Ron-Weasly book 1

"There is!"

Elated with success, flushed with pride, we headed back the way we came from, but before we could reach the corner, we heard a desperate scream of terror. And it was coming from the room that Harry had locked a few seconds ago.

"Oh, no," I said softly, turning pale like a Bloody Baron.

"This is a women's bathroom!" Harry gasped.

"Hermione!" We exclaimed after a moment. The last thing we wanted to do was do what we had to do, but what choice did we have?

Abruptly, we turned around and rushed back to the door. Harry's hands were shaking with fear, and he couldn't turn the key in the lock. Finally, he succeeded. He pulled the door open and we ran inside. Hermione Granger was standing against the wall directly in front of the door. She shrank back, as if she were trying to ghost through the wall. She looked like she was going to pass out. The troll was approaching her, brandishing a club and knocking down the shells attached to the walls.

"Distract him!" Harry shouted at me desperately. He grabbed a washbasin plug that was lying on the floor and threw it at the wall with all his might. The troll froze a few meters away from Hermione. He awkwardly turned around to see who had made such a noise. His small evil eyes stared at Harry. The troll hesitated, deciding who to attack, and then took a step towards Harry, raising his club.

Hey, you empty head! I shouted, having managed to reach the corner of the toilet room, and threw a broken piece of metal pipe at the troll.

The troll didn't even seem to notice that a piece of iron had hit him in the shoulder. But he heard the scream and stopped again, turning his ugly face towards me and giving Harry the opportunity to run around him and get next to Hermione. Come on, let's run! Let's run! Harry shouted, trying to pull Hermione towards the door. But she didn't move or give in, as if rooted to the wall. Her mouth was open in horror.

Harry's screams and the echoes echoing through the room, ricocheting off the walls, made the troll even more confused. He was clearly confused when he had so many goals in front of him, and did not know what to do. Suddenly the troll roared and took a step towards me: I was the closest to him and I had nowhere to run.

And then Harry ran up and jumped on the troll from behind, managing to grab onto his neck and wrap both arms around it from behind. What the fuck is he doing?! The troll, given his size, of course, could not feel that little skinny Harry was hanging on him, but even the troll could not help but notice that a long piece of wood was being shoved into his nose.

At the moment of the jump, Harry was holding a wand in his hands, which he pulled out for some reason after flying into the room. He obviously did it subconsciously, because as a freshman, a wand could not help him in the fight against a troll. Magic has almost no effect on them at all. But it turned out that Harry had pulled it out for a reason, and when he jumped into the troll's neck, wrapping both arms around it from behind, the wand in his right hand stuck deep into the troll's nostril.

Howling in pain, the troll spun around and swung the club, while Harry hung on to it, clinging to his neck with all his might. At any second, the troll could throw him to the floor or flatten him with a blow from a club. Hermione, almost fainting from terror, sank to the floor. And I pulled out my magic wand, completely unaware of what I was going to do, and shouted the first thing that came to mind, pointing at the club.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" It worked! The club broke free from the troll's hand, rose into the air and hovered for a moment, then slowly turned over and crashed with a terrible crash on the head of its owner. The troll staggered and fell to the floor with such force that the walls of the room shook.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and couldn't catch his breath. I froze in place with my wand raised, looking at the result of my work. I did it. It worked! I need to practice more, because I can do magic. I'm taking a deep breath. Ugh, we need to get out of here before the troll wakes up.

"Is he... is he dead?" Hermione broke the silence first.

"I don't think so," Harry replied, finding his voice second. I guess he's just knocked out. Harry bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. She was covered in what looked like dried gray glue. Ugh, his snot is disgusting. Harry wiped his wand on the troll's trousers.

The slamming of doors and loud footsteps made us all look up. We didn't even realize what a fuss we were making here. Someone downstairs must have heard the heavy thuds and the roar of the troll, and a moment later Professor McGonagall burst into the room, followed by Professor Snape, followed by Professor Quirrell. Quirrell looked at the troll, whined softly, and immediately plopped down on the floor, clutching his heart.

