Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Harry Hibiki and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Hibiki and the Philosopher's Stone
Disclaimer: Harry Potter © J. K. Rowling and Ranma 1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
Author note: Well so much for posting faster. I have no excuse other than I get run ragged at work, we’re constantly understaffed and I am working a lot of overtime on and off not to mention other life hobbies and but the time I can sit down at the computer my brain is dead for the night.
But I do want to thank all my lovely readers from Fanfiction dot net, AO3, FicWad and DeviantArt for sticking with me all this time and putting up with my long updates. I’m not proud that I haven’t updated since 2017, and man it doesn’t seem that long since my last update. As always I’ll try to update more but… you know how these things go.
This chapter is currently unbeated.
Chapter 19
No one questioned the loss of points once everyone was made aware of Mr. Green Turtle. There had been a mix reaction to the shrunken down giant croc; some had been in awe as even at a much smaller size Mr. Green Turtle was impressive and dangerous, some of the other students had been a bit impressed especially after it got out Mr. Green Turtle wasn’t a mere pet but Kodachi’s familiar, some had been afraid and then there had been those who had been angry. Malfoy and Parkinson were, surprising no one, at the top of that list. Both had complained, /loudly/, about Mr. Green Turtle’s presences. Draco had even gone as far as to write his father, the letter he received back from Lucius told him to more or less suck it up as there wasn’t anything he could do due to Mr. Green Turtle being Kodachi’s familiar.
Many had learned not to mess with Kodachi after her crocodile had snapped at one brave stupid soul, not that Mr. Green Turtle could have harmed that student as he was under a muzzle spell that would have kept him from biting anyone but no one outside of Kodachi’s friends and the school staff knew that. So for now, Kodachi and her little group of Slytherin friends were left alone.
Tatewaki was less than thrilled to see the lizard that tormented him for years; yes he remembered a few of the times he was nearly croc chow from his first time as an adult, the mind healers might have been good but they had almost 20 years of memories to remove and suppress so both of the Kuno siblings had a few tidbits of memories left though for the most part they didn’t come into play.
On the Gryffindor side of things, Oliver had been working the Quidditch team to the bone to prepare them for the season. That included getting up at the ass-crack of dawn on the weekends to practice, much to annoyance of everyone on both the main team and the reserve. Harry especially was annoyed to be woken up early on Saturday mornings after having gone to bed after his very late night lessons in the Shrieking Shack with Cologne. It finally took all of the Quidditch team members threatening Oliver to get him to at least move the practice to the afternoon. He hadn’t been happy about it, convinced they needed all the practice they could get so they could defeat Slytherin in their first match, but he had also been too scared of the girls to really put up a fight. Girls were /scary/. And so was Harry when you caught him in a grumpy mood, normal people weren’t able to crush a cup in their bare first after all so just imagine what that could do to a person!
Things continued on as normal, or as normal as one got in a school of magic, for the group of friends. They went to classes, hung out, studied and played together, practice their respected arts, and any other things young pre-teens would do. Millicent quickly meshed well with the group and found herself enjoying not having to act like she was as stupid as Crabb or Goyle.
What was going on with the third floor and the three headed dog and what it might be guarding never came up. Nor did any of the kids mention it to Hagrid when they visited his hut.
Harry found a whole different dilemma cropping up on him instead in that he had yet to reveal his curse Nekomata form to his new friends. It wasn’t as if Harry was ashamed of his cursed form, he had it since he was 6 years old so he had quickly adjusted to it the way kids did. Truth-be-told it was amazing that the curse in general hadn’t been revealed to the whole school via a random splash of cold water in the Great Hall or something. Yet, for whatever reason, he hadn’t at least told his friends, at least the ones whom didn’t already know about it, about his other form.
Sooner or later Harry was going to be splashed with water in front of the others, there was no avoiding it forever. And it was better for Harry to show his friends his curse, and how it worked, rather than they just finding out and drawing some conclusions of their own. He would tell them over the weekend he decided as he showered after his morning workout, that just left today and tomorrow to come up with how to explain it and Jusenkyo in general. In the meantime he would just get through today’s classes, he had DADA and history in the morning and Charms that afternoon before a nice long free period.
Now if this headache would just go away…..
****
The smell of pumpkin filled the hallways and there was an in general feel of excitement in the air. The Kuno siblings were confused to why almost everyone seemed to be nearly vibrating in excitement and when asking their friends as to why, they looked at them in shock and confusion.
“Why? It’s Halloween!” Tracy exclaimed.
“Miss Davis, calm down before I take points,” Professor Sprout called as she walked around the tables assisting her students during the Hufflepuff/Slytherin class.
“Sorry, Professor,” Tracy called back then looked at Kodachi. “Don’t you know what Halloween is?”
“We’ve heard of it,” Kodachi said after sharing a look with her brother. They weren’t… unaware… of Halloween, or holidays similar to it. They knew it was a holiday celebrated by Easterners, that people dressing up in costumes were involved but not much else. Halloween just wasn’t celebrated in Japan, or at least not by very many people. It wasn’t a holiday that caught on like Christmas had. (1)
“So wait, you don’t celebrate Halloween?” Justin asked.
“No,” Tatewaki said with a shake of his head as he carefully worked with his plant, he didn’t have Kodachi’s green thumb so his plant wasn’t looking that good. At this rate he could only hope to be graded an ‘A’, maybe an ‘EE’ if Sprout really liked any report he wrote on the plant. His written work for Herbology was very well written and researched but his practical just never seemed to go well even with the extra tutoring. At least he wasn’t failing this class.
“So what do you celebrate then?” Millicent asked. “We’ve always did a mix of the traditional Samhian and the muggle idea of Halloween.”
“Yeah us too, sorta,” Tracy said.
“We’ve observe both Samhian and Calan Gaeaf,” Daphne said. “Much of our family is from Wales.”
“We don’t,” Kodachi said as she stroked the leaves of her plant. It quivered under her touch and some of her classmates would swear it took on a sharper edge just for a moment. “At least not at this time of the year and not like this Halloween.”
“We have the Obon, the Festival of Lanterns,” Tatewaki explained. “But it is in August. It is a time when our deceased relatives return to our world to visit.”
“Oh okay, that’s neat,” Tracy said. Justin through so too and couldn’t wait to look up the Obon as soon as he got home for the holidays, he loved studying other countries holidays.
A distance gonging sound from the castle echoed over the school grounds to the green houses. Professor Sprout smile brightly and clapped her hands together.
“Alright dears, that’s it for today. Put your plants away on the shelf and by next class I want a two foot essay on all its properties and uses,” she announced over the rumble of Slytherin and Hufflepuff first years placing the plant they were studying on shelves that bore their respective house crest and putting their things away in school bags. “Enjoy the rest of your day and tonight’s feast!”
