FicWad

Author's Note: Sorry this is taking so long. I can only offer that I'll try to post the next update sooner.
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[/I would also like to point out that yes, according to historic records, the real King Arthur (or at least, the guy who closest resembles him) lived in the late 5th and early 6th Centuries. Since Hogwarts was not founded until near the end of the 10th Century, it would technically have been impossible for Merlin to have attended the school. However, J.K. Rowling officially stated that he was a Slytherin in the early years of the school. Either she never heard of the archeological findings, or she stretched the truth for the sake of good story-telling.
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[/Considering that Arthur was long been considered a purely fictional figure, I'd go with the 1st one. So, in the Harryverse, Arthur ruled in the later part of the Middle Ages, rather than the early part. Oh well, that's what fantasy's for.

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Chapter 4: Halloween Night

Hogwarts Hall: Halloween Evening

For the first month or so, Hogwarts had been equal parts fun and torture. It had been fun because Harry had spent the weeks with Daphne and Hermione learning about spells and dangerous creatures and potions. It had been torture because of his housemates. He recalled how he and Daphne had tried to convince Hermione that not all Slytherines were bad, that it was mostly just vicious rumors from the other Houses.

After a month of "Move it, half-blood!" and "Out of the way, blood traitor," they were beginning to reevaluate their initial argument.

Not that the Gryffindors were faultless, either. Having to put up with shared classes with the Lions was not his idea of a good time. Well, it wasn't Gryffindors in general; they mostly just ignored Daphne and him. The trouble really came from a certain red-haired numbskull. Ron, as it turned out, was horrible at making friends even with other Gryffindors.

Just the other day, he got paired with Hermione for potions and spent most of their time together trying to convince her to do all the work. It had culminated in the prat shoving too many elder pine roots into their potion, which caused something not unlike what happens when one adds vinegar to baking soda. . .

Long story short, Professor Snape had to end the class early. The pale man had given the Weasley boy a thorough chewing-out, and docked twenty points from Gryffindor. Harry and Daphne might have laughed if Hermione hadn't looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

Come to think of it, Harry thought. Why haven't I seen her all day?

"Harry," Daphne said, causing him to turn to her. "Can you see Hermione at the Gryffindor table? I can't."

Harry craned his neck, trying to see over to the Lions' table. Since there were two Houses between them, it was difficult, but not impossible. Harry was able to pick out Hermione's roommates—Lavender Brown and Parvarti, one of the pretty Patil twins. Hermione usually sat beside them, but not tonight.

Harry scanned the whole table, which was almost useless; she was probably sitting behind one of the kids in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, but why was Parvarti looking so uncomfortable?

"I can't see her," he admitted. He was about to remark on how he hadn't seen her all day, when he was interrupted by a whinny voice.

"That's 'cause she's not here, Potter."

Harry turned to look at Pansy Parkinson, also called "Puggsy" because of her looks. She was grinning, looped around Malfoy's arm, while the Junior Death Eaters—Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle Senior all claimed to have been enchanted into Voldemort's service, but that was a lie—all snickered.

"Pansy saw her in the girls' bathroom before dinner, bawling her eyes out," Malfoy said, which caused the whole group to erupt into laughter.

Harry and Daphne squeezed each other's hands so hard their knuckles turned white. Harry silently wished he was sitting on Daphne's right, so his wand-hand would be free.

Malfoy saw his reaction and only grinned wider. He opened his mouth to say something else-

BOOM! The doors slammed open, and Quirrel came running in. "TROLL!" he cried. "IN THE DUNGEONS! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" He came to a stop right in front of the staff table and, almost out of breath, added "Thought you ought to know." Then he fainted.

"IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH!"

For a brief instant, chaos reigned. Students threw down their food and screamed; they all clamored toward the doors, pushing and shoving—Harry saw Neville get shoved against the wall, but, before they could rush out into the corridors-

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore ordered from the staff table. As though the word itself was a spell, the effect was immediate. All the students froze and turned toward him in silence. He was standing now, perfectly strait, his face set as he spoke clearly and firmly. "Everyone will please not panic." He waited a moment before continuing. "Prefects will lead their housemates back to their rooms. Teachers will follow me to the Dungeons."

