September faded into October, and on the second week of October, Harry found himself in the library, sitting with Daphne while the two wrote their Transfiguration essays. It was getting quite late at night, and Harry suspected that any minute, the librarian, Madam Pince, would be arriving to tell them off.
Harry stared down at his almost a foot of parchment, proofreading it as best he could in the dimming candlelight.
"Swap?" Daphne asked, looking up. Harry met the icy blue eyes of his betrothed and nodded.
Harry and Daphne swapped essays, and Harry almost chuckled at how perfect Daphne's handwriting was. Despite her cool exterior, she really did care a lot about schoolwork.
"Ugh, I forgot about that." Daphne muttered at something Harry had written.
Now Harry did chuckle. Daphne kicked his leg, but not hard enough to actually do damage.
"Don't laugh at me, Potter." Daphne said seriously. Harry grinned at the lovely blond, and she reluctantly grinned back.
Just then, the stern old librarian, Madam Pince, descended on the two first years, and shooed them from the library.
Harry and Daphne gathered their things and the two Slytherins began trekking down to their common room, but along the way, they heard the jangling of a lantern.
Harry and Daphne both froze. The school's caretaker, Argus Filch, was creepy in broad daylight. At night, when they should technically be back in their dormitories, he would be hell.
"This way." Harry pointed down a different corridor.
"Why that way?" Daphne hissed. The jangling grew closer rapidly.
Daphne apparently no longer cared why that way, and she hastened down the corridor Harry had pointed to. Harry set off after her, and the two of them reached a flight of steps leading up. They climbed them without hesitation before dashing down a corridor and making many many turns, and before long, the jangling sound faded.
Harry and Daphne paused together at an intersection, and they gave each other unsure looks.
"So… we lost Filch, but, uh, do you know where we are?" Harry wondered.
"No." Daphne admitted.
They looked around in confusion, and Daphne pointed at a door.
"Try it?" she guessed. Harry shrugged and walked forwards to jiggle the doorknob.
"Locked." Harry said, "Should we really unlock it?"
"It might not help us get back, but you can't tell me you're not curious. A locked door? We have opportunity to check it out." Daphne waggled her eyebrows. Harry looked at Daphne, then rolled his eyes in an admission of defeat.
He withdrew his holly wand and pointed it at the doorknob.
"Alohomora!" Harry incanted, and there was a resounding click. Harry pushed open the door, and Daphne sidled up to him.
His fingers brushed hers accidentally, but neither one of them moved. The door opened wider, and Harry's eyes widened too when he saw what was inside the door.
A giant, black-furred three headed dog was standing over a large wooden trapdoor, and all three heads started growling at Harry and Daphne. The heads had great big fangs, and saliva dropping onto the ground like the beast was feral. Harry sprung forwards, grasped the doorknob and yanked the door closed.
Harry took a shaky step backwards, and Daphne's hand grasped his.
"Quick reflexes." Daphne said a bit breathlessly.
"Spur of the moment sort of thing." Harry replied in an unsteady voice.
"Well, it was impressive." Daphne replied, and squeezed Harry's hand tighter.
"Thanks. Now… shall we try a different door?" Harry asked.
"Alright. But if it's locked, we leave it that way." Daphne said firmly.
"Agreed." Harry said.
———
Two weeks passed, and on the day of Halloween, Harry was sitting in Charms class with some Hufflepuffs.
The Charms professor, Professor Flitwick, encouraged inter-house seating, and so Harry found himself at a long row table that seated five. He was sat between two Slytherin girls and two Hufflepuff girls.
Daphne, of course, had claimed the spot on his left, but on her other side sat Tracey Davis, who had lost out on Harry's right side, which was occupied by Susan Bones.
Susan was a buxom redhead, and was actually the bustiest girl in the year.
On Susan's other side sat Hannah Abbott, a slender blond girl.
A glance around the classroom showed that a loud, talkative Hufflepuff boy with red hair was chatting with a dark-haired Hufflepuff boy.