*******
“One of a wizard’s most rudimentary skills is levitation,” Professor Flitwick announced after he had taken the class roll and was looking out over his students. “The ability to make object fly. Now, do you have your feathers?” He looked out over the class to see if everyone had a feather. Hermione smiled and picked up the white fluffy plume to show she had hers. “Good. Now don’t forget the nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing hmm?” Flitwick removed his wand from a holster on his hip and held it up as he said this. “The swish and /flick/. Everyone.”
The short professor watched made sure everyone took up their wands before having everyone say “The swish and flick” while going through the motions.
“Good,” Flitwick said in a pleased tone. “Oh, and remember to enunciate Wingardium Leviosa. Off you go then.”
It was one of the rare classes that contained all four houses during lessons and they had been working their way up to this spell for weeks. Going over both pronunciation and enunciation of each word, the correct way to swish and flick their wands, going over the history and uses of the levitation spell and its variations. To say the first years were eager to finally cast the charm after working up to it was an understatement.
The classroom was soon filled with the jumbled sounds of everyone attempting to cast the levitation charm. There were many who butchered the pronunciation completely in their eagerness to cast the charm, others put too much emphasis on certain parts of the words, and some failed to flick their wands correctly.
Harry sat at one of the long tables, repeating the spell and the swish/flick motion with his Holly and phoenix wand over and over. Sometimes the feather would rise just a little, meaning he was on the right track, but didn’t have it just yet. He was thinking about switching to his other wand to see if he got better results. Beside him his dorm mate Seamus Finnigan repeated the words of the spell over and over in a bored tone not really putting much effort into it.
On the other side of Seamus sat Ron and Hermione, Harry glanced around Seamus as he heard the frustrated tone in Ron’s voice as he repeated “Wingardium Leviosa!” over and over again while waving his wand wildly, almost hitting Hermione in the process. Hermione ducked under Ron’s flying fist then grabbed his wrist, stopping the motions.
“Stop, stop, stop,” she said. “You’re going to put someone’s eye out. And you’re saying it wrong, it’s Wing-/gar/-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.” Hermione carefully sounded out the word for Ron, trying to be helpful. Ron growled and snatched his hand back.
“You do it then, if you’re so clever,” he spat out. Hermione lifted her chin at the tone but refused to back down from the challenge, turning to her face her feather again.
“Alright then,” she said then clearly and carefully said, “Wingardium Leviosa,” along with the swish and flick like Flitwick had shown them. Her feather began to rise up into the air, flying high above the class, a delighted smile crossing her lips. It was always a wonderful thrill when she got a new spell or charm to work.
“Look class, Miss Granger has done it,” Flitwick said in a delighted tone with a little clap. “Very good Miss Granger, 10 points for Gryffindor.” Hermione turned to smile at her friends, Harry giving her a thumbs up which made her smile brighter and hide the little bit of hurt as Ron sulkily scowled and turned his head away from her.
Seamus, seeing Hermione’s success, began casting again only to blow his feather up. Harry coughed and waved away the smoke that rose from the pile of ash left behind, Seamus looking very surprised with his face covered in soot.
“I think we’re going to need another feather over here, sensei,” Harry called to Flitwick.
******
The 1st years from all the houses filed out of the Charms classroom sometime later, most either discussing the class or the feast that was happening later than night at dinnertime. Ron pushed his way out of the room so he could catch up with Harry who was talking with Neville.
“Ugh, can you believe her?” Ron asked with a groan then in a high pitch voice mocked Hermione’s attempt to teach him how to correctly say Wingardium Leviosa. “I don’t understand why anyone is friends with her, she’s a bloody terror.”
“You take that back, Ronald Weasley!” Hermione said as she also caught up with the boys, poking Ron in the chest. In another life, she may have let the words get to her, hurting her feelings and hiding in the girl’s bathroom to have a cry, but in this life Hermione had been somewhat friends with Ron since nearly day one and this wouldn’t be the first time they argued about something. “I was only trying to help you, you were waving your wand like some sort of mad man and was going to hurt someone.”
“Well you didn’t have to bloody show off!” Ron yelled back, red in the face.
“Ron, you did challenge Hermione to cast the charm,” Harry said in a frustrated tone, rubbing at his scar under his bandanna. He had been nursing a headache all day that didn’t want to go away. “And she did, so lay off of her. Hermione-chan was only trying to help, even if she could have been a little calmer about it.”
“A-are you alright, Harry?” Neville asked as he noticed Harry rubbing at his forehead. Harry sighed and dropped his hand.
“Just a bit of a headache, I’ll be alright,” he said.
“Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey about those Harry, you seem to have them an awful lot,” Hermione said worried. “If let uncheck-“
“I have, Hermione,” Harry said cutting her off. “She’s even given me some potions to help with them. Doesn’t seem to do much good most of the time.” He muttered the last part, hiked the strap of his bag further up on his shoulder, then turned away. “Look, I’ll see you guys later.” He said over his shoulder as he walked away. Charms was the last class of the day and he wanted a bit of time to himself, he would apologize for being so short with his friends later.
“What was that about?” Ron asked.
“I do worry about him, those headaches of his can’t be good,” Hermione said in a worried tone as she watched Harry’s retreating figure. Ron just nodded then seemed to remember that he was supposed to be mad at Hermione.
“Well maybe he’s tired of the nagging,” he said trying to start another fight.
“Nagging?!” Hermione said as she turned to face Ron.
“H-he might be tried of you two fighting,” Neville said from behind them, they had both forgotten that Neville was still there. Neville shuffled a bit under their combined gazes. “I-I mean, you two d-do fight a lot.” Hermione and Ron paused then looked at each other then away, embarrassed looks on both of their faces. While they were friends Ron and Hermione had very clashing personalities. Ron had that classic red-head temper and was lazy when it came to his school work while Hermione could be over eager when it came to her classes and yes, knew she could be a tiny bit of a know-it-all at times.
Hermione worried her bottom lip a bit with her teeth; her attitude had earned her some pretty horrible nicknames at her old muggle school. No one had wanted to be friends with her, something that had always broken a young Hermione’s heart but she refused to give up on all the knowledge she could learn about the world. It wasn’t until that fateful trip to the ski lodge that she made her first real friends in years and now she had more friends that she ever had before. They may not be a studious as her and if they made fun of her study habits, it was usually in a teasing tone.
“Look,” Ron’s soft voice drew Hermione’s attention back to the red headed boy. He was looking down at the ground at his feet and rubbing the back of his neck. He felt bad now for yelling at Hermione like he did and what he said after class by her showing him up, and yes he admitted he asked for that one. It just went on to remind him at how terrible he was at learning magic. It was like he had to fight with his wand every step of the way and he knew it didn’t help that it had been Charlie’s, his second older brother, old wand that his parents gave him to use because they couldn’t afford to get Ron a new wand of his own. Only thing he was half was decent at was transfiguration and even that he had some struggles with getting the spell through the wand. “I’m sorry. I’m just… well it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry for calling you a ‘bloody terror’ and asking why we’re friends.” He finally looked up at Hermione where she could see the sincerity in his blue eyes as well as hear it in voice.
