(Y/N)'s POV

As I entered, she looked over at me with a scowl, she was writing something down with a quill, as I sat down, she looked at me but continued doing so. "I am glad to see you are doing well (L/N)"

"Thank you, Professor, but if you don't mind me asking, why was I called here? I mean I guess I know but I was hoping maybe you were just going to hand me the transfiguration homework I-" She cut me off with one glance, her eyebrow rising in what I hoped wasn't annoyance.

I decided it was best to try and be quiet and let her elaborate, which she did, much to my horror, "To discuss the incident with the mountain troll, and your punishment" she said coldly, staring at me in the eyes with intensity.

My throat went dry, I expected this, but I was hoping to be let off, I mean, I did beat it. "Now I want you to explain to me, in your own words, why you were there with the troll?" she said staring at me, dropping her quill and crossing her hands between us.

"Why would she ask me that? Didn't the others tell her?" I thought, I tried to think of her reasoning, as I looked into her eyes, it occurred to me, the others must have made up some story as a cover, that was why she was asking me. To see if I would let anything slip.

Looking in her eyes I was sure of it, she was trying to catch me out, I couldn't have spoken to the others yet, they were in class. "Honestly Professor, I don't really remember much, it's all a bit of a blur" I said, barely holding in a grin at my own cleverness.

She did not look impressed. She frowned at me as if saying "Really? you expect me to believe that." It was like I could hear her saying it just from her expression. She sighed, "Very well, as for your punishment, 20 house points will be deducted-."

"TWENTY" I said in utter shock, my irritation with this conversation increasing. "But I knocked it out!" She looked at me sharply. "The ends do not justify the means young man, and see that you consider yourself lucky." 

"This is the second incident of this nature you have been in, you may set a new record" she said, never raising her voice but somehow becoming more stern "If you had any other head of house, you would be half way to Kings Cross already."

I stood up, shaking with anger, sensing this, Bones jumped off my neck onto McGonagall's desk. Before I got a word out, she spoke again. "You were lucky we found you when we did, without intervention from Madam Pomfrey you could have had severe injuries." 

She frowned "And as for your heroics with the troll, they were unnecessary, Staff were already on the scene, including Professor Quirrell, so your...antics will go unrewarded." "So that was the voice I heard, and the robes" I thought.

But this didn't bring me any comfort. "Oh, what was he going to do, faint at it?, smother it in garlic?" I said my anger at a new high. McGonagall retorted quickly, "Professor Quirrell is a highly qualified and is more capable of dealing with trolls than a first year could ever hope to be."

She sounded as calm as ever "So your punishment still stands, and frankly, you should consider yourself lucky to still be alive" with a deep sigh she continued "Your parents have been informed."

"That's not fair, I was protecting my friends, the only reason I had to was because you couldn't find the bloody thing!" There it was again, my mouth taking control before my brain could stop it.

McGonagall sighed again, and started to pet Bones, who was now sprawled out on her lap, despite the mask of calm she wore I could see the fire burning in the Transfiguration teachers' eyes.

"I would do well to remind you not to raise your voice at a member of the staff." She said firmly, but her voice remained level and calm. "Do not let your sharp tongue and explosive temper get you into more trouble" I could tell it was a warning.

"You share these traits with your brother, he found himself in my office quite a few times" she said with a sad smile. "He has nothing to do with this, why does everyone keep bringing it up" I said bitterly, my voice now close to a whisper.

"You are quite right, now back to your punishment, I also want a written apology on my desk at the end of my next class, for the disrespect you have shown to both myself and Professor Quirrell."

"Yes professor." "You may go, I do believe your friends intended to visit you in the hospital wing at the end of this period, perhaps you might meet them halfway" she stood up and handed Bones back to me.

"Before you go, I have a final point to make" I turned, expecting to get another harsh warning. "Well done" she said with a glint in her eye and a smirk on her lips, the same kindness I saw at my sorting on her face.

With newfound energy and confidence, I made sure Bones was comfortable and safely tucked in my robes and sprinted to the end of the corridor near the entrance to the hospital wing, I stayed perched around a corner waiting for my friends to approach. Why? Dunno, fun I guess?

