Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter universe, J.K. Rowling does. I just own the fanfic. No copyright intended!

Author's note: This will be a Harry/Astoria pairing story. It will start on the Saturday after the champion selection for the Triwizard Tournament. Ron, Ginny, Molly and Hermione bashing, manipulative Dumbledore. Professor Snape will change his behaviour and attitude towards Harry. Harry will also befriend Daphne and Tracey. Astoria will also be in Ginny's year. Rated T for teen moments. Mostly friendship and humor, with some romance later on.

True Friends Come From Unexpected Places

Ch. 1

Understanding The Facts

Harry Potter was one angry teen. He was angry with himself for his lack of anticipation that something bad would happen, to him, on Halloween, yet again. What made that worse this time, was that there wasn't any known warnings of danger coming to Hogwarts, nor any threats towards Harry before reaching the school, and that made him gullible enough to believe that, for once, he could have a normal year. Harry was an unwilling selection as the fourth champion for the Triwizard Tournament, thus giving Hogwarts two champions. Cedric Diggory was the other Hogwarts champion, a sixth year Hufflepuff, who also served as the Hufflepuff Quidditch seeker and captain. Viktor Krum was selected as the Durmstrang champion, and the Beauxbatons champion was Fleur Delacour. Harry knew that once his name emerged from that wretched goblet of fire, somebody was attempting to kill him, yet again.

The Hufflepuffs were outraged, which Harry understood because they believed Harry was trying overshadow one of their high profile members, and Cedric had called Harry a liar, and an attention seeker who just had to let his ego get to him. The Ravenclaws believed that Harry found a way to cheat the age-line, despite Fred and George's inevitable failed attempt with the use of aging potions, and the Ravenclaws (or at least a huge portion of them) called Harry a cheat. Cho Chang, a pretty asian fifth year Ravenclaw, had even sneered at him for his apparent attempt for more fame (and for, in her mind, trying to overshadow her boyfriend), and proceeded to give him the middle finger. Consequently, Harry's crush on Cho immediately went up in smoke. The Slytherins, too, were outraged, which wasn't a surprise to Harry. The Slytherins believed that the 'Gryffindor Golden Boy' had to have all the fame and glory, and had also labelled him as 'the teacher's pet.' This was becoming something of a repeat of second year, where Harry was falsely accused of being the Heir of Slytherin.

The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students were furious because of Hogwarts getting two champions, while they only had one champion each, again understandable. Harry even gave the magical and life oath that he didn't enter, but Ludo Bagman, one of the judges, said that he had to compete, due to some stupid magical binding contract. Harry even asked about unwilling competitors being pulled out, forseeably to no avail. Viktor glared at Harry before leaving the antechamber behind the staff table in the Great Hall, and Fleur had even labelled Harry a 'little boy.' But, the behaviour of most of the Gryffindor students somewhat startled Harry, claiming Harry was trying to dishonour the house and the name. Some of them believed Harry was telling the truth. Fred and George were some, along with Lee Jordan (the Weasley twins best friend), Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Neville Longbottom, who all assured Harry that they believed him. Professor McGonagall also assured that she believed Harry, as did Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and surprisingly, even Professor Snape believed Harry, but Dumbledore didn't say anything. Hagrid also believed Harry, as did Sirius Black, his godfather, and Professor Lupin (the latter two wrote to Harry and told him so in their letters).

However, Ginny Weasley expressed her anger, and belief that Harry cheated. Like Cho, Ginny even sneered at Harry, and gave him the middle finger as well. Again, no surprise, because she only 'liked' Harry for The-Boy-Who-Lived, rather than Harry as a person. Ginny even turned around to grab a book and hurl it at Harry, but Harry cast a sticking charm on her hand, to make sure she wouldn't be able to throw it. That made her realize too late that she couldn't throw it, and upon realizing that, Ginny tried shaking the book off, to no avail, then she stomped upstairs to the girls dormitory. Ron came down and also expressed his anger, as well as his belief of Harry cheating, again, no surprise, and demanded Harry to tell him how he did it. When Harry stated that he didn't, Ron called him a liar and punched Harry in the chest. In retaliation, Harry cast a flatulence charm, making Ron fart as he stomped upstairs to the boys dormitory.

