Harry had never had any opinion on Halloween before. He'd always been aware it was the day his parents had died, but prior to a couple months ago had grown his whole life believing the Dursleys lie that they were drunk no-ones (a horrible mistake really, since when did he ever give credit to what the Dursleys said?). Yes he'd missed the concept of having parents so far as having parents would mean he wasn't with the Dursleys, but he hadn't even seen a picture of his parents or knew a thing about them so while he'd always had this vague sadness he was an orphan, that never really translated into being traumatized by the day they were killed.
His relatives had always hated Halloween though, to the point of locking him in the cupboard literally the entire day for some reason that was now abundantly clear since Harry had learned he had magic.
On the flipside, his classmates in grade school had loved Halloween and the amount of candy and excitement that could be whipped up in their frenzy for the holiday meant Harry didn't hate the even either. He hadn't gotten really into it ever for fear of what Dudley would report back to his parents, but it was enjoyable in some ways regardless.
Halloween at Hogwarts though, was a whole thing, and Harry was all about it. The decorations, the tasty desserts, the fact this creepy old castle had real ghosts and magic made the whole thing about ten times more interesting and he was enjoying himself quite a bit as the festivities geared up for the day in question. It was mainly the desserts though to be honest, and he would definitely be putting on quite a bit of weight if it weren't for the fact he was taking part in two sports these days—Wood's insane regimen on pretty much every weeknight, and football on the weekends when the people in their little club had the time to get together and play.
Word of their football club had definitely spread, and while no one had outright called them weird for it, Harry had gotten a lot of very confused people asked him in very politely ways just what the hell he was doing.
'Having fun' was usually his answer, and no one but a Slytherin could really formulate a response to that.
The Slytherins didn't ask though, but they sure gave him an even wider birth out of sheer wariness that his weirdness was somehow contagious considering he'd roped some Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw into his schemes too. He'd invited and then proceeded to needle Draco into playing with them and got a resounding 'hell no' from his friend, and that seemed to be the line in the sand for the blond. Harry was fine with it though, he was sure at least one of them would come around to it eventually.
It might take a few years though.
In the mean time, the football club was having fun on their own and now Lu was sitting at the Hufflepuff table every so often because arguing with Susan was apparently one of his simple joys in life.
Harry called it progress.
BAM!
"Jesus Christ Seamus," He hissed, nearly falling off his chair and flailing about wildly to make sure his hair and none of his robes were on fire from the loud blast that's happened behind him.
"Huh," the boy blinked in shock, soot coating his face and the poor feather he'd been trying to levitate nothing but crumbling ash on his desk.
"Dear me, Mr. Finnegan!" Flitwick yelped, but was not as surprised as he once was. This was too common a result for that.
"You are a hazard to our health." Draco sneered, inching his chair beside Harry a bit farther away out of self-preservation.
"Honestly I have no idea why that happens." Seamus defended himself, still slightly shell shocked and rubbing some of the soot on his cheek off, but that was definitely a losing battle.
Blaise leaned down from a higher row and tapped Harry lightly on the head with a grin. "You have burning feather in your hair, dear."
"What!?" He swatted at it immediately and brushed it out with his fingers quickly, finding soot coating his hands quickly but at least it wasn't catching fire. Blaise's delighted snickers from behind him caused Draco to launch a floating feather in his face, and the splutters as he tried to spit it out made Harry feel slightly better.
"I'm so sorry Harry," Seamus apologized, but Harry waved him off.
"Just so you're not offended when I don't sit next to you for practical work next time."
"Right…"
"I'm regretting being partners with you." Dean told the boy beside him, the soot harder to see against his dark skin but clearly there—along with a slightly singed sideburn too that he was nursing with a pout.
"I'm sorry! I don't know why it does that!"
"Perhaps you should practice in a remote area from now on, Mr. Finnegan," Flitwick supplied helpfully, and Seamus pouted while everyone around him snickered at that.
The rest of Charms went much better with Seamus now keeping his wand to himself—he was out of feathers, in any case—and while Harry was no Charms expert he did manage to get his feather floating rather well by the end of class. Satisfied with the day's work, he happily packed up his things for lunch when the final bell rang.
