Hello, everyone. Welcome to the second chapter of my first story for the Harry Potter section!

Thank you, everyone, for all the support, the favs, follows and obviously, the reviews! They have been totally helpful, and I hope that I managed to answer every one of you and to not forget anyone. If so, I'm sorry, but know that your time in writing one for my story is super-appreciated!

Since I am half Italian half American, firstly I hope my English will be good enough for you international readers. Secondly, I do not know a lot of British English expressions, so please bear with me for that. Rating is M for some swearing and future possible intense scenes. In this AU some characters will be OOC, and there will be bashing around. The pairing is Harry/Daphne, my absolute favorite, with a Powerful!Independent!Harry on the stage. Get ready for another "above orbit over the top" Harry Potter!

Please Read&Review!

I would like to dedicate this fic to the awesome writer Dorothea Greengrass. Her Harry/Daphne stories are simply great, so go and read them!

DISCLAIMER: I obviously, and unfortunately, do not own Harry Potter and everything associated with it. JKR does, and she did a fantastic job in creating our favorite Magical World. I only own the idea of this fanfiction.

"normal speech" - 'thoughts' - "$parseltongue$"


Blood, Fire, Venom and Tears

by Stormchaser17


2. A Kidnapped Owl

"Accio Firebolt!"

Harry waited patiently behind a rock, hoping that his summoning charm would work well and, more importantly, fast. The monster was stalking him with its eyes and its enhanced sense of smell, so he was sure that it knew where he was.

It was simply playing with him.

All of a sudden, he heard the usual sound of his beloved broom rushing through the air towards his location. He had to calculate everything because he would have had only a single chance to be successful.

He continued to wait, and at the right moment, he jumped out his hiding place and rushed to the broom. Getting on it, he had only an instant to register that the wide-open mouth of the beast was in front of him and that he was flying straight towards it.

He was too slow

Harry Potter awoke with a startled gasp, his heart going ten miles per minute and for a moment he really thought that his blood pumping organ would jump out of his chest. His sweat was cold, and he began to shiver while trying to regain his full consciousness.

Well, that was a freaking nightmare!

After minutes, his hands were still trembling, and he was almost overwhelmed by the sheer emotions that he was feeling, nervous tears ready to fall from the corner of his eyes. He so needed a Calming Draught right now but unfortunately, there was none in the Chamber of Secrets.

He began to take big and full breaths of air, and he tried to think about anything unrelated with that horrific vision. His first impression of Hogwarts Castle from the Black Lake, almost suspended between the earth and the sky, with a myriad of lights lighting its windows from the inside, and its towers and turrets shooting towards the stars above him always worked in calming the young boy.

It took a while, but imagining himself eleven years old again, in the little boat crossing the water towards the new school, helped to regain control of his quivering limbs.

He was having these dreams, nightmares, more and more frequently, with the approaching of the date of the First Task. Some kind of generic monster always waiting for him, and which, in the end, always managed to kill him. His nerves were a little bit frayed, but instead of moping in his bed, he decided to get up and begin the day, even if his old watch showed an unholy hour, three and twenty-five in the morning.

The sun was still under the horizon, it was cold, and the only sounds that he could hear were the ones made by the giant squid in the middle of the lake. He envied it, giving out a long sigh. At least someone could still have the time to play like it was doing right now.

Harry had disappeared from the public life of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since the awful confrontation in the Great Hall during the dinner of All Hallows Eve because he decided that having to watch your back constantly, every second, was too big of an issue to work with.

He would go outside at night, when only the ghosts, Filch and his cat companion Mrs. Norris were around, and he was always able to evade them with the help of his Marauder's tools. Luckily the meals were brought to him by his Slytherin friends who would simply leave a big disillusioned food filled tray every day after lunch in Myrtle's bathroom. He had to ask how they were managing to do it without being discovered.

Even for that, he, unfortunately, had become a little bit paranoid and he amusedly decided to blame Moody for that. For the first days, he wasn't sure if he could eat everything without worrying for poisoning, or for some time delayed potion acting on him and killing him slowly. He did have confidence in them, but if someone else got to the food before the girls, it could have been a problem. He didn't trust anyone, except them and his faithful Hedwig.

However, he could not simply go to the Great Hall or the kitchens under his Cloak, it was too risky. If he was caught, there was a very high possibility of not coming out with all his limbs attached to the body. Or, worse, coming out alive.

In the end, hunger and thirst won. He was between a rock and a hard place, so he started slowly. First, just by drinking small amounts of pumpkin juice and waiting for hours for something to ensue. His stomach would angrily complain, but he was not listening to it.

When nothing happened, he emptied all the glass in a single go, and waited.

Nothing occurred again, and maybe it was a good sign. But he could not lower his guard.

He went over the food, and he so blamed himself to not have studied more! There have had to be some kind of detection spell for poisons or similar things in the food and beverages. Why did he have to go and waste time with Weasley, instead of preparing himself better?

He had been stupid. Truly stupid.

No more of that! He would do his very best, for himself, and for his parents' memory. He hoped sincerely that they were not disappointed in him. But even if that was the case, he would regain their approval, even fighting with his nails and teeth!

At the third serving, on the third day, he began to relax a bit, and enjoy his meals more. He had managed to exchange some quick words with the girls, and they assured him that the food was always picked from their plates, and never left their sight. Also, since the matter was strictly related to the silver and green dressed friends, his thoughts often went onto the beautiful and mysterious Daphne Greengrass.

That had been a total surprise, who in the name of Magic would have imagined that the very Ice Queen was romantically interested in him?!

Two weeks after their first meeting, he was still thinking about it.


"Daddy! You didn't love mummy?"

Every time that Harry or Daphne reached this point in the story little Lily would always ask this question. It was difficult to explain to her that the situation between her father and her mother wasn't the best for them, in the beginning.

But how could he destroy the dreams of such a beauty?

Harry answered, while continuing to feed her little scoops of chocolate ice cream. In the meantime, Daphne was relaxing on the main balcony, in a very revealing sunbathing suit, that left so few things to the imagination of a hot human male.

'Not that he had to imagine anything, in the end.' He thought with a lecherous smirk.

Charlus James Potter, his firstborn, was instead napping on the chair just under the shade, having exhausted himself in running around the house during the morning.

"No, flower. Daddy loves mummy so much that he cannot imagine a day without her." And, after a pause. "Or a day without you, or your brother."

Daphne smiled widely at her surfacing emotions, he was always able to further improve her mood, even if she was already happy, like that day.

"You are all my gems, my family, and my life." He embraced his daughter and squeezed her so tight to reassure the young child, while his wife rewarded him with a dazzling expression.

Truly, if he got to the person who dubbed her a person of ice, he would have words with him, or her.

"But, Lily, you have to understand this, even if it's difficult." Her daughter gave him her complete attention, face scrunched in an adorable sight of concentration.

"Love… love is beautiful, but it can be hard at times. In the beginning, especially." He smiled at her. "You have to work for it, every moment of your life."

Lily Dorea Potter tried to comprehend what his father wanted to say, but for her, it was so much simpler than that. You loved a person or not. She loved her mummy, and her daddy, and even Charlus when he annoyed her. She didn't love going to sleep early or eating funny smelling vegetables. It was easy.

Harry could almost see her thoughts, and smiled again. Was he so innocent when he was her age? It was difficult to remember, among the pain and the abuse.

Since he decided to marry Daphne years before, he swore on all the Magic of the world that his sons and daughters would never ever experience a childhood like his. He would bring down everything to avoid that. Everything.

"Don't worry Lily, you will understand better with time."

The little girl seemed to accept the answer, eager again to hear the continuation of the story.

"What happened after, daddy? What?!"


