see if I were hurt anywhere. Draco looked over from the leather couch he was sitting on, and smirked at me. “Told you he would be fine. I bet he could take on that stupid troll on his own anyway.” I shrugged, not wanting to explain much of what happened, I didn’t want them to know I stuck my neck out for ‘lower classes’.

“What angers me is that I lost house points for being unaware of the situation.” I complained, changing the topic while taking a seat on the couch myself. “One of the teachers lowered our house points!? How much!?” Draco exclaimed in anger while taking a seat beside me. “5 points. Not much, but it still bothers me that we’re being punished for their lack of security.”

Pansy nodded with a frown. “It’s most likely a way to lower our points for other houses to have a chance at the cup.” Draco crossed his legs along with his arms in a humph. “Bunch of morons…” He muttered, Pansy frowning as nodded in agreement. I shrugged with a smirk. “At least Gryffindor is losing 15 points for having three people out as well. I wasn’t targeted alone.” Draco froze for a moment, staring at me for any hint of deception, before bursting out into laughter, his mood instantly brightening. “Well, at least we have that!” He answered in a cheer.