Toil and Trouble Chapter 13 : Of traitors, trolls and good boys - Part 1 of 3 (A Harry Potter fanfiction)

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October 31, 1993. Gringotts

The tunnel trembled.

Dust rained from the ceiling, as a thunderous blast ripped through the underground passageways. The shockwave echoed like the roar of an awakening dragon.

A second explosion followed. Then a third.

Stone split. Metal shrieked. The ancient goblin-carved walls, which had stood for centuries, cracked open as if struck by a giant’s hammer.

Through the rolling smoke, seven figures staggered into view.

Quirrell was first. His shirt was half-burned away, front buttons blown off by the blast. His chest rose and fell in panicked, shallow gasps.

A high, sibilant voice hissed through Quirrell’s body.

“Forward. MOVE.”

Behind them scuttled Peter Pettigrew, coughing, robes singed, eyes darting like a terrified animal’s.

The five Knockturn ruffians followed. They were blank-eyed, Imperiused, moving with eerie mechanical obedience.

They crawled over broken rock and twisted metal toward the ragged hole blown into the maintenance corridor. The opening that the Emberclaw had left vulnerable.

The goblin alarm wards flared scarlet overhead, painting the smoke with pulsing light. A deafening klaxon wailed from somewhere deep in the bank’s upper floors.

“Ignore it,” the voice snapped. “The goblins will retreat. Even if they don't, Emberclaw will hold them off long enough"

The narrow tunnel forced them into a single file. Quirrell first, then Pettigrew, then their Imperiused muscle. The air was choked with the acrid stink of Dragon’s Breath Volatile, still burning in molten pockets along the ground.

Sparks hissed like snakes beneath their feet.

As they crawled, the stone under them felt wrong, as it was slick with ash, unnaturally softened by the blast. Goblin wards twitched and flickered.

"Move quickly!", came the commanding hiss.

Finally, the broken tunnel widened.

And there it was.

Vault 713.

Untouched. Impossibly pristine amid the destruction. Its thick silver door stood tall, cold, unblemished by the blast.

Pettigrew’s breath hitched. “We made it!"

“Silence,” Voldemort snapped.

Quirrell stumbled to his feet, sweat dripping from his brow. He raised a shaking hand toward the door.

The carved goblin runes shimmered faintly, as though recognizing an intruder.

Pettigrew whispered the words Emberclaw had been forced to reveal, “Grazhnak-ul-barrak.”

For a heartbeat, nothing moved.

Then, with a low, grinding rumble, the vault door slid open.

Cold air swept outward, brushing over them like the breath of a tomb.

The group stepped inside.

Smoke pooled around their ankles. Sparks drifted in the air. The only light was the red glow of the distant alarms, casting long shadows along the stone floor.

Pettigrew peered into the dimness. Quirrell shifted nervously.

The smoke thinned. And shapes emerged.

Five. Not objects. Not the fabled Philosopher's Stone. People.

Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody.

All standing in formation, wands raised. For a moment, nobody moved.

But then, every single Order member felt the same thing at once. A sick, plunging dread.

Because as the smoke finally cleared, they were able to get a good look at Quirinus Quirrell.

A pale, warped thing was pressed against Quirrell’s ribcage from within, its skin stretched thin and sickly over the contours of bone. Slitted nostrils. Lipless mouth. Red eyes gleaming from the cavity between collarbones.

Voldemort’s parasitic form. His face, twisted, pallid and inhuman, stared at them from Quirrell’s chest. It was a sight that should not exist. One that defied life, magic, and sanity.

Moody’s magical eye froze, just as Sirius’s grin died.

A voice like a blade whispered from Quirrell’s ribs, “Ah. The Order.”

The vault door slammed shut behind them.

The vault exploded into motion.

Moody was the first to regain his composure, “MOVE!”, he gave the order, and the others sprung into action.

Three of the Imperiused ruffians lunged forward at once, wands jerking in unnatural, puppetlike motions.

Moody’s magical eye spun wildly, as he wielded his wand with deadly skill. His curse hit one ruffian square in the chest, sending him flying into the vault wall.