Harry thought about her confession. It was the first time that they had ever interacted with each other in that way and with all the ordeal of the day, he didn't really know what to do.

At the same time, the blue-eyed Slytherin was doing an equivalent thinking. Had she and Tracey been too hasty? Maybe there was not enough solid ground to build something?

They had tried to jump and go directly to the next stage, had everything been ruined? You could not rush something like that, especially with Harry's negative experiences in the human relationships field.

They still had those scars and that cross vividly in front of their eyes, and it had been scary that someone with that past came out like Harry.

You didn't hear about that kind of abuse in the Magical World since it was a thing of the past. Well, almost. Right now, the abuse, more psychological than physical, was concentrated on the eventual squibs of a family. Since they did not have magic, then they were nothing, and so immediately cast out and abandoned.

It was not fair, obviously, but the old families were the ones with the power. You could not change that.

Harry… Harry instead. He was different.

He was abused since his first childhood years, he was probably isolated from everyone and everything around him, since the muggles were so afraid of his magic powers. The three girls tried to imagine themselves in the same situation, without all the comfort of their homes, their parents with them, the gift at Christmas and at their Birthdays, the fun with friends, the joy of staying all together, always starved, beaten, condemned…

Merlin…

He was right, he was a monster, but in the good sense of the term.

Every one of them would have been broken, crazy, or at least so dark that the good magic would have run far away from them with the speed of a spell. They could not understand how a person, grown up like him, came out like him.

Harry seemed so unconfident in himself, but inside, deep inside, he was maybe one of the best in all the Magical World. He just… he just needed to be pushed a little. And what happened that very evening, finally, managed to do it.

The blonde-haired witch ended her reasoning. She always dreamt of him, but this was not going in the way she had planned. In hindsight, she should have considered that it would have been better to wait a little more, to establish a connection later in the year, away from that emotional rollercoaster.

Maybe waiting after the First Task would have the wisest choice. Maybe even ask him for the Ball, or hinting that she was interested in going with him.

No, that would not have worked at all, she needed to be direct with him since his experience was near zero.

Or maybe, she had to approach him more during the past years, and have already something to work with.

When she saw him come out from his thoughts she noticed his expression and gave out a sob. 'Here comes the rejection. I should have known that this was impossible…'

Harry looked at her blue-eyed friend. "I have a question for you, Daphne."

He spoke again, slowly, hoping to not create a mess with the situation on his hands. "You are a very beautiful witch, and I would be honored to have you as a girlfriend, but… why me? I mean, we have known each other since Second Year but…"

Daphne, interrupting him, managed to croak out. "What… what do you mean with why me?"

The other two witches were sending him heavy glares which promised deadly retribution, worse than a basilisk, if he only tried to break the heart of their friend and sister.

"Well, for starters, why do you like me. Why would you risk everything in your House to be with me, what can I give to you to make this… our relationship work, why did you not tell me about this in our meetings last year… I have an infinite number of questions right now."

He regarded them all. "Add this to the fact that, well, how to say it… it's the first time that something like this it's happening to me, and I am… I am not the best social person here so…" The snort the girls gave out managed to release a bit of the accumulated tension.

Daphne, while still a little bit sad, was also elated because, in the end, it was only insecurity on his part. It was a problem which she could solve with time, constant company and reassurance.

"Would it be ok for you to… to start from what we are now, friends, and work from this point on? And maybe, after knowing each other more, we could become something else."

He raised his eyes from the floor to her nervous irises, and tensely asked. "What… what do you think about it?" He was blushing all over his face. "I would like to know you better, and spend more time with you, maybe during some Hogsmeade weekend or just talking together alone. Would it be possible?"

Daphne did not really need to think about what he had said, especially the part when he wanted to be alone with her! She beamed instantly, with a kilowatt smile on her face. "All right Harry, I can do that! I want to spend some more alone time with you too!"

She had a possibility to make this work with her Harry! And damn her if she would have wasted it!

Meanwhile, the Boy-Who-Lived gave a sigh of relief. Somehow, he managed to not botch it. It was a conquest in a day where everything seemed to go wrong for him.

"Hey, Harry, are you sure you are not a Ravenclaw? That speech seemed to come out from their mouths."

Harry laughed nervously at Tracey, followed by Astoria. He felt the tension fade away little by little.

"I don't know. The Hat stated Slytherin first, never named the Ravens."

"And I think that now Malfoy will call his oh so great daddy to kick out the Hat from the School, or burn him, for having said something like that! I cannot still believe it!" The little girl said, rolling her eyes.

"Only two months here and you are already tired of his daddy-complex? Good work, Astoria!" She smirked at him. "He would try for sure, but I think that the Hat is connected to Hogwarts, and it would be a tad impossible to do something about the problem."

He, still a bit nervous, got up from the sofa. "I'm relieved then, I do not have to obliviate you all." He added with total nonchalance.

"What?!"

He looked at them with a grin, after transfiguring one of the books in the library in a large robe to cover himself. It was a little bit colder in there now, since the night was advancing and the room, together with the Chamber, was partially under the lake. "I was joking girls…" They released their breath. "…or maybe not."

Seeing the expression on his face Tracey started laughing loudly. "Daphne! He is perfect for you!"

The blonde Slytherin blushed again. "He has your same sense of strange dark humor!"

"Shut up Tracey!" And she began to hurl the pillow behind her back at her again and again.

"But now, girls, I'm about to crash on this floor and fall sleep, because I am really busted. Can we maybe meet again?"

"Yes Harry, it is getting late. We just wanted to be sure that you were ok."

Harry smiled at his blonde friend. "I will be in time. Thank you, Daphne, Tracey, Astoria. You have been the only ones to support me, and I really appreciate this. I will not forget."

"Don't worry about that. Now we have to go back to our dorms after our unsuccessful pursuit of your person."

"You tried your best. Maybe you will have more luck next time." He snickered about that.

Daphne got up, and timidly approached him, stopping at an arm's length from the boy. "Harry, what will you do about this Tournament? Even after everything you have said, you have to compete."

"For now, I have to regain a better control in my Magic, due to the surplus given to me willingly by the Goblet. And, after that, I must discover what the First Task will be. I need more information, so I think that the library at night will be my new friend. I have only three weeks after all."

"Good. Good." She sighed loudly.

"So you have a plan."

"Well, maybe a part of a plan, but I have a direction to follow."

"Harry… please. Stay safe." She kissed him again, on his cheek. This time was not rough and not demanding, just pleasurable, and full of affection. "If we should hear or find something, we will tell you."

"I will be, Daphne. And again, thank you, you don't know how much I needed your company." He was still new at this display of affections thing, but he decided to mirror her, giving a kiss on the icy blue-eyed girl's cheek. Her joyous and happy expression was all he needed to see to know he did the correct move.

Tracey added, whispering. "Thank you, Harry, for not breaking Daphne's heart. She wants to appear strong, but, inside…" Astoria nodded along.

"If I can ask you this, Tracey, Astoria, please trust me. I will never, ever, do something to hurt her." The brunette smiled, and embraced him strongly, silently thanking again her secret two years old friend. He escorted them to the stairs and, after bidding goodbye with a new round of quick hugs, retiring in the Chamber.

After retrieving his trunk and bringing it into the room, he just slept for almost a day and a half straight, since he was totally hammered, both physically and emotionally. His name coming out from the Goblet, the new shunning, the betrayal of all his House, the magic… it was too much for a fourteen-year-old boy.

Who or what the hell did he annoy in a previous life to have all this thrown on him? That was his last coherent thought before crashing on the new transfigured bed (from the sofa).

His days became routine. Waking up in the morning, training, eating, sleeping in the afternoons, eating again, then getting out during the night and going into the Forbidden Section of the Library, or perusing the bookshelves trying to find whatever he would need for overcoming this new obstacle in his life.