And this coward is doing business with us? It would be better to continue studying Muggle studies. They say he was a good teacher.

Snape bent over the troll, and Professor McGonagall glared at Harry and me. I've never seen her so angry. Her lips were even white. Or is it out of fear for us? Damn, here we are.

"What, let me ask you, were you thinking about?" There was cold fury in Professor McGonagall's voice. Harry squinted at me, but I didn't move from my place and still held my wand in my raised hand. "You're just lucky to be alive. Why aren't you in the bedroom?"

Snape glanced at Harry's face with a knife-sharp gaze. Harry stared at the floor. Suddenly, a faint girl's voice came from the shadows.

"Professor McGonagall, they were here because they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione somehow managed to get to her feet.

"I went to look for the troll because... Because I thought I could handle him on my own... Because I've read everything in the library about trolls, and I know everything about them..."

I dropped my wand in surprise. Who would have believed that Hermione Granger — to think of Hermione Granger — was lying to her teacher's face?! Even if I didn't know who Hermione was, it still wouldn't have occurred to me that she might be lying," her voice sounded so true.

"If they hadn't found me, I would have been dead by now," Hermione continued. "Harry jumped on his neck and stuck his wand in his nostril, and Ron enchanted his club and knocked him out. They just didn't have time to call any of the professors. When they appeared, the troll was about to kill me."

Harry and I tried to make our faces look as if this story hadn't surprised us at all — as if everything had happened exactly as Hermione described. I stared at Hermione in shock.

"Well, in that case..." said Professor McGonagall thoughtfully, looking at all three of them. "Miss Granger, you stupid girl, how could you possibly think that you could subdue a mountain troll on your own?!"

Hermione lowered her head. Harry and I were silent. I would never have thought that Hermione had violated the school rules. But now she presented everything as if she had deliberately committed a serious violation. And all this in order to get us out of trouble. It was as unexpected as if Snape had started handing out sweets to the students.

"Miss Granger, it's your fault that five penalty points are being credited to Gryffindor!" Professor McGonagall said dryly. "I had a very high opinion of you and was very disappointed by your misconduct. If you're okay, you'd better go back to Gryffindor Tower. All the faculties finish the interrupted festive dinner in their living rooms. Hermione left the room. Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and me.

"Well, even after listening to Miss Granger's story, I still maintain that you were just lucky. Nevertheless, not every freshman is able to cope with an adult mountain troll. Each of you gets five bonus points. I will inform Professor Dumbledore of what has happened. You can go now."

We hurriedly left the bathroom and didn't say a word until we were two floors up and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"You could have given us more than ten points," I grumbled.

I would never have thought that the lives of children in this Britain's best school were valued so low. You could make a memorial plaque for us.

"You mean five," Harry corrected me. "Don't forget that she gave Hermione five points."

"She did well to get us out of trouble," I admitted. Although we actually saved her. "We probably wouldn't have had to save her if we hadn't locked the troll in the toilet," Harry reminded him. He's right about that, of course. And it's worth apologizing to her.

We came to the portrait of a Fat Lady.

"Piglet," we said in one voice and climbed inside.

It was crowded and noisy inside. Everyone made up for what they had missed at the banquet by eating the food that had been brought upstairs. Everyone except Hermione, who was standing off to the side, waiting for us. Harry and I walked up to her and froze, not knowing what to say. And then each of us said, "Thank you."

"Granger, I'm sorry I said all that nonsense. You're the best student in the class. Do you want me to be your friend?"

Harry nodded.

"Me too."

"Thanks boys. I really want to."

And we hurried to the table.

From that moment on, Hermione Granger became our friend. There are events that you can't help but feel sympathy for each other. And the victory over the four-meter mountain troll is undoubtedly one of such events.

