Summary: Well...there's still a troll. So, canon hasn't been COMPLETELY derailed. Yet.

Chapter 7: Halloween Cometh

Harry wasn't in a foul mood, so much as he was a melancholy one. He was surrounded by bluebell flames, covered in a warming charm, and hidden away in a little rocky alcove near the Black Lake. He had a photo album, recovered from Godric's Hollow before the Ministry seized it and stored away in his parents vault. There were a few pictures of James and Lily at Hogwarts…but far more of them from Harry's first three years of life.

Every Halloween, he was immensely thankful that Pandora had begun sorting and storing his memories for him at such a young age. She'd managed to save a fair few of his stronger memories of his parents, carefully tucked away in a secure portion of his mind palace. He didn't go looking for them often. The memories were always sure to put him into the same mood he was in now. A melancholic fugue state where his mind couldn't help but consider 'might have beens.'

Halloween was one of the exceptions.

It was the one day where he didn't just dig up the memory of their faces, or a single memory of a hug when he really needed a pick-me-up. Instead, it was the one day of the year that he allowed all of the memories to flow freely. The good memories, the bad memories…and even the final memory, the night of their death. He'd done so every year, conquering his fear of their final moments, sitting in remembrance of them, solidifying who they were in his memory once more. He didn't know if it was healthy, and honestly didn't care. This much, at least, he would always do for them. Remembering them not as the poorly-appreciated heroes they were, but as the loving family he'd lost.

He scowled, again, at that last thought. Several people had made the mistake of 'thanking' him or 'congratulating' him today. For his 'defeat' of the Dark Lord. He'd ended up thirty points down and three detentions owed by the end of the day, for the number of people he'd cursed. Two of them even ending up in the hospital wing when his temper had truly begun to fray. Eventually, the rest of Gryffindor, at least, had cottoned on to why he was pissed and started acting as a shield to keep people away from him. Though he wasn't entirely sure if that was to help him, or to simply stem the bleeding of house points…

Fred and George, at least, really had been looking out for him when they'd quietly shown him the entrance to the kitchens. He would have to do something nice for them, since it meant that he had been able to completely avoid the feast without going hungry. Closing the photo album and checking the time, he sighed as he realized the feast would still be ongoing. Perhaps he should just slip upstairs while it…

Harry froze as he felt an odd sort of pull on his magic, a frown forming on his face a moment later as he heard the sound of a rather large limb cracking, followed by grunts and groans. Flicking his fingers, he wandlessly disrupted the magic of the flames, causing their blue glow to flicker out even as he eyed the nearby edge of the forbidden forest. Long moments passed before he spotted the faint outline of a large creature moving away from the forest and toward the castle, the smaller shadow of a man following in its wake, wand in hand. His frown deepening, Harry released his own wand from its wrist holster and brought it up to his glasses, activating the 'night vision' and 'magic vision' modes. He growled and deactivated the second almost as soon as it activated, having forgotten that the insanely powerful magics all over Hogwarts made that aspect near-useless. He cursed himself for forgetting that he needed to spend some time with that vision mode on, letting Pandora adjust their enchantments to filter out the wards and ambient magic. It simply hadn't been a high-priority until now. With the blinding light of the magic-sight gone, Harry did slowly get a better look at the figures, though they'd moved far enough that he was only half sure what he was seeing.

"Pandora. It that what I think it is?"

'If you think it's a mountain troll, being guided by Professor Quirell, than yes, Harry."

Harry blinked at that, even as Pandora labeled the Professor in his vision. She sounded as confused as he did…but whatever what going on, Harry's instincts were telling him it wasn't good. He began moving after the two quietly, even as he addressed his companion again.

"Pandora, can you ask Hogwarts about them?"

Pandora's voice was annoyed as she answered. 'Unfortunately, no. She's currently singing off key renditions of spooky songs, instead of paying attention."

Harry frowned. "I thought you'd been making progress with her?"

'I have been. But it's a slow and delicate process. One I barely understand a fraction of. And right now she'd being bombarded by the festive energy of several hundred students. She's sort of…punch drunk, I guess?'

"Shite." Harry sped up as the Troll and Quirell entered a passage in the outer wall that Harry hadn't even known about. He cursed as he reached it a moment later and found nothing. For a moment he was tempted to try and figure it out…but it would likely take longer than simply making for one of the nearby side-entrances from the grounds. Making up his mind, he picked up his pace to a jog, making for the main gate.

'Harry, what are you planning to do?'

Pandora didn't sound particularly happy with his actions, her purpose was to protect him after all. But she wasn't trying to stop him either. The people her personality had been distilled from weren't the kind to ignore something like this, either.

