"You want to what?!" Chrys looked at Draco with an incredulous look, out of all the requests he's heard from Draco this was a new one! "You know Snape's not going to allow Gryffindors into Slytherin without a good reason!"

"Keep shouting, I don't think the rest of the castle heard you." Draco hissed. "Look, your suite is private enough for me to host this meeting and you know I wouldn't be asking this of you if it wasn't important. I'm not going to claim it as mine or use it to one up Harry and Ron, please Chrys!"

He was begging now, Chrys just stared at him and let his shoulders drop, the only other time he saw Draco like this is when he was talking to his cousin, Cora. "Fine." He agreed. "Just, please don't destroy my room, I don't want to return and hear Salazar say that you got into a heated discussion and wands started flying."

"We won't." Draco assured him, he picked up the trunk and left towards Chrys room. "Remember, you're not allowed to come in for this meeting."

Normally, he'd be demanding an explanation as to why he couldn't enter his suite, but, Chrys learned since day one that Draco was strange and it was best not to question him. Besides, he had Quidditch practice with the Slytherin team to get to, he would worry about all of that at another date. Heading up the stairs by the common room, Chrys was out of the Slytherin house and back into the dungeons where he would have to continue to climb to get back into the sun. While the dungeons were great at times, it was also a bit inconvenient – he could only imagine what it's like for the two houses that lived in a tower.

Entering the grassy fields, Chrys grabbed hold of one of the school brooms and flew to meet with the rest of the Slytherin team. Flint was talking about surprising the other teams by using the Blood Orchid's plays and while that would work for some time they most definitely were going to need to have another ace in their hands, that was when Chrys held his hand up and asked them to pass the quaffle to him. Some glances were looked over his way, Flint just ordered them to do just that; the practice match began with their backups in mock games.

It started like normal with the Orchid's play, their seeker using Alex's playthrough by laying flat – which didn't last long due to how rough it was feeling on him compared to Chrys who was still laying flat on his side and using his legs to lock around the broom to avoid falling off during the speed boost, the beaters were striking and timing their strikes to mimic the snake strikes that the team was known for, and their keeper balancing on their broom and kicking the quaffle away from the hoops and even lightly surfing to the other two hoops. All that was riding on was the chasers, that was when the team got a hint of what they should expect from their new chaser; Chrys was flying closely beside Flint and made eye contact with the player who had the quaffle and readied himself to catch it, the player tossed it and to the untrained eye it looked like it was going to Flint causing the opposing chaser to fly in front of flint.

But what happened shocked everyone, not only did it go to Chrys, the boy barely touched it as he sent it flying into a hoop and throwing the keeper off through sheer surprise. Everyone looked at each other, the goal posts, then back at each other, everyone trying to figure out what just happened, what just happened? They did the play again, and tried keeping their eye on Chrys the entire time; just like with before they watched as the quaffle went flying towards him, he once again barely touched it before it went flying into a hoop. Flint had to give a sharp whistle to cause practice to pause as he flew up to Chrys yet again and gave a silent gesture asking him to explain himself.

"I've been doing this among other plays when dad took me out to practice with the rest of the orchids." Chrys explained.

"Okay, but did anyone teach you how to do that?" Flint asked, stressing out the word, his jaw dropped when the boy shook his head. "You mean that's all you?! No outside resources?!"

Chrys gave a light shrug. "I've been inspired by some sports series, and I figured I'd try my hand at those as well just with my own spin on things."

"But that's still all you!" Bletchly called out. "You're still doing plays that no other quidditch team that anyone knows of can do!"

"He's right…" Flint had a grin on his face. "I think we have our ace in the hole after all…" he clapped his hands. "Alright everyone, let's continue on this time just stay with the Blood Orchids, if the other houses believe that's what we're using they won't expect Lindsay's plays on the actual game!"

Was he nervous? Of course he was, no matter how many times they've been at practice and no matter how many times they were successful, Harry always felt nerves on the full rise whenever they were doing practices. Each practice brought them closer and closer to their first match of the season! And they were playing against Slytherin first; and after hearing Fred and George talking about the insane new chaser they had, Harry felt like the Slytherin house had a rather unfair advantage.

"I feel like maybe we should give the Slytherin team a pass." George had a mischievous grin. "I feel bad that we would have to aim a bludger at a baby snake!"

