The group of four followed the stairs down toward the Great Hall.
Except for Will, the other three young Wizards all felt that something was wrong.
Despite it being Halloween, the entire Castle was eerily quiet.
Aside from the occasional flapping of bats, it was difficult to hear any other sounds throughout the enormous Castle.
Will personally attributed this to Hogwarts having excellent soundproofing.
He had also remembered the plot by now.
The students from the four Houses should have already returned to their respective dormitories.
In the eerie silence, Sylvia and the other two followed closely behind Will, as if afraid they might encounter something terrifying.
When they reached a lower floor, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from below the stairs.
The group looked toward the source of the noise.
Below the spiral staircase, two young Wizards were running toward them.
“Harry, slow down! I can’t keep up!” Ron panted.
“Watch out for that staircase, it’s moving!”
Harry gasped as he jumped over a shifting step, sweat making his glasses slide halfway down his nose.
“If we don’t hurry, Hermione will be in danger! There’s a Troll in the dungeons, Ron, a Troll! If you hadn’t said those things, Hermione wouldn’t be crying in the girls’ bathroom right now!”
His stamina was better than Ron’s, probably because he had spent so much of his childhood being chased around by Dudley and his friends.
On the upper section of the spiral staircase, the group exchanged glances.
“There’s a Troll in the dungeons? They’re coming to save me?”
Hermione was clever enough to figure things out immediately.
Although she didn’t know how the Troll had gotten into Hogwarts, she easily understood that the two boys still thought she was crying in the girls’ bathroom and had gone looking for her.
“Ignore them. Let’s go straight to the Great Hall.”
Sylvia hooked her arm around Hermione’s, looking as though she were standing up for her little sister.
“Let those two fools spend Halloween with the Troll.”
“But, but that’s a Troll!”
Neville seemed to remember something terrifying.
“Trolls eat children!”
“Trolls are XXXX-level magical creatures, although I can’t quite understand what’s so magical about them. They’re described as terrifying creatures that can stand up to twelve feet tall and weigh a ton. They’re powerful, stupid, unpredictable, and naturally violent.”
Hermione truly lived up to her reputation as a walking encyclopedia, immediately reciting everything she knew about Trolls.
If Will remembered correctly, the information came from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
“Oh dear, they’re going to be smashed into Halloween meat pies by the Troll!” Hermione said anxiously.
“We have to warn them.”
She wasn’t cold-hearted.
Her arrogance was merely a way of hiding her fear of falling behind others.
“You’re right, Hermione! I’m going to warn Harry.”
Neville also became worried.
Although he and Ron were only ordinary friends, Harry had always looked out for him.
He had even clashed with Malfoy in class over Neville’s Remembrall.
Hermione pulled away from Sylvia and ran down the stairs with Neville.
“Hermione!” Sylvia called after her, sounding worried.
“Come on. Unless you want to watch them get smashed into Halloween meat pies by the Troll? Then we’ll have to scoop them up afterward.”
“Ew…”
Sylvia shuddered at the thought and hurried after them.
When the group reached the corridor below, Will saw Harry and Ron sprinting toward them, with the Troll chasing after them while swinging a massive club.
Although Harry and Ron were running as fast as they could, a single step from the Troll covered several of theirs.
It smashed everything in its path, turning the corridor into a complete mess, like someone swatting at a cockroach in their home.
Only here, the “cockroach” was the future savior of the Wizarding world, Harry Potter.
Amid the loud crashes of the Troll knocking over suits of armor, Harry shouted at Ron.
“Ron, run faster!”
“Easy for you to say!”
Ron’s face was as red as his hair as he panted behind Harry.
It seemed the two hadn’t foolishly tried to fight the Troll after discovering that Hermione wasn’t in the girls’ bathroom.
Unfortunately, the Troll apparently had no intention of letting them escape.
“That’s Hermione!”
Harry suddenly spotted Hermione and Neville running down the stairs.
“And Neville!”
