Tanya Degurechaff’s Hogwarts Adventure

Harry Potter

Two months seemed to have flown by so quickly when Harry realized it was already Halloween. The regular study sessions, quidditch three times a week, and dueling club weekly filled up his time to the point Harry was having difficulty telling how much time was even passing. Harry was slightly upset his two best friends couldn't share the extracurricular activities with him. Ron couldn't participate in the quidditch practice because he wasn't on the team and Tanya refused to join the dueling club. When Harry had asked why she didn't show for his duel or join the club, she told him that she wanted a peaceful life away from unnecessary violence.

The way she said that made Harry think she had a bad experience before she arrived at Hogwarts and was trying to make a fresh start at her new home. Something Harry fully understood as Hogwarts felt more like home than the Dursley's ever did. Harry hoped that Tanya was feeling as at home as he was.

As the first years traveled through the corridors towards breakfast, it certainly smelled homey with the sweet-spicy smell of pumpkins baking filling the castle. Even better than that, when they arrived for charms class, Professor Flitwick announced that he believed the class was ready to make objects fly, something everyone had been looking forwards to since the professor made Neville's toad fly around the room.

The class was divided into pairs with Flitwick selecting the partners. Harry was with Seamus, Tanya was with Lily, and Ron was with Hermione. It was hard to tell what Tanya thought of her partner, but Lily seemed happy about the situation. It was harder to tell between Ron and Hermione who was more upset about their partner. The two had been butting heads constantly during the study sessions over Ron's attitude to the sessions and doing the homework right away when they could push it off till later and play some chess or something. They never got to the point of yelling at each other, but the tension between the two was thick.

The spell was difficult. You had to do the swish and flick of the wand just right while pronouncing the words. Neither Harry nor Seamus had much luck and out of frustration, Seamus poked the feather, lighting it on fire. Harry managed to put out the fire with his hat. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Tanya was helping Lily with her wand movement as they said the spell repeatedly, slowly and deliberately.

Out of the other corner of his eye, Harry saw Ron was having about as much luck as Seamus and him, only Ron seemed to be taking it worse with Hermione's attempts to help him.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Ms. Granger's done it!"

Ron was in a very sour mood by the end of the class. "It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Hermione ran past, bumping into Harry with tears in her eyes. Before Harry could say anything, he felt every hair in his body raise suddenly.

"Ron. We will be having a discussion later," Tanya said. That tone scared Harry on Ron's behalf and he could not explain why.

"Why does she want that?" Ron asked as Tanya followed after Hermione.

"I think they both heard you."

"So?" Ron said, trying to brush it off, but looking uncomfortable. "They must have noticed Hermione has no friends."

Harry shook his head as they continued their day.

Neither Hermione nor Tanya were seen during their next class or the rest of the afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati telling Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and Tanya was trying to calm her down despite Hermione's repeated requests to be left alone. Ron looked rather guilty at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione's problems out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.

Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll, in the dungeons… Thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

The hall broke out into an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Ron's brother Percy was in his element as he directed the first years to follow him up the stairs to the Common Room.

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought, Tanya and Hermione."

"What about them?"

"They don't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip. "Oh, all right," he agreed. "But Percy'd better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin.

Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and
disappeared from view.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

"Search me."

Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's footsteps faded in the distance. Harry could feel the hairs on his neck beginning to raise as they got closer to the girls' room.

They were about to turn the corner when they heard a loud crashing sound followed by a roar and a bang before the roar was abruptly cut off. The two boys snuck up to the corner and peaked around.

"Bloody hell," Ron wheezed out as the smell caught them full force. A smell that was a horrendous as the scene they stumbled upon. The troll was dead.

It was missing its leg, a large tree trunk stuck in the floor where the missing limb sat.

It was missing its heart, a messy hole oozing blood in the center of its chest.

It was missing its head. Its head was being held in Tanya's hand, looking at its corpse, before she dropped it to the ground with a moist splatter.

Tanya was soaked in blood, her robes wet and drips falling from her hat. Even her wand, gripped in hand, was dripping blood.

A whimper caught the boys' attention, showing a cowering Hermione that Tanya was moving towards.

"The fight is over," Tanya said in a soft voice. Harry was tempted to call it soothing if not for the grisly sight behind the girls.

Footsteps suddenly came up from behind the boys and they turned to see McGonagall followed shortly by Snape.

"What on earth are you two doing here? Why aren't you in your dormitory?" McGonagall's lips were pressed tight and white while her eyes were burning fire.

Harry tried to move his mouth to answer while Ron gulped.

"Well?"

"Hello professors," Tanya said as she came around the corner, helping Hermione who looked shaken. One look at Tanya and all the color drained out of McGonagall's face and the fire in her eyes died as she rushed to check Tanya over.

