/Author's note: This scene is an adaptation to the one in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone, the bold lines are taken from the book. Also, I made it so that Hermione was still 11 years old at Halloween of first year. Why, you ask? Well just because :p
This story is written out of pure pleasure and no financial gain is linked to its creation or exposition. The characters are not mine, I just tweak their situations.
Chapter 1: When it all Began
"It's no wonder no one can stand her…she's a nightmare honestly" The words rang in her head like a deafening siren as a bushy brown-haired girl with large front teeth cried in the girls bathroom. `That Ron Weasley is such a moron!' She thought, `how can he have the nerve to make fun of me! All I was trying to do was help him get through his thickness and do the spell right…" Hermione Granger had been crying, locked in her little cubicle, for the whole afternoon.
A girl from her year, Lavender Brown, had tried to persuade her to come out, all the while making fairly nasty comments about Ron to try and make her feel better. She had appreciated the effort but she just needed to be alone and didn't answer, and so Lavender, accepting defeat, had left for dinner. Now all Hermione could hear was the clatter of cutlery and the happy voices of those in the Great Hall.
She felt drowned in emotions: she felt guilty for not being kinder to Lavender, she felt sad, she felt stupid for crying over such a silly thing, and as her stomach gave a small rumbling noise, she realized she felt hungry too. But she didn't want to enter the Great Hall late and make everyone's attention turn to her, not that she expected any to notice she wasn't present, but the big doors to the Great Hall were very noisy and they would surely draw attention to her more than anything.
Suddenly she heard an uproar come from that direction, and a great scraping of benches. Hermione figured the feast had just finished, though it seemed to her it was a bit early. Nevertheless, those noises along with another growl of her stomach made her decide to get out of her cubicle and leave her depression inside.
"Never again," she thought while looking at herself in the mirror, "never again will I cry because of a boy". Her eyes and nose were red, and a few tears lingered on the rims of her eyes. She wiped them away and washed her face at the sink. The cold water felt good on her face, and the red colour of her face slowly faded.
As she soaked her face once more, she crinkled up her nose as a horrible smell reached her nostrils. She turned around to see where it was coming from and she let out a high, petrified scream. A troll was in front of her, it looked just like the illustration of a book about magical creatures of Northern Europe she had read. It reared its great boulder-like head to see where the sound had come from, and didn't even seem to register Hermione's presence straight away. She started backing away towards the back wall of the bathroom, since the huge granite-grey mass in front of her blocked all other routes, and hoped that either the troll would go away, or move enough for her to be able to slip away and run for her life.
No such luck.
The troll made its way towards her, knocking sinks off the wall as he went. Hermione was so scared she thought she would faint, and as all her possibilities of escape began to dissolve around her, she felt panic rise in her, something that only ever happened in moments of absolute despair and hopelessness.
Then her heart leapt, as she heard the door open. "Yes! I'm saved! she thought, a teacher must have heard my scream!" but it wasn't a teacher, it wasn't even the caretaker, it was two small boys, one with jet black messy hair and emerald eyes, Harry Potter, and the other with flamboyant red hair and brown eyes, Ron Weasley. She felt mixed feelings, first she felt reassured that someone had come to help, though that feeling wavered slightly at the sight of the two first years, she felt a strange sense of safety and reassurance at the sight of Harry and the bravery that was set in his eyes, and then hatred at the sight of Ron, not only because of the look of fear on his face, but because, in the end, it was partly his fault that she was in this situation.
Harry yelled at Ron to try and confuse the troll while grabbing a tap and throwing it against a wall. The troll heard it, or at least registered something was happening behind him, and stopped moving towards Hermione. It turned around, to see what had made the noise and saw Harry. It looked back at Hermione, but finally started towards Harry instead. Fear and dread ran through Hermione as she saw the troll make its way towards him.
Then the troll paused as a pipe hit its shoulder and Ron shouted something. Harry seized this opportunity to run around the troll and make his way to Hermione while the troll lumbered around to face Ron.
Hermione saw him running towards her, sheer determination in his eyes, and even if pipes were flying and sinks were crashing around her, she felt safe at the sight of him near her. True she had been mad at them before, but it was mostly because of the shock of seeing the three-headed dog, or rather the shock of nearly having her head bit off.
She could see his lips moving and could hear muffled voices. She snapped out of her Harry-reverie but still couldn't move, terrified at the thought of moving closer towards the troll, even if to get out.
