章節 15: Halloween
31st Oct 1991
The end of October brought the horrible, horrible smell of baked pumpkins. Seriously, what is it with these people and their obsession with pumpkins? Morning classes began with charms with the gryffindors. All the students were excited because they were about to learn the levitation charm. Professor Flitwick gave a demonstration and then set us to task. I made sure Hermione was nowhere near Ron Weasley, so she wouldn't end up spending the day in a bathroom. Class proceeded as usual with almost no one being able to perform the charm on the first session.
I was just taking a look around the class at some of the more amusing outcomes (Seamus had caused an explosion, again) when Professor Flitwick came up to my desk.
"Well, Mr. Carter, Ms. Granger, let's see what you can do," he said, looking expectedly at our feathers.
"Ladies first," I said, giving a mock bow to her.
Hermione rolled up her sleeves, flicked her wand and said, "wingardium leviosa!" Her feather rose off the desk and hovered about 4 feet above. I flicked my own wand, using minimum power and remembered to say the incantation out loud, as my feather rose up to meet hers.
"Excellent, ten points to Ravenclaw, each. Nicely done, both of you." With that Professor Flitwick went off to assist others. As soon as he was out of earshot, Hermione turned to me.
"Why do you always do that?" she said.
"Do what?" I asked.
"Do the bare minimum," she said, looking frustrated. "I know you can do better than this," she said pointing to my feather. "I saw you levitate two heavy trunks on the first day we met. I don't understand why you pretend to be less when you are leagues ahead of everyone else."
I looked at her for a moment to understand what brought this on. "Hermione I told you before, there is no real incentive to perform beyond expectations at Hogwarts. It's not like if I outshine everyone else, I would be allowed to practice magic in the summer or read some advanced books from the restricted section or skip grades to join the second or third year students.
No, all that would happen is that I would be awarded some house points. That's it. But worse, I would draw the attention of the teachers and they would try to keep an eye on me. They are used to dealing with children who take multiple classes to learn simple spells. That is the norm, you and I are exceptions. So if they find us practicing spells above the level of first years, they will try to stop us by saying that we will learn the spells when it is time for children our age to learn them, as I am sure they must've told every curious student they came across.
And that is why, Hermione more than 90% of witches and wizards in Wizarding Britain don't know any kind of powerful magic. The 10% that do, keep their head down, do the amount of work that is required in class and quietly study whatever draws their interest. It is the only way to learn magic above the level of your pears in school," I said, finally turning away and looking at the progress of the class.
A few moments passed in silence, as the rest of the class kept chanting 'wingardium leviosa'.
"I am sorry," she said. I turned to look at her. She kept her head down. "I didn't think of it this way. I was just frustrated that everyone thought I was as good as you, when you are so much better. It felt like I was cheating."
"Hermione you've got nothing to be worried about," I said, giving her a small smile. "You are the smartest girl I have ever met. I started practicing magic 5 years ago and when I did, I was nowhere near as fast as you. I am sure by the time we graduate, you'd leave everyone in the dust. Well, everyone except me, of course. But as I said, we are outliers." She gave a smile in response to that.
The day thankfully ended without incident, and soon we were heading to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast. The room had clearly been decorated to fit the spooky theme of the day. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling, while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds. Their movement made the candles inside the floating carved pumpkins flicker.
I sat down at our table with my fellow Ravenclaws. Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner were the boys in my year, while Sue Li, Mandy Brocklehurst, Morag MacDougal, Lisa Turpin and Padma Patil made up the female contingent.
Honestly, I wasn't the most social guy in The Before. Not that I was nervous or shy. No, I just preferred spending my time on meaningful pursuits, like reading a book over idle gossip. My previous friends and I had bonded over our love for pop culture. Which is why I found it difficult to connect with these kids, who had at best seen only a couple of muggle films. This is another reason why I preferred the company of Hermione, who was an avid fiction reader as well. We both found common ground in 'Doctor Who' and 'Sherlock Holmes'.
At the Gryffindor table, I saw Harry and Neville sitting side by side. Neville had become a bit more confident than when I first met him. The fact that he had friends motivating him certainly helped. They were talking with Ron, Seamus and Dean, the other first year Gryffindor boys. Ron and Harry had also become friends in this timeline, although not the kind of best buds they were in canon. It was logical, after all they both shared a dorm and Ron is fairly funny, that is when he is not being a jealous git. He seems to have formed a clique with Seamus and Dean.
Soon the feast magically appeared in the plates and goblets set on the tables. The house elves had once again outdone themselves. Speaking of house elves, Hermione had thankfully not started her crusade for elf rights. After all, unlike canon her introduction to elves did not begin with Dobby and Kreacher, two mistreated elves wearing dirty pillowcases. Rather, she saw a hundred of them dressed in clean uniforms and clearly happy. She probably assumed that as staff personnel, the elves must receive proper renumeration and holidays. After all, it's common sense. I did not feel the need to point out to her that the wizarding world does not follow something as mundane as common sense.
I was just digging into my shepherd's pie when Quirrelmort came running into the Hall. Great, now all this good food is going to waste.
"Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know." And then he did the worst impression of a faint.
There was a brief moment of school-wide panic that Dumbledore shut down, before ordering the Prefects to lead us to our dormitories.
"Alright, you heard the headmaster. All of you follow me," said Penelope Clearwater, standing up. I looked around to make sure some poor sod wasn't missing, but it seemed everyone was accounted for. At least all the first years were here. As Gryffindor and Ravenclaw dormitories were nearby we started leaving together.