"Remember your paper on your choice of charm family is due first thing next week! Don't be afraid to come to me with questions if there are any!" Flitwick called as they filtered out, the courtyard outside the hall already filling with people moving towards the Great Hall for lunch.
"Ah, maybe they'll have candy corn again." He said aloud to no one in particular, but already thinking about what he wanted to eat. Today was officially Halloween and breakfast had been superb with pumpkin pancakes and more—he could only imagine lunch and dinner would be tasty as well.
He was going to have to run around the lake a couple times to work this off but he was too caught up in the thought of treacle tart to care.
"You are so weird for like candy corn—it's basically wax you know." Dean pointed out where he was walking in front of him.
"Harry love, you're not going to make me agree with a Gryffindor, are you? Because he's right, candy corn is filth." Blaise chimed in as well, striding up to match their little group and Harry was suddenly reminded of that first day when these exact Slytherins and Gryffindors had all walked to the Great Hall together. Complete with Draco by his side and Neville cowering behind him as Blaise addressed him.
Huh, they'd come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
"Ha ha, so you have more refined tastes than me, not like I haven't heard that before. As for what Dean's excuse is, I don't know."
"I don't need a fancy palette to know eating sugary wax isn't pleasant." The Gryffindor shot back.
"Speak for yourself, I personally find it lovely." Harry defended himself.
"Which explains a lot about you." Blaise said far too innocently and then suddenly found the back of his hand fascinating so he didn't see the glare Harry aimed at him for that.
"Harry!"
Said redhead turned at the call of his name, smiling as Hermione ran to catch up with him, fumbling papers in her arms so she'd probably been asking Flitwick something.
"Hey Hermione."
"Can I ask you something? What charm did you pick for your essay? I couldn't decide so I wrote three but I didn't know-"
She went off like a bullet without waiting for him to answer any of her questions, while the Gryffindors and Slytherins he'd been walking with kept moving slightly to be ahead of them, carefully distancing themselves from the bookworm. Neville was quietly afraid of the loud girl, and he couldn't speak to what Dean or Seamus thought of her, but he knew the Slytherins were not interested in Hermione at all and were pretending not to have seen her approach.
Harry sighed silently. They'd come a long way, but they had a lot farther to go.
Rather than let her go and be even later to lunch, Harry cut her off quickly. "I actually hadn't started it yet, but all three of those sounds like great ideas. Just pick your favorite, right?"
"But they're all my favorite!" She frowned, honestly troubled by this. Harry had sat next to her in Transfiguration one day in his rounds of his year mates, trying to get to know everyone and her being no exception, however Transfiguration might not have been the best class to choose do to that with. She'd seen him go at it with McGonagall and now had it in her head that he was just as much as an academic as she was, which was just painfully not true.
Transfiguration seemed effortless to him for some reason, but literally everything else he only scored well because Draco had drilled good notetaking and studying habits into him courtesy of his many childhood tutors. Outside of Transfiguration, he had no desire to spend a second more on any work that wasn't required of him not to fail a class or look like a fool in front of either the teacher or a judgmental Slytherin sitting behind him. He needed Slytherins to like him to make Draco's life easier and those jerks were unafraid to call people stupid and judge them for not studying properly so… Harry studied.
Not for fun, like Hermione had somehow gotten it into her head that he did.
Even having explained this to her, Harry got the feeling Hermione didn't actually have that many friends—if any friends at all really—so the fact he'd shown not to be a bad student and had actually been nice to her meant she now clung to him whenever she could, her earlier jealousy and/or dislike of him seeming to evaporate into thin air with one act of kindness. And she was brilliant obviously, but not so good with social cues—the fact he'd been walking with a bunch of his friends didn't seem to have stopped her, neither did she even acknowledge anyone else around him at all. Not that doing that would've ended well with the likes of Blaise and Draco already only just barely being polite enough to outright ignore her rather than saying something rude like they undoubtedly wanted to.
Not to mention Nott, who was still hanging around and yet not speaking to anyone ever. Draco said he was from a 'dark' family and was content ignoring Harry but even the Slytherins didn't know what would happen if he were forced to be in close contact with a full muggleborn—much less someone so… vibrant as Hermione.
