✯ CHAPTER SEVEN ✯

❝Excuse me?❞

31st October, 1991.

ESTELLA SAT AT the Gryffindor table, admiring everything that sat around and in front of her. It was currently the Halloween feast, and it was beautiful. Thousands of living bats were flying around the Great Hall, swooping up and down between the table and the stormy enchanted sky. There was also lit pumpkins hanging as lanterns in the air. The actual feast was laid out on the same golden plates that had been used for the start-of-term banquet.

Just as the young Gryffindor girl was getting tucked in, Parvati and Lavender suddenly came and sat with her. She was a little confused about this as she didn't really talk to them much -- she hoped they didn't think that she was a loner or anything. The only reason she was sitting on her own was because the hall was so busy she couldn't find anyone else.

"Lupin," Lavender said, sitting in the spare seat next to her. "You'll never guess what your dear friend Ronald said to Hermione earlier."

Oh no, Estella thought to herself. It was probably something mean. In fact, she knew it would've been something mean. It was bloody Ron Weasley that Lavender was talking about.

"What did he say?" she asked aloud.

"He told her she had no friends, and that no one can stand her. All because she managed to do that spell in Charms and he didn't."

"Well, that's not very nice," Estella sighed, making a mental note to speak to Ron about this. In all seriousness, she was spending alot less time with Ron and Harry purely because of how they sometimes treated Hermione. Yes, she was annoying, but she was only trying to fit in. She didn't deserve to be attacked all the time.

"Is she okay?"

Parvati scoffed. "No. Not at all. When I went to the bathroom right before the feast, she had locked herself in one of the cubicles and was crying her eyes out. I know it was her because I shouted asking if she was okay and the response sounded exactly like her. Didn't you notice that she didn't show up to any class after Charms?"

Estella shook her head, she hadn't noticed this -- but in her defence her last two classes had been double Potions, and she literally never paid attention to anything in that class. Professor Snape was just too much to deal with.

"I honestly thought you would've known this," Lavender sighed. "Aren't you like always with Harry and Ron?"

"Not always," Estella rolled her eyes. "I mean, I'm close with them, but that doesn't mean I spend every minute of every day with them. If I did I would be with them right now."

But it was as she said this that she realised that since she'd stopped spending as much time with the two boys, they hadn't made much of an effort with her. It made her wonder if they even liked her at all.

Maybe she was just a loner.

"Oh..." continued Lavender, "well, we just thought you should know. I think your a nice enough person to speak to Ron about the affect he's had on her. Maybe you can knock some sense into him."

"Yeah, maybe. I'll speak to him. Thanks."

Estella got up and started walking along the table, looking for both Ron and Harry as she walked. She found them near the end, sitting with the twins and their friend Lee Jordan.

"Hi," she said, as she took a seat. She wasn't even sure what she wanted to say to the two boys -- she just knew she had to bring up Hermione somehow. "Did either of you notice that Hermione wasn't in double Potions this afternoon?"

Hopefully this was the right way to go around it. Estella was already half sure that the two boys hated her, so she didn't want to annoy them even more.

"Yes, I did," said Ron. "I heard Parvati say she was crying in the toilets just as we were walking down here." He looked at Estella suspiciously. "Why?"

The young Lupin let out a loud groan, realising for the first time that the redhead was fully aware of what he was doing to Hermione, but just didn't care.

"Someone told me that you said some really mean things to her, merely because she managed to perform a difficult spell that not many people get on their first try and you didn't. You do realise that's why she's so upset?"

Ron's eyebrows raised so high into his head that a crease formed at the bridge of his nose. He looked at Estella.

"Why are you defending her? You don't even like her!"

"Because, Ronald, I am not a bully. I don't go around saying mean things about people just because they're not my cup of tea."

"You literally punched Parkinson in the nose. Twice!"

"That's different," Estella raised her hands up in defence. She had had enough. Ron had never made her feel this angry before, and the fact that Harry wasn't stepping in and saying anything just made it all worse for some reason. "Parkinson is a bitch. She deserved to be punched. All Hermione has done is be a bit of a teachers pet. Annoying, yes, but she doesn't deserve to be bullied for it."

Ron muttered something Estella couldn't make out under his breath. So, giving up, she turned to look at Harry. In her opinion, even though he wasn't really the one being mean, the fact that he wasn't doing anything about it made him just as bad.

"Are you going to say anything?" she asked him. He remained silent.

"Whatever," Estella stood from her seat. There was absolutely no use in speaking to the boys. Not even Estella had the power to change them. "I'm going to the bathroom to speak to Hermione. Apologise for the way I've treated her over the past few months....I'll see you both in the common room. Enjoy the rest of the feast."

And she walked away. She had meant what she said -- she didn't know if Hermione was going to forgive her or not, but it would still make her feel a lot better about herself if she just took a minute to apologise.

Estella had been relatively rude to the Granger girl over the two months she'd spent so far at Hogwarts. She couldn't even deny it -- and it was only now, having heard that the comments were having an affect on Hermione, that she realised she was in the wrong.

So she needed to apologise.

As she walked into the bathroom, the sniffles were so loud she could tell what cubicle Hermione was in right away. She knocked on the door lightly.

"Hermione..." Estella whispered softly. "It's me, Estella. Can you come out please?"

"No," said Hermione, through her tears. "It's not like you care about me, Lupin."

