# Ron-Weasly book 1. V2 part 8-3

Аноним Горный-Цветок

The search for Hermione. A fight with a troll. The denouement.

Chapter 8.3 Saving Hermione.

"How could a troll get into the castle?" Harry asked me as we hurried up the stairs.

"Don't ask me how I know." I shrugged my shoulders. "Actually, it's strange - they say that trolls are terribly stupid. Maybe Peeves let him in, decided to make a joke before Halloween?"

Judging by the busy traffic on the stairs, the evacuation was in full swing. Only the Halfpuff students lived up to the reputation of their faculty: they crowded into one of the corridors and prevented the others from passing. And the Slytherins were led upstairs. It makes sense, though. They have a living room in the dungeons. And there are books in the library, and you can barricade yourself. Harry and I were making our way through the crowd when Harry suddenly grabbed my sleeve.

"I just remembered: Hermione!" Harry suddenly yelled.

"What about Hermione?" I didn't understand.

"She doesn't know about the troll!"

Damn, I completely forgot about her. I bit my lip. If it's my fault she dies, I won't forgive myself. I checked if the rowan broth was in my pocket.

"Okay," I said abruptly after a few seconds, which took me to summon all my courage. "But if Percy sees us..."

Crouching down, we climbed into the very middle of a group of Halfpuff students who finally moved towards the library-that is, in the opposite direction. No one paid any attention to us, and after a while we emerged from the crowd, quickly ran down an empty side aisle and rushed to the women's toilets. The goal was just around the corner. We were already turning the corner when we heard quick footsteps behind us.

"It's Percy!" I hissed, grabbing Harry and hiding with him behind a large stone griffin.

However, it wasn't Percy who ran past us, but Professor Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from sight.

"What is he doing here?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he in the basements with the other teachers?"

"Do you think I know?"

We tiptoed into the next corridor, just where Snape had disappeared, whose retreating footsteps we could clearly hear.

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry began, but I held up my hand.

Fuck Snape, we have more important things to do. The air smelled like a mixture of dirty socks and a public toilet that hadn't been cleaned in years. Is it just me, or have we found a troll?

"Can you smell it?" Harry sniffed and wrinkled his nose.

The smell was followed by a sound-a low roar and the shuffle of giant soles. I pointed to the end of the corridor, and something huge was moving in our direction. We shrank back into the shadows, watching as IT emerged onto a moonlit stretch of corridor.

It was something terrifying, about four meters tall, with dull granite-gray skin, a lumpy body resembling a boulder, and a tiny bald head that looked more like a coconut. The troll had short legs as thick as wood and flat, calloused feet. His arms were much longer than his legs, and therefore the giant club that the troll held in his hand dragged along the floor behind him, and the smell coming from him could have struck better than any club.

The troll stopped, froze at the doorway, and bent down to look inside. He wiggled his long ears, seemingly trying to make some kind of decision. The process was delayed because the troll's brain, judging by the size of its head, was tiny. However, in the end, the decision was made and the troll, hunched over, crawled into the room.

"Look, the key's still in the lock," Harry whispered, "We can lock him in there."

"It's not a bad idea," I replied nervously. As we crept towards the door, my mouth went dry. "Praying to heaven that the troll would not leave the room, we crept very close. And then Harry darted forward, slammed the door, and turned the key in the lock."

"There is!"

Elated with success, flushed with pride, we headed back the way we came from, but before we could reach the corner, we heard a desperate scream of terror. And it was coming from the room that Harry had locked a few seconds ago.

"Oh, no," I said softly, turning pale like a Bloody Baron.

"This is a women's bathroom!" Harry gasped.

"Hermione!" We exclaimed after a moment. The last thing we wanted to do was do what we had to do, but what choice did we have? Abruptly, we turned around and rushed back to the door. Harry's hands were shaking with fear, and he couldn't turn the key in the lock. Finally, he succeeded. He pulled the door open and we ran inside.

Hermione Granger was standing against the wall directly in front of the door. She shrank back, as if she were trying, like a ghost, to seep through the wall. She looked like she was going to pass out. The troll was approaching her, brandishing a club and knocking down the shells attached to the walls.

"Distract him!" Harry shouted at me desperately. He grabbed a washbasin plug that was lying on the floor and threw it at the wall with all his might.

The troll froze a few meters away from Hermione. He awkwardly turned around to see who had made such a noise. His small evil eyes stared at Harry. The troll hesitated, deciding who to attack, and then took a step towards Harry, raising his club.

"Hey, you empty head!" I shouted, having managed to reach the corner of the toilet room, and threw a broken piece of metal pipe at the troll.

The troll didn't even seem to notice that a piece of iron had hit him in the shoulder. But he heard the scream and stopped again, turning his ugly face towards me and giving Harry the opportunity to run around him and get next to Hermione.

"Come on, let's run! Let's run!" Harry shouted, trying to pull Hermione towards the door. But she didn't move or give in, as if rooted to the wall. Her mouth was open in horror.

Harry's screams and the echoes echoing through the room, ricocheting off the walls, made the troll even more confused. He was clearly confused when he had so many goals in front of him, and did not know what to do. Suddenly the troll roared and took a step towards me: I was the closest to him and I had nowhere to run.