Baby snake? Surely he wasn't talking about…

"We're all on equal footing here, George." Oliver scolded lightly. "They have a first-year just like we do, and so does Hufflepuff."

The twins just pouted at Oliver's tone as the group made their way to the pitch. The Slytherin team were clearly finishing up their rounds and they were able to see the final tail of their practices; Harry was just amazed at their chaser, Chrys was just doing ridiculous stunts while performing his role perfectly. Honestly, he was admiring at the sight of seeing the auburn haired boy looking majestic and rather foolish like a bird; he had a good arm in terms of throwing the quaffle to his teammate or scoring goals left and right.

Despite using the standard broom that the school provided, Harry could see that Chrys was flying with grace. Of course, he chalked it up to having grown up with a professional player; he had so many questions about that, when did he learn? Wasn't it against the rules to be flying at a young age? How long did it take to learn the tricks? So many questions were rushing through him, along with a wave of adoration; whatever nerves he felt before practice began melted away, he was so tempted to get on his broom now and fly up to be beside him! Wait, why was he thinking like that? That was Draco's way of thinking whenever Chrys was in the equation and he wasn't anything like Draco!

"CHRYS!"

Snapping to now, Harry looked up as he heard Marcus Flint call out Chrys' name, his green eyes widened in horror as he saw his friend get struck by a bludger and knocked off his broom. The hit was right in the side and sent Chrys flying towards the ground and landing with a thud; Harry wasn't even thinking when he ran out onto the pitch towards him, he just knew he had to get over to him!

Surrounded by the fellow Slytherins, Chrys was in a slight daze; he could hear someone frantically apologizing to him, he wasn't sure for a moment what for until the throbbing pain came to him. Right, getting hit with a bludger, that got the wind knocked out of him in the worst way possible. He looked around at the faces around him, making sure he was alright when he caught the gaze of a familiar friend kneeling beside him; Harry, at least there was a friendly familiar face among the snakes. When did Harry become a Slytherin? Actually, when did Harry get a twin?

"Chrys, are you okay?" Harry asked softly.

"I will be…" Chrys tried pushing himself upright but ended up laying back down. "Can you or your twin help me up?"

"Twin?" Harry repeated, "I don't have a twin, Chrys."

Marcus knelt down and gently picked Chrys up, one arm on his back and one under his knees; he shook his head when the boy kept insisting he would be fine. Practice was over early for the Slytherins, and Marcus made sure to stress that part out for the first-year he held in his arms. He looked down at Harry and nodded, silently telling him that Chrys would be fine and to focus on the Gryffindor team for the time being.

It was going to be a challenge to keep his mind on Quidditch practice when his friend was being carried off to the hospital wing of the school. But, Harry did have an important role to play on the team, he wasn't about to lose focus because of something that Oliver had told him happened a lot during the actual game; of course, he was extremely concerned with how many people would be thrown off their brooms during said game. With a light shudder, Harry got onto his broom and took to the skies with the rest of the Gryffindors, at least they didn't have to worry about unloading the balls used in the game due to the Slytherin team abruptly ending practice like that.

With their solo game in play, Fred flew up to Harry and laid a hand on his broom, giving the black-haired boy a gentle smile. "Hey, Baby Snake's going to be fine." He told him. "Bludgers are enchanted with a small spell; they deal damage, yeah…but not to the point of rupturing anything. Broken bones, maybe, but never anything life threatening."

Harry looked up at the ginger with a small smile of his own. "It still hit him in the side."

"And Madame Pomfrey will make sure he has a swift recovery. Watch, when we get back to the castle after practice Chrys will be on his feet again like nothing happened." He moved and ruffled his hair. "Now go forth! Go forth and get that snitch" He laughed before doing a nose dive to hit a low-flying bludger like it was nothing except a croquet ball.

Right, he shouldn't worry! Harry thought about how Chrys was before when it came to picking up speed and mimicked it; sitting sideways and lowering himself to being flat as he soared through the skies chasing after the small golden ball. It felt incredible! He could see why his friend used this tactic, there was definitely that rush of exhilaration that came with going at speed of the wind, heck, his fellow teammates were cheering him on as he closed in on his target! Carefully, he took one hand off the broom and reached out. Just a little bit closer…

Got it!

"Whoo!" The twins cheered before high-fiving each other. "Potter's on fire today!"

"Nice one, Harry." Oliver flew over and watched him sit up. "I see you're taking a page from Slytherin's book." He laughed.