The troll seemed to be going mad, all the shouting making him spin around. Finally, it decided to go for the closest one to it, Ron, who had no way of escape.
Harry suddenly took a great running jump and fastened his arms around the troll's neck from behind, while accidentally sticking his wand, that had still been in his hand when he jumped, up the troll's nose.
Hermione admired his move of bravery, even though incredibly stupid, and realised how much Harry cared for his friends, and knew that he would always put himself in harms way to protect them, she wondered if he would do the same for her. "Does he consider me a friend? He must if he risked the troll for me. But does he feel something more? Wait," she thought, "why am I hoping that? Could I possibly like him? Oh no this is going to bother me for ages now."
The troll gave another roar, of pain this time, and started rampaging all over the bathroom, thrusting his club all over the place trying to hit Harry, who was clinging to the troll's neck for dear life.
Hermione was so afraid for Harry's life that she fainted and sunk down the wall in fright with the image of Harry being clubbed swimming around in her mind. Suddenly there was a great thud and she snapped back up, fearing the worst.
Through the dust that had lifted up she could see Harry getting to his feet next to the limp body of the troll, lying flat on his front on the floor of the destroyed bathroom. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, amazed at what he had done.
Hermione finally broke the silence.
"Is it - dead?"
"I don't think so," said Harry, "I think it's just been knocked out."
He bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue.
"Urgh - troll bogeys."
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's immaturity while Harry wiped it on the troll's trousers..
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made them jump and look up. Of course, with all the racket they had made someone must have heard them. A moment later, Professor McGonagall followed by Snape and Quirell appeared. "NOW they come!" thought Hermione angrily, though she had to stop herself from laughing when Quirell collapsed onto a toilet at the sight of the troll.
"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice.
"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Hermione saw the two boys look at each other and knew there was only one answer that could get them out of trouble, even if it meant lying to a teacher. "After all, they just saved my life, she thought, so it balances out."
So her small voice came out of the shadows.
"Please, Professor McGonagall - they were looking for me."
"Miss Granger!"
Hermione had gotten up so that the teachers finally noticed her.
"I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them."
She didn't break eye contact with Professor McGonagall but she heard Ron drop his wand. Could it be true? Hermione, the know-it-all teacher's pet actually lying right to a teacher's face, her head of house no less.
"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now, she tried to reason, they didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."
She knew Harry and Ron were trying to look as though this story wasn't new to them, Hermione tried to keep from shaking, she couldn't believe what she was doing.
"Well - in that case…" said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione finally broke eye contact and looked down, she hoped she was at least acting right. Harry was dumbstruck, and Snape looked like Christmas had come early.
"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feasts in their houses."
Hermione didn't need telling twice and hurriedly walked away.
She walked all the way to Gryffindor tower just like she was asked to, trying not to burst into tears for losing house points. She was ashamed of herself. But strangely, she didn't care as much as she thought, she found herself thinking more about Harry and Ron, and how they were being scolded too. Now she didn't see them as just two boys from her class, that happened to attract quite a bit of trouble, she considered them friends, "well maybe a bit more of a friend for Harry" she thought wryly, the first smile of the day crossing her face, and hoped they would feel the same. Either way she decided to be nicer to them from now on. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot troll is one of them.
When Hermione arrived at the Gryffindor common room, it was packed and noisy. No one noticed her entering, no surprise to her, but when she saw the food that had been sent up, she suddenly realised how hungry she was. Nevertheless, she waited alone by the door for the boys to get back. Finally, they entered. An awkward silence followed and they said a rapid `Thanks' before going to get something to eat, Hermione finally satisfying her rumbling tummy.
That night, Hermione lay in her bed, thinking of what had happened that day. "I lied to a professor! But I guess it was worth it, well I hope it was, maybe they'll be nicer to me now, I hope Harry does, I'd like to know what lies behind those disarming green eyes." She sighed. "Here we are again, thinking about the Great Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived." But she didn't see him like that. It wasn't his fame that attracted her. In fact she couldn't really explain what it was she liked about him, she just - did.
Leave it to love to find the first thing Hermione didn't fully understand. "But who really does understand love anyway?" she thought reassuringly. And with her feelings for Harry buzzing around her head, she fell asleep, vowing to never show her feelings for him, because, after all, that's not what you do at 11 years old.
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