While Milo wasn't feeling the greatest, he made sure that his attitude wouldn't bring others down, knowing that it wouldn't be fair. He decided the best way to get through the day would be to just focus on his classes and to his good fortune, he didn't have to deal with Professor Snape that Halloween. He was certainly glad that he could sit in his mother's classroom and listen to her describe how to perform the simple process of turning a beetle to a button. He wore a smile on his face while Minerva made it look so easy. It filled some with confidence that they would be able to do it easily, while others looked as if they had been informed of their doom. 

He chuckled as his beetle had left the table and crawled into his hand, exploring the boy's palm but also tickling him in the process.  A couple of giggles escaped from him, bringing the others in the class to look over at him, including his mother, who paused her lesson and watched him with a raised brow. Milo didn't notice that the class had become silent as he continued to laugh as the beetle continued to crawl around his hand and arm.

Suddenly, the clearing of the throat, the all too familiar sound that that rang the alarm in his head, Milo grabbed his beetle, cupping it in his hands and looking up to see that all eyes were on him. He looked at his mother meeting her eyes for a brief second, his gaze begging her to have some form of mercy. Normally, in the Transfiguration classes, if one was to interrupt the class, Minerva liked to assume that they were so far ahead of the class that they felt they had free time not to listen. So she would bring them up to give a demonstration to the other members of the class. With his anxiety, Milo's hands were already twitching, itching to start touching his hair. 

His mother spared him that day, glad to hear his laughter knowing that the day would not be the best for her son. Halloween always filled her with dread and while she didn't have regrets about telling Milo the truth of his parents, she certainly didn't like seeing him sad either. 

"Mr. Potter," she said, " pay attention."

"Yes, Professor."

He quickly set his beetle down on the table and as Minerva walked away to assist another student, he looked down at his little tickling friend.

"Now, listen here you, we have to take this very seriously," Milo whispered to the beetle, " this is my mother's class and she does not tolerate the obnoxious behavior. In fact, it's frowned upon. So, let's agree to working together and getting work done. I promise I will turn you into a beautiful button. One fit for a king's robes. Let's shake on it."

He held his hand out nearly smacking the beetle in the face but the little bug didn't move as it remained in place staring up at the boy for a few moments. Realization hit Milo like a brick as he slowly withdrew his hand.

"I suddenly realized the problem with that, well, rather than shaking on it, if you agree to it, remain silent and stare at me."

The beetle was still, bringing Milo to his face.

"Fantastic!" He exclaimed clapping his hands together. "Now, I'm thinking you would make a lovely bronze..."

After a successful Transfiguration class, Milo was happy to leave the classroom with his content beetle turning into a beautiful brass button before he was freed. He had put all his saddened thoughts behind him and thought about wandering to the kitchens to see Bitsy when he was nearly knocked back by someone running into his shoulder. He stumbled back a couple of steps, only to hear a faint "sorry" come from a broken voice. 

Turning his head, he caught sight of Hermione walking away from him down the corridor. He wondered if she hadn't recognized him but before he could call to her, he saw the girl rubbing at her eyes.

"Hermione!" He called after as he ran over, she made no attempts to slow down or stop, but in fact, she seemed to walk faster. "Hey Hermione!"

He jumped out to stand out in front of her, finally bringing her to stop and leaving him slightly winded as he tried to gather his breath. Rather than asking her what was wrong right away, he hand to bend over, placing his hands on his knees as he took several deep breaths.

How utterly pathetic, Milo, your cardio system is weak, he thought to himself for a moment. But before he could make a joke about being out of shape, he noticed Hermion wiping away several tears as she tried to hid the fact that she was obviously upset. Instantly, Milo frowned and stood up straight, fixing his shirt and robes.

"Hey," he said softly, reaching his hand out and placing it on the girl's shoulder, " why are you crying, Hermione?"

"I'm not!" She replied in a stern tone that nearly caused Milo to turn around and see if his mother was near. Hermione looked up at him, exposing her lie as her eyes were red and her cheeks wet from the stray tears she had missed. She lifted her head up and stood as tall as she possibly could. Using one of her hands, she pushed her bushy brown hair back out of her face.

"I'm fine."

She wouldn't look at him as she lied, but Milo watched as she started picking at her hands as she was full of nerves, trying to escape him before he could question the situation further. 

"I won't ask what happened," Milo said, he removed his hand from her shoulder and moved it away to push her hands away from picking at her skin. "But I do want to make sure you're okay, if you're hurt or if someone hurt you, I want to help."

"Well, you can start off by telling your brother and his friend that they're a bunch of jerks and that I could have plenty of friends if I wanted them!" Hermione said before brushing past him and leaving down the corridor. Milo sighed, he was sure if he followed her that he would be pushing her too far and he didn't want to add to her already worked up state. Although he did catch on to her mentioning Harry and Ron as the source of the problem. 