"What happened? Oh dear, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. None of the blood is mine. Some creature was making a ruckus and it was a bit harder to deal with it than I initially thought."

Harry did not think Snape could get any paler, but when the professor look around the corner and saw the troll the little color he had drained out of his face.

"Ms. Degurechaff, are you saying you took out the troll?" Snape asked, still looking at the mess.

"Is that what that was?"

"Why were you out of your dormitory?" McGonagall asked.

"Ron made a comment that upset Hermione off during a … sensitive time of the month. I felt that I should keep her company and try to help her calm down. I am sorry for losing track of time, I had not realized we were in there so long that curfew came into effect."

Harry didn't know why Hermione was suddenly blushing, but the professor was nodding as if she understood and gave Hermione a sympathetic look. "You did not miss curfew, but you did miss the start of the feast and the announcement that a troll had managed to get into the castle and that all students were to go back to their dorms."

"Good. I could use a good shower," Tanya said with a smile.

"And what about you two? Why were the two of you not in your dorms?" Professor Snape asked as he looked towards Harry and Ron.

Having had a chance to calm down, Harry was able to answer, "We knew Tanya and Hermione weren't at the feast, so after the troll was announced, we went to find them and warn them."

"A bit late to do that it would seem," Snape scowled at the boys.

"Indeed. And you boys should have told a teacher or prefect about the issue and not wandered off on your own. Five points each from Gryffindor for irresponsible behavior. As for you Ms. Degurechaff, twenty points to Gryffindor for helping your housemate in a difficult time and for sheer blind luck."

Tanya cocked her head and Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise.

"What luck? I was never at any risk and I ensured Hermione was at a safe distance."

"For taking out the troll with whatever, what is it?" McGonagall asked Snape as he shook his head.

"I can tell from the remains, Ms. Degurechaff was rather deliberate in her methods. Messy, but deliberate."

"I'm sorry Professor, but normally creatures die if they no longer have a heart to pump blood."

McGonagall's face grew ashen as she finally looked around the corner.

"But it would appear showing it its missing heart did the trick."

"Ms. Degurechaff, I will be letting Dumbledore know about this. For now, all of you return to your dorms. The students are finishing the feast there."

"Thank you Professor."

The wet squelching of Tanya's shoes followed them as they walked back to the Gryffindor Tower.

—-

Hermione Granger

The first two months at Hogwarts had been awful. While she got to spend plenty of time with her classmates outside of class thanks to the study groups that Tanya helped setup, Hermione was still without any friends. No one really seemed to want her around. She was trying so hard to fit in with the other girls and she could tell she was only being tolerated.

The idea of writing home asking to leave had been crossing her mind and Ron's insensitive comment just snapped something in her and Hermione had to go find a place to cry. She just wanted to be left alone and Tanya refused to do so. Hermione didn't know why Tanya stayed and talked while Hermione cried, but it was appreciated, even though Hermione tried to push her away.

Eventually, Tanya convinced Hermione it was going to be fine and they left the bathroom together, only to be confronted by a horrible smell akin to raw sewage. Around the corner came a troll, swinging its club. Tanya attempted to talk to it, but the troll just attacked.

The next thing Hermione knew, she has been pushed out of the way and Tanya was fighting the troll. Tanya was putting herself in harm's way on Hermione's behalf and all Hermione could do was freeze up. Hermione was frozen up and Tanya seemed a bit excited as she dismantled the troll piece by piece until it stopped moving. Then the fighting was over so quickly and Tanya was helping Hermione, helping like she had been trying to all day. Helping even when Hermione was trying to push her away.

Helped Hermione find a seat in the Common Room even though all eyes were on them in the packed room.

"What happened to Tanya?" Deans voice called out from the crowd.

"She killed a troll," Hermione answered.

"How'd the little firstie kill a troll?" One of the older students Hermione had not gotten to know yet asked.

"She ripped out its heart, but that only made the troll angry, but when the troll tried to hit her with its club, she pulled the club out of its hands and crushed its leg. Then she used her wand to cut off its head."

"Cutting charms do not work on trolls," Percy said. "They are magically resistant."

Hermione shook her head. "No. She didn't use a spell, she took out her wand and used it to cut off its head."

The Common Room was silent for a moment before Hermione got bombarded with questions that she did her best to answer. At some point, Harry handed a plate of food to her and told everyone that she was probably hungry and needed to eat.

Hermione gave Harry a grateful smile before digging in.

The conversation drifted for a bit after that until Tanya came down wearing clean, casual clothes and her hair wrapped in a towel, her wand and wand polishing kit with her. As soon as she was spotted, a voice called out asking how she managed to cut off the troll's head.

"Magic." Tanya moved to begin making a plate of food.

"You use that excuse all the time," Lavender yelled out. "How'd you do it?"

