The next few days were a blur for Harry. He didn't want to grieve at Hogwarts, though. And he didn't want to grieve at the Dursleys' either. He needed somewhere else to stay. The only problem? He wouldn't go back to Grimmauld Place and Ron had been ignoring him ever since the Department of Mysteries incident. His best friend--they had their ups and downs but they never abandoned each other. Especially not when they were in pain. Harry saved Mr. Weasley for God's sake.

He found himself walking towards a tree, not the Quidditch pitch as he had originally planned, but he sat down anyway and stared at the lake. He didn't even know anyone was there with him until they spoke.

"What are you doing out here, Potter?"

"Well, this space doesn't belong exclusively to you, Malfoy, as I'm sure so many other things do."

Malfoy jumped out of the tree he was sitting in and began to walk away until Harry called for him.

"You know, Malfoy, I could use some company." He said and patted the ground next to him. Malfoy looked from the castle to Harry and back to the castle before sneering "Why would I want to sit with you, Potter?" Harry turned to look at him and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. You've just been being unusually pleasant these past few days." Malfoy rolled his eyes. "That was just because you seemed upset. There's no point in picking a fight if you don't fight back."

Harry pulled his knees to his chest and asked, very quietly, "Would you just come sit with me, Malfoy?"

"But I thought you could tell the wrong sort for yourse-"

"I was wrong, Draco," Harry said, shocking Draco by the use of his first name. "We just had something terrible happen a few days ago, I even lost my godfather, and instead of being a good friend and helping me get through it, Ron has been ignoring me since we got back." Draco went to sit by Harry, who was close to tears. "Why can't anything ever go right?" he whimpered shakily. Draco wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders, unsure how to comfort him, and said "Things will get better, Po-" Harry seemed to tremble at the use of his surname. "Harry."

When it was time to board the carriages to get to the Hogwarts Express Harry saw Ron and Hermione boarding into a semi full carriage just to avoid him so he headed to an empty one.

"Potter, get out of our carriage. Or would you like Crabbe and Goyle to remove you forcefully?" Pansy sneered. Harry turned towards her and pushed all of the thoughts that he had been having for the entire year into his eyes.

Pansy flinched as the air seemingly got colder. She saw levels and levels of never ending hate in Potter's eyes and it scared her. She wanted to turn around but she was glued to the spot until Draco spoke.

"Why don't we all just share a carriage?" He asked.

Pansy turned towards him so fast that Harry was surprised that she didn't get whiplash.

"You mean-? Share with...Potter?" She whisper shouted. Draco rolled his eyes. "Parkinson, it's hardly a five minute ride. You're acting like I suggested we share a compartment with him on the train." It was Blaise's turn to speak. "Yes, but you usually can't stand to be in the same room with Potter. What's up today, Malfoy?"

"Maybe I just want to get to the train, yeah, Zabini?" he sneered, getting into the carriage.

Blaise cocked an eyebrow but followed Draco's lead in getting into the carriage and soon everyone else followed. The ride was tense, no one said a word, but when the carriage landed the Slytherins were out in an instant.

Harry sluggishly headed to the train, levitating his trunk behind him, and found an empty compartment to sit in. Ron and Hermione walked close to him but when Ron saw him, he traced what appeared to be a lightning bolt into her back and they kept moving.

Harry was, there is no other word to describe it, hurt. He couldn't believe that they could just abandon him like that. He wanted out. He looked out of the window and sighed. 'Well, Hermione isn't the only one that owns books,' he thought and cracked open all of the spell books he had to begin practicing.

He was halfway through when he got tired. And by halfway, I mean through four books when his eyes started to droop. He had picked up the spells surprisingly well and had about three more books to go. He figured that with the warding spells that he learned he could block the Ministry from finding out about his spell casting outside of Hogwarts, so he fell asleep for the rest of the ride.

When the train stopped Harry woke up groggily, got his trunk, and headed for the exit. When he saw Uncle Vernon and some OotP members he knew he would be in trouble. He walked up to them and Tonks saw him first.

"Wotcher, Harry!" she said. He nodded to her and asked "Can we go, guys?" They all looked to Uncle Vernon who, rather recluently, spat "I understand." Remus turned to Harry and said "Then, yes, Harry, you may go."

The moment Uncle Vernon locked him in his room Harry knew that he had to escape. He didn't want to do it the first day of break, though, so he scheduled it for Monday. That gave him enough time to study more spells to survive wherever he would be.

By Saturday he had read every Wizarding book he owned (yes including divination) and mastered every spell by Sunday night (they surprisingly weren't that hard). He used reducio to shrink them and fit them into his trunk. He finished packing at 2:30 in the morning and was ready to go. He used alohomora to unlock the doors and walked out into the cool night air. He shrank his trunk and put it in his pocket, then cast lumos and raised his wand.

Seconds later, he heard the familiar screech of the Knight Bus coming to a stop in front of him. He got on and gave Stan 11 sickles and instructions to take him to the Leaky Cauldron so that he could book a room.

Buildings jumped out of the way, the bus seemed to squeeze through the smallest of spaces, and it never stopped, not even for a second. They were going so fast that Harry could only see blurs through the window; He was especially thankful that he had placed a temporary sticking charm on his seat.

Once there, Tom seemed quite curious as to why Harry was there--especially at that time of night. Harry didn't answer his questions, though, and played for a room to stay in until he could make his trip to Gringotts.

"I do hope you enjoy your stay Mr. Potter! Just call me if you need anything."

"Yes, I'll do that, Tom. Goodnight," Harry said with finality.

"Yes, yes," Tom replied. "Goodnight, Mr. Potter."