Since he didn't know what the First Task would include, he decided not to focus on a particular branch of magic, like only exercising in Transfiguration or only DADA. He needed all the possible information on everything, to have a chance.

He also noticed that, without being stupidly distracted by Weasley and his chess games, and forcibly pushed by Granger to continuously study more and more, he could manage to learn the magical theory in his courses, he just needed to do it without interruptions and in his own time. Another good thing that came from his self-proclaimed isolation.

In the meantime, he was discreetly searching for clues. When he would have discovered in advance what the objective of the Task was, because he would, he would discard everything that was not related to it, and concentrate on the important spells.

He managed also to find the time to go and see Hedwig four days after his confrontation in the Great Hall. To say that the bird was annoyed about his lack of visiting was a euphemism, and she made him remember cuffing his head with her wings, repeatedly, and sharply pecking his fingers.

Harry had no excuse in her eyes since she had been worried about him, and only the promise of more frequent coming over to stay with her and a lot of bacon treats made the owl restrain from attacking him more. She had always been a temperamental one, he mused, and it seemed that the girls in his life liked to get their hands on him. He smirked and blushed at the double-entendre, Daphne's lips immediately in his mind.

One of these times in the Owlery gave Harry a chance to reflect while petting his beloved first friend.

His one was a sad and comforting situation at the same time. Sad because in the end he did not have human friends to talk with, except Daphne, her sister, and Tracey; but comforting, because he was not alone. And if Harry feared anything, Dementors excluded, it was something about being alone forever.

Luckily, Hedwig knew her human, so she was ready to provide comfort with soft hoots and her head brushing against his cheek. Harry's mood lifted a bit, thanks to her familiar beautiful snowy owl.


The reactions of the other Schools and the four Houses of Hogwarts, after the show (as Snape was usually fast to remind) Harry Potter put out on the evening of the last day of October was almost the same.

He would have to go down!

The Ravens of the high knowledge Nest were maybe the most detached from all the general situation. Maybe being the key word. From the outside, their House was not directly involved in the events, since no one of their seventh years dropped their name into the Goblet of Fire. But, from the inside, since Harry insulted all the School with his stunt, and since he was trying to steal the spot of Cho's boyfriend Diggory, they worked with the others to find a way to make him unable to participate.

Just one of them was on Harry's side, even if she had never met the boy personally. But the blibbering humdingers always spoke the truth about people, and she had learned to trust them, unlike the nargles.

The Badgers, forever hard workers and loyal, were the most enraged of all Hogwarts. Their very own Cedric was indeed the first to have been chosen for the competition, and that was the highest honor for them. But then, Harry Potter had to ruin everything! He shamelessly put his name into the cup, in which way was not known, but it was not important because, in the end, he did it!

And for that, he would pay!

Not a lot of people knew that Badgers, when pressured, could be vicious and ferocious aggressive predators. Right now, that was the mood inside the common room of their House, even if it was for the wrong reasons.

Like idiots, instead of thinking, they simply wanted a scapegoat to abuse, and unfortunately, Harry Potter was the perfect one.

The other two Houses were very different, at least on the paper. Most of Gryffindor hated the slimy Snakes with a passion, and most of Slytherin despised the idiotic Lions with the same intensity. But in this particular situation, they could easily have had a meal and a party together, joking and laughing.

The Snakes of the Pit wanted to destroy the enemy of their Lord, and this occasion was the best that they could have on their hands. From them, only Cassius Warrington, the seventh-year prefect, decided to put his name into the Goblet, and to tell the truth, he was not interested in the political happenings.

But the House of Slytherin had to appear always unified on the outside, so in the end he didn't really have a choice.

"Greengrass! Davis! Where have you been?" Asked Malfoy, forcibly. He did not notice their disappearance until they came back to their common room under the lake.

Daphne adopted immediately her Ice Queen mask, and some of the males in the room covered their privates at the thought of what she was capable do to with her wand.

With the wand she was currently balancing between her fingers, because she knew how to intimidate someone.

A sixth year Ravenclaw, followed by a fifth year Slytherin and again another fifth had their family jewels permanently shrunk and unable to do their work unless using a particular and very expensive stimulating potion. And this just for bumping into her after a class, and making her fall down; or wetting her two weeks long researched Arithmancy essay with pumpkin juice before a meal; or, worse, trying to get into her knickers.

No one knew, but the last one had much more than his jewels shrunken down.

"Not that it is important for you, Malfoy." She always said his name with such disgust and loathing that someone could perceive it from the other side of the Castle. "But we followed Potter to try and see where he would go and hide."

"So, maybe, we could ambush him in the dark." Added Davis, from her side.

"And?" Drawled the albino boy.

"And… we were behind him until he reached the Dorks tower. He went inside, but he never got out."

That spread incredulity among all the presents. Did Potter try to get a refuge inside his ex-House place?

It was a stupid choice, and even the idiot Potter could not have been so thick to do something like that. There was surely something inside the Gryffs Tower that he needed, and then… he had the whole Castle to use to go into hiding.

There was also the possibility that the Lions had already trapped him, and that could explain his disappearance. But when they got out from the dining hall, after the stupid Badgers, he could still see almost all the Gryffindors still seated at the table, discussing animatedly among them. So no, he must have had some kind of plan.

"He never got out? Are you sure about that? He could have used an Invisibility Cloak!" Said Pansy Parkinson, Draco's fiancé, from her permanent place on his arm.

"He could have…" Again, shouting around the room. "…but we would have seen the door open. He could be invisible, but he not as immaterial as a ghost."

"You are right, Greengrass. So why do you have stopped watching the entrance? He could have come out right as we are speaking now down here!"

They were saved by their Head of House, who answered entering the room and giving out the same excuse they had prepared.

"Because it is almost curfew, and I think that even my Snakes would not like to be caught by that filthy squib during the night, right?"

"Exactly, Professor."

"Surely we don't want to pass our evenings cleaning bathrooms!" That generated a wave of disgust from everyone in the room.

"Good. Remember, our House always presents a united front, and this will be again our main point of action."

Malfoy and a lot of other members were smiling cruelly. Practically, he was giving them carte blanche to act against Potter! Astoria shuddered at the view and went into the waiting arms of her older sister.

"But, we are Slytherin. We do not get caught. Or if we do, the fault will be given to someone else." He scanned all the room to reinforce his point. "Potter has made his biggest mistake as of date, and we will surely use this opportunity."

And, before going out, he concluded. "As strange as it may seem, all the other Houses have similar thoughts. Act accordingly."

The three girls were out of the common room in a flash, after excusing themselves. They did not notice a pair of cold brown eyes following them suspiciously.

"Blaise, keep an eye out for them. I don't think that they have told us all the truth."

The half Italian boy nodded. "Understood, Nott."

Going from the plotting in the deepest dungeon to the planning in the highest tower, instead, the proud Lions of Gryffindor were into a sudden and impromptu meeting in the common room, with all the House present and accounted for.

Ronald Weasley had been silenced a little while ago though, since the only things that were coming out of his mouth were something akin to "I told you! Dark Wizard! He'll kill us! Dark Wizard! Glory hound! I told you!" Repeating and repeating like a broken disk, and it was not useful to the conversation.

Hermione was trying to elaborate all that had happened during the evening. But, for the first time in her life, it was proving a difficult thing to do. She wanted to find a reason for everything, but in this case, her voluntary blindness regarding certain matters and her worshipfulness of authorities was working against her.

She was derailed from her thoughts by their chaser, Angelina Johnson. "Have you seen what he has done? He renounced to his House! This is unacceptable! It's an unheard thing, it will taint our reputation forever!"