Given that Nott was on the clear other side of the group almost as soon as she'd appeared, Harry figured it was best not to find out. He seemed relatively fine with Dean, but Dean could bicker like Blaise could and he certainly didn't have Hermione's very straightforward personality.
"How about pick the one we did the longest ago? It'll be a good refresher of something we did several weeks ago," He suggested off the top of his head, and she lit up.
"That's brilliant Harry! It'll show I've retained the material! Perhaps I should re-read the chapter on it though, just to be sure," She frowned in concern again, and he smiled blankly.
"Yeah, maybe it'll help." Like you haven't memorized it? Because I'm pretty sure you memorized it.
"Do you think this relates to the next four chapters in the textbook? They seem kind of related if you consider the theory behind this branch of magic. They all derive from the same wand movements if you think about it." She lit up again, and Harry kept his face as it was by force of will.
Please just let me go to lunch, I'm dying here.
"Possibly, that's a good connection to notice." He said instead, because far be it for him to discourage a bright young witch at what clearly made her happy.
The same could not be said for everyone though, and a freckly monster child chose that moment to stalk up from behind where Harry was standing to brush past them on his way to lunch.
"No wonder no one bloody likes her."
Harry was looking at Hermione when he heard the words, and he watched her face falter in shocker, before crumbling like someone had let all the air out of her sail.
Slap!
Ron stumbled back, not being prepared for Harry to whip around fast as lightning, and surprising both of them his hand found perfect purchase on the offender's cheek to leave a sharp red mark. Rob grabbed at it in shock and whatever cry of indignation almost made it out of his mouth was drowned out by Harry advancing on him with vigor.
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you, you bloody bully!? Look in the god damn mirror before you say nonsense like no one likes her—I think she's brilliant while please note no one was talking to you just now." He snapped sharply, taking a menacing step forward to get in his face, and Ron took an automatic step back—but his face got red in anger and glared back just as hard.
"Well it's true!"
Harry lunged and Ron scrambled back sharply, but Harry only made it a step before reason caught up with him and he forced himself not to do anything else. Prick as he was, Ron wasn't worth getting into detention on Halloween for, and Harry got away with attacking two students before, but he'd rather not make it a habit. Nor did he want this to be the reputation he was known for, and he especially didn't want anyone thinking he was bullying Ron since he seemed to be the person he was attacking most these days.
But he just pissed him off so much he didn't even know what to do with his hands aside from freaking slap him for the stupid words that came out of his mouth.
"Christ Weasley, get the memo already, you'd think you'd have learned your lesson after Potter beamed you with a broom," Blaise saved him from trying to form a response through his fury, the eye roll audible in his tone despite Harry still glaring Ron down as if daring him to make a move.
But then he heard a sniffle behind him and tried to turn back to the girl behind him.
"Hermione-"
But she was already making a run for it, brushing past both of them and heading the opposite direction of the growing crowd with a very low "I'm fine," coughed out for Harry's benefit, and then she was gone into the bustle of people watching the showdown curiously as they made their way to lunch.
Harry saw red, but he forced himself not to beam anyone in the head this time. As he whipped around though, there was flash of heat in the air that caused Ron to take another stumbling step back, bumping into an upper year walking behind him.
"Are you proud of what an asshole you are!?"
"Me!?" Ron ground back as the upper year shoved him off. "You slapped me!"
"There was no reason you had to say that; what has she ever done to you?" Harry ignored the accusation and demanded back of him hotly.
"Showed up his dumb ass in class is what," Blaise snickered, seeming to very much enjoy this show.
"Shut up you slimy snake!"
It was impossible to tell with Blaise's killer poker face if he was going to actually respond to that elementary-level insult or not, but Harry did it for him anyway.
"Okay first of all, snakes are not slimy they're actually kinda warm and cute and secondly, you are the worst excuse for a lion I have ever seen in my life if we're going by house mascots. Lions are supposed to be noble and proud and you're about as ungentlemanly as they come and have so little self-respect you delude yourself into think anyone cares what tasteless things you say and that the only way you can become a decent, respectable wizard is by bringing others who don't deserve it down. You're not a lion you're a bloody leech, so get off of everyone's back already before I pop you like a bloody balloon you utter buffoon!"
