Disclaimer: This story is 100% alternate universe and most, if not all, of the characters in this story are out of character as well. Also I don't own anything by J.K. Rowling and I am not trying to steal her characters, plots, or moments within the books that she has written. This is my own story and I also claim to not copy off of anyone else's work either in the process.

Chapter 6

The party in Gryffindor Tower was, for a better word, obnoxious. The second Harry opened the portrait hole, the loud shouting, laughing, and talking rang in his ears and caused him some minor pain. Since his ears were more sensitive than the usual person, he had a little difficulty focusing. The best he could do was use his transfigured staff and muffle some of the sounds. He could still hear conversations he was involved with, but everything around him was quieter.

Thank Godric for magic.

The Boy-Who-Lived walked into the main area of the common room and was applauded by everyone inside. Even though Harry could technically see the people in the room, he was glad he didn't have to experience the full sight in front of him. Bastards. One minute he's a liar and the next he's a hero again.

"No, Harry, you have to try and forgive. They may be two-faced, but it's better to have friends than be alone. It's what Mum and Dad would want for me, so I'll do it for them if anything." He thought to himself.

"Let's hear it for Harry! Three cheers for the first place champion! Hip-hip!" Someone in the back of the crowd announced. Harry really didn't want this.

"HOORAY!" The entire group shouted.

"Guys you really don't have to ..."

"Hip-hip!" A different person exclaimed.

"HOORAY!"

"Ok, that's ..."

"Hip-hip!" The first person shouted.

"HOORAY!"

"Okay okay. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I really appreciate the support, but I want everyone to listen to me. Cedric Diggory is the real Hogwarts champion. Please encourage him as much as you can because he's going to need it. Thanks for cheering though."

The Gryffindor students all clapped and hooted in the room. Harry had no idea whether anyone listened or not, but he was glad he got his thoughts out.

"Open the egg, Harry!"

"Yeah what's the clue?"

The lot decided it would be a great idea to start chanting "open it!" over and over again. Harry decided to give in, but he wanted to make them beg a little first.

"You want me to open it?" Harry asked everyone.

"YES!"

"You sure you want me to open it?"

"YES!"

"Quit stalling, Harry!" Seamus Finnigan said from across the room. Most of the Gryffindors laughed.

Harry reached out with his hand and grasped the top of the egg. The object had a faucet like a handle at the top that could only be opened by twisting the valve. The boy twisted the valve to the right and the egg's sides fell revealing a frightening ball of red plasma energy inside. The energy was frightening to look at because it seemed like a bomb was about to go off, but that didn't happen. Instead of exploding, the egg's true purpose was to shriek as loud as possible so that everyone's ears would deafen.

When the egg started shrieking, the sound caused so much pain in the kids around the room, but Harry took the worst of it by far. Since Harry's senses were more powerful than ever, the intense pulse of sound was too much for his ears to handle. Even though he just made it so his ears would hear less, the sound heard was cranked up from a 4 to 20 for him. The boy dropped the egg and tried so hard to get away, but it wasn't enough. Harry was crawling away in agony with blood escaping his ears and nose. Then in a stroke of luck, someone had gotten ahold of the egg and had shut it tight.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron Weasley asked as he made his way down the stairs and closed the egg.

"We don't know! Harry opened the egg and the damn thing started screaming! It sounded like a banshee but a million times worse!" Seamus explained.

"Of course Harry is behind this! Where is he?"

"Ron, what's going on? I heard a loud noise." Hermione asked as she came down from the girl's dormitory and joined her friend. She couldn't imagine what the noise was, so she went down to investigate.

"Harry opened his egg and hurt everyone in the room! It's just like him to hurt everyone, Hermione! I'm going to find him, and when I do, well, he just better watch out." Ron said while trying to sound as tough as possible. It didn't work.

"Calm down, Ron. I don't think Harry would intentionally do this to everyone. He may have cheated to get into the tournament, but he wouldn't hurt everyone in the common room on purpose."

"You're going soft on him, Hermione! He did this on purpose just like he cheated his way in on purpose!"