“Forgiven then,” Hermione said giving Ron a little smile. “And I’m sorry too then, I was just trying to help.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ron said with a laugh, his shoulders relaxing a bit. He didn’t think they would be the last time they would have some sort of fight, but at least this one was resolved.
“Yes yes, very nice,” A voice said behind them. Ron, Hermione and even Neville who had stuck around watching his friends make up, jump at the voice and turned to see older students from Slytherin and Hufflepuff house standing in the hallway. “The firsties made up, how touching, but can we get to class now?” The trio of friends looked around just now realizing that everyone else had left from their class, leaving them behind.
“Sorry!” Hermione called over her shoulder as three of them ran off.
“Should we take points for them running?” One of the Slytherins asked as the older students filed into the Charms classroom.
“Nah, it’s Halloween, we’ll give them a pass,” the other one said with a laugh as they followed their classmates into the room.
******
“Where’s Harry? It’s time for the Halloween feast in the Great Hall,” Tracy asked as she looked around the room.
“Yeah, we haven’t seen him since class,” Justin added.
“He said he had a headache after Charms but we haven’t seen him since then,” Hermione said with a little frown. Everyone had met up in the study room after classes had ended for the first years to quickly to finish up homework and to hang out then go to the Great Hall together afterward for the feast.
“He more than likely is praying at his family shrine, he said he brought a small one to school,” Takewaki said.
“Is that what that thing is?” Ron asked, he never understood what that thing was that Harry set up between his and Ron’s beds in their dorm, it looked like a small fancy cabinet and sometimes he saw Harry kneeling in front of it on a small pillow, and he had seen wizarding photos of Harry’s birthparents within it.
“Why would he be praying?” Millicent asked confused.
“He always takes time to pray and light incenses on this day,” Kodachi said. “This is when his birth parents died.”
“That makes sense,” Daphne said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Halloween night is when You-know-who was defeated, one of the reasons why we celebrate tonight.” Tracy rubbed the back of her neck.
“Yeah… guess we kinda forget it’s also when Harry lost his birth family,” she said.
“Well he’s going to miss the feast,” Ron said as he shoved the last of his rolled up homework scrolls into his school bag, not caring that they were getting crushed and wrinkled by his books.
“He might have already gone to the feast,” Hermione pointed out. “But we’ll go ahead and check the dorm, it’ll give us time to drop off our bags too.”
“I-I’ll head with the others,” Neville offered. “In case he’s already in the Great Hall.”
“Alright, I’ll take your bag back if you like Neville,” Hermione offered.
“T-thanks,” Neville said as he handed his school back over to his housemate.
“Let’s get down to the Great Hall then before all the food is gone,” Tracy said as the group of young witches and wizards headed out the door.
“What!?” Ron said worriedly, he had been looking forward to these feast since his brothers told him about it. Now he was wondering if he should just follow after the others and leave Hermione to get Harry.
“Oh don’t be silly, Ron,” Hermione said rolling her eyes as she grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of the tower while their friends headed toward the staircase that would take them downstairs. Along the way Ron and Hermione saw many of their house mates, Seamus and Dean informing the pair that yes Harry was in the Gryffindor tower in the 1st years boy’s dorm when they left.
“Here, put Neville’s bag on his bed while I go put mine up in my dorm,” Hermione said as she passed the school bag over to Ron who took it with a sigh.
“Yeah fine,” he said as he held the bag strap and walked up the stairs to the room he shared with Harry and the others. “Hey Harry, you still in here?” Ron asked out loud as he opened the door.
“Hmm,” Ron heard Harry hum from somewhere in the room. It wasn’t hard to find Harry, the boy was right where Kuno had said he would be in front of the shrine thing between the beds. Harry was kneeling on the small pillow in front of it looking at the photos on the shrine of James and Lily Potter. The people inside the magical photos moved as they played the scene within the photo over and over again. In front of the photos a stick of incense was burning, filling the air with sweet smelling smoke, though most of it had burned away at this point and was about to go out.
Curled around Harry was Diego, the boa’s head lying in Harry’s lap as the boy rubbed the space between his eyes. Ron placed Neville’s bag on top of the trunk on the end of his dorm mate’s bed and tossed his own onto his bed, unconcerned about the contents spilling out. Ron took a few seconds to give Scabbers a few pets where the fat lazy rat laid curled up on one of the pillows at the head of his bed. The rodent didn’t even stir, letting out a few squeaky snores instead.
“Hey Harry, come on, you know it’s time for the feast right?” Ron asked as he shook Harry’s shoulder.
“Huh?” Harry blinked and gave himself a little shake, he had some awareness around him as he meditated, enough to be aware when Ron entered the room and acknowledged him but otherwise had been out of it. “What feast?”
“You know, the Halloween feast,” Ron said. “We’re missing all the food!”
“I swear food is all you think about,” Hermione said roll of her eyes but a fond smile was on her face as she joined them. Ron scowled a bit.
“Wait, how did you get here? I thought we couldn’t go into each other’s rooms,” Ron asked, he remembered seeing one of the second year boys trying to sneak into the girls side of the tower only for the stairs to turn into some sort of slide and the older boy came right back down. The boy had lost the house 5 points from Percy and his older brother had informed/reminded whole house boys weren’t allowed into the girl dorm rooms. Ron had taken that to meaning that girls were allowed in the boys’ rooms either.
“Boys can’t come in ours, but girls can still come in here,” Hermione corrected Ron.
“What!? That’s unfair isn’t it?” Ron asked. Hermione sniffed and straightened out her robes.
“Well obviously girls can be trusted more,” she said. Harry snorted and shook his head.
“Umm no, girls can be just as devious,” he pointed out. “Uncle Ranma told me sometimes Aunt Shampoo would sneak into his room at the Tendo’s, back when he was still engaged to Auntie Akane.”
“He was cheating on his fiancée?” Ron asked, blue eyes widening in shock.
“It was way more complicated than that,” Harry said with a shake of his head. Hermione tilted her head to the side, one finger resting on her chin, deep in thought as she went through some of the stories Harry had written her about through letters.
“He was engaged to both of them wasn’t he?” She asked. “Or at least, as far as she was concerned they were.”
“Something like that,” Harry agreed as he pushed Diego off his lap then stood up, stretching his arms out above his head with a little groan. Ron’s eyes were still wide, wondering about the people that Harry knew and how someone could be engaged to more than one person like that.
“How’s your headache?” Hermione asked when she saw Harry start rubbing his forehead under his bandanna over where he scar was located.
“Better,” he said with a sigh. “It’s gone away for the most part, meditating and praying at my shrine seems to help. There’s still a lingering ache but it’s better than it was.”