"Say that five times fast," Seamus raised an eyebrow, causing both Dean and Blaise to hide their laughs under coughs.
"Holy shit Potter, you killed him," a passing upper year laughed at the situation between squabbling first years as he strode past them, the other fourth and fifth years around him laughing at Ron's expense too.
Maybe it was no one coming to his defense, or maybe it was the fact those upper years were Gryffindors, maybe it was that he just couldn't think up a proper defense for being called out, but whatever it was, Ron turned every shade of color that would've made Vernon Dursley proud.
Harry glared at him for all he was worth, and Ron glared back stubbornly, but after a very long silence as the snickers of many onlookers became evident, he grunted something no one heard under his breath and stormed off. Harry decided to let it go, not really feeling like that was victory but knowing logically that was all he was going to get with his thick headed classmate.
He forced himself to take a steadying breath. "Do not hit anyone, do not hit anyone, do not hit anyone…"
"It terrifies me that you need to remind yourself of that." Dean sighed, and Harry managed to gather himself just enough to flash him a half-hearted smile and then walk past him, subconsciously leading the charge to the Great Hall again and pretend like that didn't happen.
He was still concerned about Hermione, but he'd been having such a good day before the red headed troll had ruined everything and he was determined to get back on track as quickly as possible. He'd check up on her later, maybe after dinner when she'd undoubtedly be in the library again. He needed to get another Transfiguration book anyway.
"I've read that positive visualization is helpful." He managed to get out diplomatically, like he wasn't still cooling down from an unreasonable amount of sudden anger.
"Read where?" Draco demanded incredulously.
"In a book on managing one's emotions that Hermione found for me. Weasley should've let me finish it before going and testing me again." He huffed, and Blaise let out a loud laugh behind them. At least someone found this funny.
"Um… should we go check on Hermione?" Neville sped up to walk close by Harry's side and ask quietly, and Harry gave a weary sigh.
"I think she'll need a moment after that. We can go find her later, kay?" He offered, and Neville nodded hesitantly.
"So, Potter…what was that about snakes being cute?" Blaise changed the subject back to his mini fight with pure glee in his voice from behind them. Harry didn't notice Draco stiffen beside him when he rolled his eyes for Blaise's benefit as he tossed a wry smile over his shoulder at the taller Slytherin, acknowledging what he was trying to do.
Or at least what he thought Blaise was trying to do, meaning distract him from his earlier anger. It didn't even cross his mind that Blaise lived for making Draco suffer.
"I've met a cute snake or two in my life." He allowed coyly, turning his back on them to keep walking. Or he would've if Draco didn't have a coughing fit beside him, catching his concern. "You okay?"
"Fine," Draco only just barely got out and quickly attempting to pretend like he was not currently choking on air.
Thankfully he was at the back of the pack, so no one saw Seamus' eyebrows skyrocket up to his hairline. Not that anyone would've noticed such a thing given they were half burnt off currently.
"Oh? Do tell." Blaise intoned in a purr, Harry shooting him a confused look but relenting easily when he accepted there was no reasoning with this particular Slytherin.
"Well I had a bout of accidental magic at the zoo once--set a boa constrictor free and he was very nice. I also used to garden a lot so little garter snakes were a common occurrence. If you left them be they could be nice companions while you work." He explained off handedly, still looking at Draco in concern while the blond was acting far too casual after his cough attack.
The Slytherins present, including Blaise even though he was the one who asked, were legitimately surprised Harry had an actual answer to that question… and what the answer was too.
"Huh. I've got to admit, even I've never really been around snakes. It's just the motif, you know?" Blaise shrugged.
"Well I've never even seen a real lion either, so we're all just making it up it seems." Dean grinned.
"I a-always liked the garter snakes too." Neville quietly admitted, everyone forgetting their earlier drama to look at the quiet Gryffindor in surprise. He turned red under their inspection, but was addressing Harry only with his comment, trying not to pay attention to their eyes on him. "I g-garden a lot at home t-too. We always had tons around."
"See! Neville knows what I'm talking about. And here the actual Slytherins don't hang around snakes on the daily, what a farce." Harry huffed.
