CHAPTER 1 – Recluse and Revolted

Yesterday was Halloween and, as usually happens at Hogwarts, a day of surprises. After the choice of the three participants of the newly reinstated Tri-Wizard Tournament, a fourth name was issued by the Goblet of Fire to the surprise of (almost) everyone present at the ceremony: Harry Potter.

The timid boy, already so marked by strange and heroic facts in his life, was once again dragged into the centre of events against his will. He tried to explain to the adults organizing the tournament that he did not want to participate in, had not attempted to enter the tournament in any way and wanted them to find a way out so he did not have to participate. All in vain! The Goblet of Fire was an impartial and absolute judge on the subject, and the boy, once selected, was tied to the tournament by an unbreakable magical contract under penalty of losing his magic, or even his life.

With that huge weight on his back, it was normal for Harry Potter not to feel very happy or sociable at the moment. However, Albus Dumbledore had never expected the boy to disappear completely. Research carried out during the next day showed that the boy had not slept in his room nor had attended any classes or meals in the Great Hall. Moreover, no one had seen him since he had left the small chamber annexed to the Great Hall where the necessity of his participation in the tournament had been explained to him.

The protections in the castle and under Dumbledore's control ensured that the boy had not tried to leave school, but where would he be? Searches carried out all day by teachers, prefects, elves, portraits and ghosts proved to be all fruitless. Harry Potter had simply disappeared, and no one was able to find him. Not even his two best friends had any clue as to his whereabouts.

-o0o-

Harry Potter had suffered all sorts of fame at Hogwarts during his short stay there. From hero and prodigy (a corporal patronus at the age of thirteen!) to Salazar's heir, pursuer of Muggleborns and next Dark Lord in training, he had had everything. Again, his reputation was at a minimum two weeks after his name was selected as the fourth participant in a tournament between three schools.

In Gryffindor, his former best friend Ron Weasley told everyone who come close to him how he had been betrayed by the Boy-Who-Lived, how Potter had used black magic to include his name in the tournament, and how, upon discovering the real extent of the danger to which he had submitted himself, he had cowed and fled. Hufflepuff was shocked by the boy's pretentious meddling in a tournament intended for wizards and wizards of age, and by the damage his actions caused to the (rare) moment of glory the house deserved for Cedric Diggory's selection as Hogwarts champion. Slytherin accused Potter of having, in his quest for fame and glory, finally made a serious mistake, snatching more than he could handle. It was hard to know what the Ravenclaws thought since they kept their noses plunged in books and talked little.

Potter was still missing, despite all the efforts in his search. He had missed the Wand Weighing ceremony, and the press (in particular the famous reporter Rita Skeeter) did not spare him the perceived outrage. A series of articles raised all kinds of doubts about the boy: about his courage, his vanity, his mental health, his real participation in Voldemort's defeat and even his masculinity.

However, the selection and subsequent disappearance of Harry Potter were not the only changes occurring in the school. Another change, more subtle and involving a smaller number of people, was gradually being noticed by those involved, and brought much joy to the more suffering and persecuted portion of the students.

Luna Lovegood, for example, was the most gentle and kind girl you could ever meet. Even so, she was continually suffering from abuse just because she was a bit eccentric. With a great power of observation, she became the first to notice this other subtle change that Hogwarts was going through. It was easy for her, she was a daily victim of treacherous and malicious pranks, and rarely found the clothes and materials she needed, so that when she managed to reach the end of a day still fully dressed and without noticing the lack of a single one of her few possessions, she decided to make a pray for the welfare and happiness of St. Potter, the patron saint of bullying victims.

Susan Bones was proof that every coin has two faces. Her development was precocious, and the breasts-fairy had been extremely generous to the sweet, timid little redhead. But her well-developed body incited envy of other girls, and a sick obsession of certain boys. Susan found herself obliged to dress in a way that minimized her curves, and shut herself still more in her shell, to avoid the excessive and undesirable attention that her beauty attracted. Still, she still had to (almost literally) struggle to dodge the harassment of the most daring boys ... until these boys, through a series of small, incomprehensible accidents, decided that the pursuit of the gorgeous redhead was a bit too dangerous.

Tracy Davis was, in a way, an anomaly: a half-blood in Slytherin. And her roommates would not let her forget. Only her friendship with Daphne Greengrass, the heiress of a powerful, pureblood family, had saved the witty Tracy from being abused. The problem is that her friend Daphne was now experiencing problems similar to that of Miss Bones, to the point that many of the older students, hitherto kept aloof for fear of the possible consequences of bothering the powerful Greengrass family, began to wonder if the benefits would not outweigh the risks. By some strange but fortunate reason, the most exacerbated among them were in need of the regular help of Madame Pomfrey, and the pressure on the two girls diminished considerably.