“I bet I know what would make him feel better, chocolate,” Ron said as he decided to put Harry’s strange history behind him and wanted to get down to the feast before all the food was gone. “Let’s go already!”
Hermione nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, that’s why we’re here so we can go to the feast together.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Harry said as he picked up the hissing Diego, who was complaining about being jolted from his nap so rudely, and placed the Brazilian boa on his bed. “Let’s go before Ron’s stomach eats itself.” Harry and Hermione laughed as Ron grumbled softly at the comment. The trio exited the Gryffindor Tower and headed down the various staircases to get to the ground floor.
“So what do you do for Halloween usually, Harry?” Ron asked to break the silence.
“Not anything really,” Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll pray at the family shrine for my birth parents, spend some time with Uncle Moony to hear a few stories about them, since they died on Halloween but that’s it.”
“You’ve never celebrated the holiday?” Hermione asked.
“Halloween isn’t really a big deal in Japan,” Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I have vague memories of dressing up and getting candy as a little kid, I think Dad and I were in the United States at the time, but that’s about it. Uncle Moony has told me a bit about it, the old traditions in the Wizarding World and the mundane take on it. For me it’s just the night Okaasan and Otousan died and the night that Dad found me.”
“That’s so sad,” Hermione said then asked hesitantly, “Do… do you ever think about your birth parents?” Harry shrugged his shoulders again.
“Sometimes, what kid doesn’t,” he said. “But Dad and Mom are great and I get to hear a lot of stories about the Potters from Moony and Mimi, more about James Potter than Lily but stories none the less. I don’t remember them, I was too young.”
“Not at all?” Ron asked. He couldn’t imagine not having his parents, being raised by someone else completely.
“Well… sometimes I have these dreams, nightmares really, about a green light. They feel too real sometimes,” Harry said in a thoughtful tone. “Sometimes I dream about a soft voice singing to me but can’t really make out the song or if the voice is a man or a woman. I guess those could be memories but I’m not sure.”
“It’s possible, but no real way to tell,” Hermione agreed. She glanced around them and saw they were near the bathrooms on that floor. “Wait here a moment, I’m going to freshen up before heading into the Great Hall.”
Ron let out a little groan but leaned against the wall next to Harry while Hermione walked further down and entered the girl’s restroom.
“At this rate we’ll never get to the feast,” he muttered. Harry laughed and shook his head.
“Come on, you know that’s not true,” he said, nudging Ron’s shoulder with his own. Ron sighed and shrugged his shoulders a bit.
“Okay maybe you’re right, but I’ve been looking forward to these feast all day,” he said. “All year really, every since my brothers told me about the feasts they’ve gone to.”
“You hear a lot about the school before now?” Harry asked. Ron tilted his head to the side and scratched the side of his nose in thought.
“Some stuff, Bill and Charlie mostly told me, Ginny and the twins about some of the stuff here in the castle,” he said after a few quiet seconds. “Percy always asked about the classes and teachers. I swear to Merlin, I wish he would loosen up alrea-“
“Shhh!” Harry interrupted, one hand pressed over Ron’s mouth suddenly and pressing a finger of the other hand to his lips in the classic ‘be quiet’ gesture. Ron gave Harry a confused look, his friend was standing ram-rod straight and was staring out into the darkened corridor beyond the light given off by the sconces on the walls. Ron made a confused sound and pulled Harry’s hand off his mouth.
“Harry, what in the name of Merlin-“ Ron stared to asked.
“Hush!” Harry hissed again, his eyes never leaving the end of the hallway. “Do you hear that?” Ron blinked then finally listened. The hallway was dead silent, except for the soft crackle of the fires burning in the sconces. Ron frowned and he opened his mouth to question Harry again when he heard it: a loud, thumping sound, almost like a footstep, from further down the hallway. It was followed by a shuffling sound and another thump then the sound of something dragging on the stone floor. The smell hit Ron at the same time and his arm flew up, covering his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his robes.
“Ughh, what’s that smell?” he asked, his eyes starting to water from the stench.
“Keep your voice down,” Harry said as he grabbed Ron’s other arm and pulled his friend into the shadows behind a nearby statue of a gargoyle that decorated the hallway. Harry didn’t know what was coming down the hallway just yet, but he knew it was dangerous. His sense of danger wasn’t quite as honed as his Dad’s or his Uncle Ranma’s, but he knew whatever this was it wasn’t something either of them wanted to face.
Harry’s fears were soon proven right as a large lumbering form stepped from the shadows. It was huge, roughly 12 feet in height, meaning its almost brushed the top of the corridor. Or his head Harry supposed, he wasn’t sure what the difference between a male and female but considering the lack of breasts the thing was a male. The creature had greenish-gray skin and wore an open vest and loin cloth that were made from a patchwork of leathers that were held together by crude stitching, and his two-toed feet nearly made the floor shake with each step he took. Held tight in one hand was a large wooden club that was dragged behind the troll, accounting for the dragging sound.
“Bloody hell, that’s a troll,” Ron hissed his blue eyes wide with fright. Harry quickly clasped his hands over Ron’s mouth and pulled them back further into the shadows of the statue as the troll heard Ron’s voice. Its head, which was comically small compared to the rest of his body and had two large ears sticking out on either side, looked from side to side searching for the source of the sound. Both boys held their breath, praying that the troll wouldn’t discover them.
Luck seemed to be on their side as the troll seem to lose interest in looking for them and continued lumbering down the hall.
“How did a troll get into the school?” Ron asked in the softest whisper he could manage when Harry finally removed his hands from Ron’s mouth.
“I don’t know,” Harry admitted in a voice just as soft. And that really was the question of the day, how in the world did a bloody troll get into the school? Did anyone else know? Harry thought, or at least hoped anyway, that the school portraits or one of the many ghosts in the school had spotted the behemoth of a creature and had alerted the professors. Harry peered around the corner, watching the troll. “As soon as that thing is further away, we’re going to grab Hermione and make a run for… oh no. No no, please…”
“What? Oh bloody hell,” Ron asked as he took a look, his face paling. The troll, instead of walking past the doors to the restrooms, had stopped in front of the one that lead to the girls. He was scratching his head for a moment then pushed open the door to the restroom with a resounding bang that broke the door right off its hinges then ducked down and somehow squeezed himself through the much smaller door. A handful of seconds later, a terrified scream rang down the hallway.
“Hermione!” Harry and Ron yelled, leaving their hiding spot and racing for the restroom where their friend was trapped inside by the troll.
*****
Author note: (1) From what I can find out about it, Halloween is only a recently celebrated holiday in Japan and only in a few certain areas. Considering this takes place in the 90’s I can only assume it’s not a holiday that the Kuno siblings or Harry would be familiar with. Harry might have trick or treated as a young kid before he started school while traveling around the world with Ryoga but otherwise it’s not something he would have done, so anything he knows about the holiday would be from anything Remus told him.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter © J. K. Rowling and Ranma 1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
Author note: Well so much for posting faster. I have no excuse other than I get run ragged at work, we’re constantly understaffed and I am working a lot of overtime on and off not to mention other life hobbies and but the time I can sit down at the computer my brain is dead for the night.