"Oi, I don't need to have met a snake to pull off green better than you. It would clash with the hair." Blaise snipped, and Harry maturely stuck his tongue out at him.
By then they'd finally made it to the Great Hall, and Harry was fully ready to move on with his day.
He lit up in joy as they walked in. "They have candy corn!"
"Gross." Blaise, Dean, and Draco all chorused at once.
And it might've been a figment of his imagination, but Harry could've sworn he heard Nott say it too.
000
"Harry…."
"Mm?" Harry tried to look casual with an insane amount of treacle tart in his mouth, and knew he probably looked like an idiot anyway. But by the worried look in Neville's eye, the blond didn't seem to care.
And damn, Neville had a killer mother-hen look when he wanted to. Or maybe it was just puppy-dog eyes. Either way, Neville only broke those out on serious occasions and Harry knew he wasn't going to get out of whatever it was he was being asked to do.
He swallowed as quickly as possible and tried not to choke as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"What's wrong, Neville?"
"I overheard Lavender saying Hermione's been crying in the girl's first floor lavatory all afternoon."
Harry's eyes widened, glancing around at the Halloween feast around them and doing a quick head count. He found everyone he was concerned about easily, but double checking the Gryffindor table, he found it lacking a typically noticeable head of bushy brown.
He saw Ron stuffing his face of course, but then again Harry doubted much could pull him away from food, not even the guilty conscious he clearly didn't have.
Harry sighed, not even needing Neville to fully ask.
"Okay, how about this: I'm gonna stuff my pockets with as much candy as I can and go find her, and then try to bribe her out of the bathroom with sweets. You find Fred and George after the feast and get them to go to the kitchens and have a plate or five sent up to Gryffindor tower for Hermione since apparently she's missed lunch and dinner now. I know they know where the kitchens are and how to get there—tell them I'll owe them one. Then we'll meet back at the tower to play exploding snaps or something for the rest of the night and let her tell us all about her Charms essay. Plan?"
Neville's intense puppy dog look subsided some, satisfied with this answer. "Plan." He agreed with a determined nod.
"Right then, best be off." He loaded himself down with as much candy as he could reach, people seeing what he was doing and having fun tossing things at him too in order to 'help', and he wished them all a good feast before scurrying out of the hall before a teacher could tell him to sit back down.
In the quiet of the school hallways as the din of the Great Hall faded into the distance, he sighed to himself. This isn't really what he wanted to be doing on his first Halloween night at Hogwarts. Ron was a prick and he truly did feel bad about Hermione's situation, but he wasn't sure what the answer was here.
He liked that she trusted him, but he wasn't exactly a good friend for her given he had to pretend to smile through most of their conversations. He genuinely liked her and thought she was wonderful and brilliant, but aside from being a great person to know, Harry had no desire to get close.
He had no desire to see her suffer though either, hence the candy and the exploding snap plan. But he'd need some kind of plan to help her in a way that he knew he couldn't be there for her, like setting her up with someone who'd enjoy her presence for who she was a bit more than Harry knew himself capable of. But he was scratching his head at the moment, making a mental note to befriend more Ravenclaws to see if he could find anyone. Maybe Lu could help, but that would be an awkward conversation to have if he couldn't think of a subtle way of phrasing that request.
Heh, maybe Hermione would like to join the football club? That might be so far out of her comfort zone she'd stop babbling about Charms for ten minutes and discover something else she liked just as much as books. And memorizing said books.
It took several minutes but he eventually found the right door—and he could confirm it by putting his ear to it and hearing a distant sniffle inside. Maybe he should've brought some water too somehow, if she'd been crying all day she might be dehydrated.
"Hermione?" He called out through the door.
"…Harry?" the sniffles stopped in surprise.
"Yeah, it's me. We noticed you weren't at the feast just now, you know. Hogwarts really put on a show you know, since apparently Halloween is big in the magical world."
"…yeah."
Huh, not even a fact about Halloween. She must be exhausted.
"You haven't eaten I don't think and you've got to be hungry—Neville's bringing food back to the tower and I've got my pockets full here of candy if you want to share? Tons of it, take your pick: gummies, chocolate, bubble gum, sours-"
"Harry, I'm fine. You should go back to the feast."
