The chilly girls' bathroom, the cold stall.
A foul stench spread like despair itself.
Hermione knew she was in deep trouble. Only now did she realize how foolish she'd been.
Back at the Hogsmeade cabin, she had so many friends, so many precious friends… and yet, here she was, upset over unimportant people, locking herself in the girls' bathroom to cry.
The unmistakable sound of a troll's massive feet dragging across the floor echoed nearby.
But Sean was faster than the troll.
"Don't be scared, Hermione. Grab my hand."
She stared ahead in disbelief as Sean's figure blocked the shadow behind the door.
Sean gently helped Hermione to her feet, using a Transfiguration spell to turn another stall door into a bench for her to sit on.
But that left him completely exposed to the troll's line of sight.
"Sean! Watch out!"
Seeing the troll raise its club, Hermione found strength from somewhere deep inside and shouted.
"Stay there. If you come out, I'll get distracted."
Sean said one last thing before closing the stall door.
The troll's swinging club sliced through the air with a sharp whoosh, its massive shadow engulfing Sean.
Facing this hulking beast, Sean suddenly wondered if Ron's idea of knocking him out with a club was a bit too fairy-tale-like.
In this situation, using a Levitation Charm to snatch the troll's club would be like trying to uproot a tree with the same spell.
Still…
"Flipendo!" (Knockback Jinx!)
[You practiced the Knockback Jinx at an expert level, proficiency +50]
A bright flash of light sparked and vanished. The troll's club, as if caught by an invisible hand, jerked upward just as it began to fall.
Sean paused, an odd moment of self-reflection hitting him.
Why did I go for the Knockback Jinx first?
Am I… really a Dark Lord?
The troll was still moving. Sean waved his wand, and the wooden door of stall three transformed into two eagles. With a piercing cry, they dove at the troll.
In an instant, one of its eyes was pecked out.
Behind them, Sean's breathing grew heavier, but he didn't stop. Knockback Jinxes and Levitation Charms tugged at the troll's club relentlessly.
Soon, the club was in Sean's hands.
After a moment's thought, he used a Levitation Charm to gather all the wooden doors—except the one shielding Hermione's stall.
By the time the troll shook off the eagles, it faced a club three times larger than before.
No surprise—it saw its grandmother.
If it had one.
When the troll's massive body finally crashed to the ground, its coconut-like bald head flattened into two dimensions, Sean slowly stepped back into the stall.
He heard noises outside the girls' bathroom. Hermione's tear-streaked face wasn't exactly pretty, so he handed her a tissue.
But why did this feel so… natural?
Sean started reflecting again.
Maybe it was because he'd seen too many dead bodies at the orphanage.
He supposed.
Inside the stall, the moment Hermione saw Sean's face, she lowered her wand. She stared at him for a long moment, only then noticing the tears still glistening in her eyes.
"You're late…"
Her voice trembled, as if she were packing all her grievances and worries for her friend into that one sentence.
"Yeah, my bad."
Sean said softly, offering her the tissue.
"No, it's my fault! How could I care about what those idiots said and forget my real friends?"
Hermione thought she'd cried all her tears, but seeing Sean risk his life for her, she realized she still had plenty of grievances to let out.
…
At the door, a loud boom rang out, but the door wouldn't budge. Justin and Neville were panicking like ants on a hot plate.
"Use the Unlocking Charm!"
Harry came running down the corridor, Ron at his side, pale as a ghost.
"Do you guys know it? I'll try…"
Ron's hand shook as he raised his wand, but he steadied himself and cast the spell, as if the danger had unlocked some hidden potential.
The lock clicked open, but the door still wouldn't move.
It was like something was blocking it from the other side.
Justin's eyes were red with frustration. He roared and slammed his fist against the door. Neville, catching his intent, did the same.
Ron charged forward with a yell, then stumbled right into…
Sean opened the door, watching as Ron faceplanted onto the troll's corpse, momentarily stunned.
"Ron!"
Harry shouted. Ron's situation didn't look great—he was face-to-face with the troll's flattened head.
"Ugh…"
Ron groggily got up, saw the troll's two-dimensional head, screamed, and fainted again.
Inside the room, the six of them gathered around the troll, too shocked to speak.
"Sean, Hermione… you guys okay?"
Justin looked them over, making sure they were unharmed, and let out a huge sigh of relief.
Neville was trembling again, unable to even glance at the troll.
Harry shook Ron awake. Both of them looked at Hermione with complicated expressions, sneaking glances at Sean.
"We're fine," Sean said with a smile.
Hermione looked at her concerned friends. The hurtful words Ron and Harry had said earlier vanished from her mind.
They'd… risked their lives to find her.
As for Justin and Neville, she frowned, gently handing them tissues—their hands were injured, probably from pounding on the door, still bleeding.
"Good to know you're okay… So, is the rumor true?" Justin wiped his hand, then cautiously asked, "You know, about you taking on a troll single-handedly and defeating a werewolf with your bare hands…"
"Merlin's beard, did Professor Snape really give you ten Galleons and cook you two dishes?!" Harry's focus, as usual, veered off when Snape was mentioned.
At the doorway, Professor McGonagall's stern face twitched with an odd expression. Snape's glare could've killed.
"Harry Potter! You dare openly break school rules? What kind of nonsense are you up to?"
Snape stormed in, his piercing gaze slicing through Harry, his voice dripping with icy anger.
"Even if you got lucky and didn't get yourself killed, why didn't you stay in your dormitory like you were supposed to? Our famous hero, thinking he can take on a troll?!"
But when he saw the troll on the floor, his expression shifted. His eyes locked onto the cautious little wizard.
Sean kept his head down, instinctively feeling the professors were scarier than the troll.
Snape's voice was like a hiss squeezed from his throat, brimming with barely contained fury.
"Ravenclaw loses one hundred points! Sean Green! Because you had the audacity to go looking for a troll! Did you really think you're a troll yourself?! Well, let me tell you, trolls fight each other too!"
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