Her fellow Quidditch company, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet, nodded with her. It was incredible and at the same time demeaning for all of them. Their House would always have a black spot on its mark of courage and pride for the Lions since no one, in recorded history, did what Potter had done.

All this caused by the fame-hungry Boy-Who-Lived! Angelina could not comprehend why he would have done something like that, she had no problem with Cedric since the Goblet chose him rightfully. But Harry had to go and butt himself him, whatever cheat he had used.

It was almost farfetched. He was their precious seeker, a pillar for the whole Quidditch squad, always honest and kind with everyone else. But after this, he had to suffer the consequences!

The Twins were already in their world, developing something to catch him and making him understand that no one threatened their family without repercussions. They had written to their mother, father, and brothers, to announce the facts.

Maybe they could have helped too, in some way or another. And their mum would surely not have been pleased about certain things. Howlers were surely incoming for the spectacled boy.

Ginny was still sobbing, and Hermione was trying to console her in her arms, but she was not having great results. Like the little red headed girl, she understood Harry's point of view, but all the Professors had not acted to defend him, and he clearly broke the rules. That was not allowable in her book, and when she would see him again she would speak with him, she would make him pay for the hurtful words he told her.

Just thinking again about what he said brought a new wave of sadness. How could he do that? How dare he? Didn't he think about her feelings, at all? Had everything been only a game for the famous last Potter and right now he didn't need her anymore?

Millions of questions swarmed in Hermione's brain, but the real problem was that she was not reasoning with a cold mind. She, like everyone else, was still too involved to have a clear and rational line of thought.

A shame, because a single night of rest could have changed everything between redemption and stupidity.

All the House rallied under the banner of driving Harry Potter out, and make him understand that no one could call the House of Lions a House of Jackals and get skip-free after that!


"Daddy! What did you do?"

Charlus was awake now, and Daphne ended her suntan session a half an hour before. She had a quick shower and came back to the drawing room, with her skin glowing.

"Your daddy was strong, he did not fear all those bad people, but he knew that he had to pay attention."

The boy looked at his father and mother both. "I don't understand."

Harry chuckled a bit at that. "Charlus, what do we tell you when you are running around the gardens and the elves are working around?"

"To not disturb them, and to not run into them."

Daphne understood what his husband wanted to explain with that example. "Good. Now imagine if all the elves were bad people who wanted to hurt you. What would you do?"

He pouted, thinking about when he fell from his muggle bicycle for the first time. "I don't like getting hurt. I would… I don't know."

The boy seemed to reflect hard about it. Little Lily, on his right side, was doing the same and finally said. "It's like when you told me that before doing something I have to… to think about it?"

"Exactly, Lily." She sported a great smile (whit a missing tooth, fallen the week before), proud to have understood.

"Like your sister has answered, Charlus, if those people were around you, and as we said, they wanted to hurt you, what would have you done to not get hurt?"

"Lily said I have to think about it, and you said that I have to pay attention." His face was scrunched even more. "I would…" His eyes lit up when he had the response. "I would try to not go near them. Maybe with time they would not want to hurt me anymore."

"Good answer!" The smile of the boy matched the one her sister was having.

Harry ruffled his hairs and added. "And like you, I didn't want to get hurt."

"So your daddy, while brave, had to plan before doing something. And stay away from them for a while."

Their children were rewarded with quick sloppy kisses on their cheeks.

"Love, what did we do to have such intelligent kids?"

Daphne closed the distance between her and Harry, eliciting an eeeeewww from Charlus and an excited squeal from Lily, and kissed him lightly.

"It's obvious, they are all their mother!" She said with an air of superiority, putting her nose in the air.

Harry snorted and looked at her amazing blue eyes. "Tracey was right. You have the same strange dark humor as me."

Her answer was a very dark glare directed at her husband, followed by the giggles of the children.

"But, continuing with the story, that's what your father did then…"


Everything was fine for the first days when he also thought about writing to Sirius, but he was on the run from the Ministry, and if he came to Hogwarts he would have risked too much.

He could not lose his only family, and after everything he did the year before, he did not want to see him kissed in front of his eyes. It would be too much to bear. No, when the situation would have been calmer, maybe after the Task, he would contact him. But not in the immediate future. He just hoped that, after reading the sure headlines he had made on the Prophet, he would manage to remain a little bit rational, and not to come at Hogwarts running in his Grim form.

His routine, however, came crashing down just five days before the First Task, on November 19th.

He went to the Owlery two nights before, but she was not there. He waited for about an hour under his Cloak without seeing her, only some second years sending their mail.

'Maybe she went hunting. I'll try again tomorrow.'

When the next day the situation was the same, he began to worry. And, when he went back to Myrtle's bathroom and found the note, the panic in his stomach evolved into rage.

-They have Hedwig. We don't know their intentions, please be safe. D. A. T.-

He incinerated the small slip of paper. So, Malfoy wanted a confrontation.

His eyes were again ablaze, shining a vivid green. A confrontation he would have!

He was already concerned about what he would have to do for the Tournament and was already nervous about that. Now, this was a wrench thrown right into his plans.

He just knew that Malfoy wanted an audience, like the loser he was, so the only places freely available were the courtyards around the school. He waited patiently, letting his magic build up, and calming himself. Even if it was proving to be so damn difficult.

The same day, after lunch, he saw a group of Snakes going towards the eastern courtyard, followed suspiciously by some Badgers, while the Ravens and Gryffs were still in the Great Hall. He had to risk it, he would not leave Hedwig alone.

She never ever did.

Cloaked under his Invisibility Cape, he quietly and quickly crossed all the corridors, classroom and little halls, going from secret passage to secret passage. He thanked his father and all the Marauders for that. Maybe it was not their intention, but they were helping him so much even from decades before his time!

When he finally reached the open space, his blood went above the boiling point in an instant.

Hedwig was in a cage, with bloodied feathers. She seemed to be breathing, but he could not see well from where he was hidden. Damn them, if she was about to die someone else would have died with her. He tried to summon the cage to him, but nothing happened. Evidently, it was charmed against that spell.

"Potter!"

He could also see Draco, in the middle of the courtyard, his face and hands had numerous fresh scratches on them. Surely a gift from his faithful owl while he was trying to capture her.

"Coward!"

It was strange that she hadn't managed to fly outside the Owlery tower before being captured. Maybe they had used some kind of blocking spell for magical animals?

"Come out!"

Harry looked around the area, wherever he would have revealed himself, he would have been surrounded. There were Slytherins all around, and he had to consider the Badgers too.

Well, as their crazy Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would say: adapt to the situation and choose your ground. Single person targeting spells were immediately excluded, he would have had to work with wide area enchantments.

He decided to start by going near Crabbe and Goyle, who were standing under one of the four trees which delimited the borders of the inner square of the courtyard itself. Getting them out of the scene would provide two things: two heavy built boys down, and a place for him to start. A foothold, so to speak.

His new wand was shrunken down and attached to his arm, under the robe. He would not need to reveal it to everyone before the First Task.

Suddenly, two dull thuds broke the silence around the area. The bulky boys were out for the count, and Harry was still not seen around. Where was he?

"Potter! Fight like a man!"

"Or are you too scared, like the bastard you are?"

Now now, insulting his parents. His anger spiked and he readied himself for the battle, since it was time to uncover the cards and to show a few his capabilities.

"If you don't come out right now, your owl will die!"

"I'm here, Malfoy." He materialized from nothing under the tree, relaxing against the solid wood. Immediately all the presents started to scream and to call him names.

They all had their wands pointed towards him, with spells already lighting their focal points. They would not have been a problem after all, but if he had to move while shielding himself he could not maintain a Protego Maxima in that situation.

To be effective he had to be standing still. And it was not possible.

Again, like Moody told them during one of their first lessons, some risks were acceptable to gain the final victory.

