Troll

Tierra was striding briskly against the flow of people, checking his equipment as he went.

Five Incendiary Grenades, Weasley-made Dungbombs, a bloody chunk of raw mutton he had just asked the kitchen elves for, and over a dozen Curse Worms entirely under his control, attached to the inside of the meat.

Tierra could not be certain whether the Curse Worms could penetrate a troll's thick, rough hide and harm it, so he had hidden them inside the mutton, intending to use the troll's fondness for raw meat to lure it into eating them.

He wrapped the raw meat in wax paper and stuffed it inside his robe.

Thanks to his loose Wizard Robe, there was no way to tell from the outside that Tierra was carrying all those things.

Tierra had not needed to get involved at all. Even if he had not gone looking for Hermione, Harry and Ron would surely have noticed that she was missing.

But he needed the troll's blood.

To make his first true Magical Item—the Titan Amulet.

An amulet made from the fresh blood of a troll, giant, or ogre could, once activated, grant the magical resistance of a troll, giant, or ogre for one minute.

It was a semi-permanent amulet. Tierra had already completed its basic structure. Thanks to the wonders of magic, it did not require high temperatures—only an ordinary flame and a few spells. In just three days, Tierra had made an amulet smooth on both sides, like a gold coin.

The amulet did nothing for now; it would only be complete once troll blood had been dripped into it.

The amulet could be used at most three times.

After three uses, it would need fresh blood from another troll, giant, or ogre before it could be used again.

Tierra had considered using Hagrid's blood. After all, in the fifth book of the original story, Hagrid had taken several vicious curses from Ministry of Magic Aurors head-on without suffering the slightest injury.

But the principle behind this amulet was to use blood as a medium to steal a troll's life force.

Put simply, it harmed trolls to obtain their magical resistance.

So in the end, he had decided to take the risk and chose this troll guarding the Philosopher's Stone.

Thud—thud—thud— Heavy footsteps came from the corridor ahead, accompanied by an unbelievably foul, nauseating stench.

Tierra slowed down and waved his wand, casting an Air Freshening Charm on himself. He pressed himself against the wall as he moved forward, slipping his left hand into his pocket and slowly approaching the enormous shadow.

Meanwhile, having noticed that Tierra was gone, Harry and Ron ducked low and blended into the crowd of Hufflepuffs, heading in another direction.

They slipped quietly through an empty side corridor and hurried toward the Great Hall where they had just eaten.

But as soon as they rounded a corner, they heard hurried footsteps behind them.

"Percy!" Ron said in a low voice, pulling Harry behind a large Hippogriff statue.

They peered out from behind the statue, only to discover that it was not Percy, but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from sight.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he with the other teachers, down in the Underground Classroom?"

"How would I know?"

Following the sound of Snape's receding footsteps, they quietly made their way down another corridor, trying not to make a sound.

"He's going toward the third floor," Harry said, but Ron raised a hand.

"Can you smell that?"

Harry sniffed. A vile stench seeped into his nostrils, like a mixture of rotten socks and a public toilet that had never been cleaned.

Then they heard a low, enormous roar of pain.

It made Harry and Ron's eardrums ache. They swore they had never heard anything more terrifying in their lives.

Then came the sound of something huge and heavy crashing to the ground.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, then broke into a run toward the source of the sound.

"It's the girls' bathroom!" Following the stench and the tremendous noise, Harry and Ron quickly found where it was coming from.

"Hermione! Hermione's still in the girls' bathroom!" Harry suddenly shouted, as though only just remembering the Little Witch Hermione.

Yet the moment they entered the girls' bathroom, they saw a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Hermione, her eyes red from crying, was curled up in the cramped space beneath the sinks.

Most of the stalls and toilets in the bathroom had been destroyed.

In the middle of the bathroom, a huge troll at least twelve feet tall lay sprawled on the floor, apparently unconscious. Its skin was dull and gray, like granite.

Its head was covered in scorch marks, and there was an extremely tiny wound about two inches below its ugly head, on its neck. Green blood was still seeping from it.

Tierra sat beside it, covered in dust, but unable to suppress the joy on his face.

When he heard someone arrive, a flicker of panic seemed to cross Tierra's face.

After seeing that it was Harry and Ron, Tierra shook the dust from his robe.

Harry noticed that Tierra seemed to stuff something into his pocket.

"Harry! Ron!" Harry felt that even Tierra's voice had become much more cheerful.

"I found Hermione!" Tierra frantically signaled to Harry and Ron with his eyes.

"Good thing I found her in time!" Tierra continued. "Otherwise, the troll almost hit Hermione!"

"Y-you came looking for me?" Hermione finally recovered enough to speak, and her red-rimmed eyes seemed ready to fill with tears again.

"Yes."

"Of course!"

Harry and Ron answered almost in unison.

Because Tierra had already risen to his feet and quickly given them a hug... while standing with his back to Hermione and tightly pinching Harry's and Ron's thumbs in each hand.

"Oh, right, about this afternoon." Harry and Ron suddenly came to their senses and spoke one after the other. "About this afternoon, we're sorry. We shouldn't have said bad things about you."

But Tierra was still pinching their thumbs.

"Sometimes, your lectures are actually useful," Harry added.

Only then did Tierra slowly let go.

"No, no, you were right." Hermione smiled awkwardly. "I really can be a little annoying."

The four young wizards looked at one another, then suddenly burst out laughing together.

They laughed for a while before stopping.

"So... we're still friends?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Of course!" Ron said first, with Harry and Tierra nodding right after him.

"What exactly happened just now?" Ron asked. "How did Tierra end up here?"

"We split up to look for Hermione," Tierra said. "To test one of my guesses, I came to the third floor first."

"And sure enough..."

"Harry! Ron! Hermione! And Tierra!" Professor McGonagall rushed through the broken door of the girls' bathroom. When she saw the troll lying on the floor and the four Gryffindor students, she was so frightened she nearly lost her wits, calling their names louder and louder.

"What are you doing here?"