"Emit mana at a waveform of three hundred hertz with an amplitude of five cenna within a flattened ellipsoid with a sharpen great ellipse of less than point one two millimeters in thickness with point zero zero two being a more preferable upper bound."

The entire house was silent at that explanation. Hermione barely understood what Tanya said and could not figure out how that translated into what she did.

After a moment, Tanya looked up and saw the confused looks she was getting. "Like I said, magic."

"If you hadn't just killed a troll, I would think you should be in Ravenclaw," someone said.

"The Hat said I would fit well into any of the houses. It chose to place me here."

—-

Albus Dumbledore

Albus knew he should have gone to see to the student from the orphanage himself. While not always as bad as Tom was, they were almost always the young witches and wizards with the most unusual paths through Hogwarts. He could have gotten a look at her. Seen early on if she was going to be another Tom before something happened. She was sorted into Gryffindor, which put Albus's mind at ease. And she was friends with young Mr. Potter which filled his heart with joy that they had both found a friend.

And then she kills something in a horrifically brutal manner. Thankfully this time it was only a troll, but there might be other creatures she killed at the orphanage that Charity had missed noticing. The situation was concerning and he needed to talk to the young witch to hopefully head her off from going down a dark path.

The morning after during breakfast, Albus made a simple announcement. "The corridor on the second floor near the girl's room is closed until it is cleaned and repaired unless you wish to meet a most horrible stench."

Afterwards, McGonagall informed Ms Degurechaff to meet him in his office. Her arrival was rather swift and Albus welcomed her into his office with a kind smile. He wanted to encourage she stayed on the path of the light, not frighten her into anything drastic.

"Welcome. Lemon sherbet?" Albus offered up his bowl of sweets to her.

"No thank you, sir. I am not a fan of sour sweets." Albus nodded to himself. He knew his fondness of sour was not as widely shared as he would have liked.

"Quite alright. What sort of sweets do you prefer then?" Dumbledore motioned for Ms. Degurechaff to take a seat which she gracefully did.

"Sweet and bitter."

"Oh? Not too many kids your age enjoy bitter sweets." Indeed, it was not popular among most people Albus knew to enjoy bitter flavors.

Ms. Degurechaff smiled as she thought of something. "A good dark chocolate can be rather divine. Particularly with a good cup of coffee."

Albus gave a chuckle. The elves had been at work making coffee lately and trying to improve at it. Dumbledore had thought one of the fifth or sixth years had gotten a taste for it over the summer and were trying to seem cool for bucking the trend of enjoying a nice cuppa tea. "I'm sure. I'll keep that in mind the next time I invite you up to my office. Now, do you know why I called you here?"

Ms. Degurechaff gave a nod, a smile on her lips that Albus had seen on several politicians trying to get something out of him. "Is it about the troll, sir?"

Albus removed the smile from his face and steepled his hands as he looked at the young lady across from him. "Yes, and how you are feeling about killing it."

"I am fine sir."

That was what Dumbledore feared. No one should be so casual about killing.

"Are you sure? No regrets about it?"

Tanya shook her head and gave Dumbledore another smile. A different one he couldn't read.

"No sir. I did what was needed to protect Hermione."

There was no deception. Albus could read surface thoughts easily enough to know when someone was being honest or lying without actively digging deep into their minds and Ms. Degurechaff honestly felt no regret for protecting another. Dumbledore felt a huge relief that there was still light within her.

"Protect Hermione, but not yourself?"

Dumbledore needed to see how much light was in there and if it could be fanned to help prevent another promising student from pursuing dark aims.

"I was never at any risk, sir."

A rather fair point that she demonstrated she was fully capable of taking on a troll by herself without any harm coming to her or Ms. Granger.

"No, I suppose you were not. And if she was not there, would you regret killing the troll?"

Perhaps a hypothetical would get the answers Albus wanted.

"No sir. If a dangerous beast breaks in and is a danger to the children here, I would not regret putting the creature down. Losing any human life would be far more regrettable than losing the life of some beast that cannot properly communicate with us."

Albus smiled. No deception at all. Her wording was a little funny, but it was good to know she was following the knightly conduct Godric Gryffindor wanted out of his namesake house.

"Very well. It is good to know you are doing well. If you ever need to talk about this or any other issue, know that my office door is always open."

It was unfortunate that none of the students ever seemed to take him up on his open door policy, but Albus supposed his legend and position did make him difficult to approach over minor details that the other faculty members could take care of.

"Thank you sir."

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

The Headmaster doubling as the school counselor made a surprising amount of sense considering the small population of students and how he likely had plenty of time during regular class time to conclude what administrative duties he needed to perform. It also gave off a very caring image that he wanted to speak immediately after what would normally be a rather traumatizing event for the less capable individuals.