But I do want to thank all my lovely readers from Fanfiction dot net, AO3, FicWad and DeviantArt for sticking with me all this time and putting up with my long updates. I’m not proud that I haven’t updated since 2017, and man it doesn’t seem that long since my last update. As always I’ll try to update more but… you know how these things go.
This chapter is currently unbeated.
Chapter 19
No one questioned the loss of points once everyone was made aware of Mr. Green Turtle. There had been a mix reaction to the shrunken down giant croc; some had been in awe as even at a much smaller size Mr. Green Turtle was impressive and dangerous, some of the other students had been a bit impressed especially after it got out Mr. Green Turtle wasn’t a mere pet but Kodachi’s familiar, some had been afraid and then there had been those who had been angry. Malfoy and Parkinson were, surprising no one, at the top of that list. Both had complained, /loudly/, about Mr. Green Turtle’s presences. Draco had even gone as far as to write his father, the letter he received back from Lucius told him to more or less suck it up as there wasn’t anything he could do due to Mr. Green Turtle being Kodachi’s familiar.
Many had learned not to mess with Kodachi after her crocodile had snapped at one brave stupid soul, not that Mr. Green Turtle could have harmed that student as he was under a muzzle spell that would have kept him from biting anyone but no one outside of Kodachi’s friends and the school staff knew that. So for now, Kodachi and her little group of Slytherin friends were left alone.
Tatewaki was less than thrilled to see the lizard that tormented him for years; yes he remembered a few of the times he was nearly croc chow from his first time as an adult, the mind healers might have been good but they had almost 20 years of memories to remove and suppress so both of the Kuno siblings had a few tidbits of memories left though for the most part they didn’t come into play.
On the Gryffindor side of things, Oliver had been working the Quidditch team to the bone to prepare them for the season. That included getting up at the ass-crack of dawn on the weekends to practice, much to annoyance of everyone on both the main team and the reserve. Harry especially was annoyed to be woken up early on Saturday mornings after having gone to bed after his very late night lessons in the Shrieking Shack with Cologne. It finally took all of the Quidditch team members threatening Oliver to get him to at least move the practice to the afternoon. He hadn’t been happy about it, convinced they needed all the practice they could get so they could defeat Slytherin in their first match, but he had also been too scared of the girls to really put up a fight. Girls were /scary/. And so was Harry when you caught him in a grumpy mood, normal people weren’t able to crush a cup in their bare first after all so just imagine what that could do to a person!
Things continued on as normal, or as normal as one got in a school of magic, for the group of friends. They went to classes, hung out, studied and played together, practice their respected arts, and any other things young pre-teens would do. Millicent quickly meshed well with the group and found herself enjoying not having to act like she was as stupid as Crabb or Goyle.
What was going on with the third floor and the three headed dog and what it might be guarding never came up. Nor did any of the kids mention it to Hagrid when they visited his hut.
Harry found a whole different dilemma cropping up on him instead in that he had yet to reveal his curse Nekomata form to his new friends. It wasn’t as if Harry was ashamed of his cursed form, he had it since he was 6 years old so he had quickly adjusted to it the way kids did. Truth-be-told it was amazing that the curse in general hadn’t been revealed to the whole school via a random splash of cold water in the Great Hall or something. Yet, for whatever reason, he hadn’t at least told his friends, at least the ones whom didn’t already know about it, about his other form.
Sooner or later Harry was going to be splashed with water in front of the others, there was no avoiding it forever. And it was better for Harry to show his friends his curse, and how it worked, rather than they just finding out and drawing some conclusions of their own. He would tell them over the weekend he decided as he showered after his morning workout, that just left today and tomorrow to come up with how to explain it and Jusenkyo in general. In the meantime he would just get through today’s classes, he had DADA and history in the morning and Charms that afternoon before a nice long free period.
Now if this headache would just go away…..
****
The smell of pumpkin filled the hallways and there was an in general feel of excitement in the air. The Kuno siblings were confused to why almost everyone seemed to be nearly vibrating in excitement and when asking their friends as to why, they looked at them in shock and confusion.
“Why? It’s Halloween!” Tracy exclaimed.
“Miss Davis, calm down before I take points,” Professor Sprout called as she walked around the tables assisting her students during the Hufflepuff/Slytherin class.
“Sorry, Professor,” Tracy called back then looked at Kodachi. “Don’t you know what Halloween is?”
“We’ve heard of it,” Kodachi said after sharing a look with her brother. They weren’t… unaware… of Halloween, or holidays similar to it. They knew it was a holiday celebrated by Easterners, that people dressing up in costumes were involved but not much else. Halloween just wasn’t celebrated in Japan, or at least not by very many people. It wasn’t a holiday that caught on like Christmas had. (1)
“So wait, you don’t celebrate Halloween?” Justin asked.
“No,” Tatewaki said with a shake of his head as he carefully worked with his plant, he didn’t have Kodachi’s green thumb so his plant wasn’t looking that good. At this rate he could only hope to be graded an ‘A’, maybe an ‘EE’ if Sprout really liked any report he wrote on the plant. His written work for Herbology was very well written and researched but his practical just never seemed to go well even with the extra tutoring. At least he wasn’t failing this class.
“So what do you celebrate then?” Millicent asked. “We’ve always did a mix of the traditional Samhian and the muggle idea of Halloween.”
“Yeah us too, sorta,” Tracy said.
“We’ve observe both Samhian and Calan Gaeaf,” Daphne said. “Much of our family is from Wales.”
“We don’t,” Kodachi said as she stroked the leaves of her plant. It quivered under her touch and some of her classmates would swear it took on a sharper edge just for a moment. “At least not at this time of the year and not like this Halloween.”
“We have the Obon, the Festival of Lanterns,” Tatewaki explained. “But it is in August. It is a time when our deceased relatives return to our world to visit.”
“Oh okay, that’s neat,” Tracy said. Justin through so too and couldn’t wait to look up the Obon as soon as he got home for the holidays, he loved studying other countries holidays.
A distance gonging sound from the castle echoed over the school grounds to the green houses. Professor Sprout smile brightly and clapped her hands together.
“Alright dears, that’s it for today. Put your plants away on the shelf and by next class I want a two foot essay on all its properties and uses,” she announced over the rumble of Slytherin and Hufflepuff first years placing the plant they were studying on shelves that bore their respective house crest and putting their things away in school bags. “Enjoy the rest of your day and tonight’s feast!”