As we ascended the stairs to the second floor, a horrible smell reached us, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet that remains perpetually uncleaned. And then we heard it - a low grunting and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. At the end of the passageway to the left, something huge was moving towards us. Soon, a horrible sight emerged into a patch of moonlight.
The troll was 12 feet tall, its skin a dull granite grey. It's lumpy body looked like a boulder with a small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It's short legs were as thick as tree trunks with flat horny feet. It was holding a wooden club, which dragged along the floor because it's arms were too long.
I was confused as hell. What was the damn thing doing here? Wasn't Quirrel supposed to release it on the first floor? Everything had been going according to the script till now. The only change was that Hermione wasn't in the girl's bathroom this time -
That Bastard! Did he release the troll in the original timeline knowing he had a chance to kill a talented muggleborn? I can only think of that as the reason why the troll is here right now. Well, well, guess who just earned themselves an ass-whooping.
The troll looked at us, confused for a moment, before it started walking towards us. All the students were frozen with terror. It was Penelope that broke the silence.
"Everyone, I want you to make your way back the stairs to the Great Hall," she said, her voice a mask of forced calm. "Don't worry about the troll, us Prefects will handle it. Once you reach the Great Hall, inform any teachers present of the troll's location. If there are no teachers, lock the doors shut and remain inside."
Praise where it was due, the girl had balls. Her shaking hands made it clear that she was nowhere near as confident as she made it seem. After all, a full-grown mountain troll, like this one, was an extremely dangerous level XXXX creature that was also incredibly aggressive. Prefects were usually chosen on the basis of their ability, so they were the cream of the crop. But what can two 5th year students do against a creature which boasts magical resistance second only to giants. No, it was most likely that both Penalope and Percy knew that it would end badly for them, maybe even fatally so, but they were still going to try.
I did not want to draw attention to myself, well anymore attention than being close friends with the boy-who-lived. But sometimes, life makes the choice for you. I walked out of the group, past the Prefects who tried to pull me back and took out my wand. I wanted to be anywhere but here, not because I was afraid of the troll but because of the godawfull smell.
"AGUAMENTI MAXIMA"
A powerful jet of water was released which crashed against the troll and formed a large puddle in the corridor. The creature stopped momentally to find itself soaking wet, then it roared, lifting its club and started making its way towards me. I guess it was pissed because it had no plans to take a shower in this century. I pointed towards the water on the floor.
"GLACIUS"
Instantly, the water froze over. There was now a thick layer of ice on the floor, very slippery ice. The troll, not known for its dexterity, slipped and fell on its back. It tried to get up, but could find no purchase on the frictionless surface and kept falling down. Now, step three. I pointed to its nice big club that had fallen out of its hand when it fell.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA"
The club rose from the floor, high up into the air above the oblivious troll who was too busy trying to get up. I waved my wand, and the club hit the troll's head in the same way a batter hits a baseball for a homerun. There was a nice big 'Thwack' and then the troll fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the entire corridor tremble.
Not my favourite way of dealing with trolls, but oh well, when there are witnesses around it's best not to do anything too extreme. I turned around to find everyone suitably shell-shocked. I waited for a moment, but when no one said anything, I cleared my throat, "So, are we still going back to the common room or are we going back to the feast? Because I am still hungry and I could really use some of that shepherd's pie. It was delicious."
And like that, the spell was broken. Everyone started talking excitedly and I even noted some appreciative glances from the girls. Of course, it was at that precise moment when the threat was already dealt with, that the professors decided to show up. I swear, it's like the universe wants the rise of young heroes.
Professor McGonagall came bursting up the stairs, followed by Snape and Quirrel. Quirrel took one look at the troll and let out a faint whimper clutching his chest. Seriously man, give it a rest!
Snake looked at the troll and then at the floor. He waved his wand and the ice disappeared, after which he went and checked the fallen beast. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall turned to the prefects. "What happened here?"
As the Prefects were informing the professors about the excitement from earlier, I made my way back to my friends. Ron Weasley came forward, "That was wicked, mate," he said with shining eyes. Behind him, all the boys were fervently nodding their heads. I give a light chuckle. "Thanks, pal." Before they could start asking questions though, Professor McGonagall rounded on me. "Mr. Carter, what were you thinking? You could have been killed?"
"I know, Professor," I said in a calm voice. "That is exactly why I did what I did."
She looked at me with a furious gaze. "Why didn't you follow the orders given by the Prefects?"
"Well, given the way her hands were shaking, I didn't think Ms. Clearwater was confident that she would be able to best the troll. Which is of course, not a reflection of her ability," I said looking towards Penalope, "merely that her opponent was a level XXXX beast with extremely magic resistant skin. She would have fought valiantly no doubt, but it was highly likely that she and Mr. Weasley over there would have met a tragic end. And then the troll would have come after us again."
Her expression softened somewhat at my admittance that I had acted to save lives, but she was far from being pacified. "And you thought you could do better than two 5th year students?"
"Respectfully Professor, yes," I said, looking her in the eye. "If you care to remember, my dad is an Auror and he is well aware of how every year something happens that makes the DADA Professor unable to teach anymore. Before coming to Hogwarts, my father made sure that I was prepared to deal with unexpected situations, even ones involving dangerous magical creatures. Today such a situation arose. I was prepared for it, so I dealt with it, to make sure no unnecessary harm befell anyone."
She looked at me for a moment longer with a tight expression, before giving a sigh. "20 points to Ravenclaw for efficient charmswork and bravery in the face of danger. Now off to your common rooms, before you get up to anymore trouble."
I give a shrug and started following the rest of the students. As we went out of earshot of the professors who were now busy with the troll, I turned to the Ravenclaw prefect. "So...about that pie?"
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