Harry looked at the golden ball and smiled. "I was curious about his method of flying, I can see why he flies like that! There's just this feeling that's…that's" he made a gesture with his hands. "Whoosh! It makes you feel like you're part of the wind itself!"

"Lindsay is the son of a Quidditch chaser." Oliver reminded him. "He most definitely picked up some moves from his old man." His smile turned serious. "But, keep in mind it's all about how you use the plays; you saw how he got a little too cocky with one of his father's moves…don't let overconfidence get the better of you or you'll be staring a bludger directly in the face."

"Come on, Oliver, don't scare your new seeker away so soon."

Looking over, Harry was face to face with Hufflepuff's seeker and captain; Cedric Diggory, adorned in the canary yellow Hufflepuff quidditch robes that showed off his well-toned form, a smile that reached his grey eyes that would sometimes be covered by his dark brown hair thanks to the wind.

"Sorry, it looks like we came early and I wanted to congratulate Potter in his fine flying." Cedric looked over at Harry. "Didn' know you were a fan of the Blood Orchids, Potter! Taking inspiration from Alex?"

"That was Alex's play?" Oliver asked. "I thought Alister was the one who used it."

"Well, yes and no, the Blood Orchids were friends when they went to Hogwarts, they shared essentially everything together including Quidditch plays. But it was Alex Viper who did the lay flat play and passed it on to his friends." Cedric watched Oliver make a silent 'oh' before he turned to Harry. "And it seems history's repeating itself if Potter here is using the same play Lindsay is." He smiled. "Well, I'll let you lions get back to your practice, we'll watch in the stands."

"Now hold up!" Fred flew over. "You're just gonna leave like that? How bout a round, Diggory? It'll give both of us an edge in practice!"

George flew over and was hanging upside. "Gred is right, and we wanna see Potter get the snitch before you do!"

Thanks to the Weasley twins' energy, it got the rest of the Gryffindor team to goad the badgers into joining them for a mock play. The Hufflepuffs took to the skies, both teams were on their respective sides as their ref skipped onto the field. Cora was below them, waving up at everyone as she held the quaffle in her hand. Harry took a brief look at her and noticed she had a different hair color than her normal black hair; it was now bright orange with highlights of red and yellow streaks to give her an autumn appearance.

"G-G-Good luck, H-Harry." A soft voice said.

Looking up, Harry was met with a surprising sight; Izanami was with the Hufflepuff team and holding a beater bat! He knew his team mentioned a fellow first year as a quidditch player, but he didn't think it would be Izanami of all people! He had so many questions to ask her at this point, but where did he begin?! He knew he would have to ask later after practice, especially since Cora just blew a whistle she had and threw the quaffle in the air.

The chasers were immediately at it, with the Gryffindors getting the slight upper hand and scoring a good amount of points before the Hufflepuff team came around and tied the board. It was actually a heated practice match – despite it all being in good fun – so much heated that someone had to officiate the game. And Cora was so kind to do just that, she was in the commentator stand and was hamming everything up for the non-existent crowd; she could see why Jordan had a lot of fun with this, now if only he'd let her have the mic every once in a while.

"For those of you joining in today, my name is Cora and I will be giving you an amazing play-by-play of today's match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff! Now, I may be biased here but bloody hell, did you see the way the Hufflepuffs chasers cornered that Gryffindor?! Whoo! Blocking them in a triangle pattern, now that's amazing."

It wasn't just the chasers that were at it; the four beaters were also giving it everything they got! Fred and George were essentially playing tennis by hitting a bludger back and forth before hitting it towards the Hufflepuff side of things to keep the opponents distracted and to scramble, making it hard to get to the quaffle. The Gryffindors were back in control for a moment of time until the second bludger made its way over to them to buy more time for the Gryffindor team. The plan was foiled when the second was sent flying away from the field, causing a temporary pause in the game as all eyes turned to see who the reason behind the hit was.

"Whoa! Did you see that everyone?! Let's watch a replay of that!" There wasn't even a video stream of it, that wasn't stopping Cora. "Here we see the handsome twins of Gryffindor, Fred and George working in sync with the bludger with Fred sending it flying to the Hufflepuff side! But wait! Coming in with her short and speedy stature like the adorable bunny she is, Izanami Hanako – the Hufflepuff's ace – striking the bludger with a ferocity that would make the Slytherins' beater nervous! Guess this shows that no matter how cute a bunny is, they can be just as feral as a snake…or in this case a badger or a lion!"