"Ah, finally! The cheater!"

"You have decided to show yourself then. Admirable, but useless."

"What do you have on your dress, Malfoy? A fancy womanly decoration?"

It was a pin, with some writing on it. Accioing the one from Crabbe he read it.

Potter. The Disgrace of Hogwarts.

He snorted. That was supposed to make him mad? It was nothing more than a child's tantrum.

"Wow, Malfoy." He snickered. "Did you stay awake every night for a week to think about this?" He started to laugh helplessly. It was so stupid and so funny at the same time!

Pointing discreetly his wand arm towards the ground, he smiled and sent his wide area charm, focusing it to act only on the round insignias.

All the pins transformed into badges with a golden bolt carved on it, and at the same time, the writing was completely erased. "Really, Draco." He gave him a sad look. "You didn't have to do all this to support me. I'm almost embarrassed."

Astoria was failing to contain her laughter, Tracey had tears going down her cheeks and you could clearly perceive cracks on Daphne's perfect mask by the curve of her lips. They managed to not get seen by anyone else, but that would have been another hilarious story to tell.

As soon as Draco saw the new inscription on the badge on his chest, he ripped it from his robe and threw it towards the ground with anger, stomping on it with his shoe.

Without a warning, he raised his wand toward Hedwig, and Harry saw the beginning of a red colored spell in front of it. Not having time to think, only to act, he cast a Protego over the cage, which effortlessly rebounded Draco's attack towards other students, and shot running towards the middle of the field. Immediately, all the other Slytherins began their firing, and while he was moving he was able to evade most of their incantations, but not all.

Some Cutting Charms managed to reach him in the back, tearing his robe and opening a few wounds. A Blasting Charm almost got his right foot and threw him out of his run, and some Confringos made the terrain around his steps explode, forcing some sharp turns.

Still, he did not fire back. At least, until he had everyone there.

He knew that Dumbledore was tied to the wards of the Castle, and said wards would have alerted him of the spell fire in the eastern courtyard, where he was right now. He just had to endure a bit more, and then…

The Badgers, after seeing that he was not retaliating against the Snakes, came out from the cover of the stone archways and focused themselves on him. That was good.

The Slytherins instead were still inside, clever, but not enough to get out from his action range.

After other ten or twenty seconds of evading most of the spells and getting caught by less and less, finally, the professors arrived, together with most of the other students.

"What in the name of Merlin is happening here!?" Shouted McGonagall.

A sixth, or fifth, year Snake answered her. "Potter came here to taunt us, Professor! He fired and we responded to him!"

Harry should have expected something like that. The shots on him never wavered, and again Dumbledore was doing nothing. Having a sudden inspiration, the Boy-Who-Lived decided on a course of action that would have surprised the old man, as well as everyone else.

He immediately understood that it was a rehearsed play because just after the Slytherin boy spoke, Snape added his useless words. "Potter! You will be expelled from this School for this!" His sneer reached a level never achieved before, and his hand was itching to go to his wand.

"Professors!" Shouted Harry, while seeing the Twins enter the fray, and from the other side the official Tri-Wiz Champions doing the same: he instantly knew that he had to finish this fast, otherwise he would have been surely overwhelmed. "I could use a little help here!"

He was almost at the cage, just a couple metres more and Hedwig would have been safe in his hands. The only effect from his request to the teachers was answered by Flitwick and Babbling, who put some shields against the group of students near the entrance.

A lucky shot from Cedric Diggory partially halted his run. His Piercing Hex destroyed half of his shoulder blade, making him shout loudly from the pain, and hurtling him around where a Cutting Curse from Delacour slashed his torso, and a Blasting Hex with thanks from Krum flung him from the ground.

Luckily for Harry, he was already above Hedwig's cage.

As soon as he touched it, it disappeared under his Invisibility Cloak, and he fell unceremoniously on the hard stone paved terrain of the square yard. His shoulder and right arm were throbbing for the wound, and he had to grit his teeth together to contain the screams. He immediately began to push his magic to heal him, even if the pain doubled for that.

Everyone around him was laughing, Ron included, while Hermione had a smug look that screamed 'You got what you deserved for going against the rules.'

What a bitch.

"I told you Potter! You have always been a pathetic one!" It was funny, Malfoy thought he was winning.

He fixed his eyes on Daphne for a single fraction of a second, and he sharply moved them to the side, conveying the message.

Get the hell out of here!

He saw the trio moving away slowly in the background, and he noticed also a little blonde haired gray-eyed girl doing the same, after winking at him. Who was that?

"My boy, come with me now, and we will tend to those injuries. Then we will talk about your actions."

Harry strained to regain his balance and was forced to remain crouched on one leg. He was still breathing hard and with some difficulty but the pain in his shoulder was receding, and the cut on his torso was already healing nicely. He would have to force it a little bit, but by the next day, he would have been as good as new, albeit tired.

"The sage Dumbledore finally speaks!" Mocking him was fun, he should have done it way more often. "Sorry, Headmaster, I have no intention at all to do what you have said."

"I'm sorry my boy. It seems that we have reached a point of no return, so you will have to be detained."

He could see almost everyone lift their wands. If his memory was good -after the blast he was still a little dazed, and the world was still spinning around him- the color was the one of the Stunning Spell.

His smirk reached his ears. Perfectly what he wanted.

"Stupe…"

As soon as he heard the first syllable, he sprang into action and launched his incantation!

"DEFODIO!"

The Gouging Spell rushed down from the base of his wand to its tip, sending a tingling sensation against his bare forearm, and then shooting into the terrain below faster than the blink of an eye.

This, added to the magical overcharge Harry delivered together with the incantation, had a literally explosive effect on all the courtyard.

It was like a muggle war bomb had just detonated three feet underground!

All the terrain, the paved stones, the trees, the archway… everything was blasted towards the sky! After four or five seconds, he could see chunks of earth almost floating in mid-air, together with every student in his range of fire. Some did lose their wand in the process, and all the Stunning Spells had gone in awkward directions, no one finding its initial target.

But Harry was not finished.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

The Full Body-Bind Curse was launched while everyone was still almost floating in a zero-g environment, not that those magical folks knew anything about that, and everyone was simply helpless against it.

People without wands could not even cast a simple Protecting Charm, and all the other ones were still too surprised by the action of a supposedly losing, battered and bleeding boy.

Time seemed to slow down, Harry was able to catch the expression on some of the faces of the presents. Malfoy was enraged, the Professors stunned and almost awed at the display, heck, for Moody it seemed like it was Christmas again and again.

The Badgers were looking at him with pure loathing on their faces. It was sad, the cute Susan Bones had such an enjoyable happy complexion normally. After what her and her friend Hannah had done to him, spreading nasty rumors, during his Second Year, this was a nice retribution.

The three Champions were also involved in the effects. Cedric was turned on is back while floating, so no luck to see his face, Viktor was surprised but continued to consider him nothing more than a nuisance, while Fleur was trying to smooth down her skirt to avoid wandering eyes and looking at him with pure hatred.

Heh, sometimes, wearing something like that could be a problem. He chuckled at the sight.

But, still, Harry was not finished!

He had to make them pay for what they had done to Hedwig, and they had to pray Merlin and Morgana together if the damage she had was something permanent.

Just a few seconds had passed since his first spell. He looked again at Dumbledore and grinned, twisting his wand arm in a sharp straight forward movement.

"OPPUGNO!"

Everything, everything, that was previously floating became… a projectile.

Chunks of terrain, broken stones, pieces of trees, branches, parts of the archway, even the pebbles.

And their targets were just in the middle of them. Easy preys.

In a single instant, tens, hundreds of pieces of anything became weapons, at Harry's service. All the students who were firing on him were hit, multiple times, from every direction, from every angle. He could see bodies twisting under the barrage, people screaming for the pain, other students screaming in fright, and the Professors trying to contain the damage.

