a/n Fast Forward a bit in the story, Harry has had hs first detention with Umbridge, she has banned Harry and the Weasley twins from playing Quidditch. Dumbledore's Army is up and running, providing an outlet for Harry's growing unrest.
I'm kinda banking on people having read the books...which I didn't write :) enjoy
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Harry walked out into the thin sunshine of the inner courtyard, the cool breeze helped ease his mind. He had just left Ron and Hermione in the middle of yet another row. Half the time he didn't even listen to them anymore but he was sure that Ron said something insensitive that Hermione took the wrong way. By now she should know just to ignore most of what the redhead blurted out. What a start to the weekend.
This year was turning out different than he had planned, of course everything was going to be different after that night in the cemetary but no Quidditch, a demonic DADA teacher and being ignored by Dumbledore were definitely not how it was supposed to go. Now he had become a teacher, no, a leader to his classmates. Dumbledore's Army, the DA, certainly took up any down time he had gained. He was so proud of the teens he was mentoring. They all had mastered Expelliarmus, his favorite spell. Ginny and Luna were superstars at Reducto. Neville had stopped falling over while stunning his subject.
Taking a deep breath, Harry was about to return to the common room when his eye caught on a bright blue among the grey slate around him. Zoe was sitting inside an archway, clothed in muggle dress with a Slytherin scarf wrapped around her neck. Harry purposely stepped on a twig on his way toward her. When she looked up, Harry smiled and gave her a little wave.
Zoe put her book to the side and stretched. Scrunching her face in near recognition, "Aren't you Neville's friend? Henry, Hank..."
"Harry Potter." He reached out and shook her hand, the novelty of being recognised as someone's friend rather than the boy-who-lived made him laugh a bit, "Can I join you?"
Zoe flipped a few of her books off the ledge and patted the stone, wrapping her arms around her knees she watched as he sat down. They sat in silence for a moment, Zoe turned her face to the sun and closed her eyes. Harry had never been this close to her before. Zoe had her dark hair pushed behind her rather large ears and Harry could see signs of an earlier broken nose. She had white scars scattered over her bare arms and legs. "Are you cold Harry?"
She turned to look at him as he shrugged, "The sun helps a lot."
Zoe reached out her hands, palms down. A few seconds later the stone around the duo began heating up, the warmth went up the pillars on either side of them. Much more comfortable now, Harry complimented her enthusiastically, "That's amazing, how do you do that without a wand?"
"I dunno, I've been able to heat the area around me since I was little. My gran has a story where I was in my cradle and she thought I was sick because I was so hot to the touch. That was the first time I was brought to St Mungos." she frowned before adding, "Neville said he told a few people about how I grew up, you probably think I'm weird...not that I blame you." She rested her chin on her knee and didn't look at Harry.
"Different maybe, but not weird. It had to be hard spending all that time with the healers. Neville said he's known you for years, if Neville likes you, you have to be okay." Zoe barked out a laugh, and smiled. "But its cool that you don't need a wand to direct your magic. When I was little, I could make things happen...I didn't even know I was a wizard until I got the letter from Hogwarts. I grew up with Muggles but my parents were magical."
"My dad was an Animagus." He didn't know he was going to share that until it came out of his mouth. Zoe looked surprised, he dove further into his story "Not like you though, he chose to become an Animagus. His best friend was a werewolf, so my dad and his gang decided to gain animal forms so they could keep him company during his monthly change. My godfather told me stories about the adventures they had..." Harry laughed out loud, ready to share some of the shenanigans from the Shrieking Shack. His laugh died when he saw that Zoe was holding back tears.
"You're right that doesn't sound like me at all," Zoe began gathering her books, flustered she dropped a stack of them. Harry handed them back to her. Zoe muttered, "Your father had friends..." She dropped her things again and buried her face in her hands.
Utterly embarrassed, Harry didn't know what to do. He was extremely glad that there were no other students in the courtyard, as he tentatively reached out to pat her back. "I didn't mean to upset you...I just wanted...You should know you're not alone." he ended lamely. The courtyard was uncomfortably warm now, Harry began to seriously worry that he would be facing down a dragon soon.
He heard her sigh, "Not alone." She looked into Harry's eyes, tears steaming off her face. "You are the first student other than Neville to talk to me since I got here. At least voluntarily. My tutors think I'm wasting their time and the professors see me as an experiment..."
"And everyone is absolutely terrified of me. The little ones openly run from me, older students freeze and watch me pass, wands at the ready. Boys have placed themselves between me and their girlfriends. If people are in a crowd, the girls and younger kids are shuffled into the middle. They see me as a wolf sizing up a flock of sheep." She swiped at her tears angrily. "Neville's been great, he's helping me a lot in my classes but he won't come over to eat lunch with me because I'm in Slytherin, we can't talk in the library and I'm not allowed to go into Hogsmeade for some reason."
Spent, she rubbed the salt from her eyes and collected herself. "I'm sorry Harry, please don't tell Neville I burdened you with this, he's been wonderful to me over the years and I don't want him to doubt the value of his friendship."