With the way both sides were going at it, all it came down to was the golden snitch. Harry watched as it came up before he did Alex's play again, he wasn't the only one who was trying to do the same, Cedric was doing the same thing – with the only difference was him not sitting sideways like Harry was doing; he was completely flattened on his stomach and his legs pulled back. Compared to Harry who was laying on his side and his legs pulled up completely on the broom, curling slightly to let more of the wind flow rush over and increasing the speed.

Harry had more of a distance and closing in on the snitch than Cedric with this; it also factors in with them being two completely different sizes. Closer…Closer…

"It's official ladies and gentlemen! Harry Potter is totally getting training from the Blood Orchids, there's photographic evidence of him having ice cream with the team after each practice!" There wasn't, but Cora was banking on that happening over the summer. "And before anyone says how outlandish that is, the proof is there! Harry Potter caught the snitch! Gryffindor wins this round and…" She had a devious glint in her eyes, oh yeah, she was definitely related to Draco. "If our favorite snakes were here, they'd be pouncing and giving Harry a victory kiss."

And that got said Harry to lose control from being shocked. He ended up flying into one of the goal posts after looking over at Cora with a look of shock and horror. Why would she say that?! Were all girls this obsessive over someone's – non-existent – love life?! No, it definitely had to be a girl thing to fret over who was crushing on who, it was definitely something he would never understand. Nor did he want to understand, and he was fine with that; besides, he had his doubts that someone of an elite family like the Malfoys (so, Ron told him, he only knew that some pureblood families were high on the food chain) would even consider liking him that way.

And Chrys? He was pretty certain that boy only saw him as a friend and nothing more, heck, they've been going to the same Muggle school for years and neither of them talked to each other before then, why would it be any different? They were friends and that's all they were going to be.

The damage wasn't as bad as anyone had thought; Chrys was mostly bruised up from the impact, he still walked with a slight limp due to having to hold himself and using a free hand to use a wall for support; the entire pain on his left side could only best be described as burning. Honestly, if he had to describe the pain it would be if you skinned your knee while bike riding. He didn't let it bother him too much as he made his way into Charms class that afternoon, smiling at his friend group and making his way over to their desk lineup.

It was strange, the beginning of everything showed they mix well as oil and water! But, the entire first month and now going on second month, they were able to be with each other with little to no problem; sure they still had their clash of personalities, but that's what made their variety pack more interesting! Even now, Chrys was used to Draco beside him as well as Harry. Ron was beside Harry just like Vincent and Gregory were beside Draco, Izanami and Neville were together and sat behind the two and beside Cora and Vera, and Hermione? She was beside Ron. Definitely an odd group they were.

"Welcome back to Charms everyone, I hope we're ready to continue our lesson on the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa." Professor Flitwick greeted before going down the lecture itself.

Nothing against the professor, but his class was the easiest to pass notes in; and when you have a big group? It was easier to cover for everyone. Which was exactly what The Misfits had begun doing, they weren't able to have a group chat through tablets like they would with Muggle Studies – of course, even then, Charity had ways to know if someone was using the 'group notebook' for passing notes. Here, they had to use ink and paper for it.

D: You know what's coming up in a few days? Halloween, everyone in this group better have their costumes that day or so help me…

N: Relax! We have our costumes, Draco…but you never told us what this is for?

D: Isn't it muggle practice to parade in costumes? That's what Professor Charity told us

Ch: Draco, what are you planning on Halloween?

D: It's called a Halloween Party, ever been to one? My family hosts them every year, and well, since the grand one is unavailable for us to go, I've decided to host one for us.

Ha:…Wait, you said that we were getting music for Chrys when we went to Hogsmeade?

D: Damn it, Potter! You almost ruined the surprise!

Co: HA! I KNEW YOU WERE PLANNING SOMETHING FOR YOUR BOYFRIEND!

I: Is this why we were put in charge of snacks?

R: Heads up, Flitwick's getting on the books. Pretend we're taking notes!

Chaotic for one second and able to be studious and hard workers in a snap. If that wasn't unity, then what was? Learning the wand movement and the spell was one thing, receiving feathers and then being told to make them float was another thing. It was inevitable, the spellcasting portion of the class was always going to happen, but there were still those who struggled – usually the muggleborns of the equation.