*******
“One of a wizard’s most rudimentary skills is levitation,” Professor Flitwick announced after he had taken the class roll and was looking out over his students. “The ability to make object fly. Now, do you have your feathers?” He looked out over the class to see if everyone had a feather. Hermione smiled and picked up the white fluffy plume to show she had hers. “Good. Now don’t forget the nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing hmm?” Flitwick removed his wand from a holster on his hip and held it up as he said this. “The swish and /flick/. Everyone.”
The short professor watched made sure everyone took up their wands before having everyone say “The swish and flick” while going through the motions.
“Good,” Flitwick said in a pleased tone. “Oh, and remember to enunciate Wingardium Leviosa. Off you go then.”
It was one of the rare classes that contained all four houses during lessons and they had been working their way up to this spell for weeks. Going over both pronunciation and enunciation of each word, the correct way to swish and flick their wands, going over the history and uses of the levitation spell and its variations. To say the first years were eager to finally cast the charm after working up to it was an understatement.
The classroom was soon filled with the jumbled sounds of everyone attempting to cast the levitation charm. There were many who butchered the pronunciation completely in their eagerness to cast the charm, others put too much emphasis on certain parts of the words, and some failed to flick their wands correctly.
Harry sat at one of the long tables, repeating the spell and the swish/flick motion with his Holly and phoenix wand over and over. Sometimes the feather would rise just a little, meaning he was on the right track, but didn’t have it just yet. He was thinking about switching to his other wand to see if he got better results. Beside him his dorm mate Seamus Finnigan repeated the words of the spell over and over in a bored tone not really putting much effort into it.
On the other side of Seamus sat Ron and Hermione, Harry glanced around Seamus as he heard the frustrated tone in Ron’s voice as he repeated “Wingardium Leviosa!” over and over again while waving his wand wildly, almost hitting Hermione in the process. Hermione ducked under Ron’s flying fist then grabbed his wrist, stopping the motions.
“Stop, stop, stop,” she said. “You’re going to put someone’s eye out. And you’re saying it wrong, it’s Wing-/gar/-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.” Hermione carefully sounded out the word for Ron, trying to be helpful. Ron growled and snatched his hand back.
“You do it then, if you’re so clever,” he spat out. Hermione lifted her chin at the tone but refused to back down from the challenge, turning to her face her feather again.
“Alright then,” she said then clearly and carefully said, “Wingardium Leviosa,” along with the swish and flick like Flitwick had shown them. Her feather began to rise up into the air, flying high above the class, a delighted smile crossing her lips. It was always a wonderful thrill when she got a new spell or charm to work.
“Look class, Miss Granger has done it,” Flitwick said in a delighted tone with a little clap. “Very good Miss Granger, 10 points for Gryffindor.” Hermione turned to smile at her friends, Harry giving her a thumbs up which made her smile brighter and hide the little bit of hurt as Ron sulkily scowled and turned his head away from her.
Seamus, seeing Hermione’s success, began casting again only to blow his feather up. Harry coughed and waved away the smoke that rose from the pile of ash left behind, Seamus looking very surprised with his face covered in soot.
“I think we’re going to need another feather over here, sensei,” Harry called to Flitwick.
******
The 1st years from all the houses filed out of the Charms classroom sometime later, most either discussing the class or the feast that was happening later than night at dinnertime. Ron pushed his way out of the room so he could catch up with Harry who was talking with Neville.
“Ugh, can you believe her?” Ron asked with a groan then in a high pitch voice mocked Hermione’s attempt to teach him how to correctly say Wingardium Leviosa. “I don’t understand why anyone is friends with her, she’s a bloody terror.”
“You take that back, Ronald Weasley!” Hermione said as she also caught up with the boys, poking Ron in the chest. In another life, she may have let the words get to her, hurting her feelings and hiding in the girl’s bathroom to have a cry, but in this life Hermione had been somewhat friends with Ron since nearly day one and this wouldn’t be the first time they argued about something. “I was only trying to help you, you were waving your wand like some sort of mad man and was going to hurt someone.”
“Well you didn’t have to bloody show off!” Ron yelled back, red in the face.
“Ron, you did challenge Hermione to cast the charm,” Harry said in a frustrated tone, rubbing at his scar under his bandanna. He had been nursing a headache all day that didn’t want to go away. “And she did, so lay off of her. Hermione-chan was only trying to help, even if she could have been a little calmer about it.”
“A-are you alright, Harry?” Neville asked as he noticed Harry rubbing at his forehead. Harry sighed and dropped his hand.
“Just a bit of a headache, I’ll be alright,” he said.
“Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey about those Harry, you seem to have them an awful lot,” Hermione said worried. “If let uncheck-“
“I have, Hermione,” Harry said cutting her off. “She’s even given me some potions to help with them. Doesn’t seem to do much good most of the time.” He muttered the last part, hiked the strap of his bag further up on his shoulder, then turned away. “Look, I’ll see you guys later.” He said over his shoulder as he walked away. Charms was the last class of the day and he wanted a bit of time to himself, he would apologize for being so short with his friends later.
“What was that about?” Ron asked.
“I do worry about him, those headaches of his can’t be good,” Hermione said in a worried tone as she watched Harry’s retreating figure. Ron just nodded then seemed to remember that he was supposed to be mad at Hermione.
“Well maybe he’s tired of the nagging,” he said trying to start another fight.
“Nagging?!” Hermione said as she turned to face Ron.
“H-he might be tried of you two fighting,” Neville said from behind them, they had both forgotten that Neville was still there. Neville shuffled a bit under their combined gazes. “I-I mean, you two d-do fight a lot.” Hermione and Ron paused then looked at each other then away, embarrassed looks on both of their faces. While they were friends Ron and Hermione had very clashing personalities. Ron had that classic red-head temper and was lazy when it came to his school work while Hermione could be over eager when it came to her classes and yes, knew she could be a tiny bit of a know-it-all at times.
Hermione worried her bottom lip a bit with her teeth; her attitude had earned her some pretty horrible nicknames at her old muggle school. No one had wanted to be friends with her, something that had always broken a young Hermione’s heart but she refused to give up on all the knowledge she could learn about the world. It wasn’t until that fateful trip to the ski lodge that she made her first real friends in years and now she had more friends that she ever had before. They may not be a studious as her and if they made fun of her study habits, it was usually in a teasing tone.
“Look,” Ron’s soft voice drew Hermione’s attention back to the red headed boy. He was looking down at the ground at his feet and rubbing the back of his neck. He felt bad now for yelling at Hermione like he did and what he said after class by her showing him up, and yes he admitted he asked for that one. It just went on to remind him at how terrible he was at learning magic. It was like he had to fight with his wand every step of the way and he knew it didn’t help that it had been Charlie’s, his second older brother, old wand that his parents gave him to use because they couldn’t afford to get Ron a new wand of his own. Only thing he was half was decent at was transfiguration and even that he had some struggles with getting the spell through the wand. “I’m sorry. I’m just… well it doesn’t matter. I’m sorry for calling you a ‘bloody terror’ and asking why we’re friends.” He finally looked up at Hermione where she could see the sincerity in his blue eyes as well as hear it in voice.