These are just a few examples. The truth is that there was a lot of violence, both physical and verbal, occurring at Hogwarts for the most trivial reasons: boys abusing girls, the older abusing the younger, the stronger the weaker, the richer the poorer, the purebloods anyone not so pure, the most beautiful mocking the less beautiful ... Any difference between two people (and they always existed) could become motive for one of them trying to humiliate the other.

-o0o-

Finally the day of the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament had arrived.

Albus Dumbledore was almost in panic. Harry Potter was still missing, and only he knew the importance of that boy to the magical world in events yet to come. No trace, no clue as to where the boy might be hiding. If he did not take part in the event, everything would be lost, all his plans would vanish, and Voldemort would have an open road to impose his rule on the magical world. Even if the boy appeared, but unprepared, anguished, and not knowing what to expect of that trial, he would be in serious danger of not surviving, and the situation would be equally catastrophic.

Walking along with the other Tournament judges to the champions' tent, Albus' hopes were at an all-time low. Inside the castle and all the way to the stadium he had arranged all the elements at his disposal to try to locate the boy, again without success. No wonder the old mage was unable to hide his surprise as he entered the champions' tent. There, isolated in a corner, was the cause of all his worries: Harry Potter had finally reappeared!

"Harry, my boy, how good to see you!" said the headmaster to the boy, but he received no response and could not proceed because Ludo Bagman was already beginning the process of assigning the dragons to each competitor.

Harry, the last to choose, did not even bother to approach Bagman.

"Okay, number four and the Hungarian Horntail. You can keep your little toy," he said, returning to the back of the tent, placing as many people between him and Dumbledore as possible.

'He hates me for having to take part in the contest,' thought Albus. 'He must be thinking that I did not want to help him. But at least he's here now and I'll have a chance to persuade him to return to normal.'

-o0o-

It was finally Harry Potter's turn to be called into the arena to be greeted by a huge boo by the vast majority of those present, poisoned by his continuing slander in the press.

The boy ignored all this disdain, walking resolutely to the judges' platform. Stopping there in front of the judges, he shouted at Mr Crouch, one of the representatives of the Ministry: "Have you reached a decision on my request?"

Crouch, visibly nervous, got up and answered loudly, "Yes, Mr Potter. At an extraordinary Wizengamot meeting this morning ..."

"WHAT?!" shouted Dumbledore, fearing for the worst.

"... it was decreed that Harry James Potter, by virtue of his selection as a participant in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, be declared emancipated ..."

"NO!" shouted Dumbledore, apoplectic.

"... and, for all intents and purposes, recognized as a complete citizen with all the resulting rights and responsibilities," concluded Crouch, taking from inside his robe some scrolls, one of them floating to the boy.

"As chief of the Wizengamot I repudiate and deny this decision!" shouted Dumbledore in a visible state of fury.

"The decision was unanimous and ratified by the Minister himself!" replied Crouch. "It's final and irrevocable."

Realizing Dumbledore's desire to continue discussing the matter, and to prevent two powerful members from debating in front of the audience, Bagman quickly interceded: "Our last competitor starts his task ... NOW!"

Harry, receiving his copy of the document, ignored the rest of the events in the gallery, returning to his initial position in front of the opening of the tent, from where he had a privileged vision of the dragon he had to face.

A loud roar of the dragon silenced them all. Harry ignored the dragon, and placed his right foot on the base of his left thigh, standing on one foot. To everyone's astonishment, he then placed his left foot on the base of his right thigh, standing there floating in the air, sitting cross-legged.

Murmurs of astonishment rose from the audience, but the boy continued to ignore the environment, closing his eyes and extending his arms ahead in extreme concentration. Seconds later, his goal for that task, the golden egg, was there in his hands, without anyone being able to imagine how or why.

The boy then returned to stand on his feet, and walked back to the judges.

"Anything else?" He asked as he drew closer.

"Harry, my boy, how did you get your egg? Could you explain?" asked Dumbledore, visibly stunned by the demonstration he had just witnessed.

"Magic," the boy replied with a small mocking smile.

"What kind of magic?" asked Madame Maxime.

"Advanced," Harry replied, his smile growing visibly.

"Boy, you're going to answer our questions correctly or you'll get zeros!" Karkaroff snorted indignantly at Potter's insolence.

