(Word Count: 1,718)
'What… the frick?'
Harry's mind reeled with more questions than answers. Who was that old man? Daemons? What did that mean? What did he want to say at the end? What did he need?
It seemed like this may be all that Fate was willing to tell me about this vision.
"Wow…" A voice pulled him back out of his thoughts. Right. Professor Trelawney was here.
She looked awestruck at what they had just seen. "In all my years, I've never been able to actually remember any of my visions. And now…" tears welled up in her eyes. "Thank you, Potter, truly."
"No need to thank me, Professor. If anything, I should be thanking you. You're the one that led the ritual," Harry said.
"Yes, but you're the one favored by fate itself. The mysteries of the three crones are not usually so forthcoming. This has not been the first time I tried this ritual. This is the first time I actually succeeded!" She laughed, somewhat bitterly. "I know I'm not their favorite. I can't even remember what prophecies I tell, or when I give them."
What did he say to that?
"You should be on your way, Potter. The feast has already begun."
"What!" Harry whirled around to look at the nearest clock. It was already 6pm! "How did so much time pass already?"
Harry scrambled to his feet and was already running out the door. He didn't stop until he was pushing open the great hall's doors.
All of the students were there, and the teachers were up at their tables. So Quirrell hadn't come in yet. Harry hurried over to the Gryffindor's table, scanning the students for Hermione, Ron, and Neville.
He didn't see them.
"Lavender! Where's Hermione?" Harry asked urgently. There was a flash of guilt across her face and mind, then it turned to anger. Harry's stomach sank.
"Like I would know!" Lavender said angrily, but she wouldn't meet his eyes.
He turned to Eloise Midgen, the other girl who was with them, and she looked away guiltily as well.
They did something. He would have to deal with them later.
He turned to Dean and Saemus, who were sitting across from her. "Dean, Saemus, have you seen Ron and Neville?"
"Don't know, mate. They ran off just as the feast was starting," Dean said. "I think they left to go find you. You must have just missed them."
None of them were here. Harry cursed, and turned right back around and left. As he was leaving, Quirrell ran past him. He could hear him yelling behind him, "Troll! In the Dungeon! Thought you ought to know."
And the great hall exploded into screams of terror.
But the noise quickly faded away as he ran down the hallway. He pulled out the marauder's map from his cloak's pocket. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"
The map revealed itself. With everyone at the feast, it was easy to pick out the very few people that weren't. He quickly located them. They were all on the second floor, running quickly, and they darted into the girl's bathroom. The same one Hermione was crying in in canon. When they entered the bathroom, all three names ran to the farthest corner of the room away from the door.
'Crap!' From the movement, it was obvious that the troll was chasing them.
Wasting no time, Harry glanced behind him, just to make sure the coast was clear from any prying eyes, and, seeing nobody, turned into a crow.
Flying through the halls, Harry could hear the loud crashing of the troll's heavy club battering away at the bathroom door. He could also smell the putrid stench of the troll long before he actually laid eyes on it.
He rounded the corner just in time to see the bathroom door buckle and burst inwards under the heavy blows.
Hermione screamed from somewhere inside. Or was that Neville?
'Wait a second,' Harry thought. This wasn't the derpy pot-belly troll from the movies. That troll had huge ears and looked weak, except for its size. No, this troll looked more like the trolls from Hogwarts Legacy. It had massive arms as thick as its legs, and was a veritable war machine. Luckily, this one was unarmored, wearing only a leather vest and a loin cloth.
Harry flew behind it and transformed back, brandishing his wand.
"Oi! You dumb troll! Over here!" Harry yelled, then cast a silent Leviosa to snatch the club out of the troll's hand. The intent was to then hover it over the troll's head and cast "Descendo" to bash it. Unfortunately, it held onto the club too strongly.
So instead, he took inspiration from the game and made the troll hit itself in the face.
The troll roared in pain, and turned to glare at him. It hunched its shoulder, and charged at him.
Behind the troll in the background, Harry heard his friends cry out, "Harry!"
Harry was too focused on the troll to pay them any attention. He dove to the side, dodging out of the way of the troll's charge.
