“Think about it. It would be the perfect time to test out some of the secret passages!” Mikaela said excitedly. 

“Do wizards even celebrate halloween?” I asked. “What’s the point of trick-or-treating if you’re actually a wizard?”

“You didn’t even notice all the decorations that have been up all week, did you?” Mikaela measured three scoops of billywig jelly and plopped it into the bubbling cauldron.

“Four fireflies, Longbottom, not five!” Snape reprimanded across the room.

“Well, I’ve been busy, because of Mcgonagall and her unfair homework.” I said, ignoring Neville.

“It’s just you. You’re the only one that thinks it’s unfair.”

“But what’s the point of making us do all those charts and write all those stupid essays?” I complained.

“If you do the charts, you’ll do better on the tests.” Mikaela said. “I don’t like them either, but they’re actually sort of helpful sometimes.” She mixed in some lemon essence, and I stirred helpfully.

“I find them rather enjoyable, actually.” Hermione chimed in from a few tables over. “They make memorizing the information much easier.”

“Well, they’re stupid.” I said. I looked back at Mikaela and changed the subject. “So, halloween. We’re going to go exploring the bowels of the castle.”  

Mikaela laughed at the word bowels. 

“Yes. I think we should try out at least three passages, but we could aim for four.”

The sound of hundreds of marbles falling at once broke through the potions room, and Snape started yelling at Neville again:

“Longbottom! For each kneazle eye you have just spilled, I will remove a point from your house, since you continue to be so insufferably incompetent.”

Mikaela continued.

“Everyone will be at the halloween feast, including all the ghosts, which will be perfect for sneaking around the school.”

“What if we get caught?” I asked. “Or what if we end up someplace we aren’t supposed to be, like, say, a boys bathroom?”

“No one will be there to catch us, which is why the plan is so perfect!” Mikaela enthused.

“Wingardium Leviosa,” I whispered, trying to levitate our own cup of kneazle eyes and dip it into the cauldron. We had just learned the levitation charm earlier, and I was making sure to use it on as many objects as possible.

“You’re not allowed to use wands in this class, Madeline.” Hermione reminded me annoyingly.

“You’re not allowed to use butts in this class.” I said smartly. 

“Aw, be nice.” Mikaela said through stifled laughter.

“Aw, be butts.” I replied.

The ensuing giggling caused my spell to break, and my cup of kneazle eyes toppled neatly into the cauldron.

“Quiet.” Snape reprimanded. “Wands away, Johnson.”

“Yep. Sorry.” I said.

As per the plan, after classes ended we met up in the library to make the plan. We decided to first try the passage marked up near the Charms classroom, behind one of the paintings.

“We’ll see where we end up from there,” Mikaela said.

After waiting for everyone to get down to the feast, we made our way secretly up to the Charms corridor. The key to get into the secret passage was, as illustrated by the wonderful Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, the password “hopscotch”.

The painting swung wide open, and Mikaela followed me down two large steps that we had to physically climb down in order to reach the little room at the bottom. It was surprisingly well-lit, but didn’t seem to go anywhere. There were the remains of what might have once been a doorway, and they were crumbled and caved in. The only objects in the room were several very old and worn-out advanced transfiguration textbooks.

“Why would anyone want to hide those down here?” Mikaela wondered.

“Agh. I bet the Marauders were all nerds, who used to study secretly down here after-hours.”

“Nothing wrong with being a nerd.” She said, climbing back up the steps.

“Unless you’re a transfiguration nerd.” I countered.

The next passage we tried was behind a tapestry on the fourth floor. This one actually led us around in circles for quite awhile. It felt like we were winding up a steep hill, slowly. We ended up in a room I’d never seen before.

“I like this place!” I said joyfully.

“I’ve never been in here before. I wonder what it’s for?”

There were rugs all over the floor, and crystal balls lay around. Everything smelled like incense. Weird tapestries hung about, and diagrams of stars were stapled to the walls. There were piles of books and papers laying around haphazardly.

“Can this be my personal common room?” I asked.

“Ssh!” Mikaela shushed. She pointed at a tall and skinny little woman asleep in a chair in the corner, wrapped up in shawls. Her enormous glasses sat just at the tip of her nose.

“Who is she?” I whispered.

“I heard the Weasleys talking about a Divination class. I think this might be it.”

“Let’s go.” I said, glancing back at the sleeper.

Before we climbed back into the secret passage, I crept over to the sleeping lady and pushed her glasses back onto her face. She snorted, but didn’t wake up.

The third passage we tried was the one just outside the Great Hall. This one was the most risky attempt yet, as everyone was just on the other side of the door, laughing and eating. We climbed down the dark staircase, which seemed very steep. The passage shut behind us, and Mikaela held up her wand and cast lumos. We were in a tunnel, like the one underneath the gargoyle, except it forked off in lots of different places. We had hit the motherlode; this passage went to at least four different locations. We picked a random direction and headed that way, but came to a collapsed wall. We turned back and tried a different direction. This one led down another set of stairs, and weirdly there was janitorial equipment laying around.

