by Saphia Peten
I’m a really big fan of the Harry Potter series. Below is a small passage from my Harry Potter fanfiction I would like to share with you. I started to write this piece in June after my IGCSE exams, and I’ve been posting chapters on Wattpad.
This fanfiction follows the books, with some exceptions where it follows the movies, and tells the story of Harry and my invented character, Nessy Jinx. Nessy and Harry share the same past, with the same fate, both are united by a mysterious connection, and none of them know the origin. The only thing they know is their parents were good friends, and the four of them had been in hiding from Voldemort together, because they couldn’t be separated. The connection between Harry and Nessy is special, almost like a brother-sister relationship, though at the same time, something more complex, and deeper than it seems.
I really love writing, to express my own creativity and imagination, and I would like to share this passion with you.
Below is a passage from Book 1 (The Philosopher’s Stone), Chapter 10 – Hallowe’en.
Perhaps it was because they were now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all their homework, but Harry and Nessy could hardly believe it when they realised that they’d already been at Hogwarts two months. The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive for both of them. Nessy was felt welcome at her aunt and uncle’s house, of course, they loved her with all their hearts, but Hogwarts was her place, and she knew it. It was in the wizarding world that she truly belonged.
Their lessons were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.
On Hallowe’en morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were all ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they’d seen him make Neville’s toad zoom around the classroom. Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Harry and Nessy partnered together, and Seamus Finnigan ended up with Neville. Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn’t spoken to either of the boys, mostly because of Ron.
“Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practising!” squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too – never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ‘f’ instead of ‘s’ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.”
It wasn’t actually as difficult as Harry had feared. Harry and Nessy decided to practise the movement clearly first, then they tried to speak correctly the incantation.
Ron, on the other hand, at the next table, wasn’t having much luck.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. Harry and Nessy tried to hide a laugh. “You’re saying it wrong,” they heard Hermione snap. “It’s Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”
“You do it, then, if you’re so clever,” Ron snarled. Nessy rolled her eyes. The two girls look at each other, before they flicked their wands and said together, “Wingardium Leviosa!”
The two feathers rose off the desks and hovered about four feet above their heads.
“Oh, well done!” cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. “See everyone, Miss Granger and Miss Jinx have done it!” Ron was in a very bad temper by the end of the class.
“It’s no wonder no one can stand Hermione,” he said to Harry and Nessy as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor. “She’s a nightmare, honestly.”
“Ron!” Nessy replied as someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry and Nessy caught a glimpse of her face – she was in tears.
“Hermione!” Nessy tried to call her back, but Hermione had already disappeared. Nessy looked at Ron reproachfully.
“She heard you.” Harry said flatly.
“So?” said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. “She must’ve noticed she’s got no friends.”
“I am her friend, for your imformation, Ronald.” Nessy snaps.
Hermione didn’t turn up for the next class and wasn’t seen all afternoon. Nessy didn’t speak to Ron all day, and although Harry wasn’t angry with Ron, he was on Nessy’s side for that one; what Ron said was not okay.
On their way down to the Great Hall for the Hallowe’en feast, Harry, Nessy and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls’ bathrooms and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked still more awkward at this, and a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, but the Hallowe’en decorations didn’t put Hermione out of Harry and Nessy’s minds.
A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Harry and Nessy were just helping themselves to jacket potatoes when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the Hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.
“TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Thought you ought to know.”
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.
There was uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore’s wand to bring silence.
“Everyone will please, not panic. Prefects,” he rumbled, “lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!”
Percy was in his element.
“Follow me! Stick together, first-years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make was, first-years coming through! Excuse me, I’m a Prefect!”
“How could a troll get in?” Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.
“Don’t ask me, they’re supposed to be really stupid,” said Ron. “Maybe Peeves let it in for a Hallowe’en joke.”
Nessy gasped and grabbed Harry and Ron’s sleeves, yanking them away from the others.
“What’s wrong, Nessy?” Harry asked.
“Hermione – she doesn’t know about the troll.”
Ron bit his lip.
“Come on, Ron. If she gets hurt it will be your fault.” Nessy hissed.
“Oh, all right,” he snapped.
Ducking down, they joined a group of Hufflepuff passing by, and going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor and hurried off towards the girls’ bathrooms. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
Nessy pulled the two boys behind a large stone griffin.
Peering around it, they saw Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view. “What’s he doing?” Harry whispered. “Why isn’t he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?”
“No idea,” Nessy whispered. “But whatever the reason, I have the feeling that troll isn’t here by accident.”
Harry and Nessy shared a knowing look. They were thinking the same thing. Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape’s fading footsteps.
“He’s heading for the third floor,” Harry said, but Nessy held up her hand.
“Can you smell something?”
The two boys sniffed and a foul stench reached their nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.
And then they heard it – a low grunting and the shuffling footstalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed: at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving towards them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.
It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, its great lump body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.
The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.
“The key’s in the lock,” Harry muttered. “We could lock it in.”
“No, Harry, wait!” Nessy hissed, alarm on her face.
“Good idea?” said Ron nervously.
“Ron, don’t!”
Ron edged towards the open door. With one great leap, he managed to grab the key, slam the door and lock it.
“Yes!”
“Open it, Ron! Open the door!” Nessy was now shaking with fear. Trying desperately to turn the key in the lock. But her hands were shaking so much.
“Why –”
At that precise moment, they heard something that made their hearts stops – a high, petrified scream – and it was coming from the chamber they’d just locked.
“Oh, no,” said Ron, pale as the Bloody Baron.
“It’s the girls’ bathrooms!” Harry gasped.