But what shocked, and hurt, Harry the most was Hermione's reaction. She, too, believed that Harry wanted more fame and glory, for the 'sake of his ego.' When Harry tried reassuring that it was another attempt on his life, Hermione stomped toward Harry and smacked him, hard, across the face, assuming that would 'teach him a lesson.' Harry retaliated by casting a sticking charm on Hermione's left foot as soon as she started walking up the stairs to the girls dormitory. Upon realizing that Harry did that, Hermione demanded that he cancel the charm, but he just cast the sticking charm again, this time on Hermione's right foot. Then he walked up to the boys dormitory. But Ron locked the door and proceeded to beat Harry up, only to find himself in a full body-bind. Then, Harry pushed Ron under his bed, unlocked the door, and proceeded to change into his pajamas and got into his bed, casting sticking charms on the curtains and silence wards around his bed. Then Harry cried himself to sleep, as it hurt too much with Hermione turning her back on Harry. He had thought about asking her to be his girlfriend sometime this year, but that went up in smoke. One afternoon a couple days later, Harry came across something, very disturbing. He stumbled upon an unused classroom and heard four, all-too-familiar voices, so he went to hide himself near the classroom entrance.

"Well, alot of people have fallen for that," said Ron's voice. "This will keep Potter isolated, so we can get his money eventually!"

"Oh yes," said Ginny's voice. "Seeing how marrying Harry will give me access to his vaults, and I'll make sure to split some of the dough with you two!"

"Yeah," said Hermione's voice. "And for me to also get all the books in his vault, too!"

"But remember," said Dumbledore's voice. "Harry needs to be isolated from everyone else, it's all for The Greater Good."

"We will make sure of that." said Ron, Ginny and Hermione with delight.

"Here's another five-thousand galleons apiece," said Dumbledore. "And another five-thousand after the Yule Ball, when Harry goes with Miss Weasley as his date. Here Miss Weasley, here's some vials of Amortentia, to ensure Harry asks you to the ball."

"Excellent," said Ginny. "I'll have to be sneaky with those, so Harry won't suspect a thing!"

Harry was horrified beyond belief at what he heard. Those he thought were his friends were only paid to be his 'friend,' and to also control his life. How could they, and Dumbledore, do this? He shouldn't be anybody's puppet. He walked away stealthily, and as soon as he was far away from that unused classroom, Harry began picking up the pace. This was the final straw, and Harry started vowing to avoid being a pawn for somebody's or some group's personal gain.

Harry came out of the memory, it was Saturday and breakfast finished about an hour and a half ago. Then Harry started walking to his favourite spot by the Black Lake, to vent out all this frustration. He stopped about twenty-five feet from the tree stump, when he saw a girl sitting there, with her knees brought up close to her chest, with her arms wrapped around her legs, and her face buried into her arms. Harry knew it was a girl, seeing that female students wear skirts with black tights, as part of their uniform. Harry saw that the girl's robes had green trimmings, which meant that she was in Slytherin. Believing that this was a trap, Harry started turning around to walk away, also to avoid any unjust accusations. But what Harry heard next surprised him. The Slytherin girl appeared to be crying.

'That's odd,' thought Harry. 'I haven't heard of any Slytherin student crying before!'

Harry thought about walking away, as initially planned. But his curiosity overpowered that, as well as his 'saving people' thing. So Harry cautiously approached the Slytherin, who didn't seem to notice that she was getting company.

"Um, excuse me," said Harry. "Are... are you okay?"

The girl didn't seem to hear him, as her crying might've prevented that.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

The Slytherin girl seemed to have heard it this time. She raised her head and saw somebody out in the corner of her eye and, thinking it was somebody who she despised, she got more and more angry.

"Look, Malfoy, I HAVE NO INTENT..." she replied, but then turned toward Harry to get a better look, and realized that it wasn't Malfoy, but Harry Potter, and she sheepishly replied with, "Oh, sorry! I thought, at first, you were Malfoy."

"It's all good." said Harry.

"I hope you're not mad at me for taking your spot, Harry." said the girl.

"No, I'm not," said Harry, who didn't need reminding at how she knew his name. "I was just surprised to see you here. But I'm not going to make you leave!"