A useless task.

There were too many objects in the field to slow everything down in a short amount of time. And, while this was happening, gravity started to work again, and battered bodies started to fall again towards the ground. From two and a half meters above it.

The sound of bones cracking was something like music to him, especially after seeing Malfoy crushed against what remained of a stone column. He had a satisfied expression on his face and smirked at them all.

"Accio Firebolt!"

His faithful broom rushed to him, smacking the palm of his open hand. With the other, he grabbed the cage through his Invisibility Cloak and hovered on the destroyed courtyard.

"What did I tell to all of you?"

There was only silence around him, except for the moans of pain.

"Do. Not. Cross. Me!"

Before anyone could answer, he shot towards the sky, accelerating instantly at maximum speed, and leaving the battlefield as a winner.

He truly could not contain his excitement.

Harry decided to not return immediately to the School since the corridors would be full of wounded people going to the infirmary. He had to tend to Hedwig first and foremost.

He landed near the Forbidden Forest, on the other side compared to Hagrid's Hut, and after wrenching open the cage he re-enervated his beloved familiar.

Hedwig was disorientated but managed to look at her human.

"Hoot." It was so sad and feeble that Harry almost got into a rage fit again. He brought her to his chest with his arms. "Don't worry Hedwig, you'll be ok. You'll heal nicely and fast. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I left you alone, I'm sorry that you got caught, I'm sorry that I was so late…"

He did not manage to finish his rambling, mixed with tears because his owl nipped him on the finger he was using to preen her breast feathers.

"Hoot!" This was more intense, and she wanted to convey the message that everything was ok.

"You will come with me in the Chamber, and we will go out together at night, what do you think girl? Flying side by side in the darkness?"

She was still weak for all the ordeal, but you could see the excitement in her amber eyes. "Hoot Hoot!" He smiled. Eeverything would have been good now.

After only half a minute, he assumed that he had jinxed it again.

This because both human and familiar heard a powerful and scary roar that came from inside the forest. A roar accompanied with an orange hue behind the thick bulk of the trees.

"No, they could not have…"

A second, a third, and fourth roar, always paired with the same red-orange lighting meant only a single thing.

Dragons!


"Daddy was so awesome! I want to be like daddy!"

Harry blushed a bit, even if it was your son complimenting you, he was always so easily embarrassed.

"Did I ever tell you how awesome you were in that situation, love?"

The tone of the word awesome was one Harry knew well. The sultry, excited, and awed tone that his wife reserved to him only in certain situations. Situations which would have required a bed, no clothes at all, and Silencing Charms all over their room.

He turned towards her, and towards her smoldering eyes. "Yes, my gem. But I would love a reminder!"

Their children did not understand, still, what their parents meant when they talked like that, but since it was not into the story, they simply did not care. It had to be a grown-up's thing.

"Mummy! Daddy! What happened after?"

"Well, I was still with aunty Tracey and aunty Storia…"


While Harry was taking care of Hedwig, and luckily she had no broken wings, just what it seemed like a concussion from the Stunning Spell they used to block her, Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria masked their presence disappearing in the middle of the crowd which was traveling inside the corridors of the School.

As soon as they were in front of the entrance of their common room they bolted inside, running towards their dorms, which was a big triple bed wide space, shared between the three. The figurine, the cover with Harry's name, his Quidditch robe and the set of books about his adventures made this one maybe the most anti-Slytherin room in all Hogwarts' history.

Their House would have been outraged, ashamed, and enraged in seeing such a display of items. But since Daphne's mother was an expert with Concealing Charms, even if someone entered it, only a master like Flitwick could have undone the masking on those items.

Closing the door behind them, locking it with triple incantations, and putting double alarms on it, they just collapsed on a bed.

Daphne was still trembling from the enthusiasm she was feeling. "Oh Morgana!"

"Did you see what has he done with them?"

"I was worried for him when he fell, but it was all his plan from the beginning!"

"Harry wanted to humiliate them like they did to him at the dinner!"

Daphne was still revisiting the memory. Her Harry defied everybody, and showed them what he was capable of doing! He was simply perfect!

'Okay' The blonde thought, almost giggling. 'Maybe too much Boy-who-Won-against-Everyone admiration here.' But she could not do otherwise, she was still too excited.

"Tracey to Daphne, Tracey to Daphne! Come down from these clouds!" She was laughing after seeing the dreaming look in the eyes of her fair-haired friend.

Astoria knew what he had to do. "Hey sister, would you mind if we shared? I so want him to be my boyfriend now and we are both Greengrasses!"

"NO!" Astoria smirked. That always worked.

"You are all mean, you know?"

Tracey smiled at her companion, and hugged her. It was always amazing to be able to see the real Daphne Greengrass, and not the hard and unapproachable Ice Queen who was ever present outside their room. A normal girl, with desires and passions, who happened to love someone dearly. "We are the best friends you could have in the whole world, Daph."

She could not say anything against that. She had been lucky to have them, especially in the venomous Pit.

The three girls continued to talk about what happened well into the night. It was only in the wee hours of the morning when they managed to fall asleep, all together in the same bed.


Harry and Hedwig waited until the sunset, before deciding to go back. He had given her some owl treats and made her drink some water taken from the nearby stream on the sides of the forest, and she seemed to get better by the hours. He could not have been happier.

Landing silently on the grass just outside the main wall of the Castle he opened a hidden passage and went immediately in.

As soon as he went out of it, however, he found himself face to face with the same young gray-eyed girl that winked at him before. She had a vacant stare and a serene smile on her lips.

"Hello, Harry Potter. The dabberblimps said to me that I would find you here."

"Err… The dabberwhat?"

"The dabberblimps! Haven't you ever heard about them?"

"No, I… I don't think so." Who was this strange girl with her wand behind her ear?

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She blinked a couple of times. "I am Luna Lovegood, but the others call me Loony."

That was not a nice thing to hear, it seemed like a bullying nickname. But that one was not the best moment to make new acquaintances. Someone could come and see him.

He smiled at her. "Pleasure to meet you, Luna. I'm sorry, but I have to go now. If they find me, it will not be a nice show."

"Don't worry Harry Potter, after what you did this afternoon no one in the Castle is searching for you. Even the Nargles are busy with other things."

Nargles? Dabbersomething? Were those animals what did he miss in the classes with Hagrid this year? If so, where the half-giant had managed to find them?

"Come with me, I know a secret place, and I can help you with your companion." She gestured toward Hedwig, who hooted gently in an affirmative way.

There was something about the girl which inspired him to trust her. However, he was ready with his wand, in case it would have been an ambush.

Luna seemed to know her way well, and after going behind a very worn out tapestry, he came into a half-furnished room, with a bed, some clothes were thrown around, and a table was filled with parchments, strange colorful quills, and books. A couple of candles were lit on her bedside and above the table.

He so hoped that his first impression was wrong. But his gut instinct was loudly saying the opposite.

"Give me your beautiful familiar Harry Potter, I will heal her."

The boy crouched to put his shoulder at the same level of the table, and Hedwig hopped from it onto the wooden surface. She didn't still feel good enough to try and take flight, so her movements were quite limited as of now.

"What is her name?"

"Hedwig, she is my first true friend, and I could not go on if something happened to her." The bird rewarded Harry with an appreciative peck on his finger.

"A warrior name, fitting for such a majestic bird."

Harry thought that if his companion was a human there would have been no way to stop her blush to appear on her cheeks. Instead, she opted to proudly push her chest in front of her.

What Luna did after stunned him. It had been astounding.

She just put her hands around Hedwig's sides, without touching her. The blonde girl muttered then some kind of long incantation, in a language that Harry never heard before, and at the end of it, some strange blueish glow encased his owl.

