Chapter Seven

The next morning at breakfast, Harry entered the Great Hall, still not wearing his school uniform but rather dressed like a Muggle. After yesterday's Muggle Studies class, Harry realized that he rather enjoyed wearing Muggle clothing rather than wizarding robes. Besides, he knew that someone, most likely Granger, would complain about it and that would make it all the better. Harry was beginning to really love aggravating her.

Harry sat at the Gryffindor table and began to dig into his bacon and eggs when the other boys from the dorm came in and sat around him.

"Morning Harry," they said as they sat.

"Good morning."

However, before anyone could say anything else, the Great Hall was filled with the morning post owls. This morning there wasn't the normal amount but rather thousands of them. It seems that everyone in the wizarding world had finally realized that Harry was back at Hogwarts and they were sending him their greeting. Soon every available surface of the hall had an owl sitting on it all wanting to deliver their post first.

"You seem to be very popular this morning mate."

Harry sighed and yelled, "EPPY! DOBBY! Help!

"Yes, Master Harry?" Eppy said gleefully as she knew she was either going to be of service or help to punish her master's enemies for their wrong doings.

"Help me gather my morning post? I seem to have a few more than usual."

The two house elves looked around the table and Dobby said, "Yes, Harry Potter, you's is having more than is being normal."

As the four boys and the two elves began to gather Harry's mail the hall was suddenly filled with the sounds of someone screeching. Another howler had just gone off.

"HERMIONE JANE GRANGER," rang out Molly Weasley's voice in a shrill. "HOW DARE YOU DENY MY SON HIS CARNAL DESIRES! I ENTIRELY BLAME YOU FOR THIS GOAT INCIDENT! IF YOU HADN'T BEEN SUCH A PRUDE HE WOULDN'T HAVE NEEDED TO SEEK HIS PLEASURES ELSEWHERE! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH YOU!"

Both Ron's and Hermione's faces were glowing red from the embarrassment of the howler. Harry stopped gathering his posts long enough to gloat for a moment before returning to his task.

"Did you do that Harry?" asked Neville with a huge grin on his face.

"Maybe."

All four boys snickered together.

x-x-x-x-x

Harry and the two elves spent the morning collecting the mail and then sorting it into piles. The majority of it was actually fan mail that Harry had Dobby to divide in half and sent them directly to the Draco Malfoy's private room and to Hermione's bed up in Gryffindor Tower. When the two returned they would find thousands of letters covering their respective beds.

"It'll give them something to read before going to sleep," Harry said with amusement.

The remainder of the mail broke down into three main categories, letters from the ministry, letters from his solicitor and a letter from the twins. Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table, which by now was mostly vacant as the first class of the day had started and began to read his letters.

The first letter was an official apology from the Minister of Magic.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We here at the Ministry of Magic would like to formally welcoming him back into normal society again. We apologize to the gross miscarriage of justice and your unfortunate incarceration for one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds.

We hope that this letter finds you well and hopefully readjusting well to life at school, which we know, through Headmaster Dumbledore, that you were eager to complete.

If you have any concerns about your future please feel free to contact me at any time,

Regards,

Cornelius Oswald Fudge,

Minister of Magic,

Order of Merlin, First Class

Leave it to Fudge to use a dozen words when a simple, 'I'm sorry' would have done the same. Harry folded it back up and went to the next, which was his notification of his nomination by the Minister for the Order of Merlin, First Class for destroying Voldemort.

"Big deal," Harry muttered as he folded that one up and put it back in its envelope. The award meant very little to him. Harry read a few more letters from the Ministry, which he mostly discarded as useless. They were all trying to get his support for their petty bids for power in the wizarding government and he didn't give a damn about that. The last three letters, however, they were far more entertaining than any of the others were.

The first was from Fred and George asking how the two howlers they sent were going over and that they were ready to implement phase two whenever he was. Harry grinned. They got that together much faster than he expected, especially since the holiday break was only a couple of weeks away too.

The other two letters were from Algernon Graves, Harry's wizarding solicitor. The first one was a forwarded letter from a reputable wizarding real estate agent that Mr. Graves had employed to find Harry a place to live. Mr. Graves had informed Harry in the letter that she was a competent agent and was more than capable of keeper her mouth closed when needed. Graves had also sent along several prospective homes for Harry to look over. Harry was pleased, but put it aside to read the second letter.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Per your request to have that faux law that concerns you and only you removed from active participation in your everyday life, I have been petitioning the wizengamont everyday since Monday and late last night, they have conceded that this law is unjust and it was been lifted as of eight o'clock this morning. So effectively you are free and clear to live your life as you see fit and leave Hogwarts or stay there, by your choice and your choice alone.

