𓏲 . THE BOY WHO LIVED . .៹♡
                                                           CHAPTER NINE
                                                  ─── HALLOWEEN

After that night, the three Gryffindors and the two Slytherins unconsciously agreed not to mention the three-headed dog or the trapdoor until it was necessary.

Charlus Potter woke up very tired that morning, as he had also had detention the night before. But the excitement of Quiddich lesson with Marcus Flint had invigorated him for the day. Hermione was in the library  while Ron was somewhere with Alistair and Harry after the latter had a Quidditch lesson with Oliver Wood.

"Quidditch is easy to understand. Each team has seven players. three chasers, two beaters, one keeper and the seeker, that's you."Marcus explained and pointed at Charlus as they placed a heavy trunk on the ground in the middle of one of the grassed school grounds.

The oldest boy knelt down and opened the flap in which 3 balls lay. The first one he picked up was reddish-brown and had three half-hollowed circles, two on each side and one on the bottom.

"There's 3 kinds of balls. This one is called the Quaffle." Marcus said  and passed it to Charlus.  "Now the chasers take the quaffle in their hands and try to throw it through one of the three hoops." he continued to explain and pointed to the playing field with the three different sized hoops and the seating stall with flags.

"The keeper defends the hoops. You with me so far?" he asked him. "I think so." Charlus said and skillfully threw the quaffle back to him. "What are those?" he then asked and pointed at two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Charlus noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.

Marcus placed the Quaffle back in the trunk and handed Charlus a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat. "Stand back." Marcus  warned Charlus. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers. At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Charlus' face.

Charlus swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking his nose,and sent the ball so far away in the air that you couldn't even see it. Marcus stared at Charlus with a mixture of amazement and admiration, his eyes wide. Charlus simply turned and smiled broadly at him.  "Incredible, Potter!" Marcus said with a mixture of awe and appreciation. "Thank you."  Charlus replied with humble gratitude. "I'm serious." Marcus continued with sincere conviction. " You would be a great beater."

Charlus was about to say something back, but he closed his mouth again when they saw the ball finally come back. "Uh oh." Marcus said as he focused on the Bludger before he  dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground. The Bludger seemed to squirm and wriggle before he forced it back into the crate and strapped it down securely.

"What was that?" Charlus asked with interest and Marcus looked up at him. "Bludgers, nasty little beasts. But you're a Seeker." he explained to him and then opened a small compartment with the four houses on the inside of the crate.

He took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut.  It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings. "The only thing I want you to worry about is this. The Golden Snitch." he said and handed it to Charlus, who looked at the beautiful decorations on this little thing. "I like this ball."

"Ah you like it now, but just wait." Marcus said with a hint of warning in his voice as he noticed Charlus showing interest in the snitch.  "It's wicked fast and down near impossible to see." Charlus frowned, unsure of what to do with this new information. "What do I do with it?" he asked, a little confused, as his gaze fell on the snitch in his hand.  "You catch it." Marcus explained firmly, his eyes shining with determination. " Before the other team seeker. You catch this Potter, and we win."

Suddenly the snitch jumped up and began to fly around wildly. Marcus seemed to have difficulty chasing it, while Charlus surprisingly had no trouble keeping up. The look on his face betrayed a certain amount of amazement. "Wow!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Charlus could hardly believe it when he realized that he'd already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had. His lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.

On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they were all eager to try.

Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye). Charlus looked quite happy to be paired with Alistair, who gave a grin in return. Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She still hadn't spoken a word to either of them ever since the dog incident.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too --never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f'and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

It was very difficult. Harry and Seamus swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it -- Harry had to put it out with his hat.

Charlus, at the next table,looked at feather and picked up his wand. "Swish and flick." he repeated Professor Flitwick's words. "Swish and flick." He then looked at Alistair. "You want to do it together?" "Sure." he said with a small smile before they pointed their wands at their feathers. "Wingardium Leviosa!" they said at the same time.

