"Hermione!" Dayton called as he made the hard decision to open the door to the girls' bathroom. "Hermione, come on, open up. Just let me know you're okay."
"Go away, Dayton!" Hermione called from the stall furthest from the door. "Leave me alone!"
"No! No I won't, because that's not what friends do." Dayton reasoned, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. "Friends are there for each other through thick and thin. They're there to brighten up your day, to lift each other's spirits when they're down. So let me. Please."
The tears were streaming down his own face now. The stall door opened slowly, and when Hermione caught sight of Dayton, she ran at him and tackled him into a hug. The final lesson was about to start in a few minutes, but the two children didn't care in the slightest. Hermione just squeezed Dayton tighter and snuggled deeper into his embrace; to her, it didn't matter that they were on a bathroom floor. Her face was buried into the crook of Dayton's neck, and both of their tears stopped.
Neither had any idea how long they were in that position, but they were both pulled out of their comforts when a pungent stench interrupted their moment. The two children turned their heads and saw a giant troll with bluish-green skin, wielding a large wooden club.
"Hello there!" Dayton said, before grabbing Hermione and dodging out of the way into the stall, just as the troll swung its club, smashing the top part of the stalls to pieces.
Meanwhile, that evening, the Great Hall had floating Jack O'Lanterns in place of the candles. Harry noticed two empty spots on the bench.
"Where are Hermione and Dayton?" He asked Neville.
"Parvati Patil said that Hermione wouldn't come out of the girls' bathroom." Neville replied. "She said that she'd been in there for a while... crying. I don't know where Dayton could be, though."
Harry shot a disapproving look at Ron, who shrugged.
Suddenly, the door burst open and in came a wide-eyed Professor Quirrell, running into the Great Hall in a panic. Dumbledore rose from his seat in concern.
"TROLL!" Quirrell screamed. "In the dungeon! T-troll in the dungeon!"
Everyone looked at Quirrell as he stopped in the aisle.
"Thought you ought to know." He said to Dumbledore. The next moment, his eyes glazed over and he collapsed to the floor in a dead faint.
Chaos erupted instantaneously, as children screamed and ran for the doors.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore roared, his voice ringing clearly amongst the noise. Everyone stopped and calmed down. "Everyone will please, not panic. Now, Prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons."
Professor Snape was aghast, as he walked out through the doorway. Percy began leading the Gryffindor students down a corridor.
"Gryffindors, keep up please. And stay alert!" He ordered.
"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked.
"Not by itself." Ron replied. "Trolls are really stupid. Probably people playing jokes."
Suddenly, Harry stopped and pulled Ron aside.
"What?" Ron was confused.
"Hermione and Dayton!" Harry said. "They don't know!"
"They're in the third-floor bathrooms, and the troll is in the dungeons. I'm sure they'll be fine." Ron shrugged off the thought.
"Well, I'm going to find them anyway." Harry stated firmly. "Are you coming with me?"
Ron huffed. "Fine."
The two English boys immediately broke away from the Gryffindors, running for the bathrooms.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Dayton waved his wand at the troll's legs. All that spell did was immobilize the troll for a second, but it only became angrier after it had regained its wits.
"Better than nothing!" Dayton exclaimed as he dodged yet another of the troll's clobberings, this one smashing one of the three ceramic sinks.
The troll lifted the club above its head and moved towards Dayton, ready to end him when the door burst open.
"Hey, pea brain!" It was Ron, with Harry right next to him. They were throwing pieces of wood at the troll's head. One lucky shot by Harry hit the troll straight in the eye causing it to turn in a blind rage, swinging at everything in its partial sight. One of those things being Dayton.
He was thrown across the room and against the bathroom's tile wall. Stunned, he sank to the floor next to a shivering Hermione, who instantly checked up on him.
Meanwhile, as Dayton was wavering in and out of consciousness, Harry had whipped out his wand, ran forward and grabbed the troll's club, and he was immediately lifted up. He landed on the troll's head, and was hurled forward, then back, and his wand shot up the troll's nose, much to Ron's disgust.
"Do something!" Harry pleaded, the troll still hurling him around.
Ron shot a glance at Hermione, who imitated waving her wand. "Swish and flick!" She reminded him.
Ron understood immediately, pulling out his own wand and correctly pronouncing the spell this time.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" He shouted. The club was lifted out of the troll's hand and hovered above its head. The troll looked up, confused, just as the club came crashing back down. It hit the troll's head hard and the troll wavered. It dropped Harry, who crawled away, and the troll slowly came crashing down, knocked out cold. Hermione and Dayton approached carefully, Dayton limping and stumbling considerably.
"Is it... dead?" Hermione asked, squeezing tightly to Dayton's hand.
"I don't think so, just knocked out." Harry replied, grimacing as he pulled his wand out from the troll's nose.
Suddenly, McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell came rushing in. They all gasped at the knocked out troll.
"Oh, my goodness!" McGonagall's face had gone quite pale. "Explain yourselves, all of you!"
Dayton started to explain, when Hermione cut him short.
"It's my fault, Professor McGonagall." She said, all eyes on her now.
"Miss Granger?" McGonagall was confused, almost shocked.
"I went looking for the troll." Hermione continued. "I'd read about them and thought I could handle it. But I was wrong. If Harry, Ron and Dayton hadn't come and found me... I'd probably be dead."
"Be that as it may, it was an extremely foolish thing to do." McGonagall said to the girl. Dayton noticed Snape's leg, which had the trousers' leg torn and a large cut in it. Snape noticed and covered it up, simultaneously glaring daggers at the blond boy.
"I would have expected more rational behaviour on your part, Miss Granger." McGonagall continued. "Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement."
McGonagall then turned to Harry, Ron and Dayton. "As for you three gentlemen, I just hope you realise how fortunate you are. Not many students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Five points... will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck."
The boys all grinned at each other. Despite their loss of five points, they had managed to gain fifteen back.
"Good for you to get us out of trouble like that." Harry said to Hermione as the first years were walking back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Mind you, I mean, we did save her life." Ron added.
"Mind you, she didn't need saving if you hadn't insulted her." Dayton cut in, smirking at Ron.
Hermione looked at the ginger-haired boy, who shrugged. "What are friends for?" Ron said.
They all smiled as they carried on through the corridor.
Thus, the Golden Quartet was born.
YOU ARE READING
Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Hermione X Self Insert)
FanficHarry Potter is a boy who learns on his eleventh birthday that he is the orphaned son of two powerful wizards and possesses unique magical powers of his own. His best friend Dayton Cahill, originally from Canada, begins to question said magical powe...
