Brooklyn was awoken from his sleep one morning in late October by Ron shaking his body and grinning at him.

"Whaz going on?" He mumbled in a still tired voice.

"It's Halloween, Brooklyn! Aren't you excited?"

The gargoyle simply stared at him blankly, tiredness still in his eyes. Ron let out an exasperated groan.

"You've been talking about it for the past few weeks! Have you forgotten?"

It took a few minutes for Brooklyn to comprehend this when he remembered, and he felt a bit more awake afterward.

"Oh yeah! Did Hagrid bring in the pumpkins?" He exclaimed, sitting up in excitement. He had been looking forward to how the magic humans celebrated this holiday ever since Fred told him about it.

Ron nodded. "Sure did! Hope you can meet us after our classes so we can go to the feast together!"

"I'll be there! Will probably be mostly practicing some new spells while I wait," Brooklyn promised.

It had been a whirlwind for Brooklyn here at Hogwarts ever since the Midnight Duel incident. Malfoy had a surprised look on his face when he saw that they were still at the school, causing Brooklyn to give him a smirk of satisfaction when his plan failed.

Also, later in the morning, Harry had gotten the biggest package of his life that contained a brand new broom, the hyped up Nimbus 2000. Brooklyn himself never thought that something that swept the floor could look so impressive.

Brooklyn spent some of the afternoon during the last classes of the day, which was Charms. He decided to work on the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa. It took him quite a few tries to get it right, which ended in rocks he was levitating to go zooming around the place and smacking into him. But he managed to get it in the end.

And speaking of classes, Brooklyn had made a game of trying to avoid the potions Professor, Snape. The only times they ever had eye contact was at mealtimes and every now and then in hallways, where Snape would give him strange looks. He couldn't decide on what the potions Professor was thinking of him, either hate or something else.

The bell rang, and he met up with his friends and walked out with them. The gargoyle heard from Harry about how Ron had been oneuped by Hermione with the levitation charm.

"She's a total nightmare, honestly!" Ron had claimed while they were walking in the courtyard. "No wonder she hasn't gotten many friends—"

Brooklyn had nudged him sharply in the arm after he spotted Hermione walk past them. And he had seen to his shock that she was crying.

"What?" Ron asked irritably, and he pointed out Hermione to him. For a brief moment, Ron looked pretty guilty.

"She'll get over it, right?" He asked nervously. Harry and Brooklyn glanced at each other.

"Good luck," Brooklyn had said in a sarcastic voice. "I'm going to look for her."

Ron's eyes widened. "Do you have to? What about the feast tonight?" He asked in a nervous voice.

Brooklyn folded his arms. "I need to make sure she's okay. And I do blame you for making her cry in the first place, even if she is a little bossy. No feast is worth it over this." With that, he turned his backs on them and went to find her.

It took him most of the day, but he eventually heard from a girl named Lavender that she had been crying in the girl's bathroom and didn't show up for class. Figuring it couldn't hurt, Brooklyn decided to try his luck there.

He peeked in first, just to make sure there were no other girls in the bathroom, and then went in.

This bathroom has seen better days, Brooklyn thought to himself, casting his eyes around at some of the broken sinks and flooded toilets. He will eventually find out why later.

Soft crying came from the end of the stall and the gargoyle recognized Hermione. He carefully went towards the stall she was in, and knocked.

"Go away!" Sniffled Hermione. Brooklyn winced from the sadness in her voice. He couldn't remember the last time he tried to comfort a girl in this situation. But he had to try.

"Listen, Hermione, I spoke to Ron about this, and I know that he had been a jerk to you, but I came to tell you that I don't think you're too bad. Sure you sometimes get a little carried away with...stuff..."

Geez, that was terrible! He thought, flapping his wings in irritation, but then something better came.

"But something else you should know is that I was proud of you when you used that charm on the door when we couldn't get it open that night. You took charge, and I'm grateful for that."

There was silence in her stall when he finished.

"Th-thank you, Brooklyn." Hermione sniffled. "But I just want to be here for a while."

The gargoyle nodded in understanding. "I'll stay with you until you are ready to come out." He didn't want to leave her alone. So he sat there near the stall, occasionally telling her stories.

About an hour later, both Brooklyn and Hermione were dozing off when suddenly, he felt a sudden large thump. His eyes glowed white and he gave a low growl, looking around for the intruder.

"Hermione, stay put until it's safe," he said to her sharply. He got up and drew his wand, gazing around, until he saw two big ugly feet standing near one of the sinks.