Honestly after a few seconds I felt quite creepy, but this was going to be brilliant so it was worth it. A group of second year Ravenclaw girls spotted me in my secret spot and with a quick shout of "Loser" and a "Weirdo" they left with a giggle. 

To be fair I must have looked a state, tattered robes from my run in with a troll, a cat basically hung around my neck like a scarf, "I would laugh at me" I thought. But I didn't care I was too busy searching the approaching first year crowd, I spotted fleck of red hair.

"Thank god for Ron, he's like a beacon" I thought, I saw Hermione striding next to him, "Target acquired" I said in a whisper, then I put up a finger gun and made my way closer as quietly as I could.

Making my way behind them I was thankful for the other chatting students, they masked my presence, a good thing too because I wasn't the most subtle of people, even crouching down I was taller than some of my peers.

I heard snippets of their conversation as I followed behind them, Hermione was talking about a test, Harry was talking about an upcoming Quidditch match, and Ron, as usual was hanging off his every word.

"Come on, we have to get there before visiting hours end, or Madam Pomfrey will be furious" said Hermione. "Like she needs an excuse" said Ron while Harry nodded along and then added, "I just hope (Y/N) is ok" seeing this as my opportunity I took my shot.

I walked directly behind them and gathered a breath. "Boo" I said quietly but quickly behind them. This worked perfectly, but not on who I expected it to, Harry turned around, wand at the ready, Hermione let out a quick "eep" and turned.

Ron was a whole different story, he let out a loud ear-piercing shriek, it was higher pitched then I thought he could reach and turned more than a few heads to us, it was followed by a signature "Bloody hell."

I continued my joke "Ooh I am a ghost; I have come to haunt you" I said in a cliché ghost voice, waving my arms around. "I find that very offensive" said Professor Binns who just happened to be floating by "A point from Gryffindor."

"Worth it" I said beaming. "You're an idiot" the three said in unison and we made our way to the Gryffindor common room. Then then proceeded to check on me, and fill me in on what I had missed, so in turn I told them about my run in with McGonagall, Hermione was livid.

"TWENTY WHOLE POINTS" She bellowed and started pacing. "Twenty-one now actually" I corrected, counting them on my fingers for added drama, she then stopped and glared daggers at me.

I had expected this and planned accordingly so I walked up to her and said "Here have this." I dangled Bones in front of her and she quickly snatched the feline from my hands and started petting it. 

Bones had a look of betrayal in her golden eyes, so I said, "For today" to which Bones meowed as if saying "Damn right." I rubbed under the kitten's chin, as if I would ever give away my princess to anyone.

The next morning was interesting to say the least. I woke up and got my breakfast as per, but then the owls came to drop off the post, it happened every day, so I paid it no mind. That was until three letters dropped down in front of me.

One was dropped off by my Mothers screech owl Bob, he was grey and looked terribly out of breath, one was from a tawny owl, it was a standard delivery owl, and one was from an eagle-owl I had never seen before.

"Morning Bob." I waved as the bird wheezed and slumped over on the table. I poked it with the back of my fork to check he was alive. Once I saw breathing, I continued. I opened the one from Mum first, it was bright pink; I could tell it was from Mum by the neat handwriting.

 "YOU ARE LUCKY I DIDN'T SEND YOU A HOWLER YOUNG MAN! I received a letter from your head of house saying you had an "incident" with a troll. As soon as you get back you are grounded for a month. Any more "incidents" like these I will pick you up myself!"

I sighed heavily and grumbled. Fighting trolls wasn't illegal...I think. With the hopes of any good summer plans dashed, I read on. "Love Mum. X." I reached the bottom of the letter and saw the fine print.

 "P.S Try not to get into any more trouble and send me a reply ASAP, hope you are doing well and eating enough." Followed by, "P.S.S. Make sure Bob gets a rest before you send him back, he is older than you are."

I sent a quick letter back explaining myself and basically assuring her she didn't have to worry, I went into detail explaining that I used the stunning charm on the troll, how it got there and why I did what I did, I hoped if I explained myself she would be more lenient.