He tisked haughtily. "A little late given I snuck out with my haul of candy—if I go back in the teachers will notice I wasn't there! I don't know about you but Snape's been looking for a reason to give me a detention all year."
Sniff. "…true."
So even the teacher's pet admits Snape has it out for Gryffindors. Then again technically Draco was the teacher's pet in that class.
"Come oooon Hermione, let's go back to the tower and play some games. Get your mind of freaking Ron of all people. Don't let a pig like him ruin your Halloween! Remember the candy!"
"But he'll be there…"
"I mean, yeah probably, he lives there, but if he hassles you again I'll sick his brothers on him. Fred and George can be vicious you know and they like me better than him I think!" No answer to that but no sniffling, which was good. "I've been reading that book you gave me you know, and maybe it wasn't what you wanted but I only slapped Ron today instead of beating him bloody for what he said. Didn't get a detention or anything so it's definitely working!"
"That's good… no house points lost." She admitted, sounding a little calmer. "That book isn't just for calming yourself actually, it's got some other interesting chapters."
Oh no, she's going to start talking about books again. Well, that is what I signed up for.
"Come on out and tell me which chapters I should read next then, and we'll head back to the tower. Do you want chocolate or gummies?" He offered, pulling the sweets from his pockets so she'd opened the door to be greeted by his arms full of bribery—I mean sweets.
There was a long silence as she seemed to deliberate this offer and was probably being swayed, and Harry waited patiently for her to come opening the door, sensing she was getting close.
And then, something awful smelling assaulted his nose, and he gagged a bit.
"Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath, glancing around the door and then down the hallway around him in surprise and annoyance at whatever the hell that was.
Smell was no longer a concern of his as he suddenly forgot how to breathe, his whole body being dunked in ice cold horror, fear removing the blood from his hands instantly to the point he didn't even notice the sweets he'd been holding tumbling lifelessly to the ground.
A monster, twenty feet high with ugly grey, warty skin and the stupidest looking expression on something so terrifying Harry had ever seen, was standing not ten meters away, having turned the corner of the adjacent hallway and looking just as stunned as Harry was terrified to have met another living creature in the otherwise deserted hallway. So close, just right there, huge and hulking and holding a freaking club in a hand bigger than Harry's whole body.
What is that, what is that, what is that, what is that, WHAT IS THAT, WHAT IS THAT, WHAT IS THAT-!?
His body was backing up before he even realized he was moving, back hitting the bathroom door with a low thud.
The two stared at each other.
Then, the huge creature's expression crumpled and it grunted deeply, taking one huge step towards him.
HELL NO.
Harry whipped around and slammed his body into the bathroom door, its lock giving way immediately to his sheer panic-induced force as he went tumbling in and feet sliding against the tile floor from how desperately he was running.
"Hermione!" He half screamed, half whispered, still terrified that thing was actually after him.
"Wha—Harry? Are you in the girl's bathroom?" A stall door unlocked and she poked her bushy head out in surprise, eyes red and puffy from where she'd been crying
"Hide! Hide now! Sorry if this is weird but hide now!" Harry hissed at her violently, immediately at her stall and shoving her farther in to re-close the door "There's a bloody monster outside in the hallway!"
"What!?"
But he just clamped a hand over her mouth and shushed her near silently with the urgency of a dying man as the door to the main bathroom crashed open, and she went solid beside him in fright. He froze too, keeping his hand over her mouth and silencing his breathing to almost nothing out of terror.
Thump… thump… thump…
Even its slow steps sounded heavy from its sheer size, and they could see it's ugly bald head just over the top of the stall walls. Hermione's eyes bugged out as she saw it, panic seizing her, but Harry just held his hand tighter over her lips to remind her to remain silent, both of them automatically crouching down a bit to prevent it from looking over the door to see them.
What the hell is this thing? What the hell is this thing!? Think, think, think, think… it can't be a troll right? I mean Quirrell mentioned them but like… like it's in HOGWARTSand that's… it can't actually be a monster, it's some castle beast like Peeves… annoying and ugly but not actually going to harm students right!? They wouldn't have something like that in the castle, RIGHT!?And then suddenly Harry remembered Fluffy, and realized yes, this school was exactly that stupid.