It crashed into the wall, punching a hole where it hit. Several paintings were knocked loose and crashed to the floor.
The people painted inside of them cried out, "Someone get a teacher!"
"My frame!"
"Kill it already!"
Harry faced the troll again, who was pulling itself out of the wall with an annoyed grunt, and cast a silent Diffindo. A large blade of magic, transparent like air, slashed out against the troll's skin, but it barely left a thin scratch.
The troll bellowed, and smashed the club into the ground, before swinging it at him. Harry leapt away, feeling the whoosh of air as it passed by through the space where he just was.
"Diffindo!" This time, Harry put in more power behind the spell. This time it produced an actual cut across its chest and shoulder, but the damage was superficial.
'Okay, this troll is more troublesome than I thought it would be.' He couldn't afford to hold back on the lethal spells. He also needed all of his power right now.
Harry unsummoned his snakes in the woods. Quirrell wouldn't be attacking any unicorns tonight anyway. He would be too busy trying to get past Fluffy. He would have to resummon them sometime tomorrow.
With his full power, he cast two spells. The first was a silent spongify, then: "Percutio Maximo!"
Troll skins were incredibly thick and partially resistant to magic. So while Spongify didn't do much on its own, the spell helped soften the skin to help the piercing hex punch through it much easier.
It was a nasty trick he thought of some time ago to gain a bit more lethality against magically resistant creatures.
The spell traveled straight through the troll's heart, and out its back, creating a gouge in the wall behind it.
The troll toppled over dead.
Harry sighed with relief. Then whirled around and ran back over to the ruined bathroom door. "Hermione! Guys! Are you okay?"
Hermione, Neville, and Ron were all covered in dust and frazzled, but other than that, they all seemed okay. Physically, at least. Hermione's eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying.
"Yeah, Harry, never better," Ron said with a wry grin. "You?"
"Just peachy." Harry grinned. Then his amusement turned to concern. "Why weren't you all at the feast? What happened?"
"It was all my fault, Harry," Hermione muttered, looking down at her feet. "I was… I had lost track of time. When I realized the time, the feast was already starting. I tried coming to the feast as quickly as I could, but I ran straight into the troll. That's when Ron and Neville showed up, and we ran. We tried hiding in the bathroom, but… well, you saw the rest."
Harry turned to Ron and Neville.
Neville spoke up. "When we didn't see either of you at the feast, we knew something was wrong, so we went looking for you. That's when we found Hermione running away from the troll."
"Thank Merlin you showed up when you did, Harry! You saved our lives, mate," Ron gulped.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright. That could have ended rather poorly."
Harry looked around at the mess. "Reparo!"
All of the rubble from the ruined wall, and the splintered door, rose through the air and fixed itself, so everything was back in order. The only evidence of the fight now was the troll's corpse lying in a growing puddle of blood.
Just then, nearly all of the teachers came rushing around the corner with Dumbledore in the lead, all brandishing wands.
"Oh good heavens!" Professor McGonagall gasped at the sight of them. "What are you four doing here? Why aren't you heading to your dormitories? Explain yourselves immediately!"
Dumbledore gave Harry a knowing look, correctly assuming Harry had known this would happen.
Harry recounted the events of the night as he knew of them.
Snape sneered and limped over to the troll's body, then the sneer dropped when he saw the large hole through the chest. "Impossible," Snape looked between Harry and the troll and denied it.
"It's all true, professor," Hermione said, coming forward. "I saw it with my own eyes."
"There are not many fully grown witch or wizards that are able to take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale! 10 points to Gryffindor, Harry. For your sheer dumb luck!" McGonagall said, trying to be stern, but she looked far too proud of them.
Unlike in canon, where they knew of the troll and had run after it—supposedly—here, they weren't at the feast, so they couldn't have possibly known about it, or be punished for it, right?
"Yes, well done. Harry, well done," Dumbledore said. "Though I believe it's getting quite late, and I think we've all had a bit too much excitement for tonight, don't you? Why don't you four head back up to your rooms for the night? And, Harry? I'd like to speak with you a bit more, first thing tomorrow. In my office."
Harry nodded. "Of course, professor."
Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ron all made their way back to their common room.