With classes still in session for the day, Milo wasn't able to get a hold of Harry and Ron until dinner time, right before the Halloween feast in the Great Hall. Just as the two boys were about to enter the great hall, Milo grabbed them by the back of their robes and pulled them back out into the corridor. He could already see the irritation growing on his brother's features as Harry fully prepared himself to tell Milo to leave him alone. But before Harry could even think to say anything, Milo cut him off with a look comparable to McGonagall.

"I don't know the full story but if you think for a second that it's appropriate to make a girl cry and tell her that she doesn't have friends, you two ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You have no right to do something like that. Things might be going great for the two of you but it's harder for others to adjust to being away from home."

He turned right to Ron. 

"If your mother knew what you were doing or how you were treating her, she's stuff herself into a Howler to drag you home by your ear. Even Fred and George don't stoop low enough to make a girl cry. They're not mean and I know that you were raised better."

Ron was left speechless after a tiny squeak escaped from him before he turned to Harry. But Milo turned to Harry as well.

"And you," Milo said, " I don't know how the Dursleys raised you to conduct yourself, I know they aren't great people, but common sense would be if you didn't like people being mean to you you wouldn't treat them the same way."

He didn't give them a chance to argue his scolding as he moved between them and left to enter the Great Hall to join the Hufflepuff table. His friends certainly noticed that he was not in the greatest of moods as Milo didn't dive into the sweets like he normally did. He didn't react to the hundreds of bats that fluttered about around the ceiling or the floating pumpkins overhead, he was just the furious at the idea of the possibility of his brother turning into a bully. Milo knew that adjusting to new places was hard, fitting in with other children wasn't easy for everyone, and he knew that Harry probably hadn't been taught any better. But he wanted to make his point clear that he wouldn't tolerate Harry being mean and making Hermione cry and Ron knew very well that Milo had no problem contacting Molly Weasley. 

Suddenly, a strange noise came towards his left ear bringing Milo to turn his head, nearly getting a spoonful of pumpkin pie in his eye.

He let out a screech as Cedric sat next to him.

"Come on, Milo, eat something and cheer up. You're making us all depressed just looking at you."

"Sorry," he said pushing the spoon away, " I'm just not in the best of moods right now."

He glanced over at the Gryffindor table to see if Hermione had finally arrived to share in the festivities but he didn't catch sight of her anywhere. Instead he caught sight of Neville, who waved in his direction with a grin. Milo returned the smile, waving back at the boy before turning back to Cedric, Max, and Heidi who looked awfully worried about him. It was supposed to be a fun day and he suddenly felt as though he was ruining for himself and his friends.

"Are those pumpkin pasties?" He asked pointing down the table. Heidi smiled before passing the platter down to him. 

Just as he was about to take a bite, Milo along with everyone else in the Great Hall became distracted by Professor Quirrell running in with a panicked look on his face. He ran right up to where  Professor Dumbledore was seated.

"Troll—in the dungeons—thought you ought to know."

The entire student body and faculty watched as the man collapsed to the ground as he fainted, a loud thud echoing in the hall.

Panic ensued as the mention of a troll had everyone in an uproar, students were panicking, especially the Slytherins but they really started to panic when Professor Dumbledore instructed the prefects to take the students back to the dorms.

"Aren't the Slytherins in the dungeons?" Milo suddenly pondered out loud but Cedric grabbed him and pulled him along as the students began to disperse. Luckily, the Hufflepuff students did not have to travel far. 

The prefects had all of the students to gather in the common room to make sure that all the students were accounted for. Some of the younger students were clearly upset and afraid, making Milo feel bad for them to think that their first year was plagued by a scary memory. Quickly, he hopped up onto one of the sofas and cleared his throat. As soon as everyone's eyes fell on him, he quickly regretted bringing attention to himself.

"Um...hello," he said with a small wave," I just wanted to inform some of the younger students that...umm..."

He reached up and touched his hair to soothe himself. "There is really nothing to fear when it comes to trolls," he began. "It's true that they are incredibly strong and can be known to be very aggressive-"

He heard gasps, realizing his plan was not going accordingly.

"But!" he interjected, " But they are part of the Troglodytarum species, they're not considered very smart. So they can be easily outsmarted and outmaneuvered because of their speed and size. There's really nothing to worry about, even if they have been known to enjoy human flesh-"

'Okay, Milo, I think they got enough information from your public service announcement," Cedric said walking over and dragging Milo off the sofa and onto his shoulder. "You're going to give them all nightmares now."

"But now they are informed. Besides, Trolls normally don't attack unless they are provoked. Artemis Lawson spoke about it in his dissertation-"

"Milo!" Cedric laughed. "That's enough."

"You know, I did learn how to a bit of the River troll language from a bloke that stopped in the Three Broomsticks over the summer."

"That's nice, Milo," Cedric told him as he set the boy down by the stairs. "But maybe we should leave that for another time, everyone else seems rather spooked right now."