I pulled out the next one, it was plain white, I can tell it was from Dad because of the Muggle stamp in the corner. "Dear (Y/N) I hope this reaches you, I haven't the foggiest how this is supposed to work."

"Assuming it has, I received a strange letter saying something about a troll, and a stupid spell? What are they teaching you at that school? Hope you are ok, let me know what's happening. From (F/N) Bogwood." It then proceeded to list his entire contact information.

I sent him a letter similar to the one I sent to my mum, although most of it was in layman's muggle terms like "Monster" instead of "Troll" and "Magic" instead of "Charm", and I then drew him a diagram of instructions as to how he could send me mail if he wanted, and how I would send it back, I hoped the pictures would help.

I gave both to the tawny owl and paid it, Bob needed a rest, so I told him to go to the owlery, he could go home when he was up to it. He looked relieved to hear it, and had to waddle on the table for a few seconds before he took off again. The eagle-owl wasn't interested, with its job done it flew off to the owlery.

I was about to open the third mysterious green letter when Harry tapped my shoulder with toast in his mouth and mimed to a watch he wasn't wearing, I realised class started soon, so I ran up to the dorm and put the letter in my trunk to open it later and made my way to my lessons.

The next month passed quickly, Harry gained some evidence to support his conspiracy theory about Snape, who now walked with a limp, and I continued advanced Charms lessons.

Although we had taken a break for the holidays after I had cast Rictusempra on Professor Flitwick and he had to sprint to a staff toilet, giggling as he went and concluded that I had covered enough for now.

It was the day of Harry's Quidditch debut, he was looking at some breakfast nervously, me and Seamus were trying to coax him to eat. "Just a nibble, for me" I said with puppy dog eyes, trying to cheer him up, I saw the ends of his mouth twitch upwards.

"I'm not hungry." It had been ten minutes of this stubborn attitude from Harry, so I tried a different approach. "Harry, I swear, you better eat something or the closest you're going to get to a broom today is when I shove the Nimbus up your-"

I stopped as Professor McGonagall cleared her throat while glaring at me from the staff table. But with a burst of laughter from the whole table at my expense, Harry seemed to be in much higher spirits.

The next thing I knew, Hermione was dragging me by the arm up to the stands of the Quidditch pitch, she had charmed a banner to cheer on Harry and seemed very excited. I was not.

I didn't hate Quidditch, loved it actually, and I wanted to cheer on my friend, but there was still a terrible thought lingering in the back of my mind, I couldn't interfere if something went wrong, and I don't know if my safety tips were enough to help Harry.

I got around my nervousness by paying more attention to Lee Jordan's funny commentary, and cheering when I could, these were a way to get me out of my own head, Alicia Spinnet had been put in and I was watching her mostly, she was the easiest to see from where I was.

"Fancy her, do you?" said Ron from beside me as he followed my eyeline, "WHAT? NO!" I defended but he just laughed, my growing blush didn't help my case.

The match was standard, I had seen them a few times before, but every time someone was hit with a Bludger or took as spill off their broom my heart sank, and my hands gripped the ends of the stand until my knuckles turned white.

I caught sight of Harry as Hagrid arrived, he had lost control of his broom, he was hanging on for dear life, I broke out into a cold sweat, my eyes widened and my mouth went dry, as it had done before, but this wasn't a test, this wasn't a troll, my friend was going to fall to his death and I could do nothing to help. Just like before.

I stood there, eyes glued to Harry, I couldn't cast magic at him from this distance even if I wanted to, and the Nimbus was too fast to be accurate with any spell I tried, I was in utter shock, Hermione and Ron discussed something about dark magic and it looked as if she had a revelation.

"Snape, he's jinxing the broom." This snapped me out of my shock as I snatched the binoculars from Hermione rather harshly and looked over at Snape. I saw him, muttering under his breath while looking directly at the broom.

"That evil slimy git." I mumbled under my breath as I stormed off in his direction, Hermione behind me. I shoved anyone in my way to the side, from Susan Bones who looked very offended, to Padma Patil who looked confused, and I was behind Snape in no time. 