Chapter 10. a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

In early November, the weather turned very bad. The mountains around the castle changed from green to gray, the lake began to resemble frozen steel, and the ground turned white with frost every morning. From the windows of the tower, I saw Hagrid defrosting brooms on the flight training area several times. Hagrid was wearing a long mole fur coat, huge boots insulated with beaver fur, and rabbit-fur mittens. It's also a good thing that winters in magical Britain are warmer than in the Muggle part of it. And there are no prolonged rains. But there are dangerous animals living in forests and fields. And I'm not talking about the mountains at all. They are usually favored by dragons and wyverns.

The Quidditch competition has started at school. On Saturday, Harry had to take to the field for the first time after several weeks of regular and hard training. The Gryffindor team met with the Slytherin team. If they won, the Gryffindor national team would come in second place in the school championship.

Almost no one saw Harry playing Quidditch, as Wood decided, stating that Harry was the team's secret weapon, which meant that his Skills should be kept secret. But the news that Harry had become a seeker on the Gryffindor team had somehow leaked outside the national team.

Since Harry and I saved Hermione from the mountain troll, she has become much more relaxed about school discipline violations, and it has become much more pleasant to communicate with her. The day before Harry's first match, the three of us went out to the frozen courtyard during recess. And there Hermione showed us her skills — she took a glass jar of jam out of her pocket, put it on the ground, said something, waved her wand, and suddenly a bright blue flame burst into the jar. The most interesting thing was that the jar of fire could be safely moved from place to place and even put in a pocket — the blue flame warmed, but did not burn, and the glass of the jar remained cold. I wonder if she can set someone on fire like that, or is it just for heating?

We were warming ourselves around the jar, with our backs to the fire, when suddenly Snape appeared in the courtyard. That's what the hard one brought him. I noticed that the professor was limping badly. Harry, Hermione, and I huddled closer around the fire so that Snape wouldn't notice it. We had no doubt that it was forbidden to light a fire in the courtyard. Snape didn't see the fire, but after looking at our guilty faces, he found another reason to quibble. I had no doubt that Snape was looking for him, and diligently.

"What have you got there, Potter?" Snape asked dryly, coming closer to us.

As usual, my friend became the object of criticism.

Harry held the History of Quidditch in his hands and showed the book to the professor.

"It is forbidden to take library books out of the school building." Snape informed him. "Give me the book. For your offense, you receive five penalty points."

"He just came up with this rule." Harry muttered angrily, staring after the limping Snape. "I wonder what's wrong with his leg?"

"I don't know, but I hope it really hurts." I said vindictively.

* * *

It was especially noisy in the Gryffindor Common Room that night. Harry, Hermione, and I were sitting by the window, Hermione checking our spell homework. She never let us copy, "Then how do you learn anything?" — but she agreed to check our homework, and so we still got the right answers from her. Even though we had to dig through a lot of literature, it greatly accelerated the process. And our grades have become higher. But I still don't like to write. And Harry actually had to learn to write with pens. His handwriting was terrible. At least the blots can be magically removed. And the feathers are usually enchanted.

Harry was shaking with excitement about the outcome of the game. He stood up decisively, telling Hermione and me that he would go look for Snape and ask him to return the book to him.

"Better me than you," Hermione and I blurted out at the same time, but Harry shook his head. He returned half an hour later. Pale and thoughtful.

"Did you succeed?" I asked, looking at Harry, who had appeared in the room. "Hey, what's the matter with you?"

In a whisper, Harry told us everything he had seen. Snape got bitten by a cerberus, wow. What was he doing there, was the troll in the dungeons, or was he later bitten?

"Do you understand what all this means?" Harry exhaled, finishing his story. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog, and it happened on Halloween!"

Actually, Snape hadn't limped at Halloween yet. Well, okay, I won't quibble. Even if I wanted to shield that greasy-haired bastard, Harry wouldn't believe me.

"Ron and I were looking for you to warn you about the troll, and we saw him in the hallway — he was heading that way! He's hunting for what the dog is guarding! And I'm willing to bet my broom that he let the troll into the castle to distract attention and sow panic, and calmly steal what he's hunting for!"

Hermione looked at him with wide eyes.

"No, that's impossible," she replied. "I know he's not a very nice person, but he wouldn't try to steal what Dumbledore is hiding in the castle."