Molly’s voice cut through the air like a whip.

“DEPULSO!”

A shockwave blasted the second ruffian backward, but he rolled, staggered up again, vacant-eyed, and fired a bolt of red light directly at her.

Molly snarled, “Protego!” The shield flared, sparks spraying, and she countered with another curse so fierce it cracked the flagstones.

The third ruffian charged Moody from the side. Moody roared, spinning, “CONFRINGO!”

Stone splintered. The ruffian dropped.

Arthur stunned one of the Imperioed muscles, the other he disarmed with ease before casting a powerful "Incarcerous".

Remus had moved to get Quirrell, knowing that he needed to be caught alive. As a result, his spells couldn't be lethal. Quirrell took advantage of this and fired every dark curse he knew at Remus. Some were deflected by him, some fell to counter-spells fired by Sirius.

Sirius was also dealing with Peter Pettigrew.

The former friends collided in the center of the vault.

“Peter, give up!", Remus shouted even as he duelled Quirrell. "Just give up, you won't win."

Pettigrew whimpered, backing away. Then he fired a curse straight at Sirius’s heart.

Sirius deflected it with a knife-fast slash of his wand.

“Coward!” he growled. “I trusted you. I trusted you with everything..."

Pettigrew’s face twisted.

“Y..you should have stayed in Azkaban!”

Molly then fired a binding curse at Quirrell, which be barely dodged. Remus followed with a disarming spell, which unfortunately misfired as he was blown back by a stunner cast by one of the hired wizards who'd regained his bearings.

Voldemort could tell now that the stone wasn't here. Somehow, the Order had prior knowledge of his plans. There was no sense in staying in this body and risk capture.

He knew it was over when Molly Weasley advanced on Quirrell, wand steady.

“Tom Riddle,” she said firmly. “It ends here.”

Sirius had disarmed Peter and lunged at him. After knocking him down with a right hook, he had Wormtail's throat pinned under his boot.
Arthur, Moody and Remus had incapacitated four of the five Imperiused wizards. The fifth tried to attack Molly from behind and ended up with his ribs broken due to the force of her curse.

"QUIRINUS!", Voldemort commanded, "Do it! Make the sacrifice. For your Master"

Without another thought, Quirrell pulled out a vial of the Dragon’s Breath Volatile, and downed it in a single gulp. He then pointed his wand at his own throat and uttered "Incendio!".

Moody had just enough time to realise what he'd done, and by the time his "Expelliarmus" could land, it was too late.

A blinding flash. A deafening crack. The heat hit like a furnace door slamming open.

The shockwave hurled all five Order members backward.

Sirius crashed into a stone pillar. Molly shielded her head as shards of rock pelted the floor. Moody rolled into a crouch, snarling.
Arthur’s ears rang violently. Remus hit the ground and skidded.

When the dust settled, barely any trace of Quirinus Quirrell was left.

A swirling black mass, thin as smoke, fast as a gale rose from where his body had been. It shrieked, not aloud, but inside their skulls.

Sirius shouted, “Pettigrew!”

He lunged again, Arthur tried to cast an "Incarcerous", but Pettigrew’s rat form was able to scurry away, towards it's Master.

Before any of the stunning spells could hit him, Voldemort’s spirit swept downward in a violent rush of air, and scooped the rat up mid-dash.

The two vanished into a swirling, howling vortex of cold wind, ripping through the tunnel, blowing past shattered stone
and disappearing into the darkness beyond.

Leaving the vault in ringing, devastated silence.

It took the Order members a few seconds to realise that what was sticking to their clothes was human blood and viscera.

---

October 31, 1993. The Forbidden Forest

The troll’s club came down like a falling tree.

Harry shoved Ron sideways. Hermione dove the other way. The club smashed into the ground between them. Dust and twigs exploded outward, separating the three of them.

“Hermione!” Harry shouted.

But the troll turned towards her first.

Hermione stood alone, the Troll between her and the two boys. Her wand trembled violently in her hand. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out, as she stared up in fascinated horror. The creature’s massive shadow fell over her.