"Hey!" Colin Creevey shouted from the back. All eyes were on him now.

"Harry opened the egg because we asked him to. He had no idea what was inside it and neither did we. The egg hurt all of our ears but we're ok! So get off his back, Ron!"

The other students in the common room seemed to have agreed with Colin because they all clapped in response to his bravery. After being slightly embarrassed for speaking out, the boy spoke again.

"And another thing! Harry didn't cheat to get in remember? He swore on his magic that night when he said he didn't enter and he didn't get anyone else to enter him either. I knew from the beginning that Harry was innocent, and I'm shocked that both of you thought differently!"

"Oh piss off, Colin. Harry has a lot of power now thanks to the special training from Professor Moody, so he could probably figure out a way to trick people into believing him!"

"Shut up, Ron! We were wrong to believe Harry did this, but the fact is that he didn't enter the tournament! It doesn't matter how powerful he is. The goblet is an extremely powerful ancient magical item that cannot be tampered with unless it is done by someone who has tried to modify it for months at a time!" Colin continued to say.

"Oh yeah? Well ... he's ... he's just a glory hog! He's always gotten attention and fame for just being the Boy-Who-Lived! He's nothing special!"

"Are you that far up your own ass, little brother?" Fred asked.

"I think he is, Fred. His brain can't comprehend the simple truth, which makes him a Mor!" Everyone thought George had lost his mind right after he said that.

"A Mor, George?"

"Yeah, a Mor-Ron!"

The entire common room laughed at the expense of Ronald Billius Weasley, who was turning at least 20 shades of red. The youngest male Weasley was angry and humiliated so he ran all the way back up the stairs. Hermione was not looking forward to being yelled at either, so she retreated up to the girl's dorms.

"You think they learned their lesson, George?"

"What do you think, Fred?"

"Maybe?"

"Probably?"

"No!" The brothers said together. They very much enjoyed their moments of being twins. The two enjoyed a short chuckle before being distracted by another voice.

"Hey, where is Harry?" Katie Bell asked from inside the crowd. Everyone just now realized he was gone. There were a lot of murmurs, but no answers.

"I don't know. Ever since the egg opened, I forgot he wasn't here. We need to find him!" Dean Thomas exclaimed.

The Gryffindors started to frantically look around for Harry, but it didn't take long. Someone found him and screamed. Harry was lying face down near the common room door with blood pouring down his ears and a little from his nose that was seeping its way into his mouth. There were a lot of concerned kids in the room and each one was extremely worried.

"Someone go get help!" Someone said in the massive crowd.

Some of the Gryffindors left and ran all the way to their head of house.

"Okay one of us needs to get his egg up to his room, while a few of us try to get him up." Colin Creevey continued. Colin ended up selecting his own brother to place the egg on Harry Potter's bed.

A few people tried to lift Harry up, but he was covered in a lot of blood so it made him a little slippery. As the kids did their best to drag him over to the door, Professor McGonagall appeared.

"Let go of Mr. Potter, please. I will take him to the Hospital Wing." The teacher said as she used Wingardium Leviosa as well as a minor Episky spell on Harry's ears.

Professor McGonagall levitated her fellow Gryffindor down the long set of steps of the stairs. The journey was quite long since Gryffindor Tower was on the top floor of the castle, and the Hospital Wing was on the bottom floor. When the woman finally arrived, Harry Potter was directed straight towards a med-bed and carefully placed on top. Madame Pomfrey began a medical analysis of her patient with several spells that Minerva had never heard of before.

"So what is it, Poppy? Is it serious?"

"No, Minerva, thankfully it is normal. I should have figured this would have happened to Mr. Potter at some point." Madam Pomfrey said as she pulled a healing potion from the back.

"What do you mean?"

"Has Dumbledore informed you of Harry's situation? Do you know what he's currently dealing with?"

"Dumbledore informed me enough. Mr. Potter's senses are heightened correct?" The matron nodded as she poured a liquid down Harry's mouth.

