"Shh. Keep your voice down," Roger Williams whispered, trying to calm Hermione before panic could take complete hold of her.
"Roger, how can there be a troll in the school?" Hermione's voice trembled so badly it almost broke. She clung to him tightly, her face pale with terror as the heavy footsteps drew nearer. "It's coming. What do we do?"
"Follow me." Roger took her hand and felt his way around the corner, keeping close to the wall.
They could not simply run from the troll. The corridor was too narrow, the creature too close, and blind panic would only make them noisy enough to attract its attention faster.
Roger glanced at the simulation option in his mind and dismissed it almost immediately. It was already too late to leave the library safely, and rather than pin his hopes on a simulation, he needed to conserve every bit of magic he had and prepare to fight.
"Pick up your wand, Hermione," Roger said, patting her shoulder. "We are wizards. We can control this."
Hermione nodded shakily. Her hand trembled as she gripped her wand, and her eyes kept darting toward the slowly approaching troll, but at least she was holding it now instead of freezing completely.
"It stopped," Hermione whispered, relief flickering briefly across her face. "Should we go find the Headmaster?"
She exhaled a hot, uneven breath and looked completely drained. The hand holding her wand still shook slightly, and Roger could tell that fear had nearly emptied her strength.
"Today is Halloween," Roger said quietly. "Except for us and Madam Pince, everyone else should be in the Great Hall."
He glanced toward the troll and saw it standing in front of a portrait with a foolish grin on its tiny face. The painted figure inside had wisely fled the frame, leaving the troll smiling stupidly at an empty background.
"I'll get its attention," Roger said. "You go find Madam Pince and have her take you to the Headmaster and the professors."
When he thought of Dumbledore, Roger could not help muttering inwardly. Quirrell had not brought in a bag, and without the old man's tacit approval, a troll should never have been able to enter Hogwarts at all.
Roger knew even more clearly that Quirrell's true target was the Philosopher's Stone. Harry was secondary compared with that, and tonight's Halloween feast had already gathered Dumbledore and the professors neatly in one place.
Adding a troll to the castle now was not only unnecessary, but almost too obvious. Roger was more inclined to believe the creature had been deliberately released, and he had simply been unlucky enough to run straight into it.
In the Great Hall, everyone was still celebrating Halloween. Enormous carved pumpkins floated overhead with rows of candles, their ghostly faces glowing orange in the enchanted light.
The ghosts were especially joyful on their special day. Even the Bloody Baron wore something that almost resembled a smile, and foreign ghosts drifted through the castle one after another, playing their own strange head-hunting games.
Harry noticed the atmosphere around him felt strangely quiet, and then he realised Hermione was not there. Usually, she would have been talking too much about something, explaining rules, facts, or details nobody had asked for.
"Where did Hermione go?" he asked.
"She's probably in the library with Slytherin's Roger," Ron said angrily. "I saw them together with my own eyes."
His face twisted as he stabbed at his food. "She's a traitor to Gryffindor. She could have finished first in Charms today."
"We all heard this morning that Roger lost five points for breaking school rules," Ron continued complaining. "If Hermione hadn't gone easy on him, Professor Flitwick definitely wouldn't have given him those points back."
"If you ask me," he added bitterly, "she should just transfer to Slytherin."
Just as they were talking about Hermione, Quirrell burst into the Great Hall in a panic. "Troll," he shouted, stumbling forward. "There's a troll in the school."
He stared hard at Dumbledore, and his eyes held emotions far more complicated than fear. "I think you know, Dumbledore—"
Before poor Professor Quirrell could finish, he was knocked unconscious by some unseen force. Screams immediately tore through the Great Hall as the young witches and wizards sprang into chaos.
While Dumbledore instructed the professors and prefects to calm the students and lead them away in an orderly manner, Roger prepared to make his move in the corridor.
"Hermione, listen to me," Roger said solemnly as he saw the troll start moving again. "If I say run, you run without looking back."
"Roger, I… I can't run fast," Hermione whispered. Tears trembled in her voice, and fear made her fingers dig into his sleeve.
"Don't cry. Wizards don't cry." Roger wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and gave her a bright, sunny smile.
"I'm here. I'll distract it." He gently pried Hermione's hand from his arm and made sure she was still holding her wand, just in case something went terribly wrong.
Then, because fear needed something absurd to break it, he added, "If I die and become a ghost, I'll follow you around the castle every day. If you don't want me watching you while you shower, go find the Headmaster and professors to save me."
