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Trolls are incredibly stupid creatures.
They're violently aggressive and often attack for absolutely no reason. Plus, they strictly eat raw meat, and they aren't picky eaters in the slightest!
Right now, a fully grown mountain troll was wandering the third floor. That meant if any student was still up there, they were prime targets to be hunted!
I need to find a professor, now!
Richie's brow furrowed tightly. He turned on his heel, ready to sprint downstairs.
But just as he moved, a piercing scream echoed through the corridor.
"Ahhh!"
"Crap." Richie's face went rigid. He snapped his head back toward the third-floor landing.
Down the corridor, the troll was lumbering purposefully in one specific direction.
Someone was in there!
Throwing caution to the wind, Richie drew his wand and sprinted after the beast.
#### Trapped in the Bathroom
Third floor, girls' bathroom.
Hermione rubbed her red, puffy eyes and stepped out of the bathroom stall.
You couldn't exactly blame her for crying. Ron's jab—"no wonder she hasn't got any friends"—had cut incredibly deep. In Hermione's eyes, she was just trying to show people the correct way to study; she hadn't done anything wrong. But nobody liked her. Nobody wanted to talk to her or be her friend.
The grievance had been building up, and Ron's comment was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Hermione walked over to the sinks, wanting to wash the tear tracks off her face.
Just then, a massive, grotesque arm smashed through the bathroom door, making her jump out of her skin. A troll lumbered into the room.
Without time to think, Hermione scrambled backward, desperately hiding in one of the stalls.
But she completely underestimated the beast. The troll blindly swung its massive wooden club, sweeping it in a brutal horizontal arc. The entire row of partitions violently splintered in half, exploding into a shower of wood chips.
"Ahhh!" Hermione shrieked, cowering amidst the wreckage.
Richie skidded to a halt in the bathroom doorway, instantly spotting the troll raising its club for a lethal downward strike.
"Transfiguration!"
Richie raised his wand. A flash of white light shot across the room in the blink of an eye, striking the wooden club dead center.
A second later, the heavy weapon transfigured into a limp, floppy rope that dropped to the floor.
The troll's tiny brain completely failed to process what had just happened. It continued its violent downward swing with all its might, but with its weapon replaced by a rope, the kinetic energy had nowhere to go. The sheer momentum threw the beast completely off balance, sending it crashing face-first into the floor.
BANG!
#### Dumb Luck
"Hermione!"
At that exact moment, Harry and Ron burst into the bathroom, gasping for air.
Seeing the utterly destroyed room and the massive troll sprawled on the floor, the two boys screamed in terror.
Hearing the familiar voices, Hermione immediately looked up.
Richie frowned and yelled, "Hermione, run to the door!"
Mustering her courage, Hermione scrambled to her feet and dashed out of the splintered wreckage. That's when she finally saw the three boys standing by the door.
"Help!"
The troll stubbornly struggled to its feet, staring blankly at the rope in its hand, seemingly trying to figure out where its club went.
Seeing an opening, Richie raised his wand again. "Bind!"
Driven by the spell, the rope immediately whipped around the troll's body. However, due to the Law of Conservation of Mass, the rope transfigured from the club was a bit too short, only managing to bind the beast's upper half.
The troll roared, furiously struggling against its bonds, and stumbled toward them.
"Do something!" Harry yelled in panic. Without missing a beat, he pointed his wand at the debris on the floor. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Several jagged planks of wood levitated off the floor and violently hurled themselves at the troll.
Smash!
The troll grunted in pain, violently shaking its head to dodge the onslaught.
"It's working! Keep going!" Seeing this, Hermione spun around and drew her own wand. "Ron, remember the wand movement!"
Another piece of debris flew up and cracked against the beast. The troll roared, thrashing wildly.
"Oh, right, right!" Ron yanked out his wand and frantically chanted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
A jagged, splintered plank ripped into the air and rocketed toward the monster's face.
At that exact moment, Richie raised his free hand and made a very specific, subtle motion.
A phantom flick to the forehead.
Everything happened in a split second.