"In fact, Mr Potter, we cannot properly judge your task without further detail on how you completed it," Crouch said.

"It is not my problem that the chosen judges are incompetent to understand and evaluate what they have seen," Harry replied, turning his back on the judges and walking toward the tent.

"HARRY! HANG ON! WE HAVE MUCH TO TALK!" shouted Dumbledore, hurrying to reach his irreverent and undisciplined student.

It was in vain. Arriving at the tent Dumbledore realized that Harry was not there. A quick consultation with Madame Pomfrey indicated that the boy had refused to be attended and had left immediately by the opposite entrance of the tent. A quick walk later the headmaster confirmed his fear: Harry had disappeared again and left no trace indicating where he would have gone.

Still not giving up, Dumbledore drew his wand and began casting some spells along the path to the castle, trying to discover the presence of the boy even under the protection of that wonderful invisibility cloak he had at his disposal. To his dismay, he found nothing! 'What would have happened?' he thought. 'Did Harry figure out the spells I put on the cloak to be able to locate him even when he was using it, or did he simply choose another way back to the castle?'

The director tried a little more his spells in other directions, but already discouraged by the boy's lead on him. 'He can be anywhere. How can I find him?'

-o0o-

December had reached northern Scotland, bringing even more snow and cold that year than usual. Harry Potter was still missing, not having been spotted since the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

In a small abandoned room on the fourth floor, not far from the library, a small group of girls gathered. Except for being all girls, just another trait unites them: they were all victims of abuses that recently stopped, probably because of interference from Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived.

Some were there for their beauty, which had drawn excessive attention from the male (and more aggressive) population of the school, as was the case with Victoria Frobisher and Astoria Greengrass. Others exactly by the opposite reason, such as Eloise Midgen or Magda Blatchey. Others by their ancestry, like Tracy Davis, Millicent Bulstrode (accused to have blood of goblin or giant origin in her ancestry) and the Carrow twins (accused to be fruit of an incestuous relation between siblings) and several Muggleborns. Others, because of being foreign (Patils and Su Li), or poor (Ginny Weasley and Morag McDougal), or simply eccentric (Luna Lovegood and Lilith Moon).

Until the first task was accomplished, these girls were simply grateful for Harry Potter's initiative in protecting them. After seeing the boy not only get away unscathed from his clash against a huge dragon, but still accomplishing the task in the shortest time and with the best demonstration of power and safety among the competitors, only to receive the smallest notes among the four, the girls now thought of two things: finding ways to repay the boy for what he had already done for them, and finding out if he could help them learn to defend themselves.

Their problem, the same of many others like the Minister and the headmaster Dumbledore, was the complete disappearance of the boy. To everyone's surprise, it was Luna Lovegood who solved the issue, and that was so simple that it shocked them all. The blonde simply wrote a message about their gratitude for the help they received, and their desire to learn more and give back as they could for that help. Each of them then signed the small missive and Luna then stood up and, addressing the empty space ahead of her, said carefully: "I have here an important message for Harry Potter. Could one of you who have protected us take this message to him?"

No sooner had the girl finished speaking when the parchment disappeared from her hand and she sat down again with her companions.

"How did you know that this would work, Luna?" Asked Hermione, the one more distressed at the boy's disappearance.

"I didn't know," Luna replied with a smile. "On the other hand, it's something so simple and easy to try, so why not?"

Before anything else could be said, the girls were astonished to see a door appearing where before there was a solid wall of stones. The door then opened slowly, and the bravest of them were soon on their feet and walking there. One voice, which Hermione and Ginny soon confirmed to be Harry's to the others, invited them in.

After passing through a small corridor, the girls faced an intriguing scenario. A pool at Hogwarts! A huge room, the three other walls made of glass, floor to ceiling. In the halfway nearest the door, the floor was covered with something that the pureblood girls thought was a soft, fluffy, gigantic white skin. The Muggleborns recognized the material as synthetic fibre, but were equally impressed with the purity of that white and the softness of that coating. On the panelling, futuristic but extremely practical and comfortable seats surrounded two large low tables covered with jars of various juices, trays of snacks, and containers with fruits.

In the farthest half from the door, a large swimming pool took up almost all the space, with a trampoline near the window opposite the door, while in the shallower part the pool was made of steps on the ground facilitating the exit. An open cupboard on one side contained a good supply of bath towels and robes, all white and very soft.

Seeing Harry's clothes lying by the door, the softness of the floor and the heat in the room, the girls began to get rid of shoes, socks, ties, robes and pullovers, putting themselves more at ease. One of them, of course it was Luna, she exaggerated a little and was just in her panties, and ran to the pool, shouting "Hold me!" to a surprised boy who was walking slowly toward the shallow end.

