Pyrrhic Victory

eight.

Year One
eight. Troll & Ghosts

October thirty-first neared Hogwarts quickly. October went by really fast as well as the rest of September. They were having a feast tonight in celebration for Halloween, there will be ghost, food, pumpkins!

The Ophidians worked on their last minute work in the library. Magnolia was helping Lucille with potions, Draco was working on Charms with Theodore and Blaise, and Daphne, Pansy, Gregory, Millicent and Vincent worked on their Defense Against the Dark Arts essay.

Not a lot has happened in the last month, Draco was so furious about Harry getting on the Quidditch team as a first year he challenged him to  a midnight duel... here's the catch, Draco told Filch how he heard Potter will be roaming the hall after hours, and Draco never showed up. Vincent and Gregory applauded Draco for his cleverness, and Theodore thought it was a smart plan.

They didn't know know if Potter got caught or not, since they didn't hear about it they were guessing not, to which Draco was mad about. Lucille didn't think the plan was smart or nice, but she learned not to interfere with Draco. The other day when Harry had gotten his Nimbus 2000 Draco was upset and snapped at Ron bringing up his family's money issues.

"Did you know that Muggles dress up on Halloween, and go door to door and ask for candies... It's called Trick or Treating!" Magnolia says to the group, and Draco grabs the book from her arms and reads it. They all watch as his eyebrows furrow, and he looks back up at all of us.

"Ugh, this is such a Muggle thing to do! It so disgusting, like getting candy from strangers! This is why mudbloods shouldn't be aloud in Hogwarts!" Draco scoffed, and shoved the book back to Magnolia. Lucille wasn't about to tell Draco that she has been trick or treating before.

"It's free candy..." Lucille mumbles which Theodore hears.

"THEY GET FREE CANDIES!?" His eyes widen, and he smiled widely. Lucille has learned in the past two months of hanging with Theodore was that he loved candy.
"Another reason why I hate being a Pureblood."

Draco wasn't happy for what Theodore said, Draco went on and on about how much of an honor it is to be a Pureblood. Everyone had to listen to Draco lecture them about being a Pureblood is the best, and we should never disgrace that.

"Honestly what information do his parents feed him?" Lucille mumbles to Magnolia who just looks at her, and shrugs. For what Lucille has learned that Draco's family will resort to marrying their own cousins before marrying a half-blood or Muggle-born.

"Lucius is mental." Magnolia whispers to Lucille. Lucille already knew that, or that's what the word was. Her parents hated Lucius Malfoy with a passion, and they wouldn't be happy learning that Lucille has association with Draco Malfoy.

———

The Ophidians headed to the Halloween feast, and Lucille sadly had to split from the group, but Magnolia promised that they will meet up before curfew. Their was pumpkins floating in the sky, and the hall was decorated with all sorts of colours. The ghost were flying everywhere.

"Lucille this is the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost." Cedric pointed to the ghost. The ghost was a short man with a bowl hair cut, he wore a robe, and was talking to some other Hufflepuff students.

"House ghosts?" Lucille questions Cedric, Lucille had heard a lot of Hogwarts, but never heard about the houses had ghost. Cedric looked at her like she was crazy.

"All the houses have them, Ravenclaw has The Grey Lady, Gryffindor is Headless Nick, and Slytherin is The Bloody Baron." Cedric explains and Lucille nods, she was guessing they are ghost of students who went to Hogwarts, but have died.

———

"Ah, young Slytherins," The Bloody Baron said to The Ophidians who were eating their Halloween Feast.
"Enjoying Hogwarts so far?"

The reply came with nods, and 'yes' he flew away to go do whatever knows what. That was when the group noticed Theodore looking around the hall full of ghost and people.

"What's wrong Theo?" Daphne was the first to notice, and question Theodore's fear. He turns back to us, and motions them to come closer to which they all did.

"There is a ghost, Peeves, he is poltergeist... but just stay away from him, he likes too trick students." Theodore whispered, and Blaise bursted out in laughter. Theodore furrowed his eyebrows at Blaise who realized that Theodore wasn't joking.

"Wait... has he done something to you?" Blaise questions, and Theodore takes in a deep breath before slowly nodding. The whole group bursts out in laughter.

"What did he do?!" Magnolia asked Theodore in midst of laughter, Theodore was the only who wasn't laughing. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes before speaking.

"He pants me when I was in the bathroom." The whole group just bursted out into even more laughter when he said that. Draco, Magnolia, Daphne, and Blaise were almost in tears.

"He- he- he what?!" Blaise choked out between laughs, and Theodore smacked him in the back of his hand.

"Just shut up about it already!" Theodore told the group, the group got quiet but it wasn't because of Theodore. Professor Quirell came running into the Great Hall, and up to Dumbledore.

"Troll- in the dungeons!" He fainted and there was an uproar through all the students. People were freaking out about the Troll in the building. People were also wondering how the troll had gotten in.

"Prefects! Lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" Dumbledore instructed, and the Ophidians were rushed out of the Great Hall. Magnolia tried to catch Lucille's eye, but there was so much chaos it was impossible.

The Slytherin followed their prefect, Gemma Farley. They were skeptical though because the troll was rumored to be in the dungeon where their common room was located.

Luckily, they didn't spot a troll on their way down, and made it to the Common Room safety. Everyone was gathered together in the Common Room waiting for some type of explanation on why there is a troll in the building.

"Why the bloody hell is there a troll in the building?!" Daphne stressed and everyone just shrugged. All they knew was hopefully the Professor were taking care of the problem. Magnolia hoped that Lucille got to her dorm safely.

———

Lucille, Cedric, and Hannah made it back to the Common Room safely. Hannah immediately met with her other friends, Ernie, Justin, and Susan, but Cedric stayed with Lucille to make sure she wasn't alone. Lucille was pretty shaken up about the troll, she hoped Magnolia and the rest of the friend group were okay. They actually had to go down to the dungeons. The one time she was thankful that she wasn't a Slytherin.

Ten minutes pass, and Madam Sprout enters the Common room, she looked very shaken up and the prefect immediately walked up to comfort her. A lot of 'what happened?' And 'are you okay Madam?' Filled the room.

"It was- taken care of- just get ready- for curfew." She breathed between lines, and everyone nodded. Cedric made sure Lucille was okay before he headed to the boy's dorms, Lucille walked to hers, and she heard Hannah, Susan, and Megan talking about the troll and their theories. They invited Lucille to join, but she was too tired, and just went to bed for the night.