“HERMIONE, MOVE!” Ron yelled.

She couldn’t.

Paralysed by terror, she pressed back against a tree, breath shuddering.

The troll raised its club again.

Harry’s world narrowed to a single point.

Without thinking, he fired a stinging hex. It may have knocked down a school bully. But the massive Troll barely flinched.

“Stupefy!”, Harry screamed. But the Stunning Spell proved just as ineffective.

Ron tried next, but his wand would barely cooperate at the best of times.

“Er...Expell... Expellio.... oh, forget it!”

In a surge of panic and frustration, Ron snatched a fist-sized rock. “HEY! UGLY!” And he hurled it.

The rock struck the troll squarely in the ear.

The creature let out a furious growl, clutching the side of its head. It spun toward the boys, eyes widening with murderous rage.

Harry froze. Ron swallowed.

“Oh…bloody hell,” Ron whispered.

The troll lunged.

And then the ground shook. A thunderous set of paws pounded towards them. Something huge and fast and snarling.

All three children turned.

Out of the shadows came a monstrous shape. It was a gigantic dog, as big as an elephant, black-furred, muscles rippling, each of its three heads baring long, gleaming fangs.

The beast didn’t hesitate. He launched himself straight at the Troll.

The impact was like two boulders colliding. One head clamped onto the troll’s shoulder, another snapped at its arm, the third tore toward its throat. The troll groaned and swung its club wildly, smashing into the trees nearby, sending branches flying.

Hermione finally found her breath and stumbled away from the showdown, towards the boys. The three of them huddled together as they watched the two beasts fight.

The Troll made one last desperate swipe at the three headed dog, but the dog dodged and lunged, ripping a chunk of the troll’s flesh off.

That was enough.

Terrified and bleeding, the troll turned and ran lumbering into the forest, groaning in pain as the dog chased it for several meters before stopping and snarling triumphantly.

Moments later, another set of heavy footsteps pounded across the grounds.

“FLUFFY! COME BACK, YE GREAT BRUTE! FLUFFY, I SAID HEEL!”

Rubius Hagrid burst out from between the trees, lantern swinging wildly in one hand, crossbow in the other. Fluffy skidded to a stop at his master’s voice, and cheerfully bounded back to him.

Hagrid grabbed the nearest scruff of Fluffy’s neck, not unkindly.

“Bad dog! That’s no way ter behave, chasin’ a troll straight into the Forest, what were yeh thinkin’, eh?”

Then he turned, and froze. His eyes widened in horror. Three students out in the forest at this hour, on this night.

“What in Merlin’s name! What’re yeh kids doin’ out here?!”

The lantern light fell across their faces - pale, scraped, shaken.

Hagrid’s expression softened immediately.
“Are yeh three alright? Any of yeh hurt? Tell me now.”

Harry shook his head quickly. “We're fine, sir."

Ron nodded mutely. Hermione still looked as though she couldn’t find her voice.

Hagrid crouched slightly, lowering the lantern so he could inspect them more closely.

“What happened? Why aren’t yeh in the castle? Yeh should be tucked up in bed.”

Harry swallowed, then spoke. “Well, you see Mr Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, a boy in Slytherin....He tricked me and Ron into coming here. And Hermione here came to bring us back. And then the Troll showed up.”

Hagrid’s face darkened. Shock first, then anger, then something like fear.

“The Forest at night? On Samhain?” He dragged his hand down his face. “Sweet Circe… d’yeh have any idea how reckless that is?”

The three teenagers exchanged nervous glances.

“Kids, listen ter me. The Forest is dangerous on any night, but on Samhain?” He looked toward the dark treeline as if expecting something else to crawl out of it. “Tonight’s the night when dark creatures get… bold. Things cross over that shouldn’t. Yeh’re lucky...LUCKY, it was only a troll.”

The children stared at him with wide eyes.

Before Hagrid could say anything else, the giant dog licked his face. One of his heads did.

Only then did Hermione seem to truly notice what was standing beside Hagrid.

