Star-Crossed

Chapter Seventeen: Trolls and Troubles

Time flew past like a whirlwind. Hermione had been avoiding all of us ever since Ron's outburst in the courtyard. She only spoke to Lavender in the dorm, and that was a surprise, given that the two of them had never really seemed the friendly type since we'd been rooming together since September. Likewise, I'd hardly talked to or interacted with Ron since the fight. Harry was torn between the two of us as neither of us would talk to each other, and I knew it was bothering him.

But now, it was Halloween night, and the Great Hall was filled with the same floating candles as always. But now they were accompanied by the spookiest floating jack o' lanterns one had ever seen.

The Halloween Feast was completely underway. Across from me, Harry was sitting next to Ron, but I made a point to ignore him for the entirety of dinner.

Until Harry paused, noticing a gap in our benches, "Where's Hermione?"

"Pavarti said she won't come out of the girl's bathroom," I gripped, shovelling a bite of food into my mouth before glowering at Ron as I swallowed, "She told me she's been in there, crying all afternoon. She's hardly left the dorm room either. Won't talk to me or Dolly, not even Elle."

Harry glanced at Ron with a disapproving frown, but the Weasley only shrugged, and looked away, avoiding my sharp gaze. I scoffed and slammed my fork down, about to give Ron a piece of my mind for the fourth time this week when all of a sudden, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and Professor Quirrell came rushing in, looking like he was in a tizzy.

"Troll, in the dungeon!" He bellowed as the hall went silent in confusion, it was the clearest I'd ever heard the man speak, "T-troll, i-in the dungeon!" Then he was back to stammering as Dumbledore rose from his seat in concern.

Everyone across the room froze and stared at Quirrell in an awkward silence as he skidded to a stop in between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, breathing heavily.

"Thought you ought to know," He hardly got out in a garbled, breathless mess before he fainted among the utter silence in the hall.

The silence laid there for a moment until all hell broke loose across the four tables of students. Panicked screaming and running about ensued as chaos enveloped the Great Hall. Teachers were getting up to soothe their houses and usher students to their dorms, all while Harry and I and the others of our friends at the table were screaming and yelling out of fear.

Then above all of the other noise, Dumbledore's voice boomed like a crack of thunder, "Silence!" Causing everyone to freeze in their tracks and stare up at the Headmaster with fear in their eyes.

"Everyone will please not panic." He stated, holding his hands up, "Now, prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons."

The Hufflepuff prefects stood, and the girl at the head of the group shouted, "Hufflepuff, this way!"

Slytherin's male prefect bellowed over the chaos, "Stay together!"

My gaze flickered across the group of bustling students, hoping to catch Hermione's bushy head of hair anywhere among them, wanting to believe she'd finally left the bathroom and ignored what Ron said weeks ago. But to no avail.

Instead I caught sight of Snape's aghast expression as he turned and swept through a doorway next to the teacher's table. I was dragged back into reality, when Harry grasped my arm and tugged me along beside him and our friends as Gryffindor began to filter out of the Hall.

Percy and Victoria led us through the darkened corridors back up toward Gryffindor tower, the both of them barking orders sternly left and right to keep all of us in line and out of harm's way.