Then, the old man turned to the side and began leading the teachers away.

"Damn," Harry whispered.

"Indeed," Daphne replied. Even they had to admit that Dumbledore's actions were impressive. Then, Daphne jerked her head. "Where's Severus going?"

The greasy-haired potion master had not followed the other teachers; he had instead ducked into another doorway after the crowds resumed moving.

Harry stared at the door. I wonder where that leads.

"Move it, you lot!" thundered Roger Davies, a Slytherin prefect. "Get a move on!"

The young couple quickly abandoned their ponderings and hurried after their house-mates. They had made it out into the hall that lead to the Slytherin commonroom when Harry pulled Daphne aside.

"Harry, what-"

"Hermione," he whispered. His face was white, and his eyes were wide. He was breathing heavily, looking as though he might run down the corridors at any second.

Daphne hesitated for only and instant; then, her face lost color. "She's in the bathroom . . . She doesn't know . . ."

A crash resounded from somewhere down the hall, and the two ran towards it without hesitation. Harry got slightly ahead of Daphne, and then, without glancing back, offered his hand. Almost without thinking, Daphne grasped it.

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Hermione sat all alone in the stall. She didn't know how long she had spent inside, but she was very hungry and thirsty. She bit her lip. Ronald will make fun of me when I get back. "Stupid bookworm cried all day long." Not for the first time, she wanted to simply stay in the stall and continue crying for the rest of her life, but that wouldn't work anymore. She had finally run out of tears, and it seemed pointless to try to continue.

The door opened and someone shuffled inside. Probably Bulstrode. Hermione cringed. By now, the whole school probably knew what she had been doing, and a bunch of them were probably waiting outside to laugh at her. She swallowed.

Harry and Daphne will know, too. They'll know I'm pathetic and useless and . . . She found a few more tears.

She heard Bulstrode or whoever it was around outside. Might as well get it over with. Hermione wiped her eyes and opened the door.

It wasn't Bulstrode outside. In fact, Hermione didn't know what it was. Honestly, it looked like a pair of thorny, grey tree trunks. Following the "trunks' up, she saw an enormous, hairless man with long, ape-like arms in ragged clothes. For a moment, the two just stared at each other.

"ROOOOAAAAARRRRRR!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!"

The troll raised its club, which seemed like it was once a small tree. Hermione's brained kicked just soon enough that she ducked when the monster swung at her. The club missed her-

SMASH!

-instead, taking out most of the stalls. As the beast readied itself for another swing, Hermione scrambled into the farthest corner, hiding under the sink. This didn't deter the troll; its club crunch-ed through the sink, narrowly missing her. It's going to kill me. It's going to kill me. Hermione tried to remember what she had read about Trolls, searching for a way to save herself. All she got was It's going to kill me. It's going to kill me! IT'S GOING TO KILL ME!
"HERMIONE!"

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Harry and Daphne reached the girls' bathroom just as the Troll was lumbering in. Harry swallowed. He knew that trolls were big, but he didn't think they were this big. It was taller than Hagrid!

"Do you think Hermione got out already?" Daphne whispered, squeezing his hand.

Harry opened his mouth, but before he could speak-

"ROOOOAAAAARRRRRR!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!"

His mouth snapped shut, and the pair rushed into the restroom, ignoring the sound of splintering wood and crushed porcelain.

"HERMIONE!" they shouted. She was alive, thankfully, but trapped under the sink with the troll looming over her.

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

They cast the spell together, hitting the beast in its enormous back. Of course, two stunners fired by children don't do much to a Troll. This succeeded in causing the monster to forget about Hermione. Unfortunately, now it was focused on them.

The pair continued firing hexes at it, but trolls are magically resistant. Even a pair of full-grown spellcasters would have struggled against it. The children's continued attacks only aggravated it, and it was not in pleasant mood to begin with.

"Get Hermione, out of here," Harry whispered, as the Troll approached them.

"What?" Daphne asked. The Troll growled and raised its club.

"Get Hermione out of here!" Harry yelled, shoving his betrothed to the side and then diving in the opposite direction jut as the club came smashing down where they used to be.

