Battling a Troll

"Hurry!" Harry screamed, his voice more of a whoosh of exhaled breath from his lungs then anything else.

Running beside him, Ron was silent but he sped up none the less. They had just heard the door to the girls loo thunder open up ahead. That meant that the troll was now in the same room as Hermione.

"How the bloody hell," Ron panted, his face almost matching the color of his hair, "did a troll get into the castle?"

Harry didn't reply. He honestly didn't know how a troll could have gotten into Hogwarts, especially if the school was as well protected as everyone said it was. But that wasn't really the important thing right now. They had to help Hermione and they had to do it quickly.

The two boys reached the entrance to the girls' bathroom and pulled up short. The door was torn from its hinges, lying on the stone floor, resembling nothing more than a defeated pile of wood. Drawing out their wands simultaneously, the boys entered the small confines of the bathroom, Ron with an audible gulp.

The sight that meant their eyes was even worse than they could have imagined. The humungous troll was huddled over the half-demolished porcelain sinks in the far left corner of the room. Water was spraying everywhere and the stalls were completely demolished. The troll disregarded this, however, as he pulled back his arm, ready to let loose an almighty swing at whatever was huddled beneath the remaining sink. Harry and Ron quietly stepped closer, trying to look around the troll and spot Hermione. Ah! There she was! She was the huddled mass beneath the sink.

"Hermione!" Harry screamed in panic, stepping over some debris.

Hermione uncovered her head for a moment and looked at Harry and Ron in unbridled horror. Her bushy hair had bits of dirt and dust in it and her black school robes were torn and wet. "Help me!"

Pulling up beside Harry, Ron looked on in horror. "What do we do?"

Harry picked up a piece of splintered wood and threw it at the troll as hard as he could. As the wood made contact with its head, the troll gave a dumbfounded grunt before swinging around and looking for his assailant. Faced with the sight of the troll head-on for the first time, both boys gave a gasp of shock and fear before they backpedaled a few yards.

"Bloody hell!" Ron croaked. Harry remained silent; he couldn't even come up with a remark. For standing before them was something neither of the students had ever seen in their whole lives.

The monstrosity was at least twelve feet tall. Its flesh was knobby and a wretched orange color. It had hair the color of rubies sticking straight off its head; flyaway strands were waving about in the draft from the corridor. Instead of wearing a scrap of loin cloth like most mountain trolls, this beast was garbed in a pink frilly costume, something resembling a tutu. A small circle at the stomach was cut out and, gleaming in the light, for all of them to see, was a heart-shaped jewel the same ruby color as the troll's hair. As Harry let out a strangled sound and glanced up from the trolls disfigured belly button, he noticed for the first time that the monster wielded not a wooden club, but a silver wand with a gleaming star and pink streamers hanging from its tip.

This was no mountain troll. This was a Treasure Troll.

"Blimey! I thought they were just a myth!" muttered Ron, who was distracted by the Treasure Troll's bright red toenail polish.

"Obviously not," Harry said as the troll gave a grunt and turned back towards Hermione who was still cowering under the remaining sink. The troll took a vicious swing with its wand and came within inches of poking Hermione in the knee with its starred tip.

"Help me!"

"Oi! Pea-brain!" Ron bellowed. He picked up a random metal pipe and threw it at the troll but the troll didn't seem to notice as it advanced on Hermione once more, its pink tutu fluttering about its waist.

At a magical loss, Harry ran forward and took a bounding leap, hitting the troll from behind. He barely managed to grasp his arms around the monster's tree trunk of a neck. The Boy Who Lived let a small smile grace his lips as he realized that he'd actually managed to tackle the troll. The troll however didn't really seem to feel his presence. At least not until Harry's wand stuck up the creature's nose.

The Treasure Troll gave an almighty shriek that was rather high-pitched and grainy. Had Harry's arms not been tightly gripping the troll's neck, he would have covered his ears. "Ron! Do something!"

Ron looked around the bathroom in bewilderment before remembering what was grasped tightly in his hand. His wand. Ron raised his wand, his face looking more determined than Harry had ever seen. With a perfect swish and flick of his wrist he bellowed out the words, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

For a moment, everything was still. Then the gleaming streamer-laden wand was wrenched from the Treasure Troll's grasp. It spun high in the air before coming back down with a flourish. The bottom left point of the star poked the Treasure Troll in the eye, and with a groan, the monster fainted dead away to the floor.

Harry got to his feet shakily and pulled his now boogey-covered wand from the Treasure Troll's nose. "Yuck."

Hermione crawled out from under her hiding spot and hurried over to the boys, her wide and frightened eyes on the unconscious troll. "Is it dead?"

Ron stepped closer to the Treasure Troll cautiously and nudged it with the toe of his shoe. The troll did not move. "I reckon it's just knocked out."

The three students smiled at each other awkwardly. Finally, Harry spoke. "We were lucky."

With a grin, Hermione opened her mouth to reply but a slam and pounding footfalls were heard. The three kids turned, startled, to the entrance of the bathroom. Professors Snape, McGonagall and Quirrell came bursting into the room. Noticing Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the now unconscious troll, all three adults stopped abruptly.

"Obviously not that lucky," Ron muttered.

The Treasure Troll gave an almighty grunt in its sleep and Professor Quirrell backed away with a whimper. "Dear Lord, it's a T-T-Treasure Troll!"

"How very observant of you, Quirrell!" Snape sneered before shoving past Harry and making his way over to the unconscious beast.

Professor McGonagall remained stationary with a look of utmost fury on her face. "What were you three thinking?" she all but screamed at them.

Harry, Ron and Hermione shuffled their feet in guilt and stared at the floor. After a moment, Ron cleared his throat and smiled up at his Head of House innocently. "That is was a spiffing night to go out and hunt a Treasure Troll? I reckon its jewel is worth quite a bit of galleons."

Harry snorted with laughter but quickly covered his mouth and managed a fake cough instead. Professor McGonagall's lips flatten into a straight line as she glared at Ron; no doubt he was in for it now. Before she could open her mouth to speak, Hermione stepped forward. "It was my fault, Professor!"

McGonagall rounded on her. "Explain yourself, Miss Granger!"

"Well, it all started when…."

The End