Professor Dumbledore has also been informed of this reversal and will most likely attempt to force you to stay in order for you to forgive his actions against you, which are now under investigation.

I should also warn you that you may be contacted by Aurors wishing to interview you about this matter. Don't let them bully you into anything and tell them to direct their questions to me and I will set up a meeting time for all of us to be there together.

With warmest regards,

Algernon Graves

Wizarding Solicitor

Order of Merlin, Third Class

Harry sat there numbly. Then he began to grin like a mad man, he was free. At long last he was free.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up to see the Headmaster standing there with a ministry envelope in his hand.

"I think we need to talk about a few things."

"What do you want to talk about?" Harry asked innocently. "If it's about the whips and chains, I was just messing with Granger's head."

The Headmaster chuckled, "I know that Harry. You did a very good job of it I might add. She was very upset in yesterday's staff meeting."

"Serves her right for ordering me around like that," Harry said coldly, though in truth he was quite happy. "What it is you want to talk about?" Of course Harry already knew that answer.

"Perhaps it would be best if we went to my office."

Harry smirked, "You mean the room where you feel the most in control? No, why don't you sit down right there and we'll talk here."

Sighing, the Headmaster sat down on the bench. "Harry, I'm sure that in one of those thousands of letters you received this morning that you found a letter from the ministry about that law that keeps you here at school."

"Actually, no, the ministry hasn't informed me at all about it. Why? Has something changed about it?" Harry asked as innocently as he could muster under the circumstances.

"Yes, Harry, it's been extended until you complete your entire training," the Headmaster lied skillfully.

"Really?" asked Harry enthusiastically. "Because my solicitor just wrote me and informed me that it was broken in court effective this morning."

"Well," chuckled the Headmaster, "I had to try didn't I. So what are you going to do now Harry? I would very much like it if you stayed. I still believe that you need an education as well as forgiving the people around you."

"Do you deserve it?"

"Of course we do Harry," Dumbledore began, but Harry cut him off.

"Do you know what I was doing a week ago today?" Harry asked. "I was being dragged from my dirty little cell in Azkaban by Death Eaters, taken out into a court yard where I discovered that Voldemort was holding court (as it were) waiting to murder me. Then I find out, from him no less, that you and the other ministry officials were there to witness me being administered the Dementor's Kiss."

"It was a ruse Harry, to bring him out into the open. I knew that he could not have permitted anything to happen to you that was not done by his hands."

"LIAR!" spat Harry. "Graves found the execution order in the ministry records and forwarded a copy to me. He's very good at his job you know."

Dumbledore couldn't say anything, it was true.

"Do you really expect me to believe that after one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds that I would be capable of handling a wizard's duel with him?"

"Yes, I did Harry. You are an extraordinary human being. I knew you could handle anything."

Harry gathered up his letters and stood from the table. "Just how stupid do you think I am?"

x-x-x-x-x

Sometime later, after Harry had skived off his morning classes, he decided to eat his lunch in the kitchens with the house elves rather than deal with the school in general. On his way down, he heard a great murmur coming from the Great Hall and once again he listened at the door to the announcement being given, Professor McGonagall was apparently giving it this time.

"Now everyone, afternoon classes have been cancelled for today so that the teachers can have an emergency meeting. I need the Head Boy and Head Girl to take charge and for all of the prefects to keep an eye on things. This meeting shouldn't take more two hours to complete, so I expect you all to be on your best behavior."

Harry frowned, "Why are they having a mee…" then he remembered what Professor Langtree said the day before. How they now had daily staff meetings about him. What to do, what to do?

Deciding to not worry about it, Harry went down to the kitchens and had his lunch. After all it was Hagrid who said, 'What will come, will come and we'll deal with it when it gets here.'

x-x-x-x-x

After finding out from the elves when and where the staff meeting was taking place, Harry decided to have some fun and attend. Before he left the kitchens, he sent Eppy up to his trunk to retrieve the dozen or so packages that he bought form the Weasley twins and place them at strategic spots all over the castle. What better alibi than the entire teaching staff.