I raised my wand "Let's see if you can fly without a broom" I thought, I managed to get out a "Stu-" before Hermione stopped me by basically jumping on my arm, she put her finger to her lips. Reluctantly I complied.

She crept forward and set fire to Snape's robe, then with great effort she dragged me back to the stand we were in, her face giving me a look that said, "We will talk later". It was in this silence that I realised I had hot tears streaming down my face.

By the time we got back I saw Harry stood on his broom, almost on the ground, he jumped from it, to my horror, as he landed he rolled to a standstill and paused, then he coughed something up, he held it up and proclaimed.

"I've got the Snitch." The crowd erupted into a cheer, and the hour or so afterwards was a blur of smiling faces and cheers. Harry strolled up to us beaming once everything had died down and we were invited to Hagrid's hut.

"Didn't take you for a liar Harry" I said as we sat down. "What?" he said in confusion. "You said you weren't hungry" I laughed and patted him on the back. "Plus, I'm pretty sure I didn't cover diving off your broom in my safety tips."

"Yeah, sorry it was the only thing I could think of, though "catching" the Snitch like that was an accident" he said sheepishly. "Is it even legal?" I asked, he shrugged in response.

We had a very eventful time at Hagrid's after that, we told Harry about Snape's attempted murder, though Hermione made no mention of mine, and this caused Hagrid to defend Snape much to my surprise.

However in his flustered state he let slip that the three headed dog or "Fluffy" as it was aptly named was guarding something, something that was connected to Nicolas Flamel. The name was at the tip of my tongue.

 I knew I knew it, much to my frustration, but our trip to Hagrid's was cut short after he beckoned us back to the castle, likely to avoid further interrogation. Ron and Harry went up to bed.

I went to follow when Hermione grabbed the hem of my robe to stop me, a determined look on her face. It was time for our talk. "So, should I sit down for this? Or?" She frowned at me.

Hermione's POV

I didn't want to have to do this, but It was necessary. He knew why I stopped him, a sad look plastered his face, he nodded and sat down on an armchair in front of the fire. I followed slowly as I collected myself, I took a deep breath and got ready to express my concerns.

"Explain" was the only thing I could manage to get out. "I don't have an excuse, you know why I was so mad, you're too clever to pretend you don't ,I wasn't thinking clearly, and it seemed like the only thing I could do to protect Harry."

"You almost killed a teacher!" "He would have been fine, Madam Pomfrey would have sorted him" he scoffed "And your one to talk, you set him on fire." "I set his robes on fire, you almost pushed him off the stands" I corrected.

"If you were caught you could have been sent to Azkaban, you definitely would have been expelled." "I don't think they have cells for 11-year olds, or 12-year olds, for that matter, and mum could probably pull some strings to-" he laughed.

"NO JOKES" I shouted louder then I meant to.  "This isn't something to laugh about, if we had been caught we would have been expelled on the spot, you are one of my best friends and I don't want to lose you because of your bad temper" 

"No matter how mad you were, that was too much." "I'm sorry" he said quietly. He started sobbing, but he tried to stifle his cries to keep from waking anyone, the flames reflecting off his glistening tears and his eyes. 

I could tell he regretted doing what he did, so I decided to leave it at that. "Good now go off to bed you prat, we have lessons tomorrow" I stood up and turned to leave but before I could something snaked around my arms.

"Thank you, Hermione, for doing this" he said while hugging me, he then turned me to face him. "You really are one of the most brilliant people I've ever met" He said with his signature cheesy grin, track marks from his tears still clear on his skin, the light of the fire made it look like they were glowing.

I blushed at the compliment, I don't know why I was so flustered suddenly, but I gave him a quick "Thank you" and sped off. When I got to the girl's dorms Lavender and Parvati were giggling.

Apparently, they had seen the tail end of our exchange as they got up to see where I was. "Cute" they said while making kissing noises to mock me. "Shut up!" I said to them as sternly as I could in my embarrassment, I ran to my bed and buried myself in my covers.