Chapter 122: Rumors
In the cold, damp bathroom stall, a foul stench clung to the air like despair itself. Hermione knew she was likely going to die. Only now did she realize her own foolishness. She had so many wonderful friends in the Room of Hope, yet she had let the cruel words of a few thoughtless people drive her to hide away and cry alone.
The massive, dragging footsteps were impossibly close. But Sean had been faster.
"Don't be afraid, Hermione. Take my hand."
She looked up, disbelieving, as Sean's slender form filled the doorway, blocking the shadows beyond. He gently helped her up and, with a flick of his wand, transfigured the door of the next stall into a sturdy stool, guiding her onto it.
In doing so, he left himself completely exposed.
"Sean! Look out!" Hermione screamed, a sudden surge of adrenaline giving her voice, as the troll raised its massive club.
"Stay in here," Sean said, his voice level. "I'll be distracted if you come out." He pushed the stall door shut.
The heavy club whistled through the air, casting a giant shadow over him. Facing the behemoth, Sean suddenly wondered if Ron's eventual plan to knock it out with its own club wasn't a bit of a fairytale. The sheer size of it… using a Levitation Charm to lift that club would be like trying to uproot a full-grown oak tree.
But…
"Flipendo!"
[You have practiced the Knockback Jinx to the Expert standard. Proficiency +50]
A bright flash of light erupted, striking the descending club. The massive weapon jolted backwards as if hitting a solid wall, its momentum completely broken.
Sean paused, a strange, untimely thought occurring to him. Why was the Knockback Jinx my first instinct? Am I… am I really a Dark Lord?
The troll roared, raising its club again. Sean didn't hesitate. With a wave of his wand, the doors of three other stalls ripped from their hinges, transfiguring mid-air into two massive eagles. They shrieked and dove, talons extended, gouging out the troll's eye.
Sean's breathing grew heavier. Without pause, he began casting again, using a rapid combination of the Knockback Jinx and the Levitation Charm to wrench the club from the troll's grip. It flew through the air and into his hand.
He glanced at the remaining stall doors, then at the troll. An idea formed. He levitated all the splintered wood, merging it with the troll's own club, fashioning a makeshift battering ram three times the original's size.
The troll, having just clawed the eagles from its face, looked up just in time to meet its ancestor. Or it would have, if it had any. The massive, magically enhanced club struck its small, coconut-like head with a sickening CRUNCH.
The monster's body crashed to the floor, its head now distinctly two-dimensional. Only then did Sean walk back to Hermione's stall. He heard shouting from outside the main door. Hermione's tear-streaked face was a mess. He offered her a handkerchief.
Why am I so calm? he wondered, a flicker of self-analysis cutting through the adrenaline. Probably, he concluded, because I saw so much death at the orphanage.
Inside the stall, Hermione stared at Sean, her wand lowering slowly. She looked at his calm face, then at the handkerchief, suddenly aware of the tears still drying on her cheeks.
"You… you took your time…" she whispered, her voice trembling, all her fear, frustration, and worry for her friend packed into those four words.
"Yes. My mistake," Sean said softly.
"It's not!" Hermione burst out, fresh tears welling. "It's my fault! Why did I listen to those idiots? Why did I hide? I forgot about my real friends!" She had thought she was all cried out, but seeing Sean, who had walked into danger for her, she felt a new wave of overwhelming emotion.
Outside the door, Justin and Neville heard the crash, but the door wouldn't budge. "Use the Unlocking Charm!" a new voice yelled. Harry and Ron skidded to a halt beside them.
"Do you know how? I'll try—" Ron's hand was shaking so badly he could barely aim his wand, but he managed the incantation. The lock clicked, but the door remained blocked.
"Something's in the way!" Justin yelled, his eyes red with panic. He hammered his fist on the door. Neville, catching his intent, did the same.
"Aaaaallleeeey-OOP!" Ron bellowed, taking a running charge at the door—
Just as Sean pulled it open.
Ron flew through the opening, tripping over the troll's massive leg, and landed face-first on its now-flat head.
"Ron!" Harry cried out, staring in horror as Ron, groggily pushing himself up, came eye-to-eye with the dead troll, shrieked, and promptly fainted.
The room fell silent. Six first-years stared at the mountain of unconscious troll.
"Sean, Hermione… are you alright?" Justin asked, his voice shaking, his first instinct to check his friends for injuries. Seeing they were unharmed, he sagged against the wall in relief. Neville, on the other hand, was trembling so hard he couldn't look away from the creature.
Harry, after reviving Ron, looked awkwardly between Hermione and Sean.
"We're fine," Sean said with a small, reassuring smile.
Hermione looked at the four boys who had run towards a troll to find her, and the petty insults from earlier evaporated. They risked their lives… She noticed Justin and Neville's hands. "You're bleeding!" she gasped, pulling out her own handkerchief. They had punched the door.
"It's fine…" Justin said, wincing as he took the cloth. "So… are the rumors true?" he asked, his voice regaining a bit of its usual cheer. "That you really can take on a troll single-handedly, and wrestle werewolves…"
"And did Snape really give you ten Galleons and cook you dinner?!" Harry blurted out, his focus, as always when Snape was mentioned, slightly skewed.
Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of the professors. McGonagall's face was white with shock. Snape's was murderous.
"Potter!" Snape snarled, sweeping into the room. He shot Harry a look of pure venom. "What kind of idiotic game do you think you're playing? You're lucky it didn't kill you! Why weren't you in your dormitory, you arrogant little—!" He stopped, his gaze falling on the dead troll, and his black eyes immediately snapped to the quietest student in the room.
Sean instinctively lowered his head, suddenly feeling the professors were far more terrifying than the troll.
Snape's voice was a low, furious hiss, each word dripping with rage. "One hundred points from Ravenclaw! Sean Green! For actively seeking out a troll! Do you think you are one?! Because I regret to inform you, even trolls fight amongst themselves!"
(End of Chapter)
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