After Professor Quirrell's bombshell, the Great Hall became a scene of utter chaos.
Are they all in a frenzy of excitement to be the first to catch the troll?
Albus corrected my line of thought by shouting.
"Prefects! Immediately lead the students back to your dormitories!"
As he said this, Albus looked in my direction, but Harry and I were already gone.
The moment the commotion had started, we had gleefully thrown on the Invisibility Cloak.
"Follow me! First-years, especially, stick close to the person next to you and you'll be safe from the troll... what! Where did Aisen and Harry go! Has anyone seen them?"
Percy, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs, noticed that Harry and I were gone and looked around in a panic.
Whatever. Harry and I had already slipped out of the Great Hall ahead of the prefects, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak.
I could hear Albus sighing as he spoke to the flustered Percy from behind us.
—Hah, Mr. Weasley. Harry and Aisen have already gone back, so there's no need to worr...
After leaving the Great Hall, we took off the Invisibility Cloak and ran swiftly.
Harry shouted.
"Master, where do you think the troll is?"
"It'll be wherever there's a loud noise, I suppose."
By the way, why was Hogwarts keeping a troll in the dungeons?
Could it be for use as a teaching material for the students? If so, even if we use it instead, it will have been used as a student's teaching material anyway, so Hogwarts shouldn't have any complaints, right?
We headed towards the loud noise and were soon able to confirm the source of the roar.
It was, without a doubt, a troll.
However, I couldn't help but feel a little let down when I saw the troll.
There are several types of trolls.
Mountain trolls, swamp trolls, rock trolls, forest trolls, and so on, depending on their habitat.
You could also distinguish their hierarchy by their level of armament, and some high-ranking trolls were even equipped with armor.
But the troll in front of us could be said to be a relatively low-grade troll.
And for good reason; its only weapon was a giant wooden club, and its clothes were just a leather loincloth.
At this level, my help wasn't even needed.
I pushed Harry on the back and said.
"Alright, Harry! Go on and fight it! Ah, but don't try to kill it all at once. It's a precious textbook."
"Yes, I understand!"
And Harry drew his holly wand from his robes and went forward.
Harry grinned as he faced the troll.
As his master Aisen had said, Hogwarts was a true place of learning.
Not only did he learn various common knowledge of the wizarding world, but he was also able to learn a variety of knowledge that the practical-oriented Aisen had not taught him.
Nevertheless, the nearly four years he had spent with Aisen had been filled with more excitement than not.
The static curriculum of Hogwarts was bound to be a bit frustrating for Harry.
Survival training in a forest where danger-level XXXX magical creatures lived, dodging spells shot by Aisen, and so on.
After undergoing such training, to just sit still and listen to classes at Hogwarts, he couldn't help but feel restless.
But just in time, Hogwarts had planned, in Aisen's words, a 'troll hunting event' in commemoration of Halloween.
He couldn't help but be excited.
—Grrrrr?
As Harry approached, the giant troll seemed to show interest in the small boy who was approaching it without any fear.
Harry decided to blind the troll first.
Not only would he be able to strike the troll more easily if it lost its sight, but there were few parts of a troll, which has a basic resistance to magic, that could be damaged in one blow, including the eyes.
Actually, there was no need for this; he could have finished it in one go with spells like Avada Kedavra, but that would have been a waste of the troll.
When would another opportunity like this arise?
Harry carefully aimed at the troll's eyes and shouted.
"Diffindo!"
Swish!
The severing charm flew swiftly towards the troll. The spell, which hit the troll's eyelid before it could even react, made the troll roar.
—KWAAAAAR!
The troll, which had even dropped the club in its hand, clutched its eyes with both hands and roared.
Towards the roaring troll, Harry cast the next spell without delay.
"Aguamenti!"
A basic spell that creates water. It didn't seem like a very useful spell in a duel with a troll, but as he had learned from his master, a spell was only as good as its user.
