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The Last Fae Chapter 29: Halloween
🕑 Added 2024-08-22 02:27:16 +0000 UTCBack in his customary spot in the library Thane frowned as he conjured a pocket watch and glanced at the time, “I guess she’s not coming today.”
Normally Hermione would have joined Thane in his alcove to study or read up on the latest subject that had caught her attention. Even if they didn’t talk much, being in familiar company was soothing to say the least.
Making a mental note to ask her about it later Thane went back to reading his book only to be interrupted by a crisp knock. Looking over Thane smiled as he made eye contact with Madam Prince, Hogwarts’ librarian, “Hello Madam Pince.”
“Hello to you as well Thane, I just stopped by to remind you of the feast tonight. Even with the house elves working overtime food vanishes almost as quickly as it appears.” Madam Pince advised with a smile.
While most of the student body thought poorly of Madam Pince, Thane had managed to get on her good side after she caught him organizing an entire section of the library which Thane had fixated on after not being able to find the book he was looking for.
“A feast? What’s the special occasion?” Thane asked as he closed the book floating in front of him with a swipe of his hand.
“Surely you’re joking right?” Madam Pince asked, “It’s Halloween, haven’t you noticed the decorations?”
“Do people normally celebrate Halloweeen by putting pumpkins everywhere?” Thane asked and Madam Pince nodded in confirmation, “Well I wouldn’t know, the Nuns never let us into town during the end of October, they said that’s when satan’s influence was the strongest and demons ran rampant.”
A look of concern passed over Madam Pince’s face and Thane quickly rushed to clarify what he said, “I didn’t believe them of course.”
“Well then…happy Halloween Thane,” Madam Pince said with a slight smile, “Also I’m closing the library early so I’m afraid I have to kick you out now.”
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“You’re here early,” Parvati commented as Thane sat down at the Gryffindor table only to frown when he saw that Hermione was absent yet again, “Where’s Hermione?”
“Christ you’re like a lost puppy,” Ron spat from over five seats over, “I swear if I have to hear her lovesick stories again about you two studying in charms class I’m going to puke. The both of you should just snog and get it over with.”
Thane didn’t bother responding to the ginger, even after Thane had tried to clean their brief spat Ron continued to be a source of bitterness, though he was especially adamant that night.
“Looks like someone’s jealous,” Lavender mockingly whispered, making Padma and a few other Gryffindor girl’s snicker which only made Ron’s face flush, “Shut up Lavender, it's not like you don’t make fun of Hermione behind her back.”
“Yeah but at least I’m honest about it, besides it’s her fault for keeping Thane to herself,” Lavender replied honestly.
“You both realize I’m here right,” Thane asked with a roll of his eyes, “Besides I’m not interested in Hermione like that.”
“What?” Lavender asked as all the side conversations stopped and all focus fell on Thane who looked surprised at the sudden attention, “You two aren’t together?”
“No of course not,” Thane replied, still confused as ever, “Why would you guys think that?”
“Padma says she sees the two of you leaving the library together all the time,” Parvati announced, “You expect us to believe that you guys spend all that alone time together studying?”
“Yes,” Thane replied simply to another bout of stunned silence, “What..did I say something weird?”
“That poor girl,” Lavender muttered with a sad shake of her head to which Parvati nodded along with apparent sympathy.
Before Thane could ask what either of the girls meant the doors to the dinning hall opened with a bag followed by a shrill voice shrieking out, “Troll! There’s a troll in the castle!! There’s a troll in the castle!!”
Thane looked over just in time to see Professor Quirell faint, and slump unceremoniously to the floor. A split second later the dining hall delved into chaos with people screaming and panic shouting as if the roof was about to collapse on top of them.
Thane found it quite annoying, maybe if Quirell had come in screaming about a dragon loose in the castle then there would be a reason to panic, ‘The only real threat a troll poses is to your nose.’
Thankfully Dumbledore quickly stood up from his chair and got control of the room, “Everyone calm down, Prefects lead your houses back to their respective common rooms, me and the rest of the professors will handle this matter quickly. In fact I’m positive we can still enjoy some pumpkin pie before it gets cold.”
The ear splitting screams were reduced to loud murmuring as everyone stood and started making their way out of the dining hall directed by their Prefects. But as Thane moved to join Slytherin he saw Harry leaning over to whisper something in Ron’s ear and a concern appeared on the ginger’s freckled face.
Thane narrowed his eyes but didn’t immediately move to intervene instead joining Slytherin once more at the back of the group, but he kept an eye on the duo. Meaning that when they slipped away from the rest of Gryffindor Thane quickly moved to follow them.
After a few seconds the two boys stopped to peer around a corner which is when Thane chose to make himself known, “What are you guys doing?”
Ron and Harry jumped as they spun around to glare at Thane, “Blimey mate give a heads up next time.”
Thane rolled his eyes, “You guys do realize there’s a troll loose right?”
“Hermione doesn’t know that, we’re going to find her and make sure she’s safe,” Harry insisted.
“So logically you went searching on your own putting yourselves in danger, but you didn’t think to tell the Professors?” Thane asked from under raised eyebrows, only to sigh as neither Harry or Ron responded, “Do you even have a method to look for her besides blindly walking around and hoping you don’t stumble into an XXXX beast?”
Thane was met with silence yet again and he could only sigh even harder as he pulled out his spellblade, “Locatio Revelare.”
A bright spark of light shot out of the tip of Thane’s blade that zipped around the corner leaving behind a very visible trail of silver sparkles for them to follow.
“How can you just create spells like that?” Harry asked in wonder as Thane moved to follow the trail, “What are you talking about I didn’t create this spell…you do realize you can learn magic outside of what they teach us in charms class?”
“Yeah but…it’s hard,” Harry replied lamely.
“And you’re the one that took down Voldemort?” Thane asked sarcastically only for Ron to audibly hiss, “Are you mad!? Don’t go throwing that name around!”
Thane opened his mouth to respond only for his nose to curl, making him stop dead in his tracks, “Dear god it’s worse than I thought…”
“What are you-oh my god what is that stench!?” Ron interrupted himself as he gagged and pinched his nose while Harry had a similar reaction.
“That my friend is a troll.”
