The Shattered Troll's Head
Time: 6:50.
As the roar echoed, Quirrell, who was still lingering in the restricted area on the fourth floor, turned even paler.
"You idiot, how did the Troll get to the 5th floor!" A chilling voice rang out from behind Quirrell. Quirrell was completely bewildered; to buy himself some time, he had already moved the Troll to the basement.
Hagrid's Three-Headed Dog is too difficult to deal with. The desire to resolve the situation quickly without causing a commotion has already consumed a lot of his energy. It seems that the Dark Lord's proposal to buy dragon eggs and trick Hagrid into revealing the secret plan to deal with Three-Headed Dog has to be implemented.
"My vault~~, but hehehehehehe! With the Philosopher's Stone, what are these Galleons? Hmm, should I go to Borgin and Burkes or find Mundungus Fletcher Fletcher at the Hog's Head Pub?" Quirrell thought to himself, while quickly retreating from the pawns Professor McGonagall had placed there, even waking up Three-Headed Dog Snape came to check the Forbidden Zone shortly afterward.
However, his joy turned to sorrow. Perhaps he had inadvertently betrayed Snape, who had been watching him closely. Voldemort noticed his inner turmoil and shouted, "Fool! Find Mundungus Fletcher!"
Quirrell immediately clutched his head in pain again, presumably because Voldemort was punishing his scheming servant once more.
"Borgin has made a lot of money recently, so he won't take on any more dragon egg smuggling business. Even if he did, Borgin and Burkes is no ordinary person."
"Mundungus was someone Dumbledore valued, a member of the Order of the Phoenix. His extensive connections made Dumbledore accept him. But his weaknesses were too obvious. Besides betraying Dumbledore, he could get his hands on even the Minister for Magic's underwear if he had Galleons," Voldemort said.
At the same time, McGonagall and the others quickly left the basement, stopped the search, and headed to the 5th floor.
Harry and Ron, who had mustered their courage and were about to open the door, were also startled by the sound and confirmed that there was definitely someone inside who had hurt the Troll.
Harry was so nervous that he was clumsy—it took him a while to open the door and the two rushed inside.
The Malfoy trio, wand in hand, crouched low, poised to attack. Troll, his long arms crossed, covered his already reddened and barely visible member—wanting to attack, yet unsure how.
The arrival of Harry and his companion broke the deadlock.
The Troll turned around, enduring the pain, picked up the stick covered in yellow liquid, and swung it as it approached Harry and Meghan, smashing the pool against the wall as it went.
"Draco, you guys run first, confuse it!" Harry said to Ron in desperation, grabbing a faucet and throwing it against the wall.
The Troll stopped a few steps away from Harry and Meghan.
It clumsily turned around, blinking its little eyes foolishly, trying to see what was making the sound. At the same time, it used its hands to shield its lower body, preventing a surprise attack from Draco and the others behind it.
Its ugly little eyes spotted Harry running to the other side. It hesitated for a moment, then walked towards Harry, raising the stick in its hand.
"Hey, you big dummy!" Ron shouted as he ran to the other side, throwing a metal tube at the Troll. Draco and his two companions took this opportunity to reach the doorway, but instead of leaving, they held their wands in attack stances, ready to support Harry and Draco at any moment.
The Troll seemed completely oblivious to the metal pipe hitting its shoulder, but upon hearing the shout, it stopped and turned its ugly nose toward Ron, giving Harry the opportunity to get behind it.
The shouts and echoes seemed to have driven the Troll mad. It glanced at the three people in the doorway and decided to start with Ron. It roared again and began to approach Ron.
Ron was closest to the Troll and had no way out.
Harry stood behind the Troll, racking his brain for a spell he could use. "Levitation Charm? No, the Troll is holding the stick tightly in pain right now. Other spells? Directly targeting him probably wouldn't be very effective, unless, like Draco, it hits a vulnerable spot. Too dangerous. What if it angers him and kills Ron instead?"
As the Troll approached, Draco and his companions prepared to deliver another Troll, but they were also afraid of provoking it and causing Ron's death.
Although Ron was someone Draco disliked, Ron and Harry's act of standing up for him this time had earned him, Crabbe, Goyle's acceptance of him as a friend.
But this made them hesitant to act, fearing the consequences.
"Stinky? Stinky? Quirrell? I've got it!" Harry finally remembered the spell, the unusual spell that even knocked down Quirrell, an adult wizard.
"Periculum!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand at the Troll's back.
Driven by his eagerness to defeat the Troll and save Ron, the Spark from the mutant Red Spark transformed back into a red pillar of light in Harry's hands, just like the normal Red Spark.
The Troll stopped in its tracks. Its tiny head, struck by the arrow, split open like a watermelon, its white brain matter, gray nose, and red blood splattering all over Ron's body.
The massive body fell backward, and although Harry was shocked, his agility, honed from being Dudley and beaten by Dudley since childhood, allowed him to dodge in time.
"Ugh!" Ron knelt down as if he had been hit. Everything he had eaten at the dinner party, along with the sour taste, came up from his throat.
Draco and the other two quickly came over, helped Harry up, and looked at Ron, who was covered in filth, with disgust.
"Weasley, the water in the pipes is clean now. Why don't you take a shower before you come over?" Draco said, covering his nose.
"Yes, Ron, let's take a bath first." Harry nodded eagerly.
Just as Ron was about to head to the broken pipe in the corner, Crabbe spoke up, "Um, why do we have to use the pipe next to the toilet? Isn't there one by the sink?"
Ron dared not speak, afraid that something might accidentally get into his mouth, but from his angry expression, it was clear that he was questioning Draco and Harry about whether they had done it on purpose.
Harry and Draco chuckled awkwardly, just then, their savior arrived.
"What kind of tricks are you playing?" Professor McGonagall said, her voice filled with cold anger.
The teachers arrived. Professor McGonagall rushed into the room, followed closely by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell glanced at the Troll before letting out a weak sob, sitting on a toilet seat, clutching his chest tightly.
"A trick! Why are there Troll here! Crabbe's been in the bathroom on the fifth floor. We've been looking for you, where are you?!" Draco roared, his face flushed. "Professor Quirrell, don't you know best? A young wizard is alone, didn't you tell the other professors? I'm going to tell my dad!"