Ron, despite being a decent wizard, did struggle a little bit with the spell. To the point of whipping the wand at the feather, Draco took note and couldn't stop himself from snickering at the sight. "Watch what you're doing with that wand, Weasley! We already have one person with terrible eyesight in our group, we don't need you adding onto that."

"Shut up, Malfoy." Ron had a light smile on his face as he said that. "I'm not going to take anyone's eye out."

The two boys heard Hermione scoff from where she was sitting on Ron's right, and they turned to look at her. Ron's eye gave a slight twitch. "Something you find funny over there, Granger?" Draco questioned with his signature sneer.

"Oh no, not at all, Malfoy. I just find it stupid that you said what you did, Ronald. With movements like that you will end up taking someone's eye out. You're doing it all wrong, you know," Hermione said in her usual bossy, know-it-all tone. She was one to talk, she hadn't done anything at all. Was she really that confident in herself?

Ron glared at her, gritting his teeth. "Well you do it then, if you're so clever," he griped, holding his wand the slightest bit tighter.

Taking that as a form of challenge, Hermione did the wand movement and recited the spell. The feather started lifting in the air and she moved it to the ceiling. She was the first to have done it successfully and was the first that the professor was praising to the ends of the earth and back! To say that Draco and Ron were unamused was the understatement of the century; Draco was practically making his feather do tricks in the air and this girl shows up like it was nothing?! She had to have been practicing these spells before coming to this school, there's no way this girl could be little miss perfect in every single class!

The seething had ended when the loud BANG came from a student across the room; a Gryffindor now covered in ash after…somehow exploding a feather. Honestly, Draco had to be impressed, whatever rage he was feeling earlier was met with a satisfying sight of someone managing to do the impossible! Actually, now that he thought about it…didn't Harry say this was the same kid who blew up a goblet of water? What was with that Gryffindor?!

D: I don't care what anyone says, we're bringing that pyromaniac into our group

Co: Who? Seamus? Why?

Ch: I mean…doesn't hurt to have some fire power?

V: Arson time?

D: Arson time.

Ha: You guys are terrible…what are we using Seamus to blow up?

R: Potions lab?

I: Snape won't be happy if we do that…

N: Potions lab!

He: If you don't stop this, I will get the professor involved!

D: You wouldn't dare Granger.

She would. Hermione looked at the group before slowly raising her hand up. The Misfits' eyes grew, just as she cleared her throat; Harry acted first, he took the note everyone was writing on and just shoved it into his pants without warning. Honestly, Draco didn't know if he should be impressed or holding himself while laughing – Cora was definitely losing it; she hid her face in her arms and was laughing so hard it looked like she was crying. Izanami and Neville just covered their mouths in shock, the most Ron and Chrys could say was 'Bloody Hell' while trying not to laugh.

That was the final event before class ended for the day. The group walked off, Draco leading the way with Harry and Ron on both sides of him. He was gushing about the Halloween party and saying the misfits should be glad he was doing this out of the goodness of his heart – it's not because people share a birthday on that day, Cordelia, shut up! When it came to the guest list, his mood changed.

"I can't believe that little M-" Draco stopped himself. "Miss…Goody-two-shoes; she was seriously about to rat us out just because we were planning to invite Seamus into our leagues. Following the rules is fine, but come on! We weren't even sharing test answers!"

"S-she does h-have skewed p-perspectives." Izanami quietly agreed. "E-Especially w-when she said that being e-expelled was w-worse than d-death." Her stutter grew after remembering the incident with the three-headed dog.

"And a superiority complex." Vera crossed her arms. "I'm still mad about what she's said about divination!"

"Honestly, don't get me started about her in class…day one and she was trying to draw Snape's attention to her when he was clearly honed in on Harry and I." Chrys started out. "I get it, she knew the answer but…Snape made it silently clear he didn't want to hear her." He pointed his thumb to the classroom behind him. "At least other teachers are ready to hop on the praise train!"

The group didn't seem to notice Hermione blending into the crowd of students nearby, listening in on the conversation as they talked about her. Her heart felt like it was slowly being crushed from their words, but she persevered and continued listening.

Izanami spoke up next, having to speak a little louder so that the group could hear her as the surrounding noise grew louder. "I-I don't like s-saying things l-like this but... I-I know she's a m-muggleborn and all, a-and they o-often have to w-work harder than others i-in order to prove t-that they have a p-place here i-in the Wizarding Community. B-But sh-she's..g-going all about it w-wrong with her a-attitude. I-If she keeps this u-up, she'll c-continue to drive p-people away and won't b-be able to make any f-friends.." She said, causing the group to go silent for a few moments.