He controlled the water that shot out from his wand and gathered it around the troll's mouth.
—Glbrb! Grb! Krb!
The troll, unable to see properly due to the injury to its eyes, was completely disoriented with its nose and mouth full of water.
In a word, a perfect sandbag had been created.
Harry shouted a series of spells at the troll.
"Stupefy! Confringo! Glacius! Diffindo!"
The troll, hit by a barrage of spells, was completely unable to get its bearings.
How much time had passed? The troll's hide, which had been burnt black by all sorts of magic, was giving off the smell of roasting meat.
No matter how you looked at it, it did not look alive.
Seeing this, Harry lowered his wand. Was the troll a danger-level XXX?
As he was savoring the slightly disappointing taste of the troll going down earlier than expected, he heard a shout from behind him.
"Harry! You have to confirm to the very end!"
Confirm to the end? Harry turned around with a puzzled expression and saw the troll, burnt black, moving.
"It's still moving after all that?"
Before the surprised Harry could even question it, the troll grabbed the club that had fallen on the floor and threw it at him.
Harry instinctively used magic to deflect the club's trajectory.
The direction the deflected club flew was—no, why is she here.
Surprisingly, Hermione was standing there, frozen on the spot.
Really, what was that all about.
Hermione was grumbling again today.
The reason was one: her classmate, Aisen Potter.
A student who never studied in class, but whose magical skills were bizarrely outstanding.
His existence was as if to deny her own efforts.
And yet, his relaxed demeanor, and even the way he advised her not to look at her textbook.
Ever since Professor Flitwick's Charms class, she would feel a surge of jealousy whenever she saw Aisen, so she had been avoiding him ever since.
That's why today, when the Halloween party was being held, she hadn't gone to the Great Hall and was wandering a corner of the corridor.
Though she was alone at the Halloween party, she wasn't particularly unhappy about it.
At least, that was the case until she heard a strange sound.
—Thump. Thump.
The sound of something huge falling on the floor.
Instinctively sensing some kind of danger, she held her breath and hid in a corner of the corridor.
And then, she was able to confirm the source of the roar.
—Thump, thump.
A great terror that she, who had lived her entire life in the Muggle world, could never have imagined. It was, without a doubt, a monster she had only ever seen in books, a troll.
Am I going to die like this?
Hermione, who was clinging to the single hope that the troll had not yet noticed her, soon saw someone walking from a corner of the corridor.
It was the Potter brothers, who had given her a sense of inferiority.
Just as she was about to wave her hand to let them know it was dangerous, she heard something strange.
"Alright, Harry! Go on and fight it! Ah, but don't try to kill it all at once. It's a precious textbook."
"Yes, I understand!"
What. What did those crazy kids just say?
But Harry, who had confidently strode forward, really did show a result that matched his words!
He subdued the troll in an instant and then rained all sorts of magic on it as if it were a sandbag.
Hermione realized it then. The Potters were different from the start.
Feeling inferior to them was a stupid thing to do!
Hermione held her breath and watched the fight.
She was horrified when the troll, which she thought had fallen, got up and threw its club, but she was relieved when Harry immediately deflected the club with magic.
Swish. But, the angle at which the deflected club was flying was strange.
'Uh, uh?'
The club that Harry had deflected was flying towards her.
In that moment, her mind went completely blank. No matter how much knowledge she had in her head, it was useless at that moment.
Her whole body stiffened, and she couldn't put any strength into her muscles. Petrified with fear, she could do nothing but freeze.
Fwoosh!
Just then, a beam of light flew in from the side and hit the club.
With a hiss, the club turned to ash and disappeared.
Her legs gave out from under her, and she collapsed to the ground.
When she looked in the direction the spell had come from, she could see Aisen shouting at Harry. A sense of relief spread through her body.
"Harry! Situational awareness is a must! The professors will be breaking through the path soon, so finish it up quickly!"
"Ah, yes!"
'...Blue?'