"Its not for me to tell." Harry promised. Shocked at all she shared, he didn't know what he could say to make her feel better. Harry placed his arm around the her wanting to show her he wasn't afraid of her.
Zoe's eyes turned cold as she shrugged his arm off her shoulder. "Thank you for wanting to comfort me Harry, but don't do that again." she shifted away from the boy and readjusted her scarf.
"I was just trying to help, I didn't know how else...Look, you need friends right?" Harry had just hit on a good idea.
"Not those kind of friends, my life is pretty complicated already, I don't need creepy little boys coming around."
Boy and and girl laughed at that. Harry shook his head. "No, I'm not offering those kind of friends." Harry looked around the courtyard, not wanting to be overheard. "You could stand to meet some of your fellow schoolmates. The more they know about you the less you'll be feared. We, ahh have a little group that gets together." Zoe nodded, so taking a calculated risk he threw out his best carrot. "Neville's in the group." Zoe blushed, embarrassed that he had guessed so well.
"Interested? I need to know you won't go to any of the professors, it needs to be a secret. Especially from Umbridge."
"Who would I tell, Harry Potter?"
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Zoe joined the DA that very evening. She signed Hermione's parchment pledging her silence. To ease her into the work, he partnered Zoe with Neville and began the meeting with shield charms.
A few minutes later, Harry clapped his hands for attention, "All right, lets change partners I don't want you getting used to each other's tells. And switch to disarming charms." Harry swooped over, grabbed Zoe by the elbow and deposited her by Zacharias Smith. "Zoe, this Zach. Both of you have Zs in your name, have fun." He followed this similar pattern every few minutes partnering Zoe with a new person at each change. By the end of the meeting, she had at least met every member. Harry saw her chatting with the Patils and Lavender, Neville at her side.
In the final few minutes before curfew, they set up the dueling dummy so that the group could practice together. The Ravenclaws had bunched together and were whispering, Harry overheard Michael Corner getting a little loud, "But wouldn't it be cool to see what she can do? She threw me across the room."
Fred Weasley shouted over, "That's because your shield charms suck, Corner!"
Michael stepped out of the huddle and placed himself in front of Zoe, "Come on, Slytherin, I want to see what you can do."
"Hey Corner, back off. Come on guys, lets finish up at the dummy. We have to make sure we get out of here before curfew." Harry's back was to Zoe, when he felt the hand on his shoulder.
"Its okay, Harry." Zoe pushed Harry away and got in Michael's face. "You call me Slytherin again and I'll jam my wand up your nose." Zoe put her hand on Michael's chest, he flew through the air again, skidding to a halt on some floor pillows. "I don't need one."
She tossed her wand to Neville along with two potion bottles. "Just in case, Neville, green turns me back, you just need to make me drink."
"Should you really be doing this Zoe?" The other students were backing away from the girl, giving her room. Neville looked horrified but gave in as Zoe squared up against the dueling dummy and bowed beginning the attack.
The dummy hurled attack after attack at the girl. Zoe used an array of deflecting spells to begin with. The dummy began chucking random objects at his adversary, the onlookers had to cast protection charms to avoid the shrapnel. She dropped her arms, waiting for the next hit. When the dummy made its move, Zoe threw flames with one hand and water with the other, the change in temperature made the dummy brittle. To end the match, she threw one last spell destroying the dummy.
With ringing ears, Harry went to congratulate Zoe. He was truly impressed with the progress she had made since entering the school. The other members of the DA were not as excited. A buzz of concern went up behind him and he checked his watch to the sound of 'with out a wand even...' 'amazing but scary...' Harry turned and saw the fear back in many of their eyes.
"Time to get back to your dorms, if people run we should all make it." Harry let Neville and Zoe out first after checking his Maurader's Map to make sure the coast was clear.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
When his trio got back to the common room, Harry slumped into his favorite chair, dejected.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione balanced on the arm of his chair, ready to turn in for the night. "I thought that went as well as it could."
"I don't know, Hermione, should we really be locking ourselves in with her. She got pretty violent with that dummy, if anyone got hurt how would we explain that?" Ron asked anxiously. "I don't like the git, but Zoe shouldn't have sent Corner flying like that. What if she gets out of hand and turned into that dragon again?"
"Neville had her potion, we would have been fine." Harry said with more confidence than he felt. "I'm going to ask her to come back."
"Harry, if that a good idea? I know that Ginny and the Patils were really freaked out. Ernie was speechless for the first time since we met. We need to think of the rest of the DA too." Ron was getting worked up, it had just dawned on him the danger everyone had just been in.
"No, she needs to be part of the group. Don't you remember what Sirius said, she's vulnerable to being used by people. If she gains confidence in her abilities and control over her transfiguring, she'll become more stable. We need to reach out to her not set her apart. I'll partner with her if no one else will but I want her to come back to our meetings."
"But Harry, people are scared..."
Harry cut Herminone off "No, its not open for discussion anymore. Zoe's scared too, and she coming to our meetings, if anyone has a problem with that they can leave." Harry got up and headed for the stairway before his friends could change his mind.