"Right now? Quietly warn one of the teachers. Hopefully, they know about this and it was simply a convenient time for him to bring a troll in for the Care of Magical Creatures class, or something. Maybe even a practical demonstration for his own class…"

'You don't really believe that Harry. And I don't either. Between that moment where we felt something trying to legimens you in his class, without eye contact, and that blatantly fake stutter…"

"Yeah. He's suspicious as heck. Which is why I want to warn one of the other teachers. At least the students should be safe, since they should all be at the feast right now. Much as I'm still not sure about him, I seriously doubt Dumbledore would have a problem taking out a troll, of all things."

'True. Not to mention Flitwick and McGonagall. Even Snape, probably, dickhead that he might be.'

Harry snorted, amused that Pandora couldn't seem to refrain from insulting the Head of Slytherin whenever he came up in conversation. It was the first time she'd every taken so much of a dislike to anyone but the Dursleys. He supposed it probably didn't help that three out of four of the women that had made up her base personality had disliked the man, Marlene McKinnion the most passionately, strangely enough. His mother had possessed mixed feelings about him, though edging to the negative. And Pandora had thought he was a 'whiney little edgelord with delusions of self-importance.' Only his grandmother had possessed no opinion, having never met the much-younger man.

He focused as he made it through the side entrance, heading towards the Great Hall, then froze as he heard a scream. His frozen moment shattered even as Pandora wordlessly highlighted the direction of the sound. He pushed off into a run, mind racing through the spells he knew. Did he know anything that could hurt a troll? Incendio. That was his best bet for direct attack, he figured, but there were a few other options. Hopefully. He skittered around a corner…and saw an extremely angry mountain troll attacking what looked like a pair of Slytherin's. Both of whom were scrambling to avoid the troll's club. The troll's on-fire crotch probably explained why it was pissed.

Not fire, then.

Thinking quickly, he aimed for the troll's club as it raised it over its head. He tagged it with a silent levitation charm, pouring all the power he could into it and feeling Pandora add some of her own. The troll's hand came down…without the club. In stared in confusion, even as Harry wandlessly summoned a lance from a nearby knight. Flitwick had seen Harry's wordless 'push' with raw magic and had assigned him the banishment charm as extra work, despite it normally being a fourth year spell. Harry had found it and the summoning spell that went with it stupidly easy, doubtless because of the ridiculous amount of time he'd put into attempting wandless telekinesis.

Now, he put that new spell to use, levitating the lance in front of him and banishing it as hard as he could, feeling Pandora once again adding her own power. He gasped, panting but pulling another weapon, a spear this time, too him, even as the first hit home. The troll ROARED as the lance sliced deep into its hamstring. Purely chance that, but luck was a sort of skill too. One he doubled down on as he repeated his first action, aiming higher…and getting the troll right in the throat as it half-fell, half-spun to face him. It gurgled, even as Harry wavered on his feet. He'd overpowered those spells by a lot and his magic-channels were aching as a result. He forced himself to remain conscious long enough to make sure it was dead, then let himself fade as he saw Flitwick and McGonagall reach the other end of the hall at a sprint. He fell, but something caught him halfway down, lowering him as the light faded...

...

Harry awoke with a gasp, half lurching up from his prone position before a firm hand caught him and pushed him back. Adrenaline rushed through him as he almost lashed out, only to recognize the hand as belonging to the school healer just in time. His gasp left him in an equally strong exhale at that, even as his eyes darted around. He was in the hospital wing…and Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick were all three there as well. As were, he noted, the pair of Slytherin first years that he'd seen frantically dodging the troll. He focused on them for a moment, then relaxed as Pandora highlighted them in green, showing they lacked any injuries she could detect.

Dumbledore broke the silence.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I see you're awake. A assure you that no one was harmed and, given the testimony of Ms. Greengrass and Ms. Davis, you are not in trouble. We do have a few questions for you, but please take a moment to orient yourself."

Harry filed that away. The assumption that he might have been in trouble for doing the right thing was a bit alarming. But it also might have been nothing more than an attempt to calm him if he was panicking. Still, possibly not promising for his first interaction with someone he was unsure of. Making sure not to make eye-contact, flicking his gaze between people to disguise that fact, he sat up slower this time. Thankfully, the healer seemed satisfied with whatever scan she'd been running and let him up this time, lowering her wand from where it had been slowly panning up and down his body. She spoke before he could figure out what to say himself.

"No lasting harm, Mr. Potter. Though you might want to go easy on your magic for a few days. Your core is completely fine, but the magic channels in your arms are a bit strained. They aren't damaged and will likely be a bit more robust for the experience, but they might ache if you cast anything too strenuous for a few days."

