Ch.21: Halloween
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Time flies, with the day being 31. October, the Halloween day, and Almira has been to Hogwarts for nearly two months.

On this morning’s charms-class they are excited as Professor Flitwick has finally deemed that they all have the basics down, so it’s time to try their first spell, at least for most of the students, the levitation charm.

Professor Flitwick put them in pairs and gave each of them a 30-centimeter-long feather to practice.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing! Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too -- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

Professor Flitwick squeaked while perched on top of his pile of books as usual, and all the students started waving their wands and saying “Wingardium Leviosa” again and again.

Wingardium Leviosa!”

Almira yells with excitement and manages to make the feather on her table rise into the air.

“Oh, well done Ms.Marlson!”

Almira shows a bright smile towards Professor Flitwick as he compliments her, but as soon as she stops focusing on the spell, the feather explodes into a blazing fire on top of her head, frizzling her hair and blinding everyone that had turned to look towards her.

Reparo! Scourgify!

The fire dissipates as she stops the spell, followed by her casting the mending charm and the cleaning charm to bring her hair back to good condition. She then turns towards Professor Flitwick while laughing.

“Professor, can I have another feather?”

She asks, eager to try again, making the rest of the class laugh at Professor Flitwick’s stumped face on seeing Almira not even flinching at having blown up the feather, as most of them have already gotten used to her happy-go-lucky persona. The class ended with five others managing to cast the spell, and with Almira having blown up three more feathers.

On the evening of that day they had the Halloween feast in the Great Hall, and when they step inside, they are awed by the decorations. The floating candles were inside carved pumpkins, the ceiling had stormy clouds with lightning flashing depicted on it, and there were live bats flying around in swarms.

As they walked past the Gryffindor’s table, Almira heard one of the girls saying to another that Hermione was crying inside the girls’ bathroom.

“I’ll make a quick visit to the bathroom.”

She whispers to her friends, making them puzzled on why she didn’t just use the cleaning charm.

As she makes her way towards the girls’ bathroom, she wonders what could have made Hermione cry. She hadn’t had many changes to speak with her in the past two months, but those times she did, Hermione seemed to be doing okay.

When she reached the bathroom, she started listening and heard some soft crying from the last cubicle.

“Hermione, are you there?”

She asked softly. She heard the crying stop, but no answer came.

“Hermione?”

She tried again, but again no answer. She jumped to hang over the cubicle's door and looked inside, finding Hermione sitting on the toilet, with the seat down, her face buried in her arms.

Almira jumped inside, making Hermione scream on finding someone else in the cubicle, before being made to stop as Almira buried her face in a hug. Hermione tried to struggle but had to give up after finding no way to get out of Almira’s arms.

After a while Hermione returned the hug and as she was shaking there in Almira’s arms, Almira could feel her shirt getting wet, but paid it no mind.

They stayed like that for some time, before Hermione once again trying to distance herself from Almira, and Almira didn’t stop her. Instead, she gave her a bright smile on seeing Hermione trying to avoid her gaze with an embarrassed face.

“Let’s go. The feast should still be ongoing.”

Almira says with a smile and casts the cleaning charm on both of them, cleaning her shirt and Hermione’s face, before opening the door of the cubicle and stepping out, only to stop at the sight of a troll walking into the girls’ bathroom.

The troll’s body stood four meters tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

“Kyaa!”

Hermione’s face pales ashen white at the sight, and she screams from the top of her lungs.

As the troll walks towards them, Almira sees two boys, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, burst into the room.

“Confuse it!”

Seeing the troll cornering Almira and Hermione, Harry yells to Ron before throwing a broken tap against the wall.

The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

“Hey, pea-brain!”

This time it was Ron who yelled, while throwing a metal pipe at the troll, making it turn towards him instead.

Seeing this, Almira decided pick Hermione into a princess-carry, as the latter couldn’t move due to being frozen in fear, and try to run past the troll, but the troll noticed them and prepared to swing its club down on them.

When Harry saw this, he took a running jump and fastened his arms around the troll’s neck but didn’t manage to make the troll stop its swing.

Almira jumped back to dodge the troll’s club by a hair’s width, before jumping again towards the troll, using its arm to jump over its shoulder with a flip, pulling Harry along as they passed him.

As Almira pulled him, Harry somehow managed to get his wand deep into the troll’s nostril, making it howl with pain, flailing its club wildly around.

Wingardium Leviosa!

Ron cast the levitation charm, making the troll’s club fly out of its hand, rise high into the air while turning, before dropping back down, with a sickening crack, onto its owner’s head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

“Is it, dead?”

Hermione, who seems to have recovered somewhat, asks.

“I don’t think so, I think it’s just been knocked out.”

Harry says after getting up from where he landed after Almira pulled him of the troll’s back and walks to the troll to get his wand out of the troll’s nostril.

Suddenly they turn towards the door as they hear multiple people running towards the girl’s’ bathroom and moments later Professors McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape burst through the door and into the room.

Professor Quirrell took a look at the troll, before slumping against the bathroom’s wall, while holding his heart, Snape crouched over the troll to make sure of its state, and McGonagall looked at them with a furious expression.

“Why on earth aren’t you all in your dormitories as you were told?”

Professor McGonagall said with cold fury in her voice.

Everyone was silent, until Hermione opened her mouth.

“They came looking for me.”

She said with a quiet voice after managing to get on her feet.

“I came loo-.”

“Me and Hermione had to visit the bathroom Professor.”

Almira cuts of Hermione while looking at Professor McGonagall with honesty in her eyes, who then asks Hermione:

“Is this true Ms.Granger?”

Hermione looks at the smiling Almira before saying:

“Yes Professor. Then suddenly the troll came into the bathroom and Harry and Ron came to rescue us. They must have heard we were here from our friends. If they hadn't found us, we'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish us off when they arrived."

Professor McGonagall seems to be taken aback by Hermione’s story.

“Well, in that case.”

She said before turning towards Harry and Ron.

"I’ll say you were lucky, as not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor ten points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. Now, you may all go back to your houses, as that’s where the rest of the students are finishing the feast."

They all hurriedly left the bathroom, and Almira said them bye, as she headed towards the Hufflepuff’s Common Room, where she found her friends worried for her because they knew she hadn’t heard the warning about the troll. It had taken a bit of time to explain to them what had happened, and to calm them down by letting them check every nook and cranny of her body for injuries, which they did not find.

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