Estella sighed. "I do, Hermione, really. That's why I came here to talk to you." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry..."

Much to her surprise, the cubicle door suddenly clicked open, and Hermione stepped out. She was the definition of a mess. Her face was red and tear-stained, her robes were crumpled up and now looked like they needed badly ironed, and several pieces of tissue paper lay crumpled up on the ground.

"Wow....um -- Are you okay, Hermione?" asked Estella, realising the minute it came out of her mouth that it was a stupid question. Of course Hermione wasn't okay. "I mean, I was told you were crying but I didn't think -- oh, you know what, I'm going to shut up. You can tell me what's wrong if you want."

Of course, she knew what was wrong, but she just thought it was better to give Hermione a chance to tell her for herself.

"Well, earlier on when we were in Charms," started Hermione, wiping her eyes with her hands, "I heard Ron doing the spell wrong so I corrected him, in what I thought was a nice and polite way. He didn't take it well. After class I was walking behind him and Harry and I heard him say that nobody could stand me and that I had no friends."

She paused to take a deep breath. "I don't know why I let it get to me so much....It's just....well....technically he didn't lie. I do have no friends."

Estella didn't really know what to say. For a second she thought of maybe telling Hermione that Ron didn't mean what he was saying, but then she realised that they probably both knew that this was a downright lie. Ron definitely did mean it.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'd like to be your friend," said Estella, breaking what had been a rather long silence.

Hermione looked at her. "Really?"

"Yeah. But I mean, I understand if you hate me. I haven't exactly been the nicest to you over the course of the past few months...I guess all I can say is that I really am sorry."

Hermione suddenly smiled, and, catching her off guard, pulled Estella into a hug. "Thank you, Estella. I'd like to be your friend too."

Estella pulled out of the hug, smiling back at Hermione. "It's alright. Oh, and about Ron....I guarantee he's just jealous of you. He comes from a really big family, and while I don't exactly know what that's like, I can imagine he probably has to share all his attention. I'm not excusing his actions but that surely can't be nice."

She paused, sighing loudly.

"However, I can see where he's coming from in a way...and this isn't a bad thing," Estella added this to her statement as she had noticed Hermione was beginning to frown again. "All I'm saying is that sometimes you can be slightly annoying, and I mean when your chasing us around and telling us to behave ourselves. Being a teachers pet isn't a bad thing but it doesn't mean you have to go spoiling everyone else's fun."

Hermione nodded, accepting Estella's words.

"Okay, thanks. I'll work on that, I swear."

"Good," said Estella. "Now, let's go to the feast. It's amazing and I don't want you to miss out. You can sit with --"

Estella stopped short. A huge, gigantic troll was now entering the bathroom. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy 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.

"Uh..." Estella looked at Hermione, fear written on every part of her face. They both looked around for a few seconds, clearly neither of them knowing what to do.

"The sinks," muttered Hermione, after a few minutes. "Let's both get under a sink."

Estella and her ran over to the sinks, and took cover. The troll was advancing on them, knocking all the walls with it's club as it went.

"Confuse it!" said a voice, suddenly. Estella could've recognised that voice anywhere....it was Harry. Maybe she wasn't so mad at him now after all.

She had too much on her mind to think much about him, however, as the troll had now stopped just feet away from her. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Harry. It hesitated, then made for him instead, lifting its club as it went.

"Oy, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Harry time to run around it.

"Come on, run, run!" Harry yelled at Hermione and Estella, trying to pull them both towards the door, but neither couldn't move, they were both lying flat against the wall, their mouths open with terror.

The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.

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 couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

Just watching it, Estella felt like she couldn't breathe. She fought the urge to shut her eyes, wanting to know that Harry was safe.

Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Harry clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip him off or catch him a terrible blow with the club.

Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; 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: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

It was the spell they had been learing earlier that day in class, the one Hermione had gotten right when no one else had. A levitating charm.

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, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.

Harry got to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.

It was Hermione who spoke first.

"Is it -- dead?"

Estella got up to take a look at the troll. "I don't think so, I think it's just been knocked out."

Harry bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

"Urgh -- troll boogers."

He wiped it on the troll's trousers.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of them look up. They hadn't realized 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 had come 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.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall asked, her voice furious. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitories?"

Snape gave both Harry and Estella a swift, piercing look. Estella looked at the floor. Ron was still holding his wand in the air and she really wished that he would put it down.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall -- they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.

"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, not that Estella could blame him. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. Estella was just there for backup. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."

Estella, Harry and Ron tried 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. Estella was 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. Maybe she had listened to Estella's advice from before.

"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 left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Estella, Harry and Ron.

"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown 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.

"We should have gotten more than fifteen points," Ron grumbled.

"You shouldn't have gotten any at all," Estella snapped back. "Not with the way you were acting earlier, anyway. Also, we only technically got ten points, if you take off the five that Hermione lost."

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted, completely ignoring Estella's comment about him not deserving any house points. "Mind you, we did save her. Well, me and Harry did."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her and Estella," Harry said.

Estella stopped in her tracks. "Excuse me?"

Both boys ignored her, so she continued walking, continually sending them both suspicious glances.

They soon reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Pig snout," they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get 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.

A/N: You do not know how many times I've tried to publish this and have been told "You are not connected to the Internet" when I am. I'm throwing hands.