To the others, it looked like the troll, desperately trying to dodge Ron's spiked plank, had panicked and accidentally slammed its own head directly into the stone wall. It slumped against the masonry, completely knocked out cold!
"Brilliant, Ron!" Hermione cheered.
Seeing the monster stop moving, Richie let out a massive sigh of relief and lowered his wand.
#### Aftermath and Suspicions
The four of them locked eyes, just about to speak, when several professors suddenly swarmed into the bathroom.
"Oh, Merlin!"
"Can someone please explain what happened here?!"
Looking at Professor McGonagall, who looked like she was about to pass out from sheer shock, Ron's face flushed with guilt. "Well, it happened like this..."
Before he could finish, Hermione cut him off. "It was entirely my fault, Professor."
"I was too curious. I wanted to see the troll for myself. I honestly thought I could handle it, but I was completely wrong. If it wasn't for Richie, Harry... and Ron... I would probably be dead."
Staring at the repentant Hermione, McGonagall's expression remained stone-cold.
"Not just any first-year wizard can take on a fully grown mountain troll and survive. For your sheer recklessness, Miss Granger, that will be five points from Gryffindor!"
"As for you three..."
As McGonagall's piercing gaze shifted to them, Harry and Ron's hearts absolutely plummeted into their stomachs. Richie just blinked innocently, actively trying to play the 'cute and harmless' card.
"Keep in mind, you were all purely, outrageously lucky today! Each of you will receive five points for your respective houses." McGonagall paused, her strict facade cracking just a fraction. "Consider it a reward for your dumb luck."
It was incredibly rare for the strict professor to swear. Having delivered her verdict, McGonagall turned and swept out of the room. "I need to go brief Professor Dumbledore on exactly what happened here!"
With McGonagall out of the way, Snape was suddenly standing directly in Richie's line of sight.
That was when Richie noticed the ugly, bleeding gash on Snape's leg. Harry spotted it too.
Unfortunately, Snape caught Harry staring and aggressively swept his robes over the injury to hide it. Shooting Harry a lethal glare, the Potions Master spun on his heel and stormed out.
"O-o-oh... y-young wizards... y-you should leave quickly. The t-t-troll will b-be waking up s-soon." Quirrell stepped forward, flashing the four kids an incredibly weird, unsettling smile. "I-I will h-handle things here."
The kids couldn't agree fast enough. They scrambled out of the ruined bathroom without a second thought.
Walking down the gloomy corridor, Harry looked over at Richie. "Richie, did you see it too?"
"See what?" Ron asked, intensely curious.
"Snape's leg was injured!" Harry said, his voice dropping into a worried whisper. "Something definitely happened before he got to the bathroom!"
Hearing that, Richie laid out his own theory. "He definitely just came down from the fourth floor." He then casually mentioned how he had passed the fourth-floor landing earlier and heard someone chanting spells—and how the voice sounded suspiciously like Snape's.
"Oh! The fourth floor! That's where the three-headed dog is!" Ron gasped. "Snape definitely sneaked in there! He must've gotten his leg chewed up by that monster."
Richie raised an eyebrow. "Three-headed dog?"
Harry quickly filled him in, explaining how they had accidentally stumbled into the forbidden fourth-floor corridor earlier in the term.
"It has to be guarding something incredibly important for the castle, and Snape is trying to steal it!" Harry declared with absolute certainty. Ron nodded in massive agreement.
"But why?" Richie just didn't get the logic.
"Because... Snape is just that kind of guy!"
Richie raised an eyebrow again. "You still need an actual motive to pull off a heist, guys."
Harry just shook his head, looking deeply troubled, and didn't offer a comeback. Seeing him like that, Richie decided to drop it.
The four of them made their way toward the Great Hall.
"Hey, Hermione, how was my Levitation Charm back there?"
"It was executed quite well."
"Haha!"
"Ron, don't get cocky! If you hadn't been a complete jerk and upset Hermione in the first place, none of this would have happened!"
"Hey, isn't that just how friends act? Right, Richie?"
"Yeah, sure. Let's go with that."
"Richie, this is the first time you've actually been tolerable!"
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