The ShapeShifter

Chapter 20 - 'The Tale of Three Trolls'

Chapter 20 - ‘The Tale of Three Trolls’

“Urg..” I moan, scrubbing the fifty-year-old trophy’s in the trophy closet. Worst detention ever..  You should’ve seen Professor McGonnigal, she was furious. First because we were out after curfew, and second because we were in an abandoned hallway, with three mountain trolls. That’s how we ended up scrubbing all the ‘participation’ and ‘top student’ awards.

“I’m never going to get one of these now!” Hermione exclaimed, whilst cleaning one of the many ‘Top Student’ awards. 

“Oh yes you will. You’re still the top witch in our year, and this one detention is not going to make a difference!” I reply, rubbing my sore hands together, trying to get all the wax and tarnish off. 

“I don’t even know why we got in trouble in the first place! The trolls were chasing us. I mean last time this happened, we just got off with a warning!”

“Wait a minute, last time?! This has happened before?!” I say, nearly dropping ‘Margretta Mithilda’s’ Top Student trophy.

“Yeah, with Harry and Ron in first year. It’s how we became friends actually.” She smiles, clearly remembering all the crazy memories those three had together. But Seriously, how many 11 year olds do you know that could fight off a mountain troll? It is pretty impressive.

“Wow, no wonder you’re top in our class.” I mumble, getting a smile out of Hermione.

“I’m so tired. Too tired to be cleaning all these awards.” Hermione says. Oh yeah, did I mention that we went straight from the abandoned hallway, to cleaning trophies? I mean it must be almost 2 AM! 

Just at that moment Filch creeped in. But it wasn’t exactly surprising because usually you smell him before you see him.

“You can leave.” He grunts, gesturing to the door. 

Hermione and I drop the trophies and speed walk out the door.

“I NEVER want to see another trophy! Ever!” I say, as me and ‘Mione make our way to the Gryffindor portrait hole. 

“Oh I do-” She replies. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was picturing a gleaming gold ‘TOP STUDENT’ award, with the name ‘Hermione Jean Granger’ scrawled across the bottom.

We make our way to the portrait hole, opening it up and jumping inside.

“There you are! What happened!?” Ron exclaimed, running over to us and yanking back with him to the couch, where Harry, Ginny, and Fred were all sitting. They clearly stayed up to wait for us, and wanted to hear the “Tales of Three Trolls’.

“What are you all still doing up? It’s nearly half two in the morning?” Hermione scolded.

“Why do you think? We want to know what happened!!” Ginny says, leaning close to Harry, the fire lighting up her red hair.

“How do you guys even know about the trolls?” I ask, looking around for an answer.

“Well, you and Hermione never came back from the library, and Professor McGonnigal came in here, looking furious, so we kind of put two and two together.” Fred shrugged. He looked cute when he shrugged...

“Fine, here’s what happened...” Me and Hermione sat deep into the fluffy couch, and began to recount our adventures. Of course we over exaggerated some parts. You know to make it a better story, but who wouldn’t. 

“So you guys fought three mountain trolls?” Ron said, “COOL!” Hermione just rolled her eyes, but everyone else laughed at Ron’s enthusiasm for mountain trolls.

“Right, i’m pretty sure you wouldn’t say that if you had seen them up close and personal yourself!” I reply laughing. 

“Wait, there’s one thing we haven’t thought about yet.” Harry says looking worried. I hate it when Harry looks worried. 

“What is it mate?” Ron says, looking worried back at his best friend. 

“How did the trolls get in to Hogwarts? Hogwarts has dozens of curses, and charms protecting it from trolls, and giants, and all sorts of magical creatures. So how did these ones get in?” Now everyone was silent. How did the trolls get in? This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen in Hogwarts.

“I suppose the real question would be who let them in.” Fred gulped. 

“No, no. no” Hermione says logically. “Nobody let them in, it’s not plausible. No teacher or student here at Hogwarts would do that!” 

“Yeah, but Quirrel did, and he was a teacher at Hogwarts.” Ron countered, looking at Harry for backup.

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting, Quirrel had You-Know-Who sticking out of the back of his head, he wasn’t really a normal professor.” Fred told his brother. 

“Either way, if three mountain trolls got into Hogwarts, what else could get in next?” I say. Suddenly a cool breeze sweeps through the common room, making everyone shiver. 

“Uh- I think i’m going to bed.” Ron says, face pale white, whilst he clumsily gets up from the couch.

Then there was a murmur of ‘me too’ and ‘same’, and soon enough the common room was empty.

I got up from the leathery couch, and started my way up to the girl’s dormitory. 

“Hey, are you okay?” I warm hand grabbed me from behind, pulling me backwards. It was Fred.

I looked up into his warm Hazel eyes. “Yeah, thanks.” I reply. He gently kisses my cheek, and mumbles something like “g’night” and gently runs up the stairs to the boys dorm. 

I blush to myself, turn around and do the same. It’s amazing how cold you can feel, and how simple something like a kiss can warm you up.