Hermione clearly heard all this and her eyes stung with tears that she held back. Her chest felt constricted, and she clutched her bag to her chest. Was that.. really true? Was she really trying too hard? But that couldn't be right! Her internal monologue was interrupted when she heard Ron scoff.

"She's a nightmare, honestly. It's no wonder she doesn't have any actual friends and we all know it," he stated.

That had been the final straw. The group seemed so surprised when Hermione bumped Ron's shoulder with hers as she passed them, tears falling down her cheeks as she bit back a sob, running to the girls bathroom. She didn't hear the smack that Izanami, Vera, and Cora all gave Ron with their bags or hands. She didn't hear the scolding they gave him for his harsh wording, no matter how true it might have been at the time.

Dinner that night was…tense; even if they could break the rules and sit at the Hufflepuff table tonight, there was a silent agreement to stay with their houses for the night. At least until the heat of passion died down, and it did but it was replaced with guilt and other negative feelings. Granted they were frustrated, true, but they weren't really aiming to hurt anyone; Draco was stabbing the turkey in front of him to let out the pent up stress he was feeling, Vincent and Gregory were just drowning in bread rolls, and Chrys was just poking at the pasta salad he went for.

Rue, looked at them and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you guys so upset?"

"It's complicated." Chrys sighed and slid his plate away. "Think Snape would be mad if I just excused myself to return to the dorm?"

"Uh…yeah." Pansy looked at the plate. "Okay, are you okay? You didn't even touch the bruschetta, you always eat that every dinner we've had!"

"Parkinson, leave him alone." Draco sighed before doing the same. "Yeah, I'm not remotely hungry either; Crabbe, Goyle, you two can have our plates." He laid a hand on Chrys' shoulder. "Come on, Lindsay…maybe beating a tennis ball will make us feel better."

They weren't able to get far from the table, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and Professor Quirrell was running in looking like a frantic mess; the most anyone got out of him before he passed out in front of everyone was that there was a troll in the dungeon. To say that the entire hall went into pandemonium was a massive understatement; amidst all the chaos, Neville had somehow noticed that Izanami had huddled underneath the Gryffindor table and looked to be having a sort of panic attack and holding the top of her head. When she got there, he didn't know. But he did know that he had to help her, so he climbed underneath the table and started guiding her through an exercise that normally helps. The two were suddenly startled though when they heard Dumbledore suddenly shout.

"SIIIIIILLEEEEEENNCE!" Dumbledore called, immediately calming the mass hysteria of the students. They all turned to look at him as Izanami and Neville slowly climbed out from underneath the table. "Everyone, please calmly follow your prefects to your respective dormitories, teachers please follow me to the dungeons."

As in the same dungeons the Hufflepuff and Slytherin dorms were? It was clear from the look that the prefects of the two aforementioned houses weren't happy with that idea. There was a silent conversation in their eyes and they agreed on taking their houses to the towers; would it be a tight fit? Probably, but they weren't going to risk running into the troll while taking their charges to their respective dorm! The Hufflepuffs got up and carefully blended themselves in with the Ravenclaws while the Slytherin did the same thing but with the Gryffindors. Even as the students followed quietly and tried to keep a level head, there were going to be exceptions to the rule; Chrys broke from the pack and carefully made his way down the hall, his actions didn't go unnoticed as Draco and his two posse followed after him.

"What are you guys doing?" Rue hissed quietly.

Chrys looked at her. "Hermione wasn't at the Gryffindor table, I'm going to find her."

"Are you serious, you're helping a Gryffindor?!" Pansy demanded

Draco sneered at her. "No-one asked you, now you can either shut up and follow us for a quick group rescue or you can shut up and leave with the other snakes to one of the two towers."

Were boys in general this stupid? No, that was a stupid question, the answer was obviously yes. Pansy groaned and ran after the four; creeping down the halls, the theory Chrys had was that Hermione was most likely in a girl's bathroom crying, the reason behind this was baffling to the other Slytherins 'I know a good number of muggle girls would do this back in school, plus, no-one would think to look there for the person in general.' Neither knew if they wanted to slap Chrys or…no, they were going to slap him when they were able to return to their dorm safely after the troll was taken care of.

