Chapter 16 Hermione and the Troll

When he hurriedly ran downstairs, Maca saw Quirrell stumbling towards the dining hall. He ran up from the stairs leading to the basement and quickly disappeared around the corner, seemingly not noticing Maca on the second-floor stairs.

"Salute to the King of Shadows." Maca saluted while running, his body straightened, and he quickly arrived in the basement corridor.

As soon as he arrived there, he caught a whiff of a combination of two months' worth of unwashed socks and the stench of an ancient toilet.

"This smell mixed with the pumpkin scent throughout the castle is truly unbearable."

Maca looked up and saw the giant creature in the corridor, but it didn't seem to notice him.

"Stupefy!" Maca pulled out his wand and cast a stunning spell at it.

"Bang!"

The giant creature fell down, but it surprised Maca for a moment. He remembered that the book mentioned the creature's resistance to magic, so it shouldn't have been knocked out so easily.

While Maca was contemplating, the giant creature struggled and got up again. It seemed that Maca's memory was correct; the creature's magical resistance was indeed inherited from giants, a significant characteristic.

Furthermore, Maca witnessed the creature's second characteristic—its lack of intelligence.

It looked around and seemed not to have noticed its attacker in the dimly lit basement corridor. Instead, it squeezed forcefully into a nearby door as if it had heard something.

Immediately, Maca heard a piercing scream of terror.

"His intelligence is even lower than I imagined. It seems like the book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' needs to be revised again; the descriptions are too vague." Maca complained to himself as he hurriedly ran toward the source of the scream.

"Hermione!"

Arriving at the door, Maca immediately saw Hermione crouched under the washbasin, trembling in fear.

The giant creature evidently hadn't noticed the additional person behind it. It was approaching Hermione with big strides, and its large club was about to strike her. The situation was clearly dire, and there was no time for levitation spells.

"Serpensortia!" In a rush, Maca aimed at the club in its hand and cast a blasting spell.

The large club slipped out of the giant creature's hand and flew past Hermione's hair. It bounced off the wall corner, crashing into the restroom stall and knocking down a large section of the partition.

"Reducio!"

While the giant creature was still stunned by the loss of its club, Maca aimed at its neck and struck with all his might.

With a loud "bang," a bowl-sized cavity appeared at the back of the creature's neck, oozing bloody fragments, revealing shattered vertebrae.

The giant creature's massive body swayed and then crashed to the ground, twitching a few times.

"Phew." Maca couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "If I had hit it elsewhere, it probably would have been just a chunk of flesh. No wonder this big guy is known for its tough skin and thick flesh!"

"Ugh... Maca!" Hermione looked terrified and suddenly threw herself into Maca's arms.

Feeling the warmth of her embrace, Maca couldn't help but wonder, "At what grade did she start developing?"

"Cough, it's alright now. Everything's fine." Sensing the trembling girl in his arms, he temporarily suppressed his wandering thoughts and comforted her.

Speaking of which, Maca didn't have any special feelings towards this know-it-all miss, even when she grew up. But who would refuse the advances of a female protagonist who voluntarily throws herself at you? Although the current situation had a reason behind it, it.

"Hmph, impressive power, but can you explain where you learned it?" Severus Snape stared at Maca with a dark expression. "I don't think first-year textbooks have any curses in them, do they?"

Professor McGonagall turned around and glanced at the giant creature's wound, which was still gushing with blood.

"...I learned it on my own," Maca had to reveal the truth.

In the rush of the moment, he didn't have time to think much and just instinctively chose a suitable spell. At this point, he could only be glad that he was far from mastering Unforgivable Curses! Otherwise, if he had inadvertently cast the Killing Curse, he would probably have to deal with Dementors in Azkaban.

"Goodness! You're only in first year!"

Professor McGonagall seemed to have just snapped out of it. She hurried over and examined Maca from head to toe, seemingly more concerned about his well-being than the spell he used.

"...Maca."

Hermione looked at Maca with a worried expression. She was well aware of the classification of spells. Without exception, curses were considered dark magic and required intense negative emotions to be successfully cast. Even the three Unforgivable Curses belonged to this category!

However, unlike other curses, what made the Unforgivable Curses "unforgivable" was the absence of counter-curses for the Killing Curse and the Cruciatus Curse, and the Imperius Curse's ability to completely control a person's body and mind.

"Well, well, just a little drained... I mean, Mr. McClain, you must provide a reasonable explanation for your actions!" Professor McGonagall seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and after realizing the inappropriateness, she immediately put on a stern face.

"Uh, I guess I might have progressed a bit quickly... I mean, I enjoy studying, and...," Maca intentionally glanced at Hermione, "I hope I can protect the people I care about."

Hermione's face reddened at his words, while Harry and Ron, who were next to Professor McGonagall, didn't react much. It seemed that the saying that girls mature earlier than boys had some truth to it.

Professor McGonagall looked at Maca, and a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. In her eyes, Maca's mature appearance was quite amusing.

Severus Snape, on the other hand, looked back and forth between Maca and Hermione without saying a word, his thoughts unknown.

"Professor McGonagall, if it weren't for Maca saving me, I would probably have been eaten by the giant creature by now," Hermione pleaded.

"I think we need to discuss the matter of the 'Blasting Curse' with Dumbledore," Professor McGonagall said. "But I must say, there has never been a first-year student who could defeat a giant creature alone. You've earned ten points for Hufflepuff."

"Now, you come with me to the Headmaster's office. As for the rest of you," Professor McGonagall glanced at the others, "you may leave."

Maca glanced at the three of them and calmly followed Professor McGonagall as she turned and walked out of the restroom door. In fact, all that remained of it was a cracked and damaged frame.

"Oh, I'll... handle this... this big guy," Hagrid said, wiping his face and stuttering.

Severus Snape gave Harry a cold look and followed without looking back.

Hermione watched Maca's retreating figure with a worried expression. As for whether Maca would be expelled or not, she had no doubt in her mind.

Harry

and Ron, on the other hand, didn't have such concerns, or perhaps they simply didn't think that far.

"What's a 'curse'? It sounds really cool!" Ron looked at the motionless giant creature on the ground, and the bowl-sized wound looked a bit intimidating.

"Yeah! Even that giant bat that only knows how to harm people said 'not bad'! Hard to believe," Harry nodded.

"He was just being sarcastic towards Maca!" Hermione exclaimed loudly.