He nodded and opened his mount to say something, only for Flitwick to excitedly cut in.

"And quite understandable! That was a marvelously done set of banishing charms, Mr. Potter. I saw the second one myself just as I turned the corner! That spear punched all the way through the troll! A remarkable accomplishment given that its combat enchantments weren't active!"

Dumbledore frowned at that.

"Yes. That was a bit of an extreme reaction Mr. Potter. Was it your intention to kill the troll?"

Harry shook his head mutely. He paused a heartbeat or three to see if anyone else was going to interrupt his attempt to speak, then answered properly when no one did.

"No, sir. It hadn't turned to face me when I launched the spear. And even if it had, I don't have enough control of the banishing spell yet to aim something that unwieldly with it. I was just pushing power into the spell and hoping for the best. It was the only thing I could think to do, given that it appeared fire had already failed."

The frown lessened and the headmaster nodded acknowledgement.

"Understandable, under the circumstances, even if it's regrettable. We are certainly grateful that you stepped in to help your classmates, but why were you not at the feast?"

Harry grimaced, looking around for his things. Seeing his wand and the mokeskin pouch he'd been using on a side table, he reached for them. The wand he smoothly put away in his holster, the pouch he opened to pull out his family photo album, turning it so the headmaster could see.

"I don't celebrate Halloween for some pretty obvious reasons, headmaster. Instead, I choose to sit vigil down by the lake, looking through some photos of my parents."

That got several winces of sympathy, exactly as he'd intended. It was a bit…vindictive of him, he supposed. But he was still more than a little upset that none of the teachers had thought to step in before he started hexing people for their 'congratulations.' It's not like he'd led with that at the start of the day.

"I see." Dumbledore's voice was aged, as was his expression. "That, too, is understandable. Though in the future I ask that you alert your head of house to where you will be in such circumstances. Just in case something like tonight happens, yes?"

Harry nodded. That was reasonable, if annoying. Besides, he had something more important on his mind.

"Did someone catch Professor Quirrell?"

He frowned as only blank expressions faced him.

"You did realize he let the troll in, right? I saw him leading it in from the grounds, through a secret passage. It concerned me enough to cut my time by the lake short and head inside to ask someone about it."

All of the adults suddenly had much more serious expressions. It was McGonagall that spoke first this time.

"You're sure of who it was, Mr. Potter?"

Harry nodded.

"Yes. He came out of the Forbidden Forest near enough to me to get a good look. He had his wand on the troll and was clearly guiding it inside. I thought maybe he had a legitimate reason, but it was still strange enough that I went inside to alert someone. Only, of course, I ran into the troll running loose before I reached anyone to tell."

Dumbledore turned to the thus-far silent potions master, who had been standing behind his students. Presumably there for them, rather than anything to do with the troll.

"Severus. Find him."

The potions master nodded curtly and swept out of the hospital wing with billowing robes. Wait…billowing robes? That had to be a spell, right? There was virtually no air movement in here…

"We will investigate, Mr. Potter. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Is there anything else we should know?"

Harry thought for a moment, then shook his head in response to the headmaster's question.

"No sir, I don't think so. Well, there's the secret passage he used, I suppose. But I assume you know about it. It was maybe…100 meters from the east grounds entrance?"

All three of the remaining professors nodded, with Dumbledore speaking for them.

"Less a secret passage than simply a feature of the castle. There's a Sally Port there, rarely used for anything since we don't exactly have need of sending out armored knights in the modern era. Any of the teachers have authority to open it…but only the teachers do. Which farther proves it must have been Professor Quirrell, as he was the only teacher missing from the feast. Even Sybil was present for once."

Professor McGonagall spoke next, clapping her hands and giving them all a firm look.

"Well. That settles that, then. Mr. Potter, while I would caution you not to deliberately seek out such encounters in the future, in this instance you likely saved Ms. Davis and Ms. Greengrass's lives. Twenty points to Gryffindor for living up to our house's ideals."

Flitwick grinned and pipped up from where he'd been watching.

"And ten more for an excellent usage of a fourth-year charm, as a first year! I look forward to seeing how far you go with my subject, Mr. Potter!"

McGonagall smiled slightly at that, then waved at Harry.

"Madam Pomfrey has cleared you, so off you get to bed. And you do still have those detentions, Mr. Potter. While, in retrospect, I understand a bit more why you were in such a foul mood today, that does not excuse your attacks on your fellow students. Am I clear?"

Harry gulped under her stern gaze and nodded a hurried 'yes.'

"Good. Then off to bed you get."

Harry got while the getting was good…