The ungainly girl ran and jumped on the boy, who did his best to hold Luna above the water, even at the cost of falling backwards into the water, the girl solidly clinging to him with her arms hugging his neck, and her legs around his waist.

The two ended up diving for a moment, but soon Harry managed to steady his feet on the pool floor and raise himself and his intrepid charge, only to be frightened again by the vehemence of the scolding that Hermione gave him: "Harry James Potter, save these silly hands of yours to you!"

It was only then that Harry realized that, in order for Luna not slip from her position, his hands had slipped into a soft, easy place to hold in that position, but not traditionally touched in public.

Harry immediately let go of Luna, but before he could begin to stutter an incoherent excuse (but not before he blushed like a tomato), the little blonde turned to Hermione and began to walk towards her, finger in rist, saying in a strong voice: "Hermione Jane Granger, first of all what Harry and I do together is a matter between us in which you have no right to comment. Secondly, it is obvious that Harry did not act that way on purpose; it was just a natural reaction to the situation in which I put him. Thirdly, I do not give a damn about social conventions, I like to hug and be touched by him, and you know full well that Harry is incapable of doing harm to anyone unless someone is in serious danger if he not acts. Fourth, your craze of wanting to correct and direct other people's behaviour to follow YOUR moral precepts and concepts of right and wrong is precisely the reason you have had so few real friendships in your life. You need to stop this craze immediately if you want to be accepted by others. This is not to say that you should abandon your principles or stop defending them, only that you must respect that each person has the freedom to act as he or she chooses, and the most you can do is offer polite suggestions and criticisms, but in no way require or even expect consent, do you understand?"

Duly admonished, Hermione's expression shifted from indignation and revulsion to one of submission and humiliation. Coming finally in front of Hermione, Luna hugged her tenderly, saying softly, "Hermione, you can be a fantastic person and very dear to everyone. Your heart is huge and your sense of honour, justice and loyalty is a fantastic gift. All you need to become the best friend of all of us is to trim some edges that cause conflict. I'm sure Harry realized this enormous potential too and that's why he values your friendship so much."

Still holding Luna, Hermione looked at Harry as if begging him to confirm the blonde's words, which he did with a nod and a big smile.

That uncomfortable episode ended, so the girls gave vent to their curiosity with a series of questions: "What is this place?", "Where is it?", "This is where you've been hiding?", "How did you get the egg of the dragon?" and many more.

Harry lifted a hand to pause the questions, put on a robe and brought another to Luna, who thanked him with a smile. Then he invited them all into the comfortable seats in the centre of the living room and seat at the centre of a sofa, Hermione on one side and Luna on the other, and offered to them the contents on the central tables.

"I think I'd better tell you what's been going on since Halloween then you can ask some questions," he said as the girls began to feed themselves, eager to try out many of the items they did not yet know.

"Harry," Ginny asked timidly, "would not it be better to tell your whole story since you came to Hogwarts? Hermione must have taken part in everything, and I know a little from Ron and ... you know ... but I do not think the rest of us know exactly what happened."

Luna turned to look directly into Harry's eyes and ask cautiously, "Perhaps it would be best if we could hear your whole story, Harry."

The boy's reaction made it clear that he was not very comfortable with that idea, but Hermione, with the help of the other girls, pressed and gradually overcame his resistance, though the girls had to grant it to him be vacant in some parts. He could not be as vague as he wishes with his description of his life with the Dursleys, they simply realized that something very wrong was happening there and forced him to tell at least part of what he had to endure in his years in the care of that stranger and oppressive family. It was a very emotional moment for everyone, with many tears shed, but also much support received by the boy, who greatly helped him to overcome not only the pain of telling those facts as the pain of having lived them.

"I wish ... can we agree to keep it all a secret, please?" Harry asked uncertainly, regaining some of the emotional charge he had experienced.

Luna settled the matter quickly. Picking up her wand from its position in her right ear, she swiftly took a magic oath promising to keep everything Harry and the girls in the group had discussed or would discuss as a secret, ending by asking the others, "Who's going to take the oath and who thinks it is better leave now?"

Neither of them refused taking the oath. Between curiosity, the immensity of what had been revealed so far, the certainty that much more was to come and the gratitude for the boy's effort to protect them, it would be impossible to refuse.