"It seems like the sound from the egg was too intense for the boy, and hurt his hearing." McGonagall theorized. "Will he be able to hear again?"

"Yes, that is no problem. His hearing will be sensitive for the next few hours until the healing potion I gave him fixes his wounds completely. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to notify his parents."

"Of course. Thank you, Poppy." McGonagall said before she left.

It only took five minutes for Mr. and Mrs. Potter to arrive back at Hogwarts. Both parents were worried, but Lily, of course, was a little frantic.

"Poppy, what happened? We just saw him an hour ago and he was fine! Now he's in the hospital wing!" Lily exclaimed.

"Don't worry Lils I'm sure it's nothing serious. Right Poppy?" She nodded.

"Your son is fine Mr. and Mrs. Potter. The egg caused Harry to experience tremendous pain when it was opened. The sound was loud enough to burst his eardrums and cause him to bleed out his ears." Lily was about to start erupting with worry but Madam Pomfrey stopped her.

"Just hold on, Mrs. Potter, I'm not done yet. The potion I gave him is fixing the problem now. It takes only 10 minutes for his eardrums to grow back, and his ears will be really sensitive for the next few hours. We just need to make sure he doesn't wake up. He will be completely fine when he wakes up tomorrow morning." Lily sighed in relief.

"See? I told you Poppy has everything in hand. You worry too much, Lils." James said.

"Shut it, James!" She said as she slapped her husband on the back of the head. He muttered that he was hurt under his breath.

The doors to the Hospital Wing were opened abruptly and in came Professor Moody, Professor Snape, and Headmaster Dumbledore. Everyone could guess why Alastor and Dumbledore would come in to check on Harry, but Snape coming was a little out of character.

"What are you doing here, Albus? I thought I made it clear that you are not to interact with my son!"

"I understand, Lily, but I ..." Dumbledore tried to say but Mrs. Potter wasn't having any of it.

"Ever since we've come back to Hogwarts it's been a nightmare! My son was entered into the tournament without any consent, James' cloak was torn to pieces, almost all the students have ostracized Harry since Halloween, a dragon almost killed him earlier today, and now his eardrums have burst because of a clue for the second task!"

"Lily it's not that bad. We ..."

"NO JAMES! IT IS THAT BAD! IF HARRY WASN'T IN THIS TOURNAMENT, I WOULD HAVE WITHDRAWN HIM ALREADY!" Everyone in the area was a little shaken up from Mrs. Potter's outburst. No one could blame her, however.

"Mrs. Potter, I understand you're angry, but I assure you we will get to the bottom of everything." Dumbledore said as he tried to calm the distressed Ancient Runes professor.

"Oh? And how are you going to do that? You still don't know who entered my son's name into the tournament do you?"

"I have news on that." Alastor Moody growled. Nearly all eyes were on him now.

"After checking the goblet, I could determine that it was tampered by someone who had modified it over several months. It was not a coincidence that Potter was entered in the tournament. I said from the beginning that Potter would be chosen because of the Dark Lord. This is something that right bastard would do. I suggest we expand the search to focus on those who were exonerated from being a follower of the Dark Lord because of the imperious curse."

"Why Alastor? Those people were cleared of all charges. If we were to look into their cases again it would cause major problems for the ministry." James asked.

"Has your logic really escaped you, Potter? It should be obvious, even to you." Snape sneered. He was about to lay into James but he remembered his promise to Lily again and decided to cool it down.

"Why don't you enlighten me, Snivellus?" James shot back. Lily elbowed him in the ribs.

"The Dark Lord had a vast empire of supporters before your son destroyed him. When that happened, what do you think the Death Eaters did to save their skins? I'll tell you what they did, Potter, lie, escape, silence their enemies, and even kill themselves. Those who had the guts to undergo an imperious curse test either lied or bribed their way out of time in Azkaban." Snape said as he sighed.

"The point is these people who got off may not be as innocent as you think, James." Moody interjected.