His heart dropped when he looked upward, into the face of a creature that he thought was a myth: a mountain troll, holding a huge wooden club!

The horrible thing cast it's beady eyes about, and sniffed the air. It suddenly smelled Brooklyn, who froze. The Troll growled down at him, raising it's club.

His eyes widened in fear. Oh biscuits! Thinking fast, Brooklyn swiftly dodged the club, and heard splintering wood, and Hermione's screams.

"HERMIONE!" Yelled Brooklyn in terror. If she got hurt on his account—no, he mustn't think that way! He had to get her out!

But there was so much wood debri piled on the floor it was hard for him to find her. Then the door opened and to his relief, it was Harry and Ron.

They both distracted the Troll by throwing wood, and Brooklyn desperately tossed wood aside, trying to unearth Hermione. Then he finally spotted her cowering in the corner, a few pieces on top of her form.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her away to avoid getting cut after removing the wood pieces gently away from her.

Harry then did the craziest stunt Brooklyn had ever witnessed: grabbing the Troll's club, and ended up on the beast's shoulder, ending with him throwing his wand up its nose.

It's gonna be days before I get that image out of my head! Brooklyn thought in disgust as the Troll tried throwing Harry off.

"Do something!" Harry yelled. Ron looked confused and scared, not sure what to do. Brooklyn continued to keep Hermione close to him away from the monster.

"What?" He yelled, clueless.

"Anything!" Harry yelled back in frustration as the Troll nearly had him again. Brooklyn wanted to help, but he had no idea how and he couldn't leave Hermione.

Ron then did something they would never forget.

He raised his wand, and said the first spell that came to his head:

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The Troll tried swinging it's club at Harry again, but it slipped out of his hands. It gazed down at it's empty grip for a moment, before the club came cracking down on its head, making it drop Harry harmlessly to the floor.

The Troll swayed on its feet for a few minutes, then fell to the floor, out cold.

Hermione looked scared still, holding Brooklyn's hand as they both came forward.

"Is it-dead?" Hermione asked nervously. Harry shook his head. "No, just knocked out."

She then turned to Brooklyn, her eyes shining with tears of gratitude, and gave Brooklyn a big hug, which he returned.

Footsteps suddenly came their way and the teachers, McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, and Quirrell were there.

Now we're in trouble! Brooklyn thought in dread. McGonagall was yelling in disapproval at Harry and Ron until Hermione did the most honorable thing for them ever.

"It's my fault, Professor."

Brooklyn's mouth fell open in disbelief. Hermione just told a straight lie to a teacher?

"I thought I could handle the troll myself, but I was wrong. Brooklyn bravely tried to save me. If Harry and Ron haven't arrived on time to help us, we'd be dead right now."

McGonagall looked at her with sharp eyes.

"Be that as it may, I am very disappointed in you, Miss Granger. 5 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgement."

She then turned to Ron, Harry, and Brooklyn. "And as for you three, you should be very lucky. Nobody can take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. 5 points will be rewarded to each of you for sheer dumb luck!"

After that, she turned on her heels and left, leaving the foursome to be exited out by Quirrell. Brooklyn then noticed that Snape's leg was bloody and he limped when he walked.

I wonder... Brooklyn pondered to himself, remembering that Harry mentioned a special item taken out of a vault in Gringotts and that the bank was broken into shortly afterward.

Snape noticed him staring and gave him a cold look. Brooklyn decided to ask what happened, even though he had been trying to avoid to have to talk to him for the past few months.

"So...what happened to your leg?" He asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could.

"Mind your own business, gargoyle," hissed Snape, eyes flaring with hate, and he went down another hallway away from the others.

Brooklyn shrugged and caught up with the others. Just as I suspected, he thought. But he didn't let it frustrate him, though. He expected it anyway.

The four of them walked down the corridor together when all the teachers were gone and spoke with each other.

"So, Ron, do you have anything to say?" Brooklyn questioned in an accusing tone. Ron's face blushed in shame.

"Well?" Harry persisted and Ron finally gave in.

"Sorry about how I was acting, Hermione," He mumbled.

Hermione smiled at him. "Well, you saved me, and that earned my respect. I forgive you."

She looked over at Brooklyn. "And Brooklyn, thank you for trying to comfort me. You really didn't need to, you know."

Brooklyn simply shrugged. "Well, because we're friends, right?"

Hermione's face looked shocked, but pleased. Harry also smiled at her as the three humans and gargoyle now friends for life continued on together, ready to face new challenges that would come their way.