Also, even if Dumbledore was here himself to say this thing was just their security guard or something, Harry wouldn't believe it. His instincts were screaming at him to get away now, and they'd never once been wrong about Dudley coming after him or ducking when Uncle Vernon got a little too heated. His life had never been in this much danger before, but then again his instincts had never burned quite this hotly in his veins before either, the adrenaline spiraling his thoughts into sheer panic-induced hysteria as he tried to think of how to get the hell out of here right now, and being unable to do anything but sit quietly and pray it left on its own.
It was absolute torture, the long twenty seconds of silence as they tried so hard no to even breathe while they heard its thumping steps come to a slow stop…and heard it sniff audibly.
How good was a troll's sense of smell again?
Harry couldn't remember if Quirrell had even mentioned that bit.
And then, above the stall walls he saw a huge, disgusting grey arm raise to the ceiling, holding a club twice his size.
He only just barely landed on top of Hermione, forcing her roughly to the ground as the world exploded in a huge crash of splintering wood as the club swiped the stalls and tore them half down like they were just paper. The woosh of the massive club streaming through the air above them was bone-chilling, reminding them that one hit of that thing meant death. Hermione let out a blood-curling scream against the floor as she covered her head with her hands to protect herself from the debris what was falling everywhere and crushing them slightly, and honestly Harry couldn't blame her.
"Move, move!" He shouted over the din the best he could, scrambling back as the club wound up again. At his voice she managed to crawl rather quickly towards the door as Harry went the other way, both flinching and ducking the second blow that tore down the rest of the stalls in one foul swoop. "GET OUT OF HERE!" He bellowed at her and she yet again began scrambling at his words.
The troll wound up again and now that they were all painfully exposed with not even the illusion of the wooden stalls to offer any kind of protection, his heart beating so hard it physically hurt, Harry finally remembered he was a bloody wizard and whipped his wand out, fumbling it slightly as the blood had yet to return to his hands.
He pointed it at the troll, the club in the air and so terrifyingly uncertain about where the creature was about to swing. It had just proven twice that it was here to kill them, and it was big and terrifying and it was about to kill one of them and Harry just panicked.
But he didn't know any freaking spells he was a first year for god's sake—what did he—what should he--!?
The club terrified him, and the first thing that came to mind was his McGonagall's voice saying in no uncertain terms: do not fuck with Transfiguration.
Okay, maybe he was paraphrasing.
Match to needle.
And suddenly that terrifying club melted before his eyes, molten metal pouring over the troll's arm and head from where it used to be above him and blinding it slightly. It blinked stupidly to get the cold silver liquid out of its eyes, lowering it's hand to blink stupidly at it as if its tiny brain couldn't comprehend what had just happened and where its club had gone.
Harry couldn't really comprehend it either, but his body was moving before his mind even considered being confused about it or think longer than it took to recognize the monster wasn't looking at him for the moment.
By that time Hermione had wiggled free of the debris and Harry took the troll's momentary distraction to free himself from the other end of the debris and make the gut-wrenchingly risky move to run behind the troll (too close too close too close too close) and bolt for the door she was holding open.
"GO, GO!"
They got free into the hallway and took off without another word or even glance, knowing they just needed to get the hell out of here.
And then there was a roar that almost made Harry pass out in terror, but his body pushed harder automatically as if it knew now was not the time to do anything but flee and didn't need his brain's terrified input on the matter.
Crash—the bathroom door behind them splintered into nothing and Hermione screamed again, but thankfully also didn't falter a step in their sprint. Harry would've screamed too if he wasn't so breathless in fear when they heard the huge, heavy beats of a troll hot on their heels.
THUMP—THUMP THUMP—THUMP—THUMP THUMP—
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god I'm gonna die—
Harry whipped around the next corner, having no idea where he was running too and honestly not thinking that hard about it other than get away, get away, get away—but he felt relief so hard it hurt when they whipped around a random corner and were faced with no less than eight teachers standing at the other end of the hall.
As if they were an oasis in the dessert, Harry poured everything into his run to get to them.