At the same time as Alistair's, Charlus' feather flew in the air,  and with a wide smile, Charlus let his feather dance in the air.  "Excellent!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed with a pleased smile, acknowledging their display of talent. "Twenty points to Slytherin!"

After Alistair and Charlus gingerly  leaded their feathers back to the desk, their eyes met in mutual satisfaction. With a sense of accomplishment, they high-fived each other and celebrated their success.

Charlus looked at Ron and Hermione, who seemed to be lecturing him about something. "Wingardium Leviosa." Ron  shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. "Look, stop! Stop! Stop! You're going to take someone's eye out! Besides, you're saying it wrong! " Hermione told him.  "It's LeviOsa, not LeviosAAAA." "You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron snarled. "Go on!"

Alistair and Charlus exchanged a glance, already knowing this wouldn't end well for Ron. Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" And with that her feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads. "Well done!" Professor Flitwick cried, clapping. "Ten points for Gryffindor!"

Hermione looked at Ron with an I-told-you-look while Ron scowled and rested his arms on his books and propped his chin on his arms. Then there was an explosion, which made Charlus turn his head. He saw that Seamus' feather was burned and his face was covered in root.

"I think we're going to need another feather over here, Professor. " Harry muttered loudly as he looked at the burned feather. Meanwhile, Alistair and Charlus exchanged a glance and then both burst out in laughter.

As Harry,Ron Charlus and Alistair walked out of class, Ron was in a very bad mood by Hermione's critiques in Charms.  "It's LeviOsa, not LeviosAAAA." he repeated dramatically, as they made their way through the crowd. "She's a nightmare, honestly. No wonder she hasn't any friends."

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Charlus caught a glimpse of her face -- and was startled to see that she was in tears. "I think she heard you." he muttered, as he watched the girl walk off.

Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast,  Harry,Ron Charlus and Alistair  overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked awkward at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

"Why is there only pumpkin stuff? It's so bad. " Charlus heard Adrian say, who was only picking baked potatoes. "It's Halloween, isn't it? What do you want?"  Draco said to his twin brother.

Charlus was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll -- in the dungeons -- thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

The Great Hall erupted into screams and shouts of fear as the students got up from their seats, on their way to leave the hall. Dumbledore quickly silenced the whole room and told everyone to remain calm. He instructed the Prefects to escort the students back to the dormitories while the Professors would deal with the troll problem down in the dungeons.

"Come on, Slytherin students!"  Gemma Farley called out and  swallowed the food that was in her mouth. "Alright! Stay right behind me, okay, kids? Make way for the first-year students!"

"How could a troll get in?" Charlus asked as they climbed the stairs. "Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid. " Alistair said and shrugged.  "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Charlus suddenly grabbed Alistair's arm. "Wait! We can't!"

Alistair looked at him confused before he spoke, "Uh, why not?"  "Hermione's in the girls bathroom. " Charlus explained to him. "She doesn't know about the troll. We have to warn her."

Without second thought, the two boys ran away from the Slytherin people. They both mingled with other students, they knew that Harry and Ron were going to the same place as them. Charlus and Alistair were correct, in a short time, they met with both of them.

"Hi." Charlus and Alistair said, panting from the run, their breath still heavy. "And I thought Harry and I would have to play the heroes alone. " Ron remarked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Charlus snorted lightly and then grinned crookedly. "Do we look like we'd let the fun slip away?" he asked, his eyes lively with excitement. Harry cast a serious glance at them, his expression revealing concern. "This is no time for jokes. Hermione is in danger." he reminded them with a trace of urgency in his voice.

"Do you smell something?" Alistair asked, sniffling a little. Charlus sniffed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.

And then they heard it — a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed — at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its'arms were so long.

The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

"The keys in the lock. " Harry muttered thoughtfully as he stared at the door. His forehead creased in concentration as he pondered. "We could lock it in." "Good idea. " Ron agreed nervously. "Good idea?!" Charlus suddenly shouted, his voice full of panic. "Hermione is inside, you guys!"

