SECRETS

- CHAPTER 9 -

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The tables were filled with sweets of all kinds, the ceiling was decorated with Halloween pumpkins levitating in mid-air, everything was beautiful.
Ron was there having a good time, eating everything he could get, all without the slightest remorse of what he said to Hermione. Lyla couldn't see anymore and, with a quick step, walked towards the red head, and threw a strong punch on his shoulder, as he deserved it.

"Ouch... but what... Lyla why?" said Ron, whining while rubbing his shoulder.

"You're a moron Ronald Weasley! Do you realize what you've done? Hermione's been in the bathroom crying since this morning, and it's all your fault!" Lyla yelled; everyone was staring at them.

Ron was almost scared to see his best friend like that, he'd never, ever seen her like that.
"I... I... I'm sorry", Ron mumbled as he looked at his toes, really embarrassed.

"I'm not the one you should feel sorry for, I'm not the one you should apologize to", said Lyla, grabbing some food and candies from the table and then lifting her heels and leaving.

Lyla just before running out of the Great Hall to get to Hermione as soon as possible, had seen Professor Quirrel, the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, hurrying all anxiously towards the hall, he had probably arrived late for the festivities and believed Hagrid had finished all the candy at the teachers' table, thought Lyla leaving.

"Hermione, I'm back!" yelled Lyla, not seeing the curly haired girl anywhere, Hermione came out of one of the bathrooms, still drying her tears, she looked up but did not look directly at Lyla, she stared horrified at something behind her. Heavy footsteps were heard approaching, Lyla confused turned to look at what her friend was staring at.

It was a gigantic mountain troll, with a small stumpy head and almost four meters tall, Lyla began to retreat, the troll with him had a bat almost as tall as he was.

"Bloody hell" whispered Lyla in terror.

The two girls only exchanged a look of terror, then they did a very stupid thing, hid in the bathrooms. Stupid because the troll, as soon as the two tried to hide in a bathroom, slammed a slit with his bat that wiped out the bathroom, the two girls with it.

Someone ran into the bathroom, Lyla didn't really believe her eyes, Harry and Ron had come looking for them.
Hermione began to cry for help, Lyla tried to get out of the rubble of what was left of the bathrooms, the boys, to distract the troll, began to throw pieces of wood at him.

"Hey, chicken brain", Ron shouted at him before pulling a big piece of wood that hit the troll's face.

"Hermione come on, move out of there" Lyla had managed to get out and was trying hard to take her friend with her, but the troll was already ready to make another attack with his bat.

Harry did not hesitate for a moment and threw himself tightly at the neck of the troll, which made the situation worse, Harry held his wand in his hands, the troll had tried in vain to get him off of his back, and Harry's wand ran right into his nose.

So, the troll took him by the foot, he was going to hit him with the bat, oh no.

"Do something!" cried Harry hanging upside down to Ron.
"What?" asked Ron.
"Anything!" cried Harry again.

Ron pulled his wand out of his cape, pointed it at the troll who still couldn't hit Harry.
"Ron! Swish and Flick!" cried Lyla to remind Ron of the spell.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron cast the spell and the troll's bat was suspended in the air, the troll looked at it in amazement, then the bat plunged straight into the troll's head, which fell with a fainting thud to the ground.

Lyla breathed a sigh of relief, Ron ran up to her and hugged her, she was still angry with him but at the time she didn't care, she was glad they came looking for them.

"Thank you, guys, really", Lyla smiled.
"Oh, my goodness!"

Professor McGonagall had arrived in the bathroom with Snape and Quirrel.
"I want an explanation now!" she shouted to the four kids.

Harry and Ron tried to explain to the teacher what had happened but were interrupted

"It's my fault Professor, I went looking for the troll, I read about it and I thought I could get away with it, but apparently it wasn't, if it wasn't for Lyla, Ron and Harry I probably would be dead", Hermione explained to the teacher, leaving the three friends all shocked, had defended them... why? After all what Ron had done...

"Miss Granger... I expected better from you, 5 points, will be taken from your household, now go", said the professor, dismissing Hermione, who came out of the bathroom embarrassed.

"As for the three of you... it's not easy to survive a mountain troll, especially for three freshman students, you've been very lucky, 5 points. . . will be awarded to each of you". As soon as the professor said those words, they thought McGonagall was joking or crazy, or so Lyla thought.
They thanked the teacher and went back to their common room where they were continuing the Halloween celebrations, they reached Hermione who was waiting for them just outside the bathroom.

"You were nice to get us out of trouble", Harry said as they all walked together.
"As it should be, we saved her life", Ron told him.

"And it wouldn't have been necessary if you hadn't told her such thing", Lyla said to her friend.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't have to say those words to you, I'm so sorry, can you forgive me?", said Ron, they were sincere apologies and Lyla was satisfied with what her best friend had arranged.

From that day, however, Hermione Granger became their friend, certainly a friendship born after meeting a mountain troll doesn't happen every day, it's impossible not to create friendships after sharing certain adventures.

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finally the first moment of the gold quartet, in the next updates there will be my favorite part of the story so stay tuned, I really hope you enjoy it, if you want to comment and leave stars, love you all <3

- Jules💗