It didn't seem harmful, and Hedwig stood still for all the duration of the 'treatment', if one could call it so.

Just under the three minutes mark, the blue glow disappeared, and Luna almost collapsed from the intense work that she did with her magic. Harry was fast to embrace her from behind and guide the girl towards the bed.

Hedwig simply launched a powerful "HOOT!" and flew away from the table, circling excitedly around the room full of energy! Harry laughed happily at seeing his beloved owl fly again without constraints and turned to Luna to thank her for that great gift.

"Luna, thank you! I don't know if I can do something to repay you for everything you have done for me and Hedwig in the past hour, but if there is something, please, please let me know!" He smiled widely at her. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

Hedwig hooted again and the Lovegood girl smiled prettily at both of them.

"You don't need to thank me, Harry Potter. I like all kinds of animals, so it's normal that I would want to help them." She was so selfless, so caring. Why in that rotten world weren't there more individuals like her?

Without the concern about her friend on his mind, Harry turned once more his eyes around the room. "Luna, I don't want to be, how to say it…"

She blinked. "You want to know if I sleep here, Harry Potter?"

"Well…"

"Yes, I have been living here since my second month of school."

"And you are in your third year, right?"

"Ravenclaw." She answered smiling.

He could feel the first sparks of anger coming up to him. Why was she living like that? If she was a Ravenclaw, shouldn't she be living in the tower, with her classmates?

And now that he looked at her more closely, he noticed that she didn't have any shoes on, and was barefooted. Her uniform was old and tattered and all the clothes he could see were in the same state. It was a painful reminder for him.

The girl noticed his examinations and expected his question. "Luna… sorry, but why?"

He dreaded her answer. Because everything around them almost retold his own story in the cupboard under the stairs.

She observed him intensely, her eyes were so enthralling and intimidating at the same time that he felt she was looking straight at his very soul, as to judge him worthy or not. After some minutes, she simply shuddered and went towards him slowly, with humid eyes. He filled the space between them and embraced her strongly, hearing the first sobs from the little girl.

Hedwig was softly cooing as Harry stroked gently her white-blond hair, so similar to Astoria's, while murmuring reassuring things in her ears. He didn't know how much time passed, but at some point, Luna looked up at him with her beautiful wet wide gray eyes. "You are a good man, Harry Potter."

"I don't know, Luna." He sighed. "Lately I am only a bitter and angry boy, enraged with everyone."

"You are not at fault, Harry Potter. You will emerge victorious against all odds." Her irises had become slightly misty, and her voice had suddenly taken a different tone.

He was shaken from that. "Luna, you can really see something else, that no one can?"

She blinked one single time and mmmhed to him. "My mummy always said that I had a gift. And that it was one of the most precious gifts in the world. But I don't know what that means, she never explained it to me."

Harry never trusted Divination and everything related to it, it was a waste of time, and he decided to go with it simply because it was an easy subject, with high passing marks and no work at all. But Luna was clearly different, and she was not crazy… he had met a lot of crazy people in the Wizarding World, and the girl was not one of them.

Maybe it was better to talk with Daphne and the girls about it to see if they knew her, or if they could talk to her Head of House. Or maybe he could do it, and then leave the matter to them. He had the distinct fear that she was being bullied by someone.

"And these Nargles or the other ones, what are they?"

She smiled again, happy to talk about her hidden animals. "They are strange creatures which steal things from people, and they hide them in their nests. They are quite difficult to catch and are always elusive. Someone thinks that they are invisible too because no one has ever seen them. You need necklaces like mine to keep them away, even if some of them are really powerful."

"And how can you do it? Look at them, I mean."

"They are always around me, a lot of things I had got stolen over the years. Maybe it was because I disturbed their little ones?" She answered sadly with a downcast look.

Harry put immediately two plus two together. He didn't know what happened to Luna in the past, but if she was so similar to him in a certain sense, he did not want to imagine it. And he knew that there was no easy way to push the subject out in the open: if he wasn't hunted by all the school he would have raced to Ravenclaw Tower to give everyone there a good piece of his mind.

Delicately, he asked, still praying Merlin and Morgana to be proven wrong. "Luna… I'm sorry, but… who did it?"

The girl seemed to become smaller and smaller, she clutched at his chest with all the strength she had, burrowed her face into the crook of his neck, while trembling in his arms.

In a soft voice, so soft that it was not louder than a whisper, she said. "How do you know?"

He could feel hot tears coming down from his eyes, thinking again about his personal hell in Privet Drive. "Because, Luna, I lived like you are doing now for the first ten years of my life. With no one around me, no possessions to call mine, and no one to rely on. I was alone."

She snapped her head and looked at him again, moist eyes filled with compassion, with understanding, and with care.

"I never met someone like you, Harry Potter."

"Harry, Luna, only Harry for my friends."

She gasped, and he thought that he had said something wrong. "Friends?"

"Yes."

"I never… I never had someone like that. Only my Daddy."

It was so heart-wrenching that Harry could not stop to consider her like a little sibling of his. His instincts were screaming for him to protect the girl in his arms, to destroy whoever did something wrong to her.

"You are not alone anymore Luna, I and my friends will look after you now."

She almost squeezed the life out of him and continuedly thanked the boy for that simple yet so meaningful gesture of affection towards her. A gesture that no one, except her father, ever did for the 'crazy Loony Lovegood'.

Harry thought that she could have been one of the sweetest girls he ever met, and he remained with her for hours talking about nothing and everything, looking discreetly now and then at the Map, to see if someone was coming until she fell asleep on her bed. He went out from her hiding place, leaving a small note which told her to talk with Astoria or Daphne Greengrass, or with Tracey Davis, and to trust them to help her. Before leaving, he transfigured some parchments into nice warm blankets and put them on her little figure.

Her smile was all he could ask as a reward. It filled him.

But now, he had a letter to write!


The morning after, in the Staff Room of the School, all the Professors were discussing the latest development about Harry Potter.

"Albus!" Roared Moody. "I want him in my Auror Squad after this Tournament! Have you seen what he was capable of doing at fourteen years old? I don't care about his age; he could teach to my new recruits! The strategy, the action, all perfectly coordinated! He will be the best among my men!"

The little Charms half goblin Professor added. "The execution was flawless, if we were doing the OWL exams I would have given him an O straight ahead. That is sixth to seventh-year capability."

Dumbledore was always more and more astonished by the last Potter prowess in the fighting field. "Minerva, did you ever suspect that he could have been so…"

Minerva McGonagall was a stoic professor, always ready to enforce the rules to guarantee a good growing up for all the children in the Scottish School. But after the confrontation with Harry in the Great Hall, she was not so sure of herself anymore, about a lot of things she had done in the past.

She knew that she had failed him, following blindly the directives of Dumbledore, and failed him badly. Regaining his trust would have been an uphill battle, to say the least. James and Lily would have been so disappointed…

"Minerva. Are you with us?"

She was shaken out her reverie and finally answered. "Yes Albus, I'm sorry. And no, he always has been a mediocre student at best, just above the School mean, and barely going into his subjects with enthusiasm." The cat animagus shook her head and continued. "The first excitement in our school topics seemed to have disappeared after his Second Year, and from a certain point of view, I can even understand why…"

"It looks like that we have underestimated everything about him. Vastly so." The aged man was thinking a mile per minute about the new developments. "We could assume that the Tournament has somewhat forced this on him..."

Snape, maybe for the first time in his life, was silent, and without a ready retort in his mouth except for the ever-present sneer on his face. The boy had truly been good. Yes, he could have done better, but also, a lot worse. And it was so sour for him to accept that. How he hated the brat!

Minerva spoke again. "It seemed like having James here again… with Lily's fury in him."