“What do you think that’s for?” I asked, guessing the answer and feeling dread.

“Maybe Filch uses this tunnel sometimes. Like, to store old equipment, or something. He probably never even comes down here.” Mikaela reassured herself.

“How do you know for sure?” I asked.

“Seems that way.” She replied.

“But do you know for a fact that he’s not down here?” I demanded.

“No! How would I know that?” 

“Let’s get out of here as fast as we can.” I said.

We found a door that led into the dungeons, just a corridor away from the Potions  classroom. 

“Wouldn’t it be awful if Snape was lurking around?” Mikaela whispered.

“Nah, he loves us.” I said as I pulled out the map.

“No, he doesn’t.”

Snape was nowhere to be found on the map. Instead, Professor Quirrell was hanging around near the entrance, which struck me as odd.

“What’s he doing down here?” I asked aloud.

Just then, a horrible rumble shook the dungeons. I gasped, and Mikaela covered her head, apparently expecting a cave-in. Instead, an enormous walking shadow broke through the archway, scattering pieces of stone every which-way. As the giant thing came into light, I recognized it from Fantastic Beasts. I remembered it specifically because I had drawn several pictures of the creature with Crabbe or Goyle’s haircuts.

“Mountain troll!” I screamed.

The troll spun its ugly warty head toward the noise. It had a tiny head for such an enormous body, but it still looked horrific. 

“RUN!” Mikaela shrieked, and we ran. We ran right past the smelly creature, which seemed too slow and stupid to do anything about it. It roared and swung its club in frustration.

“Professor Quirrell!” Mikaela yelled. Quirrell was making his way up the staircase, and jumped as she said his name.

“Oh- Oh my!” He said. His eyes were huge and darted from Mikaela to me in fright.

“There’s a troll-- there’s a troll down here!” I gasped.

“Wh-what are you t-two doing in the dungeons at this hour?” He squeaked. 

“You have to get it! You have to stop it before it’s too late!” I yelled at him.

“Oh! Yes! But I’ll have to get h-help first, trolls are very t-t-tricky!” He turned around and hurried back up the staircase, muttering to himself in high tones.

Mikaela and I watched him, and we exchanged a glance.

“Wait! What about us?!” Mikaela called finally, but Quirrell was gone.

The troll had lumbered back down the corridor, and made a growling noise when it spotted us.

“Go! Go!” I shouted, pushing Mikaela out of the way. I have a very powerful flight-or-fight response. My own legs had turned into jello, but I still managed to stumble up the staircase. We ran like antelopes being chased by a lion, or like antelopes being chased by a troll, because frankly I had no idea where mountain trolls lived.

“Down the hall!” I shouted. We turned a quick corner. The troll was gaining on us. “Hide behind these plants!” I whispered, ducking behind a large fern.

“What? It’ll see us!” Mikaela argued, though she had also ducked behind a plant.

“They have really poor eyesight. Just stay still. Ssh!”

The troll lumbered into the hallway, and looked around stupidly. I held my breath and shut my eyes. I opened them after I heard the heavy thunk thunk thunk of troll footsteps pass by me. The troll had apparently lost interest. Mikaela was peeking out from behind the fern, watching as the troll wandered into the girls bathroom. The door swung shut behind it, and Mikaela and I exchanged a glance.

“I guess it’s a she.” she said quietly

Before the troll could return from the ladies’ room, I bolted. Mikaela followed me, looking back nervously. 

“Should we tell someone?” Mikaela huffed as we ran.

“Yeah, sure, maybe? Let’s just get out of here!”

“We have to warn the teachers!”

“Fine!” I ran out of breath. 

We met the teachers rushing in a flock down the hallway, and skidded to a halt.

“Miss McParlan! Miss Johnson! Why on earth aren’t you two with your prefects?” McGonagall demanded. 

“The girls bathroom! It’s in the bathroom!” Mikaela wheezed. I fell over, feeling done with life.

“Where are Potter, Weasley, and Granger?” McGonagall asked.

“We don’t know, we didn’t see them!” I said defensively. 

“You two stay right here.” She commanded, and the flock was off. I looked desperately at Snape, who wasn’t even paying attention to me. Dumbledore gave us a slight nod.

“We’re dead.” I said. “Public school.”

Except luckily for us, McGonagall just never came back. The next day, we found out that Potter (of course, it’s always Potter) and Weasley and Granger fought the troll and were able to knock it out. I assumed that the sight was so shocking to the teachers that they just forgot about us waiting around in the corridor. We were there for two hours, until Peeves showed up and started lobbing stolen shoes at us.