Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking at the robe Kyle handed him, Snape's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
What did he mean by taking it back for a closer look? Did he really look like someone who liked the smell of stench?
Snape gave Kyle a cold look, neither taking it nor speaking.
"I think Professor Snape is overly worried," Professor McGonagall finally smoothed things over. "It's good that you didn't encounter any trolls. You should go back too; the students are all enjoying their Halloween feast in their houses."
"Yes, Professor McGonagall."
Snape glared at Kyle's departing figure, then abruptly turned around and found Quirrell cowering at the back.
"Quirrell, where is that troll you're talking about?!"
"It…it's in…the underground classroom." Quirrell leaned against the wall, clutching his chest. "Really, it's fifteen feet…tall…"
"But Dumbledore has already searched, there's nothing in the underground classroom!"
Snape said impatiently. "I bet you find it amusing that everyone skipped Halloween dinner to foolishly search for a troll that doesn't even exist!"
"I…I didn't…Severus…I didn't…"
Quirrell slowly slumped to the floor, sobbing. "I don't know…where it went…"
"Maybe it went somewhere else."
Professor Flitwick pondered for a moment. "For the students' safety, let's search more carefully. I'll go check the third floor."
"Then I'll go to the fourth floor."
"I'll take the fifth floor."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Soon, the professors decided which floors they would go to and left one after another.
"If I find out you're lying, or playing any tricks…you should know what I mean."
Snape gave Quirrell a cold look: "I'll come back for you!"
With that, he limped away.
Quirrell didn't speak, still sitting on the ground sobbing, seemingly terrified.
In fact, Quirrell was in a state of utter bewilderment and hadn't paid any attention to what Snape had said.
His troll… his huge troll…
gone in the blink of an eye?
Quirrell even began to doubt whether he had released the troll at all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After leaving, Kyle didn't go anywhere else, going straight back to the Hufflepuff common room.
As soon as he entered, a large group of people surrounded him.
"Thanks, Merlin, we were just about to look for you,"
Cedric said. "Brown said you were in the common room, but when we came back, we found you were gone."
"Why didn't you go to the party today?"
"Thank goodness you're alright."
"You don't know, there's a troll in the underground classroom, oh my god, the books say they're over ten feet tall!"
Everyone chimed in, worried about Kyle's safety.
"Thanks, don't worry, I'm fine."
Kyle smiled. "I ran into the professor on the way, and then they came back."
"The professor?" Mikel asked curiously, "Did they find the troll?"
"Probably not yet."
Kyle shook his head. "But I think this news is probably false. How could there be trolls at Hogwarts?"
"But Professor Quirrell saw it."
"I think he might have been mistaken." Kyle said dismissively, "After all, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors at Hogwarts are never very reliable..."
Mikel seemed to want to say something, but Kyle interrupted him.
"Can you ask me something later? I'm starving."
Kyle hadn't even had a sip of water while keeping an eye on Quirrell, and he was indeed hungry.
"Okay..." Mikel scratched his head sheepishly.
The small tables in the Hufflepuff common room were now laden with various delicacies.
Although there weren't as many as in the Great Hall, if you needed anything, you could just tell the house-elves, and they would bring it immediately.
It was somewhat like a magical version of a buffet.
Kyle went to a table, picked up a pumpkin pie, took a bite, and then asked for a large steak, which he finished in a few bites.
Cedric and Kanna sat on either side of him. They hadn't eaten much earlier because they were worried about Kyle's safety, and now they were feeling a bit hungry.
Cedric thought for a moment and ordered an apple pie.
Kanna, like Kyle, ordered steak, but she got three servings.
After dinner, no one was in the mood to sleep.
The unconscious Professor Quirrell and the troll were an interesting topic, and the young wizards discussed it over dessert in the common room until very late before returning to their dormitories. Late at night…
Kyle, as usual, slipped out of his dormitory, but this time he didn't go to the library; instead, he went to the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor.
He hadn't been there in a long time.
Kyle first observed the growth of the plants, and after confirming everything was normal, he took his trunk from the mokeskin pouch, opened it, and jumped inside.
The trunk had completely changed.
In the small room below the entrance, there was now a wooden bed, a table, and a large wooden bookshelf.
He had made all of these himself, so they were somewhat ordinary, even abstract.
Kyle didn't care. Appearance and comfort weren't important here, as long as it worked.
The bed and table were empty, except for the bookshelves… overflowing with parchment-bound books.
Only the last row was empty.
"I didn't notice when I came in, there are already so many?" Kyle sighed.
It seemed he'd have to look for a book on the Undetectable Extension Charm next time he went to the library.
Although he could just leave a shapeshifting mokeskin pouch here, it would still be somewhat inconvenient.
After leaving the room, Kyle quickly found the troll lying on the floor, fast asleep.
The troll still showed no signs of waking.
Kyle placed the several large buckets of bread and meat he'd brought from the kitchen beside it, then took out his wand and diverted some lake water around the troll.
This wasn't to control the troll.
Mountain trolls weren't very active; they usually only stayed where food was plentiful, and what Kyle had brought was enough to keep it quiet for a long time.
Kyle mainly wanted to protect it from the chomping cabbage.
He had previously moved some of the mature chomping cabbages here. To prevent these creatures from idly trying to taste the trolls' saltiness, the best way was to keep them separated by water.
It's common knowledge that chomping cabbages never willingly approach rivers or lakes.
[End of the chapter]