She blinked. “Er… Mr Hagrid?” she said faintly.

“Aye?”

Hermione pointed. “Is that… is that a dog?”

Harry and Ron looked too, really looked, and all three children went completely still.

Three heads, with three pink tongues hanging out.

Fluffy blinked at them, once, twice, thrice. All three of his heads tilting independently, as if each was trying to understand the children before him.

Hagrid threw his head back and laughed.
“A dog? Aye, yeh could say that!”

He thumped Fluffy’s middle head affectionately. “This here’s Fluffy! Isn’t he a beauty?”

Hermione made a tiny squeaking sound that might have been agreement.

“He’s a Cerberus,” Hagrid continued proudly. “Very rare creature. I rescued him from a nasty poacher last month. Poor lad was half-starved and terrified, weren’t yeh, Fluffy?”

Fluffy’s three heads phanted in three slightly different rhythms.

“In a few days,” Hagrid added, “he’ll be takin’ a trip ter the forests of Crete. There’s a whole colony o’ Cerberi livin’ wild there. He’ll be with his own kind.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged looks, somewhere between awe, disbelief, and lingering fear.

Fluffy blinked again. All three snouts lowered slightly, ears flattening in what was unmistakably a gentle, curious posture.

As if sensing their hesitation, Fluffy slowly padded toward them.

Hermione took a step back.

“He’s not gonna eat us, is he?” Ron whispered.

Hagrid snorted. “Eat yeh? Don’t be daft. He’s a sweetheart. Go on, Fluffy, say hello.”

Fluffy obeyed. The left head nudged Hermione’s shoulder with the softest boop imaginable. She squeaked.

And then....

SLURP

A huge, warm, wet tongue dragged across her cheek.

Hermione gasped, and then burst into giggles. “It tickles!”

The second head turned to Harry and licked his forehead with surprising delicacy.

Harry laughed too, rubbing Fluffy’s snout. “Okay...okay! That’s enough!”

The third head leaned down to Ron.

Ron froze… then hesitantly reached up and scratched behind one massive ear.

“You’re… you’re actually kinda adorable,” he whispered.

Fluffy made a deep, pleased rumbling noise.

Ron grinned. “Good boy!”

All three heads puffed up proudly, tails thumping the ground like drumbeats, as Fluffy accepted affectionate pets from the three kids.

Hagrid’s eyes softened. “There now,” he said gently. “Told yeh he was a darlin’.”

Fluffy gave each of them a final wet nudge before trotting back to Hagrid’s side. The half giant dusted off his hands and peered down at the three of them with a concerned frown.

“Right then,” he huffed. “Now that yeh aren’t about ter faint dead away… how in Merlin’s name did yeh lot get out here?”

Ron and Harry exchanged a guilty look.

“Fred and George snuck us out,” Harry admitted. “They said they knew a secret way.”

“Only meant to find Malfoy,” Ron muttered. “Didn’t know about the troll.”

Hagrid sighed so hard his beard fluttered. “Those two…” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

His gaze shifted to Hermione.

“And you, Miss Granger? How’d you end up out here?”

Hermione swallowed. “I... I used Slytherin's first year Casting Chamber. There’s a rune on the far wall. When awakened, it opens a… well, a way out.”

Hagrid straightened abruptly.

“Wait! yeh used that passage?”

Hermione nodded nervously.

Hagrid’s eyes widened. “That’s a one way tunnel. Ain’t no gettin’ back the same way yeh came.”

Hermione’s stomach dropped. “Oh.”

“Come on,” Hagrid said, already marching, “I’ll get yeh back in without the whole staff seein’.”

Harry and Ron scrambled after him. Hermione hurried to keep up, brushing branches from her hair.

They walked only a few minutes before Hagrid stopped in front of an enormous yew tree. It's s trunk was twisted, ancient, and impossibly thick. The bark was etched with old runes, barely visible in the dim forest light.

Hagrid placed his huge palm against one of the carvings and traced a series of shapes in the air.

The runes shimmered faint, then brighter, then blazing with pale gold light.

The tree groaned.

