Harry Potter and the Rise of the Ordinary Person - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: A Troll’s Ending

“Do you want to know how I’m going to get rid of it? Then you’ll have to listen to me.”

“Fine.” The girl nodded.

Hogwarts was a school of magic, but this very same school was also a school for nutjobs. Charles was deeply skeptical that Hogwarts was considered meticulously with overwhelming wisdom and magic that went against the natural order. The founders had to be of abnormal mind and enjoyed being evil. There was a total of 142 stairways in Hogwarts. Some of them were clean and wide, while others were not only narrow, but liked to shake. Every Friday, some of the staircases would even lead to a completely different place than usual. Some had a hidden disappearing step that would often times force a person to jump up to continue upwards.

It was this type of plan that had given Charles an opportunity to eliminate the troll.

Flying through the corridors of Hogwarts, Hermione and he soon came to the open staircases. By now, all of the head of houses were in the process of bringing the students back to their respective common rooms. Many students were starting to hear the rumbling footsteps on the 8th floor and stopped in their tracks to look up.

“Boom!” “Boom!” The footsteps grow louder with each “Bang!” The eighth corridor had begun to tremble and kick up a large storm of dust. Soon enough, two figures came flying out from the dust with a large troll brandishing a giant club after them. At this, the students all began to scream in horror one after another.

Originally, Charles had deliberately chose the corridor that very few students would go to due to the sealed staircases and dodge the large crowd of students. But because the Gryffindor common rooms was on the 8th floor, many Gryffindors were standing not too far away. Even if the troll couldn’t hurt Charles, there was a huge possibility that the Gryffindors would be unfortunate enough to be harmed if they weren’t careful.

Charles had no other choice but to turn around the corner. With the immense weight of the troll and the inertia, the troll had to slide to a stop for a while before turning the corner.

By the time the troll came to a stop, Charles had felt it to be a shame. If it were to come to a stop just a few seconds later, then it would have struck the arm rail to the staircase and go plummeting down from the 8th floor to the 1st floor. Such a manner like this would cripple the bastard if not kill it.

Seeing the troll approach, the Gryffindor students began to cry out in alarm. Many of the more timid ones had even started to shriek in terror. In this moment, the troll’s attention had diverted from Hermione and Charles to the other students.

“Bloody hell, what kind of job is the Sorting Hat doing?! Wasn’t it supposed to sort the brave into Gryffindor! How can they be so cowardly!” Charles cried out in a bad mood before shooting two more versions of Seamus’ Levitation Charm. This time, two fireworks exploded right in front of the troll’s eyes, causing it to roar in pain. Filled with hatred for Hermione and Charles, the troll ignored the Gryffindor students and leapt into a furious charge towards Charles and Hermione.

When the troll came exploding for him, Charles had instinctively thrown out a Banishing Charm onto the ground and exploited the repulsive force so that he could fly to the side. Just when it seemed that the troll had succeeded, the club came swiping by the soles of Charles’ shoe.

The troll’s hatred would last forever.

“Everyone in front open a path!” Charles shouted to the Gryffindors. Then carrying Hermione with him as they jumped, they soared several meters down to the staircase that would lead them down to the 7th corridor. As they flew, the Gryffindor students had subconsciously moved out of the way out from the staircase at Charles’ words. For those students who hadn’t moved in time, several charms were cast so that they were pushed away.

Charles had an impeccable timing. The moment when he landed on top of the staircase, it began to rumble and move. With two more casts of Seamus’ version of the Levitation Charm, Charles angered the troll once more. Stamping its feet onto the ground and splitting apart the cobblestones, it let out a loud roar before making a leap. Crossing several meters in a single leap, its eyes stared angrily at Charles and Hermione as tried to squash them underneath.

In this crucial moment of danger, Charles calmly took of his robes and wrapped Hermione up in it. Walking over to the banister, Charles leapt down, causing Hermione to shriek out in panic at his actions.

The troll had accurately landed down on the place where Charles and Hermione were last standing at. But while its destination was accurate, its landing was quite unstable. Falling over, the troll began to roll down the staircase. Because the staircase had just moved, the troll came rolling down and out of the staircase. With one final “Bang”, everyone looked over to see the troll laying still on the 1st floor. From the 7th to 1st floor, such a height would guarantee that the troll was at the very least paralyzed or dying from its wounds.

“Where’s Hermione and Charles?” Harry and Ron had suddenly appeared at that moment from the 8th floor.

“They leapt down from here, they’re dead for sure! Waaah!” Neville began to cry.

“They’re fine!” Percy suddenly interrupted, “Granger’s scream hasn’t stopped yet!”