Harry entered the staff room a few minutes after the meeting had started and no one noticed him enter except for Professor Langtree, who smirked at him. He put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet. She obliged him only because she wanted to see what he was up to.

"I was sent this letter this morning," the Headmaster began as he held up the letter. "I have been informed that we cannot force Mister Potter to stay in the castle any longer."

"But Albus," Professor McGonagall said, "He hasn't even been in the castle a full week yet."

"I know," Dumbledore said sadly. "We are just going to have to convince him to stay for his sake."

"He's got to stay, he simply has to forgive us," Professor Lupin said frantically.

"Why? Why does Potter have to forgive you?" Snape drawled lazily. "What have any of you done to earn his forgiveness?"

"What do you mean Severus?" Dumbledore asked with interest.

"Have any of you asked to be forgiven? Or have you just stood there and demanded it as Albus and Lupin have done? Did it occur to you that even though he acts like a child, that maybe he wants to be treated like an adult? With the same common courtesy that you or I would have expected to be given."

Harry sat there in the back of the room. Leave it to Snape to hit the nail right on the head. However, no one seemed to actually be listening, as if they knew better. However, Harry had enough.

"Excuse me; I would like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA."

No one in the room understood the joke, except for Professor Langtree, who had slumped down into her chair laughing hysterically.

Immediately Lupin jumped up and raced over to Harry, "Harry, you can't leave," he pleaded. "You've got to stay so you can forgive us."

"What are you going to do? Throw yourself on the floor chanting some ancient Mesopotamian slave bonding ritual that will force me to accept you in my life until I forgive you? That would be so krtshadow of you."

Lupin looked confused by the reference, but answered, "No, I wasn't planning on doing anything like that Harry."

"Thank Merlin for small favors," Harry said. "Now I have no intention of leaving the castle until the end of term, as I am starting a project with Professor Langtree that I want to finish."

"Amanda?" McGonagall said as she looked over to the Muggle Studies teacher, who sat there smugly.

"At the time of my departure, I will want a recommended reading list for the following subjects, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts, which I will be studying and working on at my home, that I intend to purchase. I will not be seeking help, advice or counsel on anything," Harry said while looking at the Headmaster. "I will consider taking my N.E.W.T.'s when I feel I am up to it and I will be seeking employment in the Muggle world afterward."

At this point several teachers looked like they were going to say something, but Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger both came bursting into the room.

"Professor Snape, you've got to come, the school is in chaos!" the Head Boy said.

"What's happened?" Dumbledore asked.

"It seems that someone set off about a dozen portable environments," the Head Girl said as she looked at Harry. "The school corridors are filled with swamps, jungles, desserts, forests and a winter wasteland. Also it seems that Peeves has decided to loosen all the bolts holding the chandeliers in the castle and they are falling at random."

"Don't look at me," Harry said defensively, "I was here with you."

x-x-x-x-x

While the teachers were all over the school dealing with either environmental conditions or the damage that Peeves was doing at random intervals, Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room. Quickly finding Seamus, Dean and Neville, Harry draws them close and asks them something important.

"Okay guys, I need to know something. What was going on around here while I was in Azkaban?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"How were people behaving?"

"Do you mean, were Ron and Hermione acting like they were in charge?" Neville asked to which Harry nodded. "Yeah, almost from the minute you were taken from the castle, they both started in like they were the king and queen of Gryffindor Tower."

Harry frowned.

"Ron threw his little temper tantrums all over the place trying to get his way all the time. He demanded that your bed be removed from the room more than once, which I fought him on," Seamus explained.

"Yeah, Hermione went on these crusades about study times and house elf rights," provided Dean. "It was down right scary at times. If you weren't studying when she wanted you too, then you were given detentions."

"You don't even want to know how Ron acted when he received the team captain spot from you, Harry. It went straight to his head. The two acted so badly Luna wouldn't have anything to do with them anymore," Neville added. "When we lost the first game to Slytherin last year, he blamed that entirely on to you."

"Wow," Harry said grimly. "It was worse than I thought. I mean after Hermione stopped crying and gushing about how I was suppose to forgive her, I knew something had to have happened."

Neville noticed that Harry was starting to blame himself for their behavior and said quickly, "Yeah, but Ron still wants to be forgiven. Doesn't that count for something?"

"NO," Seamus said defending Harry; well he was in love with Harry after all, even if Harry couldn't return it. "Ron's just afraid that Harry will go back on the team and take his captaincy back."