And then Harry ran up and jumped on the troll from behind, managing to grab onto his neck and wrap both arms around it from behind. What the fuck is he doing?! The troll, given his size, of course, could not feel that little skinny Harry was hanging on him, but even the troll could not help but notice that a long piece of wood was being shoved into his nose. At the moment of the jump, Harry was holding a wand in his hands, which he pulled out for some reason after flying into the room. He obviously did it subconsciously, because as a freshman, a wand could not help him in the fight against a troll. Magic has almost no effect on them at all. But it turned out that Harry had pulled it out for a reason, and when he jumped into the troll's neck, wrapping both arms around it from behind, the wand in his right hand stuck deep into the troll's nostril.

Howling in pain, the troll spun around and swung the club, while Harry hung on to it, clinging to his neck with all his might. At any second, the troll could throw him to the floor or flatten him with a blow from a club.

Hermione, almost fainting from terror, sank to the floor. And I pulled out my magic wand, completely unaware of what I was going to do, and shouted the first thing that came to mind, pointing at the club.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

It worked! The club broke free from the troll's hand, rose into the air and hovered for a moment, then slowly turned over and crashed with a terrible crash on the head of its owner. The troll staggered and fell to the floor with such force that the walls of the room shook.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and couldn't catch his breath. I froze in place with my wand raised, looking at the result of my work. I did it. It worked! I need to practice more, because I can do magic. I'm taking a deep breath. Ugh, we need to get out of here before the troll wakes up.

"Is he... is he dead?" Hermione broke the silence first.

"I don't think so," Harry replied, finding his voice second. "I guess he's just knocked out."

Harry bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. She was covered in what looked like dried gray glue.

"Ugh, his snot is disgusting."

Harry wiped his wand on the troll's trousers. The slamming of doors and loud footsteps made us all look up. We didn't even realize what a fuss we were making here. Someone downstairs must have heard the heavy thuds and the roar of the troll, and a moment later Professor McGonagall burst into the room, followed by Professor Snape, followed by Professor Quirrell. Quirrell looked at the troll, whined softly, and immediately plopped down on the floor, clutching his heart.

And this coward is our defense against the dark arts? It would be better to continue studying Muggle studies. They say he was a good teacher.

Snape bent over the troll, and Professor McGonagall glared at Harry and me. I've never seen her so angry. Her lips were even white. Or is it out of fear for us? Damn, here we are.

"What, let me ask you, were you thinking about?" There was cold fury in Professor McGonagall's voice. Harry squinted at me, but I didn't move from my place and still held my wand in my raised hand. "You're just lucky to be alive. Why aren't you in the bedroom?"

Snape glanced at Harry's face with a knife-sharp gaze. Harry stared at the floor.

Suddenly, a faint girl's voice came from the shadows.

"Professor McGonagall, they were here because they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione somehow managed to get to her feet.

"I went to look for the troll because... Because I thought I could handle him on my own... Because I've read everything in the library about trolls, and I know everything about them..."

I dropped my wand in surprise. Who would have believed that Hermione Granger - to think of Hermione Granger - was lying to her teacher's face?! Even if I didn't know who Hermione was, it still wouldn't have occurred to me that she might be lying," her voice sounded so true.

"If they hadn't found me, I would have been dead by now." Hermione continued. "Harry jumped on his neck and stuck his wand in his nostril, and Ron enchanted his club and knocked him out. They just didn't have time to call any of the professors. When they appeared, the troll was about to kill me."

Harry and I tried to make our faces look as if this story hadn't surprised us at all - as if everything had happened exactly as Hermione described. I stared at Hermione in shock.

"Well, in that case..." said Professor McGonagall thoughtfully, looking at all three of them. "Miss Granger, you stupid girl, how could you possibly think that you could subdue a mountain troll on your own?!"

Hermione lowered her head. Harry and I were silent. I would never have thought that Hermione had violated the school rules. But now she presented everything as if she had deliberately committed a serious violation. And all this in order to get us out of trouble. It was as unexpected as if Snape had started handing out sweets to the students.

"Miss Granger, it's your fault that five penalty points are being credited to Gryffindor! Professor McGonagall said dryly. "I had a very high opinion of you and was very disappointed by your misconduct. "If you're okay, you'd better go back to Gryffindor Tower." All the faculties finish the interrupted festive dinner in their living rooms." Hermione left the room. Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and me.

"Well, even after listening to Miss Granger's story, I still maintain that you were just lucky. Nevertheless, not every freshman is able to cope with an adult mountain troll. Each of you gets five bonus points. I will inform Professor Dumbledore of what has happened. You can go now."

We hurriedly left the bathroom and didn't say a word until we were two floors up and finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was very nice to be away from the troll, his smell, and everything related to this story.

"You could have given us more than ten points," I grumbled.

I would never have thought that the lives of children in this Britain's best school were valued so low. You could make a memorial plaque for us.

"You mean five," Harry corrected me.

Don't forget that she gave Hermione five points.

"She did well to get us out of trouble," I admitted. "Although we actually saved her."

"We probably wouldn't have had to save her if we hadn't locked the troll in the toilet," Harry reminded him. He's right about that, of course. And it's worth apologizing to her.

We came to the portrait of a Fat Lady.

"Piglet," we said in one voice and climbed inside. It was crowded and noisy inside. Everyone made up for what they had missed at the banquet by eating the food that had been brought upstairs. Everyone except Hermione, who was standing off to the side, waiting for us. Harry and I approached her and froze, not knowing what to say. And then each of us said, "Thank you."

"Granger, I'm sorry I said all that nonsense. You're the best student in the class. Do you want me to be your friend?"

Harry nodded.

"me too."

"Thanks boys. I really want to."

And we hurried to the tables. From that moment on, Hermione Granger became our friend. There are events that you can't help but feel sympathy for each other. And the victory over the four-meter mountain troll is undoubtedly one of such events.