It was time for the Halloween feast that Aly wasn't very excited for. Halloween had never been her favourite holiday. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Aly was just helping herself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.
Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll — in the dungeons — thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Aly thought for a moment, then turned to Pansy and Daphne.
"The Slytherin common rooms are in the dungeon..."
A look of horror appeared on a couple of the Slytherins that over heard and started freaking out.
Aly snuck away to and find one of her friends, because she couldn't risk going to the dungeons.
"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!" She heard Percy, the Gryffindor prefect exclaim.
Perfect, She thought.
"Madi, hey! I didn't want to be alone so I hope its okay if I join you guys..."
"Oh my gosh of course, just don't let Percy see you,"
"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.
"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."
They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions.
As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Aly saw Harry suddenly grab Ron's arm.
"I've just thought — Hermione,"
"What about her?" Aly chimed in.
"She doesn't know about the troll — Oh hello Aly when did you get here?"
They all ignored his last question and Ron bit his lip.
"Oh, all right," he snapped "But Percy'd better not see us." Responding to his first statement.
"And where is she?" Madi raised an eyebrow.
"Bathroom. No time to explain, come on!" Harry said quickly.
Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin. Aly and Madi followed suite. Peering around the stone, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.
"'What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.
"He's heading for the third floor," Aly said, but Ron held up his hand.
"Can you smell something?"
Aly sniffed and a foul stench reached her nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.
And then they heard it — a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed — at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.