"I think it's the best lead we have." Dumbledore said. "Alastor, please search the ministry for anyone who fits Severus' description. Severus, I want you to recall anyone who has worked with Voldemort in the past. It doesn't matter how important they were in his ranks. Everyone could be a suspect. James, I want you and your Aurors to take the goblet of fire to the ministry. See if anyone in the misuse of magical items department could assist in finding out who was involved with the tampering of the goblet."

All three of the men nodded and went their separate ways. Dumbledore took his leave as he had other pressing matters to attend to with the tournament. Madam Pomfrey fed Harry one last potion before heading to the far end to check on the other patients. That left Lily alone with her son. As she watched Harry sleep, she could only imagine the amount of stress he was dealing with. What with classes, and the tournament, Harry was quite busy. She hadn't spent as much time with her boy recently as she'd liked because she was busy with her teaching schedule too. Mid-year exams were coming up and the woman was getting a little knackered. Who knew Hogwarts curriculum would be this difficult?

Lily took this time to be with her son even if he couldn't respond back. She had some things to get off her chest, so talking about it seemed like the best thing to do. Lily remained quiet so Harry's ears wouldn't strain.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I know this year has been difficult for you. If I had known how this year was going to turn out, I would have kept you at home. My god, what is going on with this school?"

Lily sighed. What had become of Hogwarts? It was never like this while she was in school. Ever since Harry attended Hogwarts in 1991, the school seemed to become a hazardous environment for everyone. But that wasn't the worst part. The kids' educations were being squandered, and it was mainly due to Potions, Divination, History of Magic, and most importantly Defense against the Dark Arts. All four of those subjects had professors who clearly couldn't teach to save anyone's life, but the worst was DADA.

Lily did not understand how DADA became so cursed. First Dumbledore hires a Death Eater with the soul of Voldemort on the back of his head, and then he tries to steal the Sorcerer's stone, which was not even supposed to be there in the first place! That's without mentioning the blunder of bringing a giant three-headed dog to guard the stone. How Dumbledore convinced Hagrid to bring "Fluffy" in was a complete mystery.

Two years ago was the worst time for Hogwarts by far. This was when a huge number of parents were on the verge of pulling their children out of school. The fabled Chamber of Secrets had been opened again, even though it was only a legend. Ha. If it was indeed a legend or myth, then how did a student open it over 50 years ago? Dumbledore knew it existed, so why wouldn't he do anything about it? Lily didn't know this answer either, but more importantly, it made her lose almost all faith in the old wizard.

The poor Weasley girl was possessed by that damn book of Voldemort's soul and it caused her to unleash the Basilisk. Lily was thankful none of these attacks ended in blood, and that showed how strong Ginny Weasley is. It almost didn't matter in the end when the girl's soul was being absorbed by Voldemort. If her son hadn't been there, then there was no doubt that Ginny would have died.

Lily suddenly had a huge realization. Harry saved Ginny's life in the Chamber of Secrets and she had avoided him ever since. Did she think she owed Harry a life-debt? And if that was the case, did the little redhead purposely hide from her son just so he wouldn't find out? There was only one way to find out.

"Harry, I'm going to leave for a short while. I love you, sweetheart." Mrs. Potter said as she kissed his forehead. Harry didn't respond at all, not that she was expecting it anyway.

Lily left the hospital wing and headed straight to Minerva McGonagall's quarters. She already knew where it was and it was thankfully right next to the Gryffindor Common Room. Since Lily couldn't get in there anyway unless she was the head of house or headmistress, Minerva was the only way. Lily made it to McGonagall's door and knocked a few times. The older woman answered the door and was surprised to see Mrs. Potter.

"Lily? Is something wrong? Is it about Harry?"

"No, Minerva, Harry is asleep thank Godric. He would be in a lot of pain if he wasn't. He should be healed in the next few hours."

"Good. Was there something you needed?" The professor asked nicely.

"Can I come in? I wanted to share my thoughts with you on something." Minerva opened her door and directed Mrs. Potter to the couch on the other side of the room.

"What can I help you with, Lily?"

"Before I tell you, I need you to tell me something. How is Ginny Weasley doing in your class?" McGonagall was a little surprised to be hearing this.