The four sat in silence for a moment as Harry thought things over.

"You aren't leaving are you Harry?" Seamus asked timidly as he chewed on a finger nail.

"Don't bite your nails, it's not good for them," Harry said and batted Seamus' hand from his mouth. "What makes you say that?"

"Rumor going around that you've been sprung from school and can do as you please," Seamus answered. "Please don't go." Then Seamus moved forward and rested his head against Harry's.

Harry snorted in laughter and the other three followed suit. "I'll think about it."

x-x-x-x-x

Later that night, after the school was returned to some form of order, Harry approached his two former best friends. "Weasley, Granger, are you busy?"

"Yes, terribly, I have a ton of letters on my bed to get rid of."

"Fine," Harry said and began to walk away.

"Harry, wait," Ron said, "We have all the time in the world to talk. Don't we Hermione?"

"Very well," she said grudgingly. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Has either of you figured it out yet why I won't forgive you?" Harry asked simply.

"Because you're a much damaged boy who only wants the people who care about him to suffer just because he spent a little bit of time in Azkaban," spat Hermione

"One year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds," chorused a large group of their housemates, who were obviously listening in on their conversation.

"And that's another thing; do you need to continually remind us all how long you were there? What purpose does it serve?"

Sighing Harry got up to leave as Ron said, "Wait, Harry, please tell us why. Please."

"Because neither of you never asked for it. You both stood there and demanded it. Never once did you say to me that you missed me, that it was horrible what happened to me, nothing, just a demand for forgiveness. I stood there in that court room last Friday and saw the both of you and was honestly happy that my family had come to get me. I didn't expect you to storm the prison or anything, but in the courtroom, I thought maybe you'd be concerned to see me there wearing those rags and bleeding that you'd run up to me and hug and tell me how much you missed me or even just patted me on the back. It would have meant so much."

The two just sat there and tears were starting to form in Hermione's eyes.

"Instead what I got was a demand for forgiveness so that you could feel better about betraying me," Harry said quietly, but every single person in the common room heard it. "Then I return and discover that while I was gone, you both had turned on me. Putting me down for what happened and not even giving me the benefit of the doubt. Blaming me for everything that went wrong while I was gone and saying that I deserved it. Then I discover that you terrorized the house into following your regime of … whatever it was and again blamed it all onto me. This whole thing is so Dragongirl16 of you."

"We're sorry Harry, you've got to forgive us," Hermione said as she began to cry again.

"I've got to forgive you," he repeated. "I see." Then Harry walked away. They still didn't get it.

x-x-x-x-x

About an hour or so later, Harry was up in the seventh year boy's dormitory secretly reading his Charm book. Hey he was really good at Charms remember? When the door opened and Neville walked in.

"Hey Harry."

"Hey," Harry replied.

"Um, I have a question," the formerly forgetful Gryffindor asked.

"Sure, what's up?"

"What are you doing for the Christmas Holiday?"

Harry smiled and he lay the book face down on his chest, "Well, I was planning on looking for a house to buy and learning how to be a burden on society? Why?"

Neville laughed as he sat on Harry's bed. "Well, I wanted to invite you to come and stay with me and Gran. I'm sure she wouldn't mind, she's always asking me to have some of my friends over."

"Are you sure she wouldn't mind having an ex-convict in the house? I'm sure most people wouldn't too kindly on that."

"No, you look at yourself that way, not us," Neville said with a look.

Harry smiled again. He knew the truth when he heard it, even if he didn't like it. "Well, to be honest, I was going to take a room in the Leaky Cauldron to be closer to my solicitor and real estate agent."

Neville was about to answer when Seamus and Dean walked in.

"That sounds like a good idea mate, I think we all should stay there and spent Christmas together."

Harry, Dean and Neville looked skeptical.

"What?" Seamus asked. "We're all of age aren't we?"

To Be Continued … Please Read and Review

In case you're wondering, krtshadow wrote one of my favorite Azkaban stories called "Redemption," which can be found once again on his same bat channel. I highly recommend it, even though the ending didn't meet my expectations. And before anyone asks, No, I didn't ask him beforehand to let me satirize him and his story.

Dragongirl16 wrote a wonderful story about how the entire wizarding world turns it back on Harry called "Faith." It is located F F dot net, as are most of the stories that I read and I recommend it to anyone who likes to see Ron make a total and complete jackass of himself.