Harry thought their names were Ron Weasley and Justin Finch-Fletchly, respectively.
Beside Ron sat Blaise, who didn't appear to be enjoying himself, which made Harry smile a bit. Ron was being quite obnoxious. Blaise was sitting with Pansy, though, which Harry suspected made the ordeal a bit more bearable.
"Alright, class!" Flitwick squeaked, "Today we're going to be learning about the Levitation Charm! Give your wands a swish and a flick, and then cast Wingardium Leviosa!"
Harry, Susan, and Daphne all did it first try. Hannah took four tries, and Tracey six.
Glancjng around the classroom while Flitwick applauded their table, Harry saw Blaise had had his feather up for a while. Pansy did hers while Harry watched. Poor Ron Weasley couldn't get his to even twitch.
"Well done you three!" Flitwick commended Harry, Daphne, and Susan, "Ten points to Slytherin and five points to Hufflepuff."
After class, Harry and Daphne walked with Susan and Hannah down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast.
Ron Weasley passed them just as Harry caught sight of Hermione Granger, who was heading to Harry and his group.
"That's that know it all girl. It's no surprise she hasn't got any friends." Harry heard Ron said loudly. Harry had never felt such unique hatred towards somebody as he did Ron. Harry watched in fury as Hermione froze, tears filling her eyes. She dashed away and Harry started angrily towards Weasley.
Daphne caught him around the wrist and shook her head.
"He's not worth it. He's just a loudmouth idiot. Trust me, there's better ways to get revenge on someone than hexing them in the middle of a crowded corridor." Daphne's said.
Harry gave a nod, glaring at the back of Ron's bright ginger head.
"I can't believe he'd be so rude to Hermione!" Susan muttered, "She's so nice."
"Yeah, she is." Harry said.
"Look, let's go to the feast. When Hermione shows up, we can go and assure her that she does, in fact, have friends." Daphne said.
"Alright. That works for me." Harry sighed.
———
As Harry and his friends enjoyed the feast at the Slytherin table, he kept his eyes on the entrance to the Great Hall, occasionally scanning the Ravenclaw table just to make sure he hadn't missed her.
But no. Hermione Granger didn't arrive throughout the feast. Oddly, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Quirrel, was absent, too. Harry wasn't a huge fan of Quirrel, as he seemed terrified of the subject he was teaching, which meant he wasn't very confidence-inspiring.
Harry also got a lot of headaches in Quirrel's class, which he attributed to the thick scent of garlic in that classroom, which warded off vampires, according to Quirrel.
Harry was unsure why vampires would ever want entry to Quirrel's classroom, but it was no use arguing with the frightened professor.
Just then, the door to the Great Hall opened, and Harry looked sharply to them, expecting Hermione, but instead Quirrel sprinted into the hall, looking more terrified than usual.
"Troll! Troll in the dungeons!" Quirrel exclaimed, "Just thought you ought to know."
Quirrel then promptly fainted. There was a brief silence, and then a massive uproar as students started panicking.
"Silence!" roared Professor Dumbledore, "Prefects, please lead your houses down to their dormitories, and remain there until your Head of House informs you otherwise!"
Harry looked at Daphne.
"Hermione doesn't know about the troll." Harry said at once.
"Always have to play the hero, huh?" Daphne asked in exasperation.
Harry gave a shrug, and he and Daphne both rose to their feet, pushing their way forwards through the throng of panicked Slytherins.
They were almost through when Cassandra grabbed Harry's arm and yanked him towards her. He looked at her in surprise.
"What are you doing?" she asked shrewdly.
"Um… heading to my dormitory?" Harry lied.
"Uh huh." Cassandra said in complete disbelief. The other Slytherin prefect, Gemma Farley, was ushering students forwards, and they relatively ignored Harry and Cassandra, except Daphne, who stood a few feet back looking mutinous.
