“You’re seriously repressed.” Leo rolled his eyes, though he could understand where Myrtle was coming from.
She had died young without ever getting the chance to fall in love.
It was hardly surprising if being a ghost for all these years had left her a little frustrated.
“Oh, stop pretending to be proper.” Myrtle gave him a sidelong look.
“Everyone else is at the Halloween feast, and you chose this moment to come into the girls’ bathroom.
You really think I don’t know what you’re here for?
Come on, let me see!” “Shoo, shoo…” Leo slapped Myrtle’s reaching hands away.
“I’m already annoyed enough as it is.” ‘Why hasn’t the troll shown up yet?
Did something I do cause a butterfly effect?
That shouldn’t be right…’ Leo was beginning to grow impatient.
Myrtle suddenly froze.
“You can touch me?” “Yeah.” Leo nodded without much concern.
“Then doesn’t that mean…” A distinctly wicked gleam appeared in Myrtle’s eyes as both hands immediately reached for Leo’s clothes.
Before she could grab him, however, a tremendous crash erupted from directly beneath the bathroom.
The entire room shook.
“Downstairs?” Leo blinked.
..
A few minutes earlier.
“Ughhh…” Ron clutched his empty stomach, feeling more miserable by the second.
He had been crying for so long that he barely had the energy left to keep doing even that.
“Ron!
Ron!” Neville rushed into the bathroom with Harry and Hermione right behind him, only for all three of them to come face-to-face with Ron while he was still covered in tears and snot.
For several seconds, the atmosphere became painfully awkward.
“Come on, we have to go!
There’s a troll loose in the castle!” Hermione no longer had time to worry about Ron’s dignity.
She grabbed his arm and tried to drag him toward the door.
“A troll?” Ron stared at her blankly, still too dazed to understand what was happening.
“Stop standing there and move unless you want to end up as troll droppings!” When Ron still failed to react, Hermione tightened her grip and physically yanked him along.
Then a horrible stench reached them.
It smelled like filthy socks mixed with a public toilet that had never once been cleaned.
A moment later, they heard a deep grunt from somewhere nearby, followed by the heavy scraping of enormous feet dragging across the floor.
“Her…
Hermione…” The blood slowly drained from Neville’s face.
He pointed behind the others, his entire body beginning to tremble.
At the far end of the corridor to their left, an enormous, misshapen shadow appeared and began lumbering toward them.
The sight was terrifying.
The troll stood twelve feet tall, with dull grey skin like rough granite.
Its huge, clumsy body looked like a massive heap of boulders, topped by a tiny bald head scarcely larger than a coconut.
Its short legs were as thick as tree trunks, ending in broad, flat, calloused feet.
The smell coming off its body was enough to make anyone gag.
A massive wooden club hung from one hand, scraping along the floor because its arms were so long.
“Neville!
Harry!
Ron!
Run!” Hermione’s scream cracked with panic.
“ROAR!” The troll seized one of the sinks and hurled it toward them.
The heavy basin screamed through the air and smashed into the doorway, burying itself in the wall and completely blocking their escape route.
Then the floor began to shake.
Each vibration grew stronger as the troll approached.
“We’re finished…” Ron’s face went deathly pale.
“I’m sorry.
I…
I dragged all of you into this.” “It’s all right.
I came because I wanted to,” Neville stammered, trembling from head to toe.
“I’m partly responsible too.
I shouldn’t have hit you hard enough to make you cry…” Hermione said stiffly.
“I need to say this before we die.” Ron closed his eyes.
“You’re my best friends…
Harry, you’re my best friend.” “Thanks, Ron.
You’re my best friend too.” “Neville, you are too.” “Yeah.” Neville sniffed.
“And…
Hermione.
You’re bossy, annoying, and you’re always pointing out everything I do wrong, but you’re my friend too…
and you’re actually a really good person.” Even with death apparently only moments away, Hermione still felt a powerful urge to punch Ron in the face.
“Seriously?
No last words for me?
That’s a little hurtful.” All four of them snapped their eyes open.
A huge hole had appeared in the ceiling.
Leo stood between them and the troll.
In one hand, he held the heavy stone griffin statue he had apparently used to smash his way through the ceiling.
His other hand was wrapped around the troll’s club, stopping it dead in the middle of its swing.
“Leo!” all four shouted at once.
“Wow, this thing really does stink.” Leo tightened his fingers slightly.
The massive wooden club cracked apart in his hand.
Then he swung the stone griffin statue into the troll’s other fist as it came hurtling toward him.
Bang!
The collision produced a deafening crash.
The stone statue shattered into pieces and scattered across the floor.
The troll roared in fury and raised one enormous fist before bringing it down toward Leo with all its strength.
“Ah!” The four students huddled in the corner could not stop themselves from crying out.
“Relax.
This big idiot isn’t even as strong as Hagrid.” Leo spoke as casually as ever.
He clenched his fist, the muscles in his arm swelling and tightening until they looked almost forged from steel, then drove it straight into the troll’s descending fist.
A deep impact thundered through the corridor.
The collision sent a violent shock through both of them, forcing Leo and the troll back two steps at the same time.
Almost immediately, they surged forward again.
One enormous fist and one much smaller fist met for a second time with a heart-stopping roar of displaced air.
“Come on!” Leo laughed wildly and began throwing punches without pause, his fists moving so quickly that they left blurred afterimages behind them.
The deafening impacts came one after another.
The air throughout the corridor seemed to tremble under the repeated collisions, and waves of displaced air rolled outward like gusts of wind.
Fist marks began appearing all over the troll’s body as Leo battered it relentlessly.
Each blow landed with such crushing force that the troll seemed less like a living creature and more like something being fed beneath a heavy industrial roller.
Its hands went first.
Flesh burst apart beneath the barrage, bones splintering as blood sprayed across the corridor.
Then Leo drove forward into the rest of its body.
The troll’s back slammed violently into the stone wall.
The force behind Leo’s punches tore through it like a tidal wave, crushing organs and cracking the stonework behind it at the same time.
At last, the troll collapsed among the broken bricks.
It did not move again.
Blood poured from its ruined body as it lay sprawled across the floor like a discarded rag.
“Heh…” Leo lowered his gaze to his fists.
After the countless collisions just now, several bones in his fingers and hands had cracked.
He drew in a slow breath.
Then the corners of his mouth spread into a deeply satisfied smile.
“Merlin’s beard!
What in heaven’s name happened here?
And why are all of you here?!” Dumbledore and several professors came hurrying onto the first floor.
The moment Professor McGonagall saw the devastated corridor and the troll lying in a mangled heap among the rubble, she covered her mouth in shock.
Her expression quickly turned furious as she looked at the students.
“What exactly did you think you were doing?
You are extremely fortunate that thing did not kill you!
Why weren’t you safely in your dormitories?” “Er…
Professor…
well…” Neville, Harry, and Ron looked helplessly at one another, stammering without any idea how to explain themselves.
Professor Quirrell took one glance at the ruined troll and immediately let out a weak whimper.
He sank onto a nearby toilet, clutching his chest tightly with both hands.
“Heh, heh…
It appears our great celebrity is no longer satisfied with his current level of fame.” Snape’s eyes immediately found Harry in the corner, and he gave him a sharp, penetrating glare.
“Perhaps our famous savior has decided he needs to do something even more outrageous to keep everyone’s attention on him.” Harry stared at him in utter disbelief.
‘This man really does have some kind of personal grudge against me, doesn’t he?’