Nico Di Angelo at Hogwarts (book 1)

Troll (Part 2)

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.

Nico's POV

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron wheeled around and sprinted back to the door, fumbling with the key in their panic. Shoving them out of the way, I turned the key and quickly pulled the door open. We ran inside, and there was Hermione, shrinking against the wall opposite, looking seconds away from fainting.

The troll was lumbering towards her, destroying sinks as it went. Harry and Ron looked frozen in shock before Harry desperately shouted at Ron to "Confuse it!", then hurled a tap at the wall. I'm assuming that was his attempt to confuse it, but I think it confused me more than the troll. I almost sighed at his stupidity. Although, to be fair, it did cause the troll to stop a few feet from Hermione.

It stumbled around, blinking slowly, trying to find the source of the sound, then lifted its small eyes to Harry. It hesitated, then advanced towards Harry, raising its club as it went. I was about to intervene when Ron yelled from the other side of the room.

"Oy, pea brain!" Then, unfortunately following Harry's lead, threw a metal pipe at it. The pipe didn't really affect it, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its snout to Ron, and giving Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her from the floor, but she wouldn't move. She sat flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror. The shouting and echoes appeared to be driving the troll mad, and it roared and moved towards Ron, who was nearest and had no obvious escape route.

I ran forwards, pulling my stygian iron sword from underneath my cloak. I had kept it on me, out of sight my entire time at Hogwarts, for emergencies, and I'm definitely glad I did now. Sliding through the gap between the troll's lumpish legs, I sprang up in front of Ron, pushing him to the side. I swung my blade in an arc, and the troll lurched back. The shadows in the corners of the chamber, and beneath the sinks darkened, and stretched out towards the steel, sensing its power.

Regaining its confidence, the troll lunged at me, and I had to duck to avoid its club as it passed over my head. I steered it away from the others, out of the corner. It lumbered towards me, slowly picking up speed, and I thrust my blade forwards, impaling the troll. A look of bewilderment crossed its face before it collapsed backwards, crashing into the last remaining intact sinks, and falling still.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made me swing around and look towards the door. I hadn't realised just how loud the fight had been, but obviously someone downstairs had heard the commotion.

I slipped my sword back into my robes, and a few moments later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Professors Snape and Quirrell. Quirrell took one look at the now dead troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat down on the nearest intact toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape moved closer to examine the troll, raising his eyebrows every so slightly in surprise. Professor McGonagall looked the angriest I had ever seen her. She eyed me carefully, lips going white as she pressed them tightly together.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" she said, with a cold fury in her voice. "You're lucky you weren't killed! Why aren't you in your dormitories?"

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look, as if he had caused all of this. He looked at the floor, trying to evade his gaze.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows, which had retreated significantly since I had finished off the troll.

"Please, Professor McGonagall - they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione stood to her feet on shaky legs.

"I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them."

Now it was my turn to raise my eyebrows in surprise. Hermione Granger, telling a lie to a teacher? It was unbelievable.

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. The troll had already wrecked several of the stalls, so Nico was able to grab a shard of debris and stab it while Harry and Ron distracted it. They didn't have time to go and get help. It was going to kill me when they arrived."

I straightened my expression out, trying to look as though this version of events wasn't completely new to me. Harry and Ron appeared to be doing the same.

"Well - in that case..." Professor McGonagall said, staring between the four of us. "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

She hung her head. We were all speechless. Hermione was the last person to break a rule, and here she was, pretending she had to protect us. It was like Snape had suddenly started giving house points to Gryffindor.

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Hermione left and Professor McGonagall turned to Harry, Ron and I.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have killed a full-grown mountain troll. You each win five points for your houses. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."

We hurried out of the room and were silent until we'd reached the stairs.

"Where'd you get a sword from?" Ron was looking at me expectantly for an answer, and I froze.

"I - um." My head was reeling. I hadn't thought of the consequences of the fight, but now I was fighting to come up with a believable excuse.

"I found it." I mentally cursed myself, hoping they would believe me. "It was in an empty room somewhere in the West side of the castle. I stumbled across it when I got lost a few weeks ago."

Harry and Ron shared a look, but nodded, seemingly accepting my weak defence. Without saying anything more, the two of them headed up the stairs towards their dormitory, leaving me to walk down to mine. I needed to be more careful from now on; I was sure that Hermione would have something to say about tonight's ordeal, but that was a problem for tomorrow.

Thank you for reading, let me know what you think in the comments. Again, I'm sorry that my updates are really slow.

I read some of your responses from my update before this, and the general consensus, both here and on fanfiction.net, is that smaller paragraphs are preferred. So, I've tried to do that with this chapter, but if you could let me know if it's any better that would be appreciated.

Also, if you've enjoyed my fanfic so far don't forget to vote for the chapters, but obviously you don't have to if you don't want to.

So, anyways, hope you all have a great day and I'll see you in the next chapter :)

-GazelleRLG