"Look, a friend of ours, Hermione, she's not at the feast. Some ass Hufflepuff insulted her, and so she ran off, you see." Harry tried to explain. Cassandra glanced around at the Slytherin students, who had almost all left.
She released Harry's arm, and gave him a very serious look.
"Ok. Go. But be very careful. I don't want to have to fill out paperwork if you get squashed by a troll." Cassandra said, an odd tone to her last sentence, as if it wasn't what she really wanted to say.
"Thanks. You're the best!" Harry exclaimed, and then he and Daphne hurried out of the Great Hall.
He noticed Daphne looking at him oddly.
"What?" Harry asked a little self-consciously.
"Nothing. Where do you think Hermione is?" Daphne asked.
"I dunno. Is there a girls' bathroom near Charms? Maybe she went there?" Harry asked. Daphne thought for a minute.
"Worth a try." she decided, and led Harry towards and then past the Charms classroom.
They headed in the direction that Hermione had run off in an hour or so ago.
Harry hesitated on the boundary of the girls' bathroom, but Daphne rolled her eyes.
"Don't be an idiot." she said, not without affection, and pulled Harry into the bathroom.
They saw Hermione standing at a sink, with red eyes, indicating she'd been crying.
"Harry! Daphne! What are you two doing here?" Hermione asked in surprise, catching sight of them in the mirror.
"We were worried about you." Harry answered. Hermione gave a happy smile.
"You were? That's so sweet." Hermione beamed.
"Not because of your feelings, Granger, there's a troll on the loose!" Daphne said exasperatedly.
"A troll?" Hermione asked in shock.
"Yes, a bloody troll." Daphne said in an unusually venomous tone.
"Look, you should get back to your dorm, it's not…" Harry trailed off at the sound of loud footsteps.
Harry and Daphne backed away from the bathroom door.
"We're fucked, aren't we?" Daphne groaned.
The door to the bathroom was smashed, and a troll smashed through the wall with its' mighty club.
Harry pulled Hermione and Daphne back with yet another well-placed bout of survival instinct, and the three first years scrambled backwards against the stalls.
"Plan?" Daphne asked.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted, remembering how Cassandra had Stunned Goyle on the night of his duel with Malfoy. A red jet of light burst from Harry's wand, hit the troll's thick, leathery skin and did absolutely no damage.
"Oh, hell." Harry swore.
"Let's do it together, on three." Daphne said, lifting her own wand. Hermione raised hers as well.
"1! 2! 3!" Harry counted.
"Stupefy!" the three shouted together, and three red jets of light burst from their wands and smashed into the troll as a unified wave of magic. The troll gave a great bellow and fell backwards, smashing up the sinks and the mirror, but he was Stunned.
The three first years stood there in stunned silence, and then Daphne let out a cheer and threw her arms around Harry.
Daphne wasn't much of a hugger, so this very much surprised Harry. He wrapped his arms tightly around his betrothed, rather enjoying how her breasts felt against his chest.
Daphne stepped back from the hug, and Harry gave her a surprised smile, which she returned a bit wryly.
"Thank you for coming for me. That troll surely would have gotten me." Hermione said. Harry gave the bushy-haired girl a bright smile.
"It wasn't a problem. Don't listen to what that jerk Ron Weasley said. I'm sure you've got loads of friends, but you've definitely got at least two." Harry said. Hermione looked over the moon about this, and she, too, hugged Harry.
Being Muggle-born, she didn't have the same physical indicators of power that pure blood witches like Daphne or Susan had, but the hug was still nice all the same.
"Oh my!" a voice gasped, and Harry let go of Hermione and turned to see Professor McGonagall at the doorway.
"You three… what did you… how dare you go looking for trouble?" McGonagall demanded, seemingly too distraught or angry to form a sentence.
