Chapter 5
The Great Hall had fallen silent the moment Quirrell burst in, so his words reached every single ear without being muffled.
Panic erupted among the students. Fear twisted their faces; screams rose one after another, scattering many of the floating dark clouds overhead. The bats began to flee in all directions, and even the moon slipped behind the clouds to hide.
Up at the high table, the professors exchanged quick glances. Dumbledore raised his wand and sent a burst of purple fireworks into the air to quiet the hall, then spoke in a deep, steady voice.
"Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories at once!"
The prefects of the four Houses immediately stood and began guiding their students out of the Great Hall.
For Gryffindor, the prefect was Percy Weasley—also a member of the Weasley family.
He rose to his feet and called out loudly "Stay calm and follow me. First-years, don't be afraid—the professors will handle the troll. As long as you don't run off on your own, you'll be perfectly safe."
Percy moved through the crowd, his trademark red hair blazing like fire as he led the Gryffindors toward their common room.
Gabin was among them. He had just stood up to follow when Harry called out to him from the side.
"Hey, Gray! Give us a hand—Ron's completely passed out. We've got to carry him back to the dormitory." Ron was slumped heavily against Harry's shoulder, looking as though he had fainted dead away.
Gabin reached out to help support him from the other side—but in that split second, everything he had been overlooking finally clicked into place.
Ron passed out — the bacon — daffodil root powder, mugwort — Malfoy.
Gabin whipped his head toward where Hermione had been sitting. She wasn't there. Only Parvati and Lavender were following the line toward the common room.
A chill ran through him. A very bad feeling settled in his chest.
Ignoring Harry and Ron, Gabin pushed through the crowd until he reached Parvati.
"Where's Hermione?" Glowing words appeared on his wand tip, floating bright and large right in front of Parvati's eyes.
Parvati looked at Gabin's anxious face, confused about what was happening, and answered "Hermione said her stomach was upset. She just went to the girls' bathroom."
As soon as she said it, her own expression changed. She gasped.
"Hermione doesn't know about the troll in the school yet!"
Exactly, everything clicked for Gabin.
Hermione with an upset stomach — the pumpkin juice — croton powder — Malfoy.
It had all been Malfoy. He must have figured out Harry's usual eating habits and decided to humiliate him tonight with a little "prank."
But there was no time to think about Malfoy now. The priority was saving Hermione.
Gabin looked up toward the high table. The professors had already vanished—probably gone to hunt the troll or to guard the Philosopher's Stone on the fourth floor.
And Harry and Ron…
He glanced over. The Weasley twins had already hoisted their little brother between them and were moving with the crowd. Harry was walking right beside them.
Clearly, none of them knew Hermione was trapped in the bathroom.
Which meant… only him.
A troll might be terrifying, but two eleven-year-old boys like Harry and Ron could handle one in the original story. There was no reason he couldn't.
Gabin shoved through the crowd and broke into a run toward the second floor. Behind him, Parvati stared anxiously after his retreating back, unsure what to do.
He pushed past a group of Hufflepuffs, turned a corner, and entered a deserted side corridor.
The clamor of the students was muffled by the thick castle walls, fading to almost nothing. The surroundings grew eerily quiet.
Then the smell hit him.
A nauseating, revolting stench filled the air. Gabin swore that in either of his lives, he had never smelled anything so foul.
It was like…
No—better not to think about it. The more he thought, the worse it got. He was already regretting having eaten so much at the feast.
Gritting his teeth against the rising nausea, he moved toward the source of the horrible smell. The closer he got to the troll, the stronger the odor became—until he began to hear it.
A low, guttural muttering… and the heavy, dragging sound of enormous feet scraping along the stone floor.
But then—suddenly—the sounds grew smaller.
Gabin's heart lurched. He knew why.
Sure enough, the next second, a huge, piercing scream tore through the corridor, drowning out the troll's noises and echoing off the stone walls.
A scream filled with absolute terror and desperation.
And unmistakably—a girl's voice.
Hermione!
Gabin broke into a full sprint and barreled through the door of the girls' bathroom.
Hermione was huddled against the farthest wall, mouth wide open in a silent scream, eyes wide with pure horror, looking as though she might faint at any second.
And right in front of her stood an enormous, hideous thing.
The troll.
Twelve feet tall—more than twice Gabin's own height of 1.52 meters—and easily five times as wide. Its gray skin was rough and pitted, looking as though someone had roughly hacked it out of granite.
And only roughly—no polishing at all.
Compared to that massive body, its head was tiny, about the size of a cocoa bean. One glance was enough to tell that intelligence was not its strong point.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, seeing a creature taller and bulkier than Yao Ming still made Gabin's heart skip a beat.
In either of his lives, he had never witnessed anything like this.
And the smell—standing behind the troll now, the stench was overwhelming. Gabin nearly lost his entire dinner right there.
"Gray!"
Hermione finally spotted him and cried out in desperate relief, but her shout drew the troll's attention. It lumbered around clumsily, blinking its small, ugly eyes as it looked backward and saw Gabin— one hand clamped over his nose, the other already raising his wand.
Gabin shot Hermione a helpless glance.
He had been about to launch a sneak attack and get her out.
Hermione realized what she'd done and hurriedly clapped both hands over her mouth—but it was too late. The troll had locked onto Gabin. Raising a club thicker than Gabin's entire body, it began lumbering toward him.
No choice now. Time to face it head-on.
Gabin thought quickly. He dissolved the nearly completed magic circuit he had been forming and switched to a different one—one he knew far better.
'Lumos!'
Two tiny points of light shot from his wand, drifting like fireflies straight toward the troll's face.
"Huhhh…?" The troll made a low, confused grunt. It stared at the two little glowing specks and reached out one massive, callused hand to grab them.
Gabin guided the lights deftly between the troll's thick fingers, letting them float right up to its two tiny eyes.
The troll stared at the dancing fireflies, its cocoa-bean-sized brain completely captivated. For the moment, it forgot all about Gabin and Hermione.
Seeing his chance, Gabin flicked his wand sharply, magic surged into the two slender light threads.
At the same time, he pushed the circuits to their absolute limit—stretching them longer and longer until they reached the farthest distance he could possibly control.
"Lumos… Maxima!"