"You wouldn't dare!" Hermione gasped.
The horrible joke actually worked. A shaky spark of anger cut through her terror, and in that moment Roger jumped out from behind the statue and used the Levitation Charm to hurl a loose stone ornament at the troll.
"Hey, big oaf," Roger shouted, jumping and waving his wand. "Over here. Come and get me!"
The troll saw the tiny figure fleeing in front of it. Its filthy black feet shifted against the stone, and then it stomped forward heavily in pursuit.
Its massive club swung with furious strength, smashing statues and suits of armour along the corridor into broken pieces. Metal shrieked, stone cracked, and dust exploded into the air around them.
"Roger!" Hermione cried, hating her own helplessness.
She felt utterly powerless before the troll. Spells she could perform in class seemed thin and fragile now, and the terrifying weight of the creature made her mind go blank.
"Hermione, close your eyes!" Roger shouted.
"Lumos!"
It was the first spell he had mastered and the one he trusted most. His abundant magic let him pour far more power into it than an ordinary Wand-Lighting Charm, and the tip of his wand flared like a miniature sun, flooding the entire corridor with fierce white light.
"Hey, big oaf, come on," Roger shouted. "Can you see me?"
The troll's eyes were swallowed by blinding white. Only a black dot bobbed vaguely before it, and the shouts and movement around it enraged the creature even more.
It roared and launched a deadly charge straight at Roger.
"Impedimenta!"
Roger cast the spell at the troll, but the books had not exaggerated. Troll hide had excellent magical resistance, and the spell barely slowed it.
"Damn it."
The troll charged like an enraged rhinoceros. Roger rolled aside at the last possible moment, narrowly avoiding the impact as the creature thundered past and shook its dim little head.
Then its club swept around.
First swing, second swing, third swing. Roger dodged again and again, but the troll's attacks became increasingly fierce, each blow covering more of the corridor and leaving him less room to breathe.
If he had not blinded it earlier, he would already have been smashed into mincemeat. The club slammed into walls and statues with brutal force, and every near miss sent wind stinging across his face.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Roger seized a brief opening and cast at the troll's club. The huge weapon paused in midair, but the troll's grip remained firm, and the charm could not tear it free.
"Damn it. I knew I couldn't count on that."
Roger rolled away in an undignified scramble, then used the Levitation Charm to wrench a heavy warhammer from the wall. The iron hammer rose and slammed down onto the troll's head.
The blow did not smash its tiny skull the way Roger had hoped. It only left the creature dazed for a moment, swaying stupidly in place.
"Old bee, I'm not done with you," Roger cursed under his breath.
The hammer strike had almost no effect, and the realization made his stomach sink. If Dumbledore had truly allowed this monster into the castle, Roger was going to remember it.
"Hermione, run!" he shouted while the troll was stunned.
Hermione rushed out from behind the statue, and her first instinct was still to raise her wand for a sneak attack. A young wizard's magic might have been enough to deal with Fluffy under the right circumstances, but against a creature this large, they could only outsmart it, not overpower it.
"Go!" Roger growled.
Hermione struggled to lower her wand, then turned and ran. Bright tears trailed behind her in the corridor, catching the wandlight as she fled.
The troll rubbed its battered head and stared dazedly down at the little thing in front of it. Roger continued hurling objects with the Levitation Charm, and at first the troll tried to block them, but soon it simply ignored the impacts.
Its sight gradually recovered. Though its movements were clumsy, the strength behind every swing was terrifying, and the wind from the club stung Roger's face each time it passed.
If the dragon blood in Tranquil Galaxy had not strengthened his body, he might already have been too exhausted to move and would have been crushed into pulp. Even so, the situation was getting worse with every passing second.
The corridor was not wide, and at the end stood a dead end blocked by mosaic windows. If the troll charged straight at him, it could kill him outright, but fortunately, its tiny brain was not bright enough to command another deadly rush.
Instead, it kept swinging its club and forcing Roger backward. His room to dodge grew smaller and smaller.
"We can't delay any longer," Roger muttered.
He glanced at his remaining magic, then at the space behind him. He did not have many chances left.
There was a drop outside the window, and lacking Neville's peculiar talent for falling from the sky, jumping was out of the question. Only two choices remained: trap the troll, or kill it.
"Palus Emergo!"
.....
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