"No, Professor, they weren't looking for trouble, they were coming to help me. I was in here crying, you see. When they heard about the troll, they knew I wouldn't know, so they came to warn me. And good thing, too, or the troll would probably have killed me!" Hermione said instantly, but not without some timidness in her tone. Professor McGonagall was a very severe woman.
"I see. And how did three first years manage to defeat a fully grown mountain troll?" McGonagall questioned.
"Stunning Spells." Harry volunteered, "The three of us used them at the same time."
"Stunning Spells? Those are awfully advanced for first years!" McGonagall exclaimed.
"Oh. I, uh, saw my prefect do it once, and I'm quite good with dueling spells." Harry said nervously.
Just then, several more teachers arrived, including Harry's mother, Lily.
"Harry!" she gasped, and hurried forwards to throw her arms around him tightly. Now, Harry's mother certainly had very large breasts. She was a gorgeous woman, and despite their blood relation, Harry had often found himself thinking of her in… unfamilial ways. Especially whenever she wore a swimsuit.
Harry squeezed his mother tightly and the mother and son duo hugged for quite a while.
"I could have lost you." Lily said in complete devastation.
"It's OK, mum. I'm fine, really." Harry said, a bit embarrassed now.
Lily pulled back from the hug and looked him over firmly.
"I don't ever want to see you get into a fight like this again. Now, you three taking on a mountain troll is extremely impressive, so I'll give each of you twenty five points for your houses." Lily said, her face softening.
"Wow, thanks, Mum." Harry smiled. Lily gave Harry a very loving smile.
Professor Dumbledore arrived with Professor Snape, then, and after they got the whole story, Dumbledore seemed very approving of Harry and Daphne's heroics, and they each got an additional five points for coming to Hermione's rescue. Hermione didn't seem bothered at all by her not getting an extra five points. She acted as if she was deserving of it, for crying in a bathroom during the feast.
"Now, Severus, if you could walk Mr. Potter and Ms. Greengrass down to their dormitory, I'll take Ms. Granger up to hers." McGonagall said to Snape, possibly because Professor Flitwick, who was Head of Ravenclaw House, was not there.
"Of course." Snape said, and he walked out of the bathroom with a bit of a limp, which caught Harry's attention as he and Daphne followed their Potions professor.
Harry wasn't a huge fan of Snape, but the professor's natural inclination towards his students seemed to make Snape at least tolerable of Harry, even if seemed to sometimes have a bit of dislike in his eyes whenever he viewed Harry.
Mutual tolerance, Harry would define their relationship as.
Harry and Daphne entered the common room alone, and found quite a crowd of Slytherins waiting.
Cassandra was the first to reach them, closely followed by Blaise, Pansy, and Tracey.
"Glad to see you're alright." Cassandra murmured to Harry, and then she threw her arms around him right in front of practically the entire Slytherin House.
Cassandra smelled like lavender, he noticed abruptly.
"Uh… thanks." Harry said in complete surprise as Cassandra withdrew from the hug and stepped aside so that Tracey and Pansy could throw themselves at Harry and Daphne. Harry and Blaise nodded at each other.
"Heard you won us a ton of points." Blaise said.
"Guess so." Harry replied, glancing around the common room. His eyes landed on a livid Draco Malfoy near the back, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.
Several older Slytherins complimented Harry and Daphne, and they soon found themselves recounting the adventure with the troll (minus the reason they were there, which was left out by them both so as not to embarrass Hermione).
It was late when the common room finally started emptying out.
"I'm not sure I want to go up to my dorms." Harry confessed.
"Why's that?" Tracey asked.
"Well, Draco's probably going to be lying in wait with Crabbe and Goyle." Harry said, "They might attack me in my sleep or something."
"I'm a light sleeper, mate." Blaise said firmly, "They'd have to get through me, and I know a mean Stinging Hex."
Harry gave his friend a grateful smile, and Harry waved goodbye to Daphne, Pansy, and Tracey before he and Blaise went up to their dormitory.
Harry could use some rest. Fighting trolls took a lot out of him, it seemed.