“Forgiven then,” Hermione said giving Ron a little smile. “And I’m sorry too then, I was just trying to help.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ron said with a laugh, his shoulders relaxing a bit. He didn’t think they would be the last time they would have some sort of fight, but at least this one was resolved.
“Yes yes, very nice,” A voice said behind them. Ron, Hermione and even Neville who had stuck around watching his friends make up, jump at the voice and turned to see older students from Slytherin and Hufflepuff house standing in the hallway. “The firsties made up, how touching, but can we get to class now?” The trio of friends looked around just now realizing that everyone else had left from their class, leaving them behind.
“Sorry!” Hermione called over her shoulder as three of them ran off.
“Should we take points for them running?” One of the Slytherins asked as the older students filed into the Charms classroom.
“Nah, it’s Halloween, we’ll give them a pass,” the other one said with a laugh as they followed their classmates into the room.
******
“Where’s Harry? It’s time for the Halloween feast in the Great Hall,” Tracy asked as she looked around the room.
“Yeah, we haven’t seen him since class,” Justin added.
“He said he had a headache after Charms but we haven’t seen him since then,” Hermione said with a little frown. Everyone had met up in the study room after classes had ended for the first years to quickly to finish up homework and to hang out then go to the Great Hall together afterward for the feast.
“He more than likely is praying at his family shrine, he said he brought a small one to school,” Takewaki said.
“Is that what that thing is?” Ron asked, he never understood what that thing was that Harry set up between his and Ron’s beds in their dorm, it looked like a small fancy cabinet and sometimes he saw Harry kneeling in front of it on a small pillow, and he had seen wizarding photos of Harry’s birthparents within it.
“Why would he be praying?” Millicent asked confused.
“He always takes time to pray and light incenses on this day,” Kodachi said. “This is when his birth parents died.”
“That makes sense,” Daphne said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Halloween night is when You-know-who was defeated, one of the reasons why we celebrate tonight.” Tracy rubbed the back of her neck.
“Yeah… guess we kinda forget it’s also when Harry lost his birth family,” she said.
“Well he’s going to miss the feast,” Ron said as he shoved the last of his rolled up homework scrolls into his school bag, not caring that they were getting crushed and wrinkled by his books.
“He might have already gone to the feast,” Hermione pointed out. “But we’ll go ahead and check the dorm, it’ll give us time to drop off our bags too.”
“I-I’ll head with the others,” Neville offered. “In case he’s already in the Great Hall.”
“Alright, I’ll take your bag back if you like Neville,” Hermione offered.
“T-thanks,” Neville said as he handed his school back over to his housemate.
“Let’s get down to the Great Hall then before all the food is gone,” Tracy said as the group of young witches and wizards headed out the door.
“What!?” Ron said worriedly, he had been looking forward to these feast since his brothers told him about it. Now he was wondering if he should just follow after the others and leave Hermione to get Harry.
“Oh don’t be silly, Ron,” Hermione said rolling her eyes as she grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of the tower while their friends headed toward the staircase that would take them downstairs. Along the way Ron and Hermione saw many of their house mates, Seamus and Dean informing the pair that yes Harry was in the Gryffindor tower in the 1st years boy’s dorm when they left.
“Here, put Neville’s bag on his bed while I go put mine up in my dorm,” Hermione said as she passed the school bag over to Ron who took it with a sigh.
“Yeah fine,” he said as he held the bag strap and walked up the stairs to the room he shared with Harry and the others. “Hey Harry, you still in here?” Ron asked out loud as he opened the door.
“Hmm,” Ron heard Harry hum from somewhere in the room. It wasn’t hard to find Harry, the boy was right where Kuno had said he would be in front of the shrine thing between the beds. Harry was kneeling on the small pillow in front of it looking at the photos on the shrine of James and Lily Potter. The people inside the magical photos moved as they played the scene within the photo over and over again. In front of the photos a stick of incense was burning, filling the air with sweet smelling smoke, though most of it had burned away at this point and was about to go out.
Curled around Harry was Diego, the boa’s head lying in Harry’s lap as the boy rubbed the space between his eyes. Ron placed Neville’s bag on top of the trunk on the end of his dorm mate’s bed and tossed his own onto his bed, unconcerned about the contents spilling out. Ron took a few seconds to give Scabbers a few pets where the fat lazy rat laid curled up on one of the pillows at the head of his bed. The rodent didn’t even stir, letting out a few squeaky snores instead.
“Hey Harry, come on, you know it’s time for the feast right?” Ron asked as he shook Harry’s shoulder.
“Huh?” Harry blinked and gave himself a little shake, he had some awareness around him as he meditated, enough to be aware when Ron entered the room and acknowledged him but otherwise had been out of it. “What feast?”
“You know, the Halloween feast,” Ron said. “We’re missing all the food!”
“I swear food is all you think about,” Hermione said roll of her eyes but a fond smile was on her face as she joined them. Ron scowled a bit.
“Wait, how did you get here? I thought we couldn’t go into each other’s rooms,” Ron asked, he remembered seeing one of the second year boys trying to sneak into the girls side of the tower only for the stairs to turn into some sort of slide and the older boy came right back down. The boy had lost the house 5 points from Percy and his older brother had informed/reminded whole house boys weren’t allowed into the girl dorm rooms. Ron had taken that to meaning that girls were allowed in the boys’ rooms either.
“Boys can’t come in ours, but girls can still come in here,” Hermione corrected Ron.
“What!? That’s unfair isn’t it?” Ron asked. Hermione sniffed and straightened out her robes.
“Well obviously girls can be trusted more,” she said. Harry snorted and shook his head.
“Umm no, girls can be just as devious,” he pointed out. “Uncle Ranma told me sometimes Aunt Shampoo would sneak into his room at the Tendo’s, back when he was still engaged to Auntie Akane.”
“He was cheating on his fiancée?” Ron asked, blue eyes widening in shock.
“It was way more complicated than that,” Harry said with a shake of his head. Hermione tilted her head to the side, one finger resting on her chin, deep in thought as she went through some of the stories Harry had written her about through letters.
“He was engaged to both of them wasn’t he?” She asked. “Or at least, as far as she was concerned they were.”
“Something like that,” Harry agreed as he pushed Diego off his lap then stood up, stretching his arms out above his head with a little groan. Ron’s eyes were still wide, wondering about the people that Harry knew and how someone could be engaged to more than one person like that.
“How’s your headache?” Hermione asked when she saw Harry start rubbing his forehead under his bandanna over where he scar was located.
“Better,” he said with a sigh. “It’s gone away for the most part, meditating and praying at my shrine seems to help. There’s still a lingering ache but it’s better than it was.”
