CHAPTER SEVEN:

Third Person P.O.V.:

After that night, the four Gryffindors had subconsciously agreed not to mention the three-headed dog or the trap door until it was necessary.

Harry Potter was currently getting a Quidditch lesson from Oliver Wood, while Hermione was in the library, and Ron was off somewhere with his siblings.

Charlie Hawthorne took the time away from his friends to go and check in with his grandfather who he hadn't really talked to since he moved out. The young boy knocked twice before entering his grandfather's office with Ludo following behind him.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" The boy asked as he peered into the room and noticed Dumbledore sitting as his desk doing some paperwork.

Albus looked up and smiled at his grandson as he shook his head and waved him inside, "Charlie my boy! Come in! Come in!"

The brown eyed boy sat down in the chair in front of his grandfather's desk while Ludo jumped up into his lap, "So, what were you working on?"

Dumbledore sighed, "I was just reading over this complaint that Mr. Filch had brought to my attention. He believes students were in the corridor up on the third floor the other night."

Charlie processed this new information quietly and gulped nervously before his grandfather spoke again, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you Charles?"

The young boy looked up to meet the old man's gaze and tried to look as unsuspicious as possible, "No. First I'm heading of it."

Dumbledore gave the boy a small smile before nodding his head, "I see. Well, whoever it was, I don't see a problem. As long as they are safe and they aren't looking to make a habit of it."

Charlie now smirked as he knew his grandfather knew it was him and his friends. Dumbledore always knew everything somehow. It made it impossible for the boy to get away with anything when he was young.

"Anyways, I heard about you being the new addition to the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Dumbledore spoke once again, "I'm very proud! That is very exciting!"

Charlie smiled widely, "Thank you. It still feels quite surreal."

"I'm sure it does. That's a big accomplishment for you and Mr. Potter," Dumbledore pauses for a moment, "Speaking of Harry, I've noticed that the two of you have grown quite close."

The young boy raised a brow at his grandfather before nodding, "Yeah, Harry's my best mate, why do you ask?"

Dumbledore just quickly shook his head, "No reason. That boy has been through quite a lot, just like you. It makes a lot of sense that you two bonded so quickly."

"I guess," Charlie shrugged before dropping the conversation and attempting to move on to a new topic, "Anything else new for you? What have I missed?"

Albus sighed, "You haven't missed much Charles. I actually had a conversation with your father."

Once again, Charlie gulped. He had almost forgot about his father and his stupid letters, "What did he say?"

"Just that he was going to reach out to you because you haven't been responding to him," Dumbledore explained before looking at the young boy with concerned eyes, "Has your father sent you anything recently?"

The boy shook his head.

"Char—"

The young Hawthorne cut his grandfather off, "It's nothing, okay? Don't worry about it." Charlie moved Ludo onto the floor and got up, "I should get going. I have to bring Ludo back and class is starting soon."

Without another word, the boy and his furry companion left the room quickly, leaving Dumbledore to worry about his grandson alone in his office.

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By the time Charlie brought Ludo back to the dorm, he had been running a little late to Charms with Professor Flitwick. He rushed to the classroom before opening the door quietly, in hopes that no one would notice.

"Ah Mr. Hawthorne," Professor Flitwick said in a disappointed tone, "Nice of you to join us."

The brown eyed boy watched everyone in the room turn to where he was standing. Charlie looked at Ron, Harry and Hermione in their desks and shrugged as they were all silently wondering where he'd been.

"I'm sorry Profess-" The boy began, but Flitwick cut him off.

"It's alright Charlie, please just take your seat."

The boy moved to the desk in between Ron and Harry and sat down. He looked down and saw a feather. It was then where Flitwick told the students to use the swish and flick technique to preform the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa.

As he was waving his wand about, he overheard Ron and Hermione fighting;

"Look, stop! Stop! Stop! You're going to take someone's eye out! Besides, you're saying it wrong! It's LeviOsa, not LeviosAAAA."

"You do it then if you're so clever, go on!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

And with that Hermione's feather levitated without hesitation, which left Ron a bit cross.

Then there was an explosion, which made Charlie turn his head. To no ones surprise, Seamus had blown himself up again somehow.

Charlie laughed, "I think he's gonna need another feather over there Professor."

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As Harry, Ron and Charlie walked out of class, Ron was going on and on about Hermione's critiques in Charms.

"It's LeviOsa," He mocked, "She's a nightmare, honestly. No wonder she hasn't any friends."

It was then that an upset Hermione bumped into the boy and pushed past him, crying.

"I think she heard you." Harry said, as he watched the girl walk off.

Charlie instantly smacked Ron on the back of the head, "You really are daft sometimes."

Without a second thought, the brown eyed boy ran after the bushy haired girl.

"Hermione!"

She walked faster.

So, the boy ran even faster, caught up to her and pulled her in a hallway alcove, "Hermione, hey. Talk to me. Don't listen to Ron, he's daft and doesn't know what he's talking abo—"

The brown eyed girl quickly cut him off and wiped a couple tears from her eyes, "Charlie, please. Please just leave me alone."

With that she ran down the hall and into the girls lavatories, leaving the brown eyed boy standing there alone with a frown plastered on his face.

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It had been a couple hours since their exchange and yet, Charlie had still been sitting on the window sill near the girl's bathroom waiting until Hermione was ready to talk. After a while, he figured it was best to let her have her space. He got up quietly and walked back to the Great Hall by himself. As he entered, he walked down the middle of the room and met his Gryffindor friends at the table.