Harry, Alistair, and Ron exchanged an alarmed glance. Ron swallowed hard as he quickly reconsidered. "Bad idea, Harry." he changed his response in a flash, his expression now serious and concerned.

Quickly, they entered the bathroom and came face to face with the mountain troll. The beast had already destroyed half of the bathroom, and Charlus spotted Hermione on the ground.

"Hermione, move!" Harry shouted as he, Ron, Alistair, and Charlus began picking up rubble from the ground. With precise throws, they aimed the rubble at the troll's head  to distract him so she could get away.

"Hey! Pea brain!" Ron yelled, and threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused, turning its ugly snout toward the boys instead. "Help!" Hermione yelled from her hiding spot under the sinks.

Harry and Charlus looked at each other and nodded before they drew their wands. Then they did something that was both very brave and very stupid: They ran towards the troll and managed to hold onto its huge hands.

With Charlus in the troll's left hand and Harry in the  right, the boys attempted several times to hit it in order to slow its movements. However, it seemed they hadn't thought this plan through thoroughly enough, for it wasn't long before they were tossed through the air like puppets, thrown back and forth by the  troll, who scarcely seemed to take notice of their feeble attacks.

"Ron,Alistair. " Harry yelled while being held upside down. "Do something!" "What?" Ron asked confused and looked around the room in search of something to use in order to help his friends. Alistair couldn't help but roll his eyes before he pulled out his own wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The club flew suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over -- and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

The Potter twins landed with a dull thud on the ground. They quickly scrambled to their feet, and then Harry bent down and pulled their wands out of the troll's nose. The wands were coated with a sticky, lumpy substance that looked like gray glue and smelled disgusting.

"Ugh - Troll boogers." Harry commented with a shudder while he wiped them off on his cloak to remove the sticky slime. Finally, he handed one of the cleaned wands to Charlus. "Is he dead?" Hermione asked cautiously as she walked over to join Harry, Ron, Alistair, and Charlus. "I don't think so." Charlus replied. "Just knocked out."

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the five of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars.

A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. "Oh my goodness!" Professor McGonagall said before she looked at the two Gryffindor and two Slytherin boys. "Explain yourselves! The four of you!"

The four boys started talking over each other, but  Hermione cut them off at once. "It was my fault. I went looking for the troll. I read about them and thought I could handle it. If Charlus, Harry, Alistair and Ron hadn't arrived when they did, I'd probably be dead."

The four boys looked at the girl with bushy hair, shocked.  Hermione Granger, was telling a downright lie to a teacher?

"Be that as it may, it was a extremely foolish thing to do. I would've expected more rational behavior on tour part and I am very disappointed in you, Ms. Granger!" began the professor, giving Hermione a scolding. Meanwhile, Harry, Charlus, and Alistair looked down at Snape's leg, which was covered in blood. When Snape noticed their gaze, he quickly moved his black robe to cover his leg. "Five points will be taken from Gryffindor, for your serious lack of judgement."

And then she looked at the  four boys, who looked at her guiltily. "As for you four gentlemen, you have to realize how lucky you were. Many in your position wouldn't have lived to tell this tale. 5 points will be...awarded to each of you for sheer, dumb luck."

The four boys had to grin broadly, and Hermione also gave them a warm smile, which they returned. "P...perhaps you outta go...m...might wake up." Professor Quirrell laughed nervously and looked at the troll as they walked past him. They heard him scream as the troll roared once and Charlus looked back at the teacher uncertainly, who tried to hide his fear with a laugh.

"Good of you to get us out of trouble like that." Harry said to Hermione as they walked down the hallway. "Mind you, we did just save her life!" Ron scoffed, to which Alistair rolled his eyes. Charlus instantly smacked Ron on the back of the head. "Mind you, she probably wouldn't had needed saving if you hadn't insulted her!" he told him. The redhead rubbed the back of his head and smiled. "Well, what are friends for?" he replied, and for the first time, he and Hermione shared a smile.

From that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

━━ AUTHORS NOTE

Hope everyone enjoyed! Almost at the end of Philosophers Stone!

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