They came to a halt when they saw a tall lumbering shadow walking across the hall from them. The troll had left the dungeons, and judging by where it was heading it was going straight to where the restrooms were. The five had a panicked expression on their faces for a brief moment; Draco reached into his robes and took out a familiar neon green ball, he shook Chrys by the shoulder and whispered to him; tell him to get to the bathroom, if Hermione is there, get her out and carefully return to the group. Normally, Chrys would be questioning why Draco had one of his belongings, but he wasn't going to question it. He just watched as the four moved ahead and hid behind the walls; Pansy whistled to the troll to get its attention.

It worked, it turned and saw a green ball bouncing off walls. Due to trolls being shy on brains, it moved to investigate what the strange object was. The four Slytherins just kept throwing the ball to each other and letting it bounce off walls and anything else to keep the momentum going. As the troll returned down the hall, back now turned to the bathroom corridor, Chrys hurried off.

This would be the second girl's bathroom he's been in, that had to be a record most boys would ever dream about. He looked around before going to the closed stall and gently tapped it to get the person's attention. "Hermione? Please tell me it's you in there." He waited for a few seconds. "Okay, Hermione or no, listen…there is a troll in the corridors and we need to get to Gryffindor tower."

The door slowly opened and Hermione came out, wiping at her eyes. "This isn't funny, Chrys…a troll can't get in the school."

"I'm only quoting professor Quirrell." He said softly. "Look, you can hate me…scream at me…us. All of us, but please, let me get you to Gryffindor Tower tonight." He held his hand out to her.

There was a moment of silence between them before Hermione took his hand, Chrys smiled softly at her. Just as the two were about to head out of the bathroom, Draco came rushing in with a frantic expression on his face; he said nothing but grabbed Chrys' other hand and started pulling the two along out of the bathroom and into the hall. The only thing they could get out of him was that somewhere in distracting the troll, they lost the ball and now said troll was agitated to the point of attacking anything and everything.

With a narrow hall, there really weren't that many places to dodge and hide so a good part of the walls and the floors got the worst of it whenever the Troll swung its club towards the six students and scattered them. From the way things had looked, there wasn't a 'safer' way to get away from the troll, at least…that's how it looked at first. A small sizzling sound got the troll's attention, it moved over to the source and looked at something sparkling on the ground. A few short seconds and the thing exploded in the troll's face, making it recoil and roaring out in pain as it held the injury.

"Come on, Snakes! Bring our lion home!"

The group looked over to see the Weasley twins holding something in their hands; they were about to ask them what was going on, the answer just came to them in the form of a…flying potato? They watched as the spud made a direct hit on the troll again. It wasn't just the twins that were there; the three Hufflepuffs were beside him with the same device in their hands! That's when it dawned on the group, they'd bring it up later and regrouped with the five.

"How did you guys know?" Chrys asked, watching them load up potatoes into a slingshot and firing at the troll. "Where did you get those?"

"You're not the only one to sneak in Muggle stuff." Cora grinned. "Besides, Vera told us you'd need help so we came as fast as we could."

"Vera…" Hermione looked over at the brunette beside Cora. "You…how…"

"Like I said, my visions are brief! Besides, I knew that a troll would be involved in your future so when Quirrell freaked the heck out, I got Cora and we agreed to help!" Vera launched another spud. "Now uh…we should probably go."

"Don't have to tell us twice." George lit up another firecracker and loaded it into Izanami's slingshot. "Okay baby badger; aim right for the face."

The group managed to keep a good distance from the troll for a few moments before it slowly closed in on them as they turned a corner. It was a sudden shout and the sound of something being thrown from behind the troll that got all of them to pause and turn to look at what caused it.

"HEY, PEA BRAIN!" The shout had belonged to one Ronald Weasley who, with Harry, Neville, and Seamus following close behind him, had picked up a stray rock and chucked it at the back of the troll's head, catching its attention momentarily.

"Ron!" Fred called. "The hell are you doing?!"

"Saving you guys!" He threw another rock at the troll.

Little idiot, but that's why Fred and George loved him. Both sides were armed after all, so it didn't really matter too much between them; the first years were using whatever they could find in their surroundings to use as a weapon while the twins used charms and shot spells back to back against the Troll. Each strike made the troll more and more disoriented, even now, with Neville and Seamus' weird team up they were still able to get something to explode in the troll's face. The amazing factor was Ron using the levitation charm to take a piece of marble tile to the air and dropping it on the creature's head with a sickening crack!