Severus inhaled sharply. He did not need to hear that.

They were interrupted by an unknown gray speckled brown owl, which entered the window and left a letter on the table, before leaving without waiting for an answer or treats.

Dumbledore was surprised. The office for the Staff Meetings was not certainly warded against post owls, but this was the first time in his long memory that they received something there.

Arithmancy Professor Vector was curious. "Who could have sent a letter straight here instead to the post collecting point for all teachers?"

Flitwick and Albus scanned the envelope, but it was curse-free. It seemed a normal letter.

"Well, let's open it and see who wanted to reach us." Said the Headmaster.

When he undid the white wrapping, an angry red box jumped out of it. Who in his mind could have sent them a howler?

"Oh dear…"

"We are not on speaking terms right now…" Hagrid was the first one to recognize it. "That voice… it is from 'Arry!"

Harry Potter? How did he manage to do it? It was a complex enchantment, beyond his current course of studies.

"…but yesterday, after our last confrontation in the courtyard, I met a new friend. Luna Lovegood."

All cringed at the word confrontation but continued to listen, since it seemed important. Minerva knew her well, being close with her late mother. "Oh, the little Luna. Since the death of her mother, Xenophilius said that everything was not the same anymore for them."

Harry's voice went on. "Did you know that she has some kind of healing powers? She managed to get Hedwig up and running in just a bunch of minutes! Has anyone talked to her about that?"

Madam Poppy Pomfrey, (Evil) Mistress of Hogwarts' Hospital (Prison) Ward, as Harry jokingly always called her, was stunned. She wasn't aware of that. "I never… Filius, did you know? She is one of your Ravens." But the tiny professor just shook his head in negative.

"Furthermore, I think that she could be something like a seer, since she said to me some things, with glazed eyes and a strange tone in her voice." Albus blanched, he knew something like that and looked at Professor Trelawney.

"Could we maybe get some certified seers, to pair with our Divination Professor, to establish if this is true?"

Sybill just nodded to him, she was indebted to the man for accepting her when no one did, and she knew the right people for that kind of job.

"However… that was just a side note." After that, the howler exploded.

"HOW IN THE NAME OF MAGIC COULD YOU LET SUCH A GENTLE GIRL BE BULLIED FOR THREE FUCKING YEARS! DID YOU KNOW THAT SHE IS LIVING IN AN ABANDONED CLASSROOM WITH TATTERS FOR ROBES, LIKE MINE WERE, AND NOT EVEN A BLANKET FOR HER BED BECAUSE SHE WAS FORCED OUT HER DORM!? SHE HAS NO COMPANIONS THERE, ONLY BOOKS, QUILLS AND CANDLES!"

"SHE SAID TO ME THAT SHE DID NOT HAVE ANY FRIENDS! SHE WAS WAILING DESPERATELY CLINGING TO ME WHILE TELLING THAT SHE NEVER HAD SOMEONE LIKE THAT IN ALL HER LIFE AT HOGWARTS, AND THAT I WAS THE FIRST ONE WHO TREATED HER WELL BECAUSE ALL THE OTHERS CALLED HER LOONY!"

"AND THEN, HER NARGLES! THEY ARE PEOPLE WHO STOLE HER THINGS, SHE WAS GOING AROUND BAREFOOTED FOR FUCKING SAKE BECAUSE SOME IDIOTS FROM RAVENCLAW STOLE AND HID ALL HER SHOES. AND THIS THING IS GOING ON SINCE THE SECOND MONTH OF HER FIRST YEAR! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!"

"I HOPE THAT YOU WILL BE ACTING FAST. IF NOT, I WILL DO SOMETHING, AND YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT! IT'S A PROMISE!"

The howler disintegrated itself with a bang, like the usual, after delivering its message. Every single professor was simply frozen in his place, eyes wide open -Severus included- not knowing what to do.

Minerva was crying, mirrored by Flitwick who was blaming himself for being so blind about one of his cute Ravens. The others were embarrassed in having been told down about how they did a shoddy work by a fourteen years old boy who now was the School's pariah.

Dumbledore had a hand in front of his eyes, and he was asking himself how that could have been possible.

"Someone… someone knew anything about this?" Asked Professor Babbling with a hoarse voice.

The Charms Master managed to croak out. "It's my fault, it's entirely my fault. She came to me during her first year, but I dismissed her over her fantastic animals stories and on the fact that maybe she was having the beginners' difficulty in adapting to a new place."

He was completely subdued, and it was a strange view on the normally excited Charms Professor. "After a while, she stopped coming, and I thought that everything was solved. Even if I noticed from time to time that she was alone in the classroom. It's my fault, and double because another student of mine had to scream to me to make me open my eyes!" He punched the table angrily at the thought.

Albus looked at everyone. "You can say, dear Filius, that it is everyone's fault. One of our little children abused in this very castle." He paused and sighed worriedly. "And if she had to experience all that, I ask myself… how many others? How blind are we?"

"She always has been a particular one, Albus, but in classroom -at least mine- she was one of the best. Luna Lovegood has a very good feeling with her magic."

"I didn't imagine that she could have been shunned because of her particular abilities and stories."

Madam Hooch opened her beautiful yellow hawk eyes and scanned the table. "And, if what I have heard about the situation with Mr. Potter during his Second Year is right… I can understand how he can relate to her predicament."

"It appears that we have a lot of work to do. And I am asking myself, like Filius said, how could we have reached the point where a student had to explain things to us." That was the attractive Professor Sinistra, who always had her share of fans in the School.

"However…" said Minerva "…I never expected Mr. Potter to be so active with someone of another House. His parents were not quite like that about these kinds of things, as long as I can remember.

"No my dear…" opened Albus "…that was not James and Lily. That was even worse."

"What do you mean, Headmaster?" Asked Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff. In the beginning, she was enraged with the Potter boy for having broken the loyalty rule of the School. But now, after all this and after noticing how her Badgers were falling lower and lower… she didn't like how her Burrow was changing.

"I mean… that was James' parents. Anyone of you remembers them?"

Flitwick blanched, and shivered. "Charlus Potter and Dorea Black."

Minerva had the final word of the discussion, putting her head in her hands. "May Merlin protect us, then."


Poor aunty Luna, she is so good with us!"

"She is a wonderful person, Lily, and we are happy that you can appreciate that."

"Her stories are always funny! Especially the ones about the crumply-hor… something!" It was still difficult for them to remember all those strange creatures.

"But the people at the end, their names! They had our names!" The two children chorused together.

"Yes Charlus, your great-grandfather was a great man, and he had a great woman by his side." He smiled at his little flower, while looking at Daphne with the corner of his eyes.

"And for you, Lily, your second name comes from your great-grandmother, Dorea Black. Maybe one of the greatest witches of all times."

Their mother added, in conclusion, seeing that the children were openly yawning. "You two bring within yourself the names of two among of the best witches and wizards that walked in the Magical World."

"And your daddy and your mummy are sure that you will be as great as them when you will grow up."

The children were now sleeping, and Harry and Daphne shared a long loving kiss. They meant all the world for them.

Up, over the fireplace, four people in a painting smiled at what their little Harry had become and at his beautiful family, with eyes full of pride.


END OF CHAPTER TWO


Chapter Released on 30/06/17

This concludes the second chapter of this fanfiction, another 13k words excluding the two AN at the beginning and the end of it.

As stated, the story will cover all the Goblet of Fire book (and movie), mixing elements from both. I hope that the next parts will be as long as this one and that I will be able to maintain a good update schedule. For the next chapter, since I'm relocating abroad during the Summer, I'm sorry to announce that it will be released probably during August.

I hope that you liked it! Don't forget to leave a Review!

See ya at the next one! Ciao!