Harry was surprised that this girl, especially a Slytherin, called him by his first name, instead of by his surname. After the girl wiped her eyes of the tears, she looked up at Harry, who noticed that she had bright-green eyes. Her blonde hair reached her shoulders. She still had her arms wrapped around her legs.

"I'm also surprised that you called me by my first name," said Harry. "Rather than by my surname."

"Not all Slytherins are evil and jerks," said the girl. "And certainly not all are your enemies."

"Oh okay," said Harry with realization. "I guess it doesn't matter which house one is sorted into when it comes to someone becoming evil, or becoming jerks."

"Yes," said the girl. "It's not one's abilities, but one's choices is what shows who we are."

Harry was understanding that more and more, remembering what he had heard from his former best friends while eavesdropping in on their plans with Dumbledore, and his hatred toward them was increasing more and more by the second the more he thought about that. Harry also remembered that his parents were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew, who was a Gryffindor, as Sirius told him near the end of last school year, and the reason for Sirius' unjust incarceration in Azkaban, worst of all, Sirius never even received a trial.

"I'm Astoria," said the girl, holding a hand out at Harry. "Astoria Greengrass!"

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter!" said Harry as he shook hands with Astoria.

"Nice to meet you, Harry," said Astoria. "My friends and family call me Tori."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Tori." said Harry.

Harry started finding it easier to talk to Tori. She was the first Slytherin to actually talk to him, let alone have a nice conversation with him. Now, Harry started wishing he had met her sometime last year, or the year before. The house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin just didn't make any sense. Tori was sweet, and bubbly, not to mention, pretty, with those bright-green eyes, and her shoulder-length blonde hair.

"You sure do look adorable, Tori!" said Harry without thinking.

As soon as those words escaped his lips, Harry covered his mouth with his hand. Tori's eyes widened in surprise, followed by a smile.

"Did I just say that?" asked Harry, having already turned bright red.

"Yes Harry, I believe you did!" said Tori.

"I-I don't know what came over me," said Harry. "I... I c-c..."

"You don't have to be embarrassed about that," said Tori. "It happened to brighten my afternoon!"

"Wow!" said Harry with a smile.

"My sister, Daphne and her best friend, Tracey, have been wanting to meet you," said Tori. "Even my best friend, Cynthia Hughes, wants to meet you."

"I never realized that!" said Harry, baffled.

"They said it was because of that bookworm," said Tori. "And also the weasel, as well as the weaselette!"

"I happened to find that out several days ago," said Harry. "Dumbledork was paying them to be my friend and to prevent anybody else from befriending me, as well as for Ginevra to give me something called Amortentia, and she was more than willing to do so."

"She wouldn't," said Tori in disbelief. "Amortentia is the most powerful love potion, much more powerful than normal love potions!"

"Those three have been betraying me behind my back all this time," said Harry. "It also does make me suspicious, making me wonder where they've been getting the money from."

"If you'd like, Harry," Tori offered. "My best friend, Cynthia and I can keep an eye on the weaselette, anytime us third year Slytherins share classes with the third year Gryffindors."

"That'd be a great idea," said Harry, intrigued by Tori's idea. "Ginevra won't even expect this, as long as it's discreet."

"That's a good point," agreed Tori. "Maybe Daphne and Tracey can help by keeping an eye on the weasel and the bookworm."

"Yeah," said Harry. "I've got some pranks in mind, to teach them a lesson the hard way."

"That sounds almost Slytherin-like," said Tori. "Are you sure you don't belong in Slytherin?"

"The sorting hat considered putting me in Slytherin in my first year," said Harry. "I begged it not to, because I didn't want to be anywhere near Malfoy, the amazing, bouncing, blue-eyed ferret!"

Tori laughed at that, as she remembered Professor Moody turning the blonde-haired ponce into a ferret for attempting to curse Harry behind his back. Inwardly, she was also boiling with anger, at the fact the ferret was the reason (or at least one of them) Harry didn't want to be in Slytherin in the first place. Upon thinking about it even more, Tori came to the conclusion that the weasel was another reason, and that he (along with the weaselette and the bookworm) were also the reason Harry didn't have many friends. Tori even started losing respect for Professor Dumbledore, for trying to control Harry's life as if he was a puppet.

"Malfoy was also the reason I was here, crying." Tori sheepishly admitted.

"You did think at first I was him," said Harry. "But I don't blame you, because you were all distraught."