In that moment, to her eyes, Aisen's hair, which should have been black, seemed to shine blue for an instant.
Hmm, that was a close call.
It seemed that Harry's finishing touches were still a little lacking. Judging by his lack of environmental awareness and final confirmation kill.
Meanwhile, I approached Hermione, who was frozen on the spot.
Startled by the troll, her legs must have given out, as Hermione was sitting collapsed on the floor.
I said to Hermione.
"Hermione, are you okay? Can you stand up?"
"Ah, yes, no, huh?'
She seemed to be quite out of it, so I took Hermione's hand and helped her up.
"Why were you here and not in the Great Hall?"
"Huh? That's... no, more importantly, what did you do?"
"That? What?"
"The club you made disappear just now!"
"It's a Vanishing Spell. Evanesco."
Just then, the troll ignored Harry and came running towards us.
Did it seem that it had no way of dealing with Harry, so it was coming for us, who looked relatively easy?
Hermione saw it and said in a trembling voice.
"A-Aisen! It's coming this way?!"
"Hey, it's fine."
"It's not fine at all!"
To ease Hermione's worries, I struck the approaching troll with a lightning bolt.
—KWAAAAAR!
And with that final cry, the troll disintegrated and turned into fine ash.
Well, seeing Harry aiming his wand from behind, he would have finished it even if I hadn't.
Hermione's jaw dropped at the sight.
I wrapped an arm around the frozen Hermione's waist to support her and shouted to Harry.
"Harry! Let's go!"
I had set up all sorts of devices to stop the professors from coming too quickly for Harry's training, but even that wouldn't hold them for long.
I thought for a moment about going back with Apparition, but decided against it.
As I was walking, supporting Hermione, she spoke from the side.
"Aisen, but is your hair color blue, by any chance?"
What, how did she know? I was surprised, but I didn't show it and asked.
"What are you talking about? Blue?"
"Ah, it's nothing. I guess that can't be right."
After a moment of silence, she opened her mouth again.
"Um, I was out of it, so I couldn't say it, but. Thank you for saving me. I survived thanks to you."
As I was about to answer, a playful thought came to me, and I said to Hermione.
"Hey, no problem. Ah, come to think of it, Hermione, I haven't seen you since our bet. Were you avoiding me because you didn't want to keep your promise?"
Hermione blushed and made an excuse.
"No! It's not like that... ah, really. I'll be honest. I was just, that day, I was jealous that you were better at magic than me even though you don't look at the textbook, so I was avoiding you."
"Oh yeah? Then, since we've met, can I tell you my command now?"
"...Fine, what is it?"
As a great Gryffindor, I was able to come up with a penalty that would truly horrify Hermione right away.
"For the next week, you're not allowed to take out your textbook until the professor points you out."
"...What?"
Hermione's face was filled with horror, and I laughed cheerfully and approached Harry.
Meanwhile, in the corridor.
The professors were speechless at the catastrophe that had unfolded before their eyes.
"What... is all this?"
"Didn't they say a troll had escaped? But this scene is..."
"Don't tell me, someone attacked Hogwarts?"
"Who? Who would dare?"
The professors, in confusion, were saying all sorts of things.
Because the corridor had been terribly transformed.
A pit of lava was overflowing on the floor—it was impossible to tell how the lava pit was not melting the corridor—and sharp icicles were hanging from the ceiling, dripping with cold.
And that wasn't all. The walls were covered in terrible, poisonous magical plants, and for some reason, a thick fog enveloped the corridor, making it impossible to see ahead.
Only Dumbledore, who had realized the reason for the catastrophe, was holding his head in his hands.
"Hah, Sir. Why on earth would you do such a thing."
Aisen had set up the traps thinking of the professors of the 19th century, but he had forgotten. The overall level of wizards had been lowered.
For the professors of the 20th century, those traps were excessively vicious.
And so, it was only an hour after the troll had disappeared that the professors were able to confirm its remains.