Chapter 122

The girls’ bathroom was cold, the stall was cold.

The stench spread like despair.

Hermione knew she was doomed; only now did she realize how foolish she had been.

In the Room of Requirement, she had so many friends, so many precious friends… yet she had wept in this bathroom, shut away, grieving over people who didn’t matter.

The heavy thud of the troll’s massive feet dragging across the floor was unmistakable nearby,

but Wizard Sean came faster than the troll:

“Don’t be afraid, Hermione, take my hand.”

She stared in disbelief ahead—Wizard Sean’s body blocked the shadow behind the door.

Wizard Sean slowly helped Hermione to her feet, then used Transfiguration to turn another stall door into a stool for her to sit on.

But that meant he was now fully exposed to the troll’s view.

“Wizard Sean! Watch out!”

Seeing the troll raise its club, Hermione screamed with strength she didn’t know she had.

“Stay inside. If you come out, I’ll lose focus.”

Wizard Sean said his final words, then shut the stall door.

The troll’s massive club slashed through the air with a sharp whistle, its shadow swallowing Wizard Sean whole.

Facing this behemoth, Wizard Sean suddenly wondered if Ron’s idea of knocking him out with a club was too fairy-tale-ish.

In this situation, for Wizard Sean to use a Levitation Charm to take the club away was as impossible as levitating a tree out of the ground.

But…

“Flipendo! (Repel them three feet!)”

【You practiced the Disarming Charm to an expert standard. Proficiency +50】

A bright flash vanished instantly—the troll’s club, as if blocked by invisible hands, had barely begun its downward swing when it jerked violently upward.

At that moment, Wizard Sean paused, and began an untimely self-reflection.

Why did I think of the Disarming Charm first?

Am I… really the Dark Lord?

Seeing the troll still moving, Wizard Sean swung his wand—the wooden door of stall three transformed into two eagles that let out a piercing cry before diving at the troll.

In an instant, they pecked out one of its eyes.

Behind him, Wizard Sean’s breathing grew slightly heavy, but he didn’t stop—Disarming and Levitation Charms tugged relentlessly at the troll’s club.

Soon, the club was in Wizard Sean’s hands.

After a moment’s thought, Wizard Sean used Levitation to move every wooden stall door except Hermione’s over to him,

just as the troll finally shook off the eagles—it faced a club three times its original size.

Unsurprisingly, it met its great-great-grandmother.

If it had one.

Only when the troll’s massive body crashed against the door, its coconut-like bald head flattened into a 2D silhouette, did Wizard Sean slowly enter the stall.

He heard noise outside the bathroom—Hermione’s tear-streaked face was hardly presentable, so he handed her a tissue.

But why did I do that so naturally…

Wizard Sean began reflecting again.

Maybe it’s because I saw too many dead people in the orphanage,

he thought.

Inside the stall.

The moment she saw Wizard Sean’s face, Hermione lowered her wand, stared at him for a long moment, then realized a few tears still clung to her lashes.

“You’re so late…”

She whispered, trembling, as if pouring all her grievances and worries for her friends into those words.

“Yeah, my fault.”

Wizard Sean said softly, and handed her the tissue.

“No! It’s my fault! How could I care about those idiots’ words and forget my true friends!”

Hermione thought she had cried all her tears away—yet seeing Wizard Sean rush here despite the danger, she found even more grievances to release.

…

At the door.

Hearing the loud “boom,” the door wouldn’t open—Jia Jia Siting and Neville panicked like ants on a hot pan.

“Use Alohomora!”

Harry ran from the corridor, beside him pale-faced Ron.

“Can you do it? I’ll try…”

Ron’s hand trembled as he raised his wand, yet he spoke the incantation steadily, as if his potential had been unlocked in this crisis.

The lock clicked—the group knew it was open, but the door still wouldn’t budge.

As if something blocked it from the inside.

Jia Jia Siting’s eyes turned red; he roared and punched the door—Neville, understanding his intent, punched it too.

Ron charged in with a yell—and promptly screamed and collapsed inside…

Wizard Sean opened the door and saw Ron sprawled atop the troll’s corpse, momentarily stunned.

“Ron!”

Harry cried out—Ron’s condition was terrible; his face was pressed against the troll’s 2D head.

“Ugh…”

Ron groggily rose from the ground, saw the troll’s flattened head, shrieked, and fainted again.

Inside the room, the six stood around the troll, silent.

“Wizard Sean, are you and Hermione alright?”

Jia Jia Siting first checked Wizard Sean and Hermione, confirmed they were unharmed, then let out a heavy sigh.

Neville trembled again, too scared to even glance at the troll.

Harry shook Ron awake; both stared at Hermione with complex expressions, then stole glances at Wizard Sean.

“We’re fine.”

Wizard Sean smiled.

Hermione looked at the concerned faces around her; the offensive words Ron and Harry had spoken earlier vanished from her mind.

They had actually… risked their lives to find her.

At the same time, she frowned at Jia Jia Siting and Neville, silently offering them tissues—their hands were bleeding from punching the door.

“Good… so, is that rumor true?”

Jia Jia Siting wiped his hands, then cautiously asked,

“That you fought a troll alone, defeated a werewolf bare-handed…”

“Oh my god, Professor Snape really gave you ten Jin Jin Jialong and cooked you two dishes?!”

Harry’s focus always wandered whenever Snape was mentioned.

At the door.

Professor McGonagall’s stern face held a strange expression; Professor Snape’s gaze looked murderous.

“Harry Potter! How dare you openly break school rules! What trick are you playing?!”

He strode in, his piercing glare slicing through Harry, voice thick with icy fury,

“Even if you were lucky enough not to be killed by it, why didn’t you stay in your dormitory? Our great celebrity, thinking you could defeat a troll?!”

But as he looked down at the troll, his expression changed, locking instantly onto the cautious little wizard.

Wizard Sean lowered his head—he instinctively felt professors were more terrifying than trolls.

Snape’s voice squeezed from his throat, choked with suppressed rage,

“Ravenclaw loses one hundred points! Wizard Sean Green! You dared to go looking for a troll?! Do you really think you are a troll?!

Let me tell you this unfortunate truth—trolls fight each other too!”