“Yes!” Nessy said desperately. “Hermione!”
Nessy finally managed to unlock the door and she pulled it open – running inside, the boys at her tail. Hermione was almost hidden under a pile of wood, where the troll seemed to have smashed the top part of the stalls.
“Hermione – MOVE!” Harry and Nessy screamed together.
They saw Hermione move out from under the wreckage and towards the wall, but the troll smashed the rest of the stalls, sending more pieces of wood on top of Hermione, as she let out another piercing scream. Harry, Nessy and Ron started to throw pieces of wood at the troll’s head.
“Hey! Pea-brain!” yelled Ron, throwing a very large piece of wood right at the troll’s head. The troll didn’t even seem to notice the wood hitting its head, but it heard the yell and turned its ugly snout towards Ron, Harry and Nessy.
Hermione took advantage of the troll’s inattention to stand up, and run to the other side of the bathroom, where she hid under one of the sinks. Unfortunately, the troll’s head snapped back towards her, and he lifted his club, smashing the sink right next to Hermione, narrowly missing her head. All four of them cringed.
“Help!” shrieked Hermione.
Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: he took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll’s neck from behind. The troll started flailing backwards and forwards so hard Harry ended up on the troll’s head. The troll carried on trying to throw Harry off, and Harry had nothing to hold on to, until, finally, the troll thrashed so violently that Harry’s wand went straight up one of the troll’s nostrils.
Howling in pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, grabbing Harry by his feet, hanging him upside down. The troll swung his club at Harry, missing him narrowly, having managed to pull himself up just in time, before ending back upside down again. The troll attempted to swings its club again, but still missed Harry, and instead, hit Nessy right in the stomach, sending her flying hard against the wall, her wand falling out of her hand.
“Nessy!” The other three shriek.
The troll started to walk towards Nessy, seeming to have completely forgotten that it was still holding Harry upside down by one leg. The young girl quickly rolled to grab her wand, before rolling back again, just as the troll’s club smashed on the floor where she had been lying a mere second ago. Nessy rolled again, narrowly missing the troll’s club once more. Her face was stricken with fear, her eyes wide, looking directly at the troll. She met Harry’s eyes; fear, she only saw fear, just like hers. Nessy moved under the troll’s legs and pulled herself to her feet, but she stumbled and tripped, which meant her back was now against the wall and she had no way to escape.
“Ron! Do something!” Harry shouts desperately.
“What?” Ron said, looking around desperately for something to help them.
This was it. The troll was walking towards Nessy, and this time, it was going to kill her for sure. She couldn’t escape. Her head was spinning, and there was a ringing in her ears, but she was still looking at the troll, trying to find a way out.
“Do anything!” Harry and Nessy shouted.
“Please, hurry up!” Nessy yelled, her arms over her head, her last attempt to protect herself.
Ron pulled out his own wand – not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head, remembering Hermione’s advice: “Wingardium Leviosa!”
The club flew suddenly out of the troll’s hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over – and dropped, with a sickening crack, on to its owner’s head. The troll finally let go of Harry, who fell to the ground, grabbing Nessy by her shoulders, and pulling her out of the way, as the troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.
Both Harry and Nessy stayed on the floor, shaking and breathing heavily. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done. Hermione carefully rose from under the sinks and approached the troll cautiously.
“Is it – dead?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Harry. “I think it’s just been knocked out.” Harry pulled himself to his feet, hugging Nessy tightly. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Nessy said, hugging him back.
Harry then bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll’s nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue.
“Urgh – troll bogies.”
He wiped it on the troll’s trousers.
A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of them look up. They hadn’t realised what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll’s roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.
Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron, Harry and Nessy. Harry and Nessy had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white.
“What on earth were you thinking of?” said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry and Nessy exchanged helpless looks. Ron was still standing with his wand in the air. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed. Explain yourselves, you three!”
“Well, actually, we...” Harry, Nessy and Ron stuttered, trying to find something to say.
Then a small voice cut through the three of them.
“Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me.”
“Miss Granger!”
“I went looking for the troll because I – I thought I could deal with it on my own – you know, because I’ve read all about them.”
Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher? Harry and Nessy looked at each other in astonishment.
“If they hadn’t found me, I’d be dead by now. Harry and Nessy managed to confuse it, and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn’t have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived.”
Nessy closed her eyes, and managed to compose herself. But the boys were finding it more difficult to look as though this story wasn’t new to them.
“Well – in that case…” said Professor McGonagall, staring at the four of them. “Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?”
Hermione hung her head. Harry and Nessy were speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.
“Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this,” said Professor McGonagall. “I’m very disappointed in you. If you’re not hurt at all, you’d better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses.”
Hermione nodded, leaving the bathroom.
Professor McGonagall turned to Harry, Nessy and Ron.
“Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have taken on a full-sized mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go.”
They hurried out of the chamber and didn’t speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else. Nessy let out a deep breath, sighing in relief.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked worriedly.
“I’m all right, Harry, I promise. You?”
“I’m good.”
“We should have got more than fifteen points,” Ron suddenly grumbled.
“Ten, you mean, once she’s taken off Hermione’s.” Nessy corrected him.
“Good of her to get us out of trouble like that,” said Harry.
“Mind you, we did save her life.” Ron interjected.
“Mind you, Ronald, she might not have needed saving if you hadn’t locked the thing in with her,” Nessy reminded him.
They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and Hermione was waiting for them outside. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, they all said “Thanks,” and smiled at each other, before entering the common room.
It was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. The four of them hurried off to get their plates.
But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.
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