Harry rolled under the sinks. He tried to get up, but hit his head on the pipes. "Ahh!" He fell down again, dazed from the pain. The Troll saw and easy victim and raised its club.

"Harry!" Daphne cried, shifting through the wreckage of the broken stalls for her wand; she had dropped when Harry pushed her. Where is it? Where is it? raced through her head as she searched for the wand.

"Stupify!"

Daphne's head shot up. The Troll wasn't facing Harry anymore. It was looking at Hermione, who was throwing stunners at it as quickly as she could.

"Urgh," the Troll grunted. It just could not catch a break tonight. Every time it had an easy meal ready to be gutted, some new pest started bothering it. A smarter creature might have ignored the nuisances, but Trolls are a race cursed with both great aggression and great stupidity. On one hand, this made them apex predators while also making it hard to intimidate, bluff, or negotiate with them. On the other hand, this combination of traits meant they could never leave well enough alone.

So, the Troll turned from the prone Harry and began to advance on Hermione-again. The young witch kept shooting stunners at it, which only made it more determined to grind her bones to-

"Urgh . . . Raaaaaaargh!"

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As soon as Harry got up, he realized there was nothing he could do. His and Daphne's stunners were a joke against the monster, and Daphne couldn't find her wand. What are we supposed to do? Then he saw the beast raise its club to kill Hermione, and he stopped thinking. Harry ran at the Troll and jumped onto its back. He actually managed to get an arm around the thing's massive neck. Before the Troll could react, Harry rammed his wand as high as it would go up the creature's right nostril. The Troll was not particularly amused and began flailing about like a fish dropped on the deck of a boat.

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Okay, that worked, Daphne thought. This was swiftly followed, however, by how long until the big cretin starts hitting his own back with the club? If he was lucky, Harry might let go before that happened. If he wasn't . . .

Got to keep it occupied, she thought, still searching for her wand. Where are the teachers? Shouldn't they have realized the Troll wasn't in the Dungeons anymore?

"Urgh," the Troll grunted.

Daphne looked up again and saw that the Troll had stopped flailing. Oh, no! she thought. The Troll was raising its club . . .

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Instantly, the Troll's club was snatched out its hand and hovered several feet out of reach. The dumb beast didn't even realize it was missing its weapon until it tried to hit Harry and didn't feel a thump against its own back. It stared dully at its empty hand for a full minute.

Daphne was staring at the spectacle herself when she heard a feminine voice call out "Harry, get down!"

Like the characters in the cartoons she had watched at Harry's house, Daphne felt a little light bulb go off in her head. She swung her head to Hermione and saw the beautiful Gryffindor's wand pointed at the beast's club. She's brilliant, Daphne thought. I never would've thought of something like that. Harry's got to bind her to us. There's no way we can let her go after this.
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Harry, meanwhile, had other concerns. Dropping down from the Troll, he saw that the Beast was now looking above its head at the club floating in the air . . . directly above its face.

"Hermione!" he called. "Drop it! Drop it, now!"

Harry didn't know if the girl understood his reasoning or not, but she did as she was told. The club's heavy end tilted forward and smashed the Troll square in the face.

"Oooh! Oooooohhhh . . ." the Troll groaned, before toppling over with a resounding crash!

Hermione came out from under the ruined sinks, now soaking wet from the spraying pipes. The three gathered around the sleeping brute. "Is it dead?" the Gryffindor asked.

"Don't think so," Harry responded. "Just knocked out." He reached down and picked up his wand, the tip now covered in blood and-

"Eww," Daphne grimaced.

"Yuck," Hermione agreed.

Harry grimaced. Troll snot, great.

Thundering footsteps erupted from the outside passageway. "That would be the cavalry," Daphne deadpanned. She turned to examine Hermione. The witch was drenched, red-eyed, shaken, and was walking over to Harry. But after a showing like that, Daphne couldn't think the other girl could look more beautiful. As she watched her betrothed embrace her friend, Daphne thought once more of "the cavalry," Perfect timing.
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Well, the plot's thickening, next time: Hermione finally finds out what Daphne has in store for her. Insert maniacal laughter.