Harry, with Hermione's help to give a better view of the feats the shy boy insisted on minimizing, told the rest of his story from the arrival of his first Hogwarts letter on. With Hermione's constant additions of the necessary details for the girls to have a perfect understanding of everything, it was almost four hours of narrative with two stops for use of the toilets to get to the last Halloween and its unexpected inclusion in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The girls even tried to put some questions about that strange and wonderful room where they were gathered, especially when Harry created the bathrooms and modified the room a bit to make it even more comfortable, but the boy persuaded them to wait for the subject to come naturally in the history.

It was hard to keep the questions, the fury and the indignation aside at some points in his history. First-years serving detention in the Forbidden Forest? Voldemort still alive and possessing a teacher? Philosopher's Stone hidden in Hogwarts behind protections that children were able to transpose? A giant basilisk making victims at school without anyone noticing? An Animagus living for years with a magical family, spending most of his time at Hogwarts and no one suspects? The heir of an important family sent to Azkaban without trial? And none of this coming to the knowledge of neither the Ministry and its departments nor the press? And what would have happened to Dumbledore to allow all this? Were he senile, crazy, incompetent, or had he became a dictator in his own little kingdom?

But there was a lot to be told, and it was better to get all the information before thinking about how to expose or mend such a mess.

"I got a copy of the Rules of the Tournament with Mr Crouch, and I found an empty room to study the material before returning to Gryffindor," said the boy. "I knew that the general reception of the school would be at least cold, perhaps unfriendly, and I needed some time to understand the whole situation and plan what to do."

"It was good you didn't go straight to Gryffindor, Harry," said Hermione. "Ron was acting like a complete idiot, trying to convince everyone that you had cheated to enter the Tournament and betrayed your friendship completely by not revealing anything to him."

"Hermione got into a violent argument with my brother, Harry," Ginny commented. "She defended you as much as she could, but you know how most of the people around here are. Many were already prone to thinking the worst of you, and Ron's words had much effect in sustaining that position, at least at first."

"Ginny also tried to help, Harry," Hermione commented again. "As I tried to convince the Gryffindors that Ron was totally wrong, she stood outside the Common Room as much as she could, trying to warn you about what was going on before you came in unprepared."

Harry was happy with the reaction of the two girls, and expressed his gratitude by hugging one after another. Hermione was amazed, it was the first time she had seen Harry take the initiative of a caring contact. The look she exchanged with Ginny soon made the smart little redhead realize the real size of that little gesture.

It was at that moment that they realized that some of the younger girls were really tired and could not take much more. Little Amanda Becker had already succumbed to sleep, and she used Susan Bones as a pillow. Harry had to divert a thought of envy from his mind when he realized what part of Susan served as a pillow for the girl. Instead, resolved to suggest a break: "Maybe we should stop here. I can create doors leading directly to your common rooms, or I can modify this room to create beds ..."

"One bed!" replied Luna. "How about a single giant bed for all of us?"

"I don't know, Luna," Hermione said worriedly. With a quick spell she checked the time. "It's three thirty in the morning! Oh, we're fried!"

"If we go to our common rooms, we run the risk of making noise and waking someone up, and then we would have a lot to explain," said Flora Carrow.

"But if we don't go we can be punished for not respecting the curfew!" said Hermione.

"Not really," Daphne commented. "We can only be punished if we are found outside our common rooms during the curfew. Staying here or going straight from here to our quarters, in both ways we take no risks of being found out of them."

"I think we should stay here, as Luna suggested," said Susan. "Two more are just falling asleep. It will be difficult to carry them. And here we avoid waking roommates and having to answer indiscreet, and maybe malicious, questions."

"But... and our beds?" Victoria asked. "Will they not realize we didn't sleep in them?"

"I can handle this," said Harry.

And he took care of, with the help of some house elves who rolled up the beds so that they appeared to have been used. Hermione was about to start a crusade on behalf of the poor little creatures exploited by wizards and witches, but agreed (indeed, she was forced) to leave the discussion of the topic for the next morning.

Harry willed the pool area away, replacing it by a huge, eight-by-twelve-metres low bed. He then created a huge curtain separating the two rooms and helped to float the sleeping girls to the bed. When he was about to close the curtains to give the girls privacy, thinking of using one of the sofas for himself, several hands stopped him and pulled him to the bed.

Dressed only in his swimming trunks, Harry tried to occupy as little space as possible and keep himself as far away from the girls as possible. To his desperation, the poor boy was unable to convince his guests that this would be the best thing to do. He woke hours later in a veritable mess of intertwined bodies and limbs; redder than Ginny's hair; confused, feeling at once privileged and embarrassed, as if he had been admitted to Paradise completely ignoring the rules and customs of the place.