“Run! You two, run!”
Ron felt as though his lungs were about to burst.
The creature behind them was not only fast but also smelled terrible.
Worse still, Hermione, whom they had been trying to save, was now standing at the stairwell and had once again been dragged into danger.
“Neville! Take Hermione and run!”
At that moment, Sylvia and Will had just descended the stairs and happened to hear Ron’s shout.
Harry saw two more people coming down and became so anxious that he almost felt sick.
“Everyone, run back up! Hurry!”
But Will seemed not to hear him.
Instead, he calmly stepped forward, positioning himself in front of the group.
Harry became even more anxious.
Although Will was a Slytherin, Harry had never thought he was a bad person.
Coupled with the rumors that Will was unpopular among the Slytherins, Harry actually had a fairly good impression of him.
“Harry, don’t forget, you’re a Wizard.”
Then Harry seemed to see Will’s silver-grey eyes light up.
Will activated [Wizards Eye].
He clearly saw the magic flowing through the Troll’s body.
It was a strange sight, like countless thick, scattered lines surrounding a tiny core.
Will quickly realized that the source of those thick lines was the Troll’s skin.
According to the books, Trolls were classified as magical creatures precisely because of this unusual skin.
The thick magical layer gave them extremely high resistance to magic, greatly reducing the effectiveness of spells used against them. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
In that case, he simply needed to use magic to create a physical reaction.
Will instantly figured out how to deal with the Troll and raised his wand.
Harry watched as Will casually waved his wand.
At that moment, he felt that he finally understood what Slytherin meant by elegance.
“Aguamenti!”
With a flick of Will’s wand, a powerful stream of clear water burst from the tip.
The water jet, nearly as thick as an arm, slammed directly into the Troll’s chest.
The splash instantly obscured the Troll’s tiny head.
Its head was barely the size of a cocoa bean, and with its vision blocked, the Troll immediately lost track of where it was going, causing its charge to slow considerably.
Poor Ron, who had been running slower than Harry, was soaked across half his body by the splashing water.
It was October 31st, after all, and after sweating so heavily moments earlier, Ron immediately began shivering from the cold.
However, seeing the Troll obstructed, Harry and Ron were overjoyed.
They gathered what little strength they had left and hurried toward the others while panting heavily.
The blinded Troll wildly swung the club in its hand, smashing into the surrounding suits of armor and statues and filling the corridor with continuous crashes.
Seeing that the timing was right, Will stopped Aguamenti.
“Freezing Charm!”
A pale-blue mist erupted from the tip of Will’s wand and struck the thoroughly soaked Troll.
Within just a few breaths, thick layers of ice formed across its body.
Will deliberately focused on the Troll’s head.
That tiny, cocoa-bean-sized head was now completely encased in a thick layer of ice.
Even then, the Troll still hadn’t fallen.
Its incredible physical strength was truly remarkable.
Fortunately, the Troll was incredibly stupid.
As the ice made breathing increasingly difficult, the Troll suddenly slammed its head against the corridor wall.
Will saw it clearly.
The impact was so powerful that the Troll’s head was almost driven into its chest.
The Troll finally collapsed onto the ice, and a thin layer of frost spread across almost the entire corridor.
“Hoo… hoo… Let’s go quickly. This place is too dangerous.”
Harry still felt intensely hot all over, and even his breath seemed scorching.
Only the cold air entering his lungs gave him some relief.
Ron, meanwhile, was shaking like a sieve, his teeth chattering.
He spoke with a stammer so similar to Quirrell’s that he almost sounded possessed.
“Ye… yes, this place is too… too cold. I… we… should go… go back quickly.”
“Perhaps we’ll have to wait a little before going back.”
Neville tugged at Will’s robes.
Did Will really need Neville to warn him?
He had already heard footsteps coming from the stairs.
Will turned his head and saw Professor McGonagall at the front of the approaching group.
Her face was pale, but the anger in her expression was unmistakable.