"Yeah," said Tori. "The ferret's father set up a stupid marriage contract, to make me marry the ponce. At first, Lucius tried bribing my daddy, which he refused, but then he was forced into it."

"I always thought Parkinson was Malfoy's love interest," said Harry. "They're almost never out of each others' sight!"

"That skank is playing along with it," said Tori. "It's to throw everybody else off, or at least it's supposed to. The pug-faced bitch is more than willing to help the ferret out."

"Dang," said Harry. "The ferret must be more interested in your looks and family's wealth or something, rather than for your personality."

"Yeah, the ferret, and his father will do anything to keep their wealth up," said Tori. "But knowing the ferret's intentions, he could do anything to me, and it was frightening."

Tori shuddered at the thought of what Malfoy could do. All this was causing Harry to hate Draco more and more by the second, correctly believing that the ferret could take advantage of Tori.

"Was this marriage contract fairly recent?" asked Harry.

"No," said Tori. "The ferret's father drew it up a couple years before I started Hogwarts. The ferret keeps 'reminding' me to prepare for my 'future' role as Lady Malfoy. I just keep hoping it will be called off, but those efforts ended up being futile. If I tried to defy the ferret's 'reminders,' he always runs to his father, that way Lucius would 'talk some sense' into me instead of the ferret. In fact, he even 'reminded' me, once more to prepare for my so-called future as the next Lady Malfoy, after breakfast was finished."

"That must also prove that the ferret is a coward," said Harry. "I found that out in my first year, when he 'challenged' me to a midnight duel, and I was accompanied by Neville, and my two former best friends. But, the ferret never even showed up, instead, he just tipped Filch off about students being in the trophy room at midnight."

"Did he really?" asked Tori, starting to feel some relief.

"Yes," said Harry. "He never had any true intentions to duel with me."

"No way!" exclaimed Tori. "He just annulled the contract, or at least sacrificed it to you that night, now I won't have to marry the ponce!"

"What?" said Harry, shocked at what Tori revealed. "That really can happen?"

"Yes," said Tori. "If a duel is planned, and one of the duelers doesn't show up, that means they forfeit. In the ferret's case, he also sacrificed that contract to you. He doesn't know it yet, and he'll be in for a nasty shock!"

Harry started laughing at the thought of Draco's reaction when he finds out what he forfeited the night he called up that midnight duel. Tori also laughed, too, she couldn't wait to actually see it. The ferret's father won't be too happy about that.

"My former best friends' betrayal was one reason I came here to vent out the frustration," said Harry. "The other reason was also to avoid unjust accusations of cheating, or being labelled 'attention seeker,' just because my name came out of that wretched goblet, but that laughter ended up working more effectively than venting out that frustration!"

"I believe you," assured Tori, making Harry smile. "You don't look like the type of person who wants more attention. Even Daphne, Tracey and Cynthia believe you! If you want, they can tell you themselves."

"Okay." said Harry.

"Oh no," said Tori as she came to remember something. "I need to meet up with Cynthia. She's expecting me any time now."

"Alright," said Harry. "Maybe we can meet up again sometime."

"I'd like that, Harry," said Tori as she got up, and held a hand out at Harry. "Friends?"

"Friends!" said Harry as she shook Tori's hand again.

Then Tori gave Harry a hug, wanting to thank him more properly for making her day better. Naturally, Harry flinched, due to the beatings he'd get from his relatives (mostly from his Uncle Vernon, but Dudley and his gang 'helped out' with that, too). Tori noticed that, and decided to write to her parents later. Harry decided to hug her back, but then he felt some warmth flow as he did so.

"I thought that this would be a proper way to thank you, Harry." said Tori.

"Well, thank you, Tori." said Harry.

"See ya later, Harry." said Tori.

"Okay, see ya." said Harry.

Then Tori turned around and began skipping away. Harry couldn't help smiling as Tori skipped away. Inspired by her offer of friendship, Harry vowed to himself to find any friends outside of Gryffindor, not just have friends in Gryffindor only, but make friends with students from any of the other houses.

To be continued!

Author's note: I changed the time frame between the champion selection and Harry meeting Tori for the first time, after it was pointed out by 'Accio-Cavy' that it would've been too quick. I apologize for any inconvenience.