"Miss Weasley? She is not as focused this year as she was before. She seems to be getting the material down, but doesn't say anything in my class unless I call on her."

"What about her friends? Does she seem okay around them?"

"I don't think Miss Weasley has many friends, Lily. Ever since her first year of school ended, the other students haven't been kind to her when they discovered she was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets."

"I don't understand. I thought it was revealed that Miss Weasley was possessed by the diary of Tom Riddle? He's the one who did all this not her!"

"Oh, it was revealed to everyone. After your son had been taken away from school, Dumbledore made a huge announcement about what happened to not only your son but what happened to Miss Weasley as well."

"And the students hated her for that?"

"Unfortunately the students weren't very forgiving since some of their own were petrified for various portions of the year. Most of the victims were given advanced tutoring over the summer based on the amount of class work they had missed. I think the students were afraid that Ginny could have possibly killed the petrified children instead, and resented her for being involved at all."

"I see." Lily said in understanding. It made sense with what her son had told her at the beginning of the year.

"I suppose I get why she's being reserved. Children can be mean. I know what that's like."

"Yes, but you got over that and made a name for yourself too. Besides, I didn't nominate you for Head Girl for nothing." Lily blushed a little.

"Thank you, Minerva." Lily said. "I asked you these questions about Ginny Weasley because I feel that there is something else bothering her. I think she believes she owes my son a life debt."

"Doesn't she? Harry saved her life, and by all rights, he does get something from her, but only once."

"Yes, but that's the problem. I think she's purposely avoiding everyone, including my son, so she doesn't have to give Harry anything. I don't think she's doing this to be mean or hurtful. Maybe she doesn't want Harry to figure out that he has that power over her."

"So in her mind, she would view Harry the same way as Voldemort did two years ago?" Lily nodded in response. "I see. I think we should talk to Miss Weasley then. Wait here while I get her."

Professor McGonagall left the room and headed directly to the Gryffindor Common Room. She opened the portrait without any password and headed into the main area of the room. The kids inside were a bit surprised to see their head of house inside.

"Students, I need your assistance. Do any of you know where Ginny Weasley is right now? It is imperative that I speak to her at once."

The students inside began murmuring but didn't have any answers as to where she was. Then as if she heard her name from only a foot away, Ginny came down from her third-year dorm and approached the Professor of Transfiguration.

"Here I am, Professor." The girl said somewhat quietly.

"Please come with me, Miss Weasley." McGonagall said as she directed the girl towards the door.

Ginny didn't say anything as she followed the older witch to her quarters. The door was opened and Ginny was led inside for her to discover that it wasn't just McGonagall but Mrs. Potter that both wanted to speak to her.

"Am I in trouble?" Ginny asked. She was pretty afraid of what was happening. The fear was literally shaking off of her.

"Not at all, Miss Weasley. Professor Potter just wanted to speak to you about something important. Now if you'll both excuse me, I have other duties to attend to." McGonagall said as she left the room.

"Hello, Ginny. How are you?"

"I .. I'm fine, Professor."

"Oh, Ginny you don't have to call me Professor Potter in here. Just call me Lily, or Mrs. Potter if you prefer." The small girl nodded and didn't say anything.

"I asked you to come here because I need you to understand something." Lily said. She sighed and then resumed speaking.

"Ginny, are you afraid of my son?"The small Weasley girl's eyes widened and she gasped. It was already obvious to what the answer was, but the girl wanted to tell the truth,

"Yes."

"Why? He's really quite harmless. Plus he wouldn't try to save you if he wasn't a good person."

"I had a bad experience two years ago, Mrs. Potter. Tom Riddle possessed me with his diary and I petrified a lot of students while under his influence. Harry saved my life before it was too late. I … I can't thank him enough for saving me, Mrs. Potter." She said while crying a little. Lily came over and rubbed her back little. Ginny appreciated the gesture and calmed down a minute or two later.

"So if you are glad he saved you, then why are you afraid of him?"

"I don't want him to use me." Lily feigned confusion.