"HELP!" he bellowed in panic, Hermione letting out her own terrified screech to join him, and even at this distance he saw the moment the teachers saw the troll bound the corner behind them. Even Snape looked horrified.
Some small part of Harry realized this might be the strangest thing these professors had ever seen: the sight of two first years running full tilt away from an actual troll down a Hogwarts hallway. On another day, Harry might've even found it funny.
Today, he didn't find it very funny. Today, he was only just barely able to not cry in relief when every single professor immediately had their wands out and aimed at the beast barreling down on him.
The relief was short lived as a huge, moist, disgustingly hot and fleshy cage clamped over him, pinning his left arm to his body and his feet suddenly no longer attached to the ground.
He was so shocked by the sudden change and the sudden touch, he didn't even have time to feel afraid.
His heart didn't even have time to skip a beat before there was wind whipping through his hair.
And then the world felt small, and he couldn't breathe…
CRUNCH
WOOSH
CRACK
WHIRL
WHAM
…
Harry was seeing flashes of purple, gold, orange, and red, blinking a firework show of splotches in his vision reminding him randomly of this dream he used to have of a flash of green, and a man laughing. There wasn't any laughing this time, but there was a lot of screaming.
Wait, that was Hermione.
"Mr. Potter!"
Who was that again?
He felt fuzzy… his heart was still hammering so hard he felt it in his teeth, and he had no feeling in his hands. His brain was blank, but it helpfully supplied that he might be dying from the adrenaline.
That was a troubling thought that he was distinctly not troubled by for some reason.
And then it hit him—it was over so quickly he could only process it staring at the still ceiling above him, as the world stopped spinning and the flashes of pretty colors cleared out of his vision some.
The meaty hand around him—the troll, the monster—it had him, and it lifted him up. He'd never been that tall before, never seen the Hogwarts hallway from than angle before, and it was weird. His feet hadn't touched the ground like he was on a broom, but the world felt unbearable tight instead of weightless. The colors came from eight wands, streaming past him and nailing their target, and the wind in his hair was the creature stumbling, and then falling backwards, hand still gripping him whipping backwards and slamming into the stone ground as it collapsed, possibly dead.
He probably should've felt that. Why hadn't he felt that? That seemed like it should've hurt a lot, getting slammed into the ground like that…
"Mr. Potter!"
Oh yeah, that was McGonagall. He knew that voice, that had been the voice that had come to him.
Match to needle.
"Harry!" Hermione screamed, and this time he heard what she was saying. He also heard another voice trying to quiet her lowly.
"Mr. Potter, are you alright!?" McGonagall was there—and surprisingly so was Snape. They were both above him and he saw them move as one. It wasn't until they were pulling at the troll's limp fist that Harry realized he was still in the creature's grasp, and something about that horrified him so much he felt bile come surging up his throat.
Only it didn't burn, it felt slick and too hot.
The air felt too cold in comparison when they finally wrenched the fist open and reached for him gently, probably trying to get him clear of the downed monster as quickly as possible in case it awoke again. That's good… Harry had no desire to be anywhere near this thing every again. He felt sick.
And dizzy.
And as Snape touched his left arm, the world tilted approximately 45 degrees to the right, and the bile surged forward again. Only it wasn't bile, it was hot and too slick and tasted like pennies and suddenly his whole world felt red and he bit back a scream as the entire left side of his body lit up on fire.
Fire that clawed at his bones and left him nearly blind from the pain. He didn't know if he knew what pain was actually, because suddenly he was doubting that he'd ever known, but all he knew now was this was hell please make it stop.
He didn't want to throw up on Snape because gross, but even as he pressed his lips together as tight as he could he felt it stream out the corners of his lips and down his jaw as there was just too much and he coughed and suddenly he couldn't breathe—
--or had he been breathing at all? He thought maybe he'd stopped a while ago and just forgot.
"Potter," It sounded like he heard Snape inhale sharply, but the black spots were well and truly multiplying now so he couldn't see the Potions professor at all to even confirm it was really him.
"We need to get him to Madam Pomfrey, now!" someone said, and Harry had already forgotten them by the time they finished speaking.
He heard a word he didn't recognize and a flash of red, before the world went dark.
He sunk into the blackness wondering if he'd imagined a dream where it was green.