As he sat down, Harry spoke, "There you are! Where's Hermione? Is she alright?"

The brown eyed boy shook his head slowly, "I wouldn't know. She told me to leave her alone and then went into the bathroom to cry. She hasn't been out since. I'm getting kind of worried."

Ronald Weasley just sat there with a guilty look on his face. Charlie just shrugged it off before grabbing a piece of food and eating for the first time today.

This day was his worst day at Hogwarts by far. Dumbledore knows that he and his friends were on the third floor. Not to mention, he's suspicious about what's going on with Charlie's father. Flitwick called him out for his tardiness, and now? Hermione has been locked away crying for hours, and the boy felt terrible because he didn't know what to do.

The sad boy was pulled from his thoughts as Professor Quirrell entered the Hall with a scream, "TROLL!" He yelled, "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!"

Charlie watched his fellow students panic before looking up to grandfather. 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 issue.

Ron, Harry and Charlie began to walk back to the dorm before the brown eyed boy pulled the two of them back, "Wait! We can't!"

Ron and Harry looked at him confused before Ron spoke, "Uh, why not?"

"Hermione's in the girls bathroom," Charlie explained, "She doesn't know about the troll. We have to warn her."

Without second thought, the three boys ran down the hall towards the girls lavatories. It was then that they saw the giant mountain troll enter the exact location where they had been heading.

Charlie started to panic as Ron and Harry kept asking what they should do. Within a few moments, the three boys heard a high pitched scream coming from Hermione.

They ran into the bathroom without hesitation and came face to face with the mountain troll. The beast had already destroyed half of the bathroom, and Charlie spotted Hermione on the ground trying to crawl away.

"Hermione move!" Harry yelled as he, Ron and Charlie all started picking up rubble from the ground and chucking it at the troll's head to distract him so she could get away.

"Hey! Pea brain!" Ron yelled, and threw a piece of wood directly at the trolls face causing it to look angrily in the boys direction, "Okay! Now what?"

"Help!" Hermione yelled from her hiding spot under the sinks.

Harry and Charlie looked at each other and nodded before pulling out their wands and charging toward the troll, grabbing on to its massive hands.

With Charlie in the troll's left hand and Harry in the right, the boys tried to hit it repeatedly to try and slow it down. They clearly didn't think this plan through as it wasn't long before they were being thrown around like rag dolls.

"Ron," Harry yelled while being held upside down, "Do something!"

"What?" Ron asked confused and looked around for something to use.

Charlie was getting frustrated as the blood started rushing to his head from being held upside down, "For goodness sake! Literally do anything!"

It was then that Ron took out his wand and used the levitation charm that Hermione had critiqued earlier in the day. The charm levitated the troll's wooden club and let it fall directly on his head, knocking the troll out which caused the release of Harry and Charlie.

As the brown eyed boy landed on the ground, he rose to his feet and then ran over to Hermione to help her up, "Are you alright?"

She looked in the boy's eyes and nodded, "Thanks to you." Hermione then realized what she said and pulled her gaze away from Charlie's. She looked to Ron and Harry quickly, "I mean the three of you."

Charlie blushed slightly before walking over to join Harry and Ron to make sure they were alright. It was then that McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell came running into the bathroom.

"Oh my goodness!" Minerva said before looking at the three Gryffindor boys, "Explain yourselves! The three of you!"

"Well—"

"You see—"

"Er—"

Hermione cut all three boys off at once, "It was my fault. I went looking for the troll. I read about them and thought I could handle it. If Charlie, Harry and Ron hadn't arrived when they did, I'd probably be dead."

The three boys looked at the bushy haired girl with shocked expressions plastered on all of their faces.

"I'm very disappointed with you Miss Granger, I expected better. 5 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement," McGonagall spoke to the girl before turning back to the boys, "As for you three 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 boys all smiled at one another as the Professors left the bathroom. The four Gryffindors walked out together and down the hallway.

"Good of you to get us out of trouble like that," Harry said to Hermione as they walked.

Ron scoffed, "Mind you, we did just save her life!"

Charlie hit Ron on the back of the head for the second time today, "Mind you, she probably wouldn't had needed saving if you hadn't insulted her!"

Rubbing the back of his head, the ginger haired boy smiled, "Well, what are friends for?"

For the first time ever, Ron and Hermione shared a smile.

They were almost back to the Gryffindor common room when Harry had spoken up once again, "Did anyone else see Snape's knee? It was all scratched up and bloodied. What if he let the troll in as a diversion so he could try and get past the three-headed dog and retrieve whatever is hidden under the trapped door? But then he got bitten! What if he's trying to find the thing Hagrid took from Dumbledore's vault?"

"I think that's enough theorizing for one day, Harry." Charlie said, "Seriously mate, we just fought a troll. That trap door and the three-headed dog is the last thing on my mind."

Harry sighed as Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement wth Charlie, "Okay."

With that another day at Hogwarts was over and the four Gryffindors went off to bed. Everyone can agree that this night's sleep was very well deserved.

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Author's Note:
*this chapter was not proof read*

Hope everyone enjoyed! Almost at the end of Philosophers Stone! Are you enjoying those subtle moments between Charlie and Hermione?

If you enjoyed be sure to vote, comment and share with your friends! It would mean so much!

Until next time! Much love to you all!

xo, Selena