Silence. Everyone carefully approached the body and gently nudged it; it was still breathing, that was a blessing. It would just be in an unconscious state for some time, enough time to get it relocated so it didn't terrorize the school ever again. A good number of students moved to sit down, letting the rush of adrenaline die down, that was just…Chrys' laughter broke the silence, everyone looked over at him with a confused expression. The boy was officially mad!

"Guys!" Chrys looked at them. "Do you know what we did?!"

"Almost died?" Pansy snapped. "Yeah, we know!"

"No…we just took down a troll!" He laughed. "All of us! We just took down a troll without the help of teachers! This…This monster just lost to a bunch of kids!"

They took down a troll. That sentence along with Chrys' laughter got Ron laughing next as he held himself, "With nothing but second-year charms, levitation magic and potatoes no less!"

"Hey!" Rue looked over at him, smiling triumphantly. "Don't forget it was a muggle tennis ball that kept the dumb thing distracted!"

"And it was also Fred and George's firecracker that kept stunning and blinding it!" Cora was laughing. "An-And Seamus' pyromania!"

Little by little the group started laughing and cheering, congratulating themselves in their parts of the Troll Takedown. They even went as far as to make fun of the unconscious creature that was still laying in the middle of the hall and even talked about keeping the club as a memento! The only problem was, it did escalate into a 'who got the full rights to it' argument. An argument that would later be the focus of attention to a group of teachers.

"Explain yourselves, all of you!" McGonagall cried out.

The feeling of celebration went out the window in less than a heartbeat. The group was trying to figure out what to say before Hermione stood forward to the teachers, lowering her head at them.

"It's my fault! I broke from the group and went looking for the troll…I'd read about them and thought I could handle it, but I didn't. If it weren't for everyone, I'd probably be dead…" she said softly.

Vera cleared her throat and nodded. "I recruited everyone I could, I've seen Hermione's future and knew she would be in danger…I couldn't let my friend get hurt so, I rallied the team and we went to aid her."

McGonagall stared at the students silently, looking over each of them and shaking her head; it seemed no matter which generation, there was always going to be trouble for a group of friends to get into. She folded her hands and took a deep breath of air before speaking yet again. "This was an incredibly foolish thing to do." She scolded. "I had expected more rational behavior on your part; Miss Granger and Miss Hanako, as for the rest of you!" She turned to the others. "While five points will be taken from your respective houses for your lack of judgment…I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many students could take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Fifteen points will be awarded to each house…for sheer dumb luck."

Professor Snape cleared his throat. "Now, with everything said and done. Get. To. Your Houses." He shot a look at the Slytherin quintet. "You six, come with me, now."

If there was one thing Chrys was thankful for in terms of jeans from the men's department; how deep the pockets were, one could probably fit five calculators inside it! There were a few cornflower pins he had in his pockets and he went up to the newest members of the friend group – Rue and Pansy – before carefully handing them one with a small smile before hurrying off to catch up with Snape and the rest of the Slytherins.

Whatever good feeling he had turned to concern when he saw a wound on the Professor's leg as well as a slight limp. He looked at his fellow classmates, they obviously saw it too; Chrys moved so he could get a better look at the bleeding wound, he couldn't one-hundred percent tell what the cause was, but it did almost look like a dog bite! Was…there another dog on the school grounds? Or was it from the three-headed one in the forbidden corridor?

Even now as they entered the Slytherin corridors, Chrys waited until his four friends left for their respective rooms before approaching Professor Snape, clearing his throat to get his attention.

"Professor, are you okay? You…seem to have a nasty cut on your leg, sir."

"I'm fine... It's nothing that concerns you..." Snape waved his hand dismissively. "Off to bed with you."

Cold as always, but it was probably wasn't wise to press on any further. Chrys just nodded slowly and wished the professor goodnight before heading to the boy's dormitory. He moved to the corner he, Draco, Vincent, and Gregory shared and got ready for bed; tossing his robe onto the trunk and getting into his pajamas for the night. Not wanting their fellow snakes to overhear them, they kept a silent conversation between them; Snape was definitely bitten by something, this wouldn't be a big deal but…things weren't really adding up; the bite wound was fresh, so sometime during that troll attack Snape was attacked. The bite was definitely caused by a dog, but that didn't really answer how a troll got into the school in the first place. More questions were being asked than getting answers to them.