“I bet I know what would make him feel better, chocolate,” Ron said as he decided to put Harry’s strange history behind him and wanted to get down to the feast before all the food was gone. “Let’s go already!”
Hermione nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, that’s why we’re here so we can go to the feast together.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Harry said as he picked up the hissing Diego, who was complaining about being jolted from his nap so rudely, and placed the Brazilian boa on his bed. “Let’s go before Ron’s stomach eats itself.” Harry and Hermione laughed as Ron grumbled softly at the comment. The trio exited the Gryffindor Tower and headed down the various staircases to get to the ground floor.
“So what do you do for Halloween usually, Harry?” Ron asked to break the silence.
“Not anything really,” Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ll pray at the family shrine for my birth parents, spend some time with Uncle Moony to hear a few stories about them, since they died on Halloween but that’s it.”
“You’ve never celebrated the holiday?” Hermione asked.
“Halloween isn’t really a big deal in Japan,” Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I have vague memories of dressing up and getting candy as a little kid, I think Dad and I were in the United States at the time, but that’s about it. Uncle Moony has told me a bit about it, the old traditions in the Wizarding World and the mundane take on it. For me it’s just the night Okaasan and Otousan died and the night that Dad found me.”
“That’s so sad,” Hermione said then asked hesitantly, “Do… do you ever think about your birth parents?” Harry shrugged his shoulders again.
“Sometimes, what kid doesn’t,” he said. “But Dad and Mom are great and I get to hear a lot of stories about the Potters from Moony and Mimi, more about James Potter than Lily but stories none the less. I don’t remember them, I was too young.”
“Not at all?” Ron asked. He couldn’t imagine not having his parents, being raised by someone else completely.
“Well… sometimes I have these dreams, nightmares really, about a green light. They feel too real sometimes,” Harry said in a thoughtful tone. “Sometimes I dream about a soft voice singing to me but can’t really make out the song or if the voice is a man or a woman. I guess those could be memories but I’m not sure.”
“It’s possible, but no real way to tell,” Hermione agreed. She glanced around them and saw they were near the bathrooms on that floor. “Wait here a moment, I’m going to freshen up before heading into the Great Hall.”
Ron let out a little groan but leaned against the wall next to Harry while Hermione walked further down and entered the girl’s restroom.
“At this rate we’ll never get to the feast,” he muttered. Harry laughed and shook his head.
“Come on, you know that’s not true,” he said, nudging Ron’s shoulder with his own. Ron sighed and shrugged his shoulders a bit.
“Okay maybe you’re right, but I’ve been looking forward to these feast all day,” he said. “All year really, every since my brothers told me about the feasts they’ve gone to.”
“You hear a lot about the school before now?” Harry asked. Ron tilted his head to the side and scratched the side of his nose in thought.
“Some stuff, Bill and Charlie mostly told me, Ginny and the twins about some of the stuff here in the castle,” he said after a few quiet seconds. “Percy always asked about the classes and teachers. I swear to Merlin, I wish he would loosen up alrea-“
“Shhh!” Harry interrupted, one hand pressed over Ron’s mouth suddenly and pressing a finger of the other hand to his lips in the classic ‘be quiet’ gesture. Ron gave Harry a confused look, his friend was standing ram-rod straight and was staring out into the darkened corridor beyond the light given off by the sconces on the walls. Ron made a confused sound and pulled Harry’s hand off his mouth.
“Harry, what in the name of Merlin-“ Ron stared to asked.
“Hush!” Harry hissed again, his eyes never leaving the end of the hallway. “Do you hear that?” Ron blinked then finally listened. The hallway was dead silent, except for the soft crackle of the fires burning in the sconces. Ron frowned and he opened his mouth to question Harry again when he heard it: a loud, thumping sound, almost like a footstep, from further down the hallway. It was followed by a shuffling sound and another thump then the sound of something dragging on the stone floor. The smell hit Ron at the same time and his arm flew up, covering his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his robes.
“Ughh, what’s that smell?” he asked, his eyes starting to water from the stench.
“Keep your voice down,” Harry said as he grabbed Ron’s other arm and pulled his friend into the shadows behind a nearby statue of a gargoyle that decorated the hallway. Harry didn’t know what was coming down the hallway just yet, but he knew it was dangerous. His sense of danger wasn’t quite as honed as his Dad’s or his Uncle Ranma’s, but he knew whatever this was it wasn’t something either of them wanted to face.
Harry’s fears were soon proven right as a large lumbering form stepped from the shadows. It was huge, roughly 12 feet in height, meaning its almost brushed the top of the corridor. Or his head Harry supposed, he wasn’t sure what the difference between a male and female but considering the lack of breasts the thing was a male. The creature had greenish-gray skin and wore an open vest and loin cloth that were made from a patchwork of leathers that were held together by crude stitching, and his two-toed feet nearly made the floor shake with each step he took. Held tight in one hand was a large wooden club that was dragged behind the troll, accounting for the dragging sound.
“Bloody hell, that’s a troll,” Ron hissed his blue eyes wide with fright. Harry quickly clasped his hands over Ron’s mouth and pulled them back further into the shadows of the statue as the troll heard Ron’s voice. Its head, which was comically small compared to the rest of his body and had two large ears sticking out on either side, looked from side to side searching for the source of the sound. Both boys held their breath, praying that the troll wouldn’t discover them.
Luck seemed to be on their side as the troll seem to lose interest in looking for them and continued lumbering down the hall.
“How did a troll get into the school?” Ron asked in the softest whisper he could manage when Harry finally removed his hands from Ron’s mouth.
“I don’t know,” Harry admitted in a voice just as soft. And that really was the question of the day, how in the world did a bloody troll get into the school? Did anyone else know? Harry thought, or at least hoped anyway, that the school portraits or one of the many ghosts in the school had spotted the behemoth of a creature and had alerted the professors. Harry peered around the corner, watching the troll. “As soon as that thing is further away, we’re going to grab Hermione and make a run for… oh no. No no, please…”
“What? Oh bloody hell,” Ron asked as he took a look, his face paling. The troll, instead of walking past the doors to the restrooms, had stopped in front of the one that lead to the girls. He was scratching his head for a moment then pushed open the door to the restroom with a resounding bang that broke the door right off its hinges then ducked down and somehow squeezed himself through the much smaller door. A handful of seconds later, a terrified scream rang down the hallway.
“Hermione!” Harry and Ron yelled, leaving their hiding spot and racing for the restroom where their friend was trapped inside by the troll.
*****
Author note: (1) From what I can find out about it, Halloween is only a recently celebrated holiday in Japan and only in a few certain areas. Considering this takes place in the 90’s I can only assume it’s not a holiday that the Kuno siblings or Harry would be familiar with. Harry might have trick or treated as a young kid before he started school while traveling around the world with Ryoga but otherwise it’s not something he would have done, so anything he knows about the holiday would be from anything Remus told him.
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