With a soft rumble, the trunk split open vertically like a door, revealing a narrow, smooth-walled passage inside.

The kids gasped.

Hagrid beamed proudly. “Old forest passages. Staff use ’em sometimes. Students ain’t s’posed to know, so don’t go blabbin’.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded quickly.

“Right then,” Hagrid said, stepping aside so they could see into the glowing entryway. “Follow this tunnel straight on. At the end, it splits into four smaller ones.”

He pointed left.

“Hermione, yeh take the far-left tunnel. That’ll bring yeh out right behind the staircase in the Slytherin Tower.”

“And you two", Hagrid said to the boy, "far right tunnel. That’ll spit yeh out near the back o’ the Gryffindor Tower stairwell. Be quiet, mind. It’s late enough that any teacher who sees yeh’ll have my hide.”

Ron gulped. “Don’t worry, sir. We’ll leg it.”

Hagrid rolled his eyes, "Enough with this 'sir' business! Ye call me Hagrid, right?"

The kids smiled and said, almost at the same time, "Thank you Hagrid!"

Hagrid gave a soft smile. “I’m glad yeh’re all safe. Go on now. Get back ter yer dormitories."

After giving Fluffy a few more pats, the kids stepped into the tree. Hagrid watched them vanish into the glowing corridor before the tree sealed shut behind them with a low hum.

The tunnel was dim and gently sloped downward, the walls pulsing faintly with the same soft golden glow the runes had released. As the three walked, their footsteps echoed.

For a while, nobody spoke.

Then Harry slowed. Ron slowed too.

Hermione turned, confused. “What’s wrong?”

Harry and Ron exchanged a look, a little ashamed.

Ron rubbed the back of his neck.
“Er… Hermione? Listen... I’m… I’m really sorry. For what I said that day. About you being alone.”

Hermione’s throat tightened. She didn’t trust herself to speak yet.

Ron continued, words tumbling out in a rush.
“I didn’t mean it. I was just angry and not thinking. And I know Slytherin can’t be easy for you. I shouldn’t’ve added to it.”

He looked genuinely miserable.

Hermione felt something inside her soften.

Harry stepped forward next, face earnest.
“Me too. I wasn’t mean to you, but… I still should’ve been nicer. I could’ve said something. Or stopped Ron.”

Ron muttered, “Oi,” but without heat.

Harry’s gaze stayed fixed on Hermione.

“But I need to ask… why did you come after us? You didn’t have to. So...why, after we were so awful to you?"

Hermione looked down at her shoes, scuffing them lightly against the tunnel floor.

“Because I knew,” she said quietly. “About Malfoy’s plan. And I couldn’t let him win. I couldn’t let someone get expelled, just because a bully like Draco Malfoy decided he wants them gone."

She swallowed. “And I know we’re not exactly friends, but Ron, you're the only one who's ever said anything when Malfoy called me a Mudblood. And Harry, i know how you defended Neville when Draco tormented him. I had to come for you to... it was the right thing to do.”

Harry stared at her as if she had said something extraordinary.

“Hermione,” he said softly, “you’re amazing".

Hermione’s cheeks flushed pink.

Ron groaned dramatically, slapping a hand over his face. “And I’m such an idiot.”

Harry snorted. Hermione bit her lip, trying not to smile.

Ron threw his hands up. “No, seriously, Hermione. You really shouldn’t take anything I say to heart. Ever. I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Hermione burst into giggles.

Harry used the moment to step closer, expression gentle. “Hermione, can we start over?”

Hermione blinked. Harry extended his hand.
“Would you like to be our friend?”

Ron stuck his hand out too. “Yeah. Proper friends.”

Hermione’s eyes shone. She reached out slowly… then grabbed both their hands at once.

“I’d love that,” she whispered.

They all shook awkwardly. Three hands tangled, elbows bumping, which made them all laugh again. Fear and adrenaline faded, replaced by something warm, hopeful, and steady. They let go reluctantly.

Harry gave Hermione a small grin. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

And so, two Gryffindors and a Slytherin walked together as friends.