"I don't understand. What do you mean "use you"?"

"I owe Harry a life debt, Mrs. Potter. I don't want him having that kind of power over me. I already had someone do that for a year, and now I'm afraid Harry will do the same." The girl said very quietly while looking down. She wasn't done, however.

"That's not all. I'm responsible for Harry losing his sight. If he hadn't come and killed the basilisk, he would be able to see!" Ginny said while getting hysterical and crying again. "He can't even use a broom anymore because of me! I can never make it up to him, and I'll always feel guilty about what happened. I'm just a stupid little girl who almost killed people and made Harry blind! It's all my fault, Mrs. Potter! It was me!"

"Ginny, look at me please." The girl obeyed. "Don't ever think you were responsible for any of that for one second. Tom Riddle made you petrify those kids, and his pet snake blinded Harry. None of that was because of you."

"But Tom controlled me! If I wasn't so weak, I would have thrown him off and none of this would have happened!" Lily decided to use a different tactic to get the girl to understand.

"Do you know who Tom Riddle was, Ginny?"

"I don't know. He was just some dark wizard, Mrs. Potter. Why does that matter?"

"Here's why."

Lily then stood up and wrote the name Tom Marvolo Riddle with her wand. After shifting the letters around, the phrase I Am Lord Voldemort took its place. Ginny felt like she was going to faint with this news. So Voldemort was the one controlling her?

"You mean … Vold … V-Voldemort was Tom Riddle?"

"Yes. Now, do you understand why it was so hard to resist him? Voldemort is a vile piece of filth and a monster. He uses people for his own goals and will do anything to make others suffer. You were possessed for a year, Ginny, and in that time, you fought him to save those kids. I've never heard of anyone being able to resist him for that long. If anyone else were in your place, I'm sure they wouldn't have lasted for an entire year. You're a very powerful witch."

"You think so?" Ginny asked. She had stopped crying while Mrs. Potter was talking.

"I know so. You're extremely powerful and brave. Don't ever think you aren't. Understand?" The girl nodded.

"Good. Do you feel better?"

"Yes. Much. Thank you, Mrs. Potter." Ginny said with a small smile.

"You're welcome. So since you know the truth about Tom, do you think you can talk to Harry now? I mean if you can handle Voldemort, then Harry should be a piece of treacle tart." Both girls laughed. Ginny answered with a yes and started to head out the door, but Lily had one last thing to say.

"You know, Ginny, if you ever have anything you want to talk about, my door is always open. Okay?"

"Yes, mam."

"Good. Now get out of here. I believe you have someone to talk to. I'd also suggest you be careful. Curfew has already started and I'm sure that map you have will help."

"How do you know about that?" The small Weasley asked with her eyes wide open.

"Never mind that. Now go!" Lily said with a little emphasis.

Ginny nodded and made her way out and down the stairs. The girl pulled the map out of her back pocket and started heading towards the Hospital Wing. There wasn't anyone in the way, so it was going to be pretty easy to get around. When the Weasley girl finally reached the doors to the Hospital Wing, she took a moment to catch her breath and gather her thoughts.

"Okay. Okay. I can do this. I can do this. Okay, here I go." Ginny thought as she pushed the door open and went inside.

A/N: You know the drill. Gonna respond to some comments.

Yami Man: Thanks! Well, Harry is a somewhat dense character in the books because he doesn't know everything. I wanted him to be smart about the wizarding world in this story, but he doesn't know everything there is to know. It's a learning experience.

Anarion87: Thanks!

Taniatrevisi1: Oh it's Portuguese. That's cool! Yeah exactly otherwise I wouldn't know what the hell you were saying. Hey thanks, but it's not super original unfortunately because other people have done things similar to me. I usually don't go out of my way to make Ron and Hermione complete jerks but they are quite annoying to me sometimes. Yeah, I wanna do something with Neville too but I need to think about it. Haha, thanks. I have already considered other houses, but I don't know whether to go simple with someone like Luna or be more adventurous like you suggested. Thanks for everything!