Professor Black: A Reader Insert

8. Trolling Excuses

October passed the same. Harry's time filled with him raving about Quidditch and his studies and how insufferable Draco is. Draco's time filled with addressing his deep-seated issues under the guise of absolutely not doing that because he's a pureblood and is not allowed to be anything less than perfect and pure and my god this boy needs an actual therapist because this little wolf is not qualified in the slightest.

And then Halloween day came upon them. (y/n) felt the bitter feeling of someone hurting, Harry's group should have just finished with Charms and the fact she couldn't place who that hurt was coming from was a bit disturbing for her, very few strangers can give her inferences. Harry dropped by before the feast and told her about what happened and explained that Hermione wasn't the kind of girl to miss classes and that she's been missing classes since that morning and he was worried.

"Do you know where she is?" (y/n) wrote a note on a scrap piece of parchment as she awaited his answer.

"Parvati Patil told Lavender Brown that Hermione was crying in the girl's bathroom and wanted to be left alone." He recited his eyebrows scrunched together in worry.

"You get to the Hall and if anything happens, you follow the directions of your prefects or the staff. Hand this to Hagrid when you see him and don't freak out if you see a wolf the size of a house stalking the corridors, that's me." She scribbled into the charmed notebook about missing the feast to attend duties to Severus with a reminder to be diligent and shifted before leaving a dazed Harry in her office to find the girl, a growing pit in her stomach telling her that this was not going to be a good evening at all.

She found Hermione and shifted to the smallest that she could be before nudging the girl's leg earning a sad sniffle.

"Oh? Who are you little one?" Her voice was hoarse from crying her hand stretching out to gently run her fingers through (y/n)'s soft fur.

She whined slightly nosing the girl's hand.

"You want to know why I'm sad?" She sighed and shook her head. "It's something silly."

(y/n) sent Hermione a look that read as 'It isn't if this is what happens.'

"I left what I knew in the Muggle world and came here and- Ron said- and I don't know why it-" She tried to explain but stopped with a frustrated sigh.

(y/n) nuzzled into the girl's hand, her ears swiveling to the bathroom door. She grabbed the hem of Hermione's robe and dragged her to the furthest stall and cast a silencing charm on her before shifting as large as she could and standing guard with her hackles raised. The troll lumbered in.

In the time it took the troll to start swinging its club and get bitten a few times, Hermione broke the silencing charm and ran to the door to try and escape only to find it locked. So, she screamed. (y/n)'s ears rang from the scream only for them to ring louder when the troll bashed its club against her head sending her flying against the wall. She watched through blurry eyes as the two boys, one of which she specifically told not to do the exact thing he's doing, rushed in and subdued the troll. Hermione rushed over to the crumpled canid after she asked if the troll was dead. She looked at the ridiculously large wolf guiltily.

"Ms. Black was looking for you she might've-" Harry must've noticed what she was looking at because he gasped. "Oh no."

The sudden slamming of loud footsteps made the three kids look to the door as Professor McGonagall followed by Snape and Quirrel, who saw the troll and slumped onto a toilet that wasn't destroyed, entered. They must've been drawn in by the racket. (y/n) let the events from the evening that didn't infringe on Hermione's privacy filter to Severus who was staring at her crumpled lupine body. She didn't want to move too much so she went mostly unnoticed. Hermione lied outright and the three got sent to their dormitories. It was after that that the Potion's master pointed out the barely conscious (y/n) in the corner to McGonagall whose lips pursed once her eyes landed on her.