Peering down, everyone could see Charles and Hermione suspended in midair. Wrapped around their waist was a piece of rope with the other end tied up around the banister of the staircase they had just leapt off of. On the staircase from the 8th to 7th floor, a mysterious layer of frost could be seen.

“No wonder the troll looked unsteady, it slipped on the ice.” Someone cried out in amazement.

In the split moment before the troll had landed, Charles saw no other choice but to take out the bottle of water he had taken from the girl’s bathroom. Then with a “Glacius”, he created a layer of frost on the staircase. Taking off his robes and wrapping it around Hermione, he had transfigured it into a long piece of rope. With another casting of the Levitation Charm, he had successfully managed to suspend the two of them.

Swiftly waving his wand, Percy casted a Levitation Charm to bring Hermione and Charles onto the corridors. Charging forward, Ron and Harry hugged the both of them tightly, words had failed to communicate what they were feeling at that moment.

A series of panicked footsteps could be heard, causing the four kids to turn towards the source of the footsteps. Professor McGonagall came running over with professor Snape and professor Quirrell right behind her. When Quirrell saw the troll that had fallen to the 1st floor, he let out a faint whimper before swooning to the side and clutching at his heart.

Professor Snape went down to investigate the troll while professor McGonagall looked at the four. Charles had never seen her so angry before–even her lips had turned white.

“What on earth were you thinking?” McGonagall was furious and her voice filled with fury. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed on the spot! Why aren’t you in your dormitory?”

Suddenly, a small voice came from the shadows.

“Professor McGonagall, please–they were only trying to help me.” The always obstinate to school rules Hermione finally stood up.

“I went looking for the troll on my own. Because….because I thought I could take care of them myself….I thought because I read up about them, I would know how…”

Ron dropped his wand with a clattering sound. Hermione Granger was telling a downright lie to a professor?

“If they didn’t come to find me, I’d be dead for sure. Harry and Ron saved me while Charles defeated the troll. They didn’t have any time to go find anyone else for help. By the time they arrived, the troll was about to finish me off.”

Harry and Ron tried to pretend that this wasn’t the first time they heard this story while Charles had the same impassive look on his face.

“Is that right? Well then….” Professor McGonagall looked to the four of them with a strict look. “Miss Granger, you foolish girl! How could you think you could go against a mountain troll by yourself?”

Hermione hung her head. Harry and Ron were both speechless. Hermione was the very last student that would ever consider breaking a rule, and now here she was pretending that she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started to hand out candy. Charles on the other hand, was thinking that Hermione was finally on the right track.

Hermione’s words had successfully knocked McGonagall off a rung as she fell for the tale that Hermione had spun. “Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this.” McGonagall said. “I am very disappointed in you. If you are not injured, then leave for the Gryffindor tower. The students are currently finishing off the feast in their houses.”

Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to face Charles, Harry, and Ron.

“Well, I still say you were lucky, not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points.” Then turning to Charles, she continued, “Mister Goole, your calm display of bravery and wisdom against the troll was exemplary. I award Gryffindor with 10 points for this.”

Then, “I will award you another 10 points for your beautiful Levitation Charm.”

Right in front of everyone’s amazed eyes, professor McGonagall gave Charles a smile before growing strict once more, “Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go for now.”

They hurried out from the staircases and away from the stinking troll, where everyone let out a sigh in relief.

“We got 10 points, and Charles got 25!” Ron was ecstatic.

“Less, Hermione lost us 5 points.”

“Good of her to help get us out of trouble, really, good on her.” Ron quipped before throwing in another line, “Mind you, we really did want to save her.”

“She didn’t need us saving her.” Harry reminded him.

This time, Charles knew: Hannah had previously told Ron that Hermione was crying. Because of that, Ron was feeling guilty. But for the sake of face, he hadn’t wanted to apologize. However, Ron and Harry immediately thought that Hermione would most likely come across the troll and run off to find her without hesitation. Because of Charles’ actions, this chain of events had happened.

Forget it, it seems that I’m destined to be connected to the main character somehow! Charles thought. Even if I hide from things, they end up coming back to me, so what’s the use of hiding? Anyways, being connected to the savior of the Wizarding World isn’t too bad!

After McGonagall left, the remaining Gryffindor students let out a cheer. Welcoming the three, they all began to crowd around the portrait of the fat lady.

“Pig Snout.” They spoke before climbing in.

The common rooms was very noisy as everyone was happily eating their food and cheered. Only Hermione stood by the door to wait for them. At a glance, the four had felt very awkward. In silence, everyone looked to and from before uttering a “thanks” and going to grab a plate of food.

However, from this moment on, the four of them had become good friends. To be honest, if you were to fight a 12 feet tall mountain troll, then such a trial like this, would that be so easily forgotten and hard to cherish? Although to Charles, this was also a very arduous experience!