Disclaimer: As usual, no copyright intended, J.K. Rowling owns the series. I just own this fanfic.

Ch. 11

The Unexpected Task

Everybody started filing into the Great Hall for lunch. Ron attempted to stop Harry from entering.

"Hey Potter, you'd better not go..." he started to say, but Harry, having had enough, just grabbed Ron by the shirt collar and yanked him out of his way, much to Ron's shock.

As Harry sat down, Fred and George patted him on the back and said, "That was genius Harry. Ickle Ronnykins needs to learn his lesson!"

"Shut up!" Ron says to Fred and George as he passes by.

"Make us!" said Fred and George in a mocking voice.

Ron grumbled under his breath and sat down. After lunch was over, Professor Dumbledore stood up from the headmaster's chair and walks up the podium for an annoucement.

"Now," said Professor Dumbledore. "After I finish making my annoucement, all Hogwarts students will go to the respective classrooms of their respective heads of houses, where they will be given specific details that will happen on Christmas night. This goes for the Beauxbatons students when they are to return to their carriage where Madame Maxime will give them the details, and the Durmstrang students will return to their ship, where Headmaster Karkaroff will give the details. Now, let's all get going!"

So everybody started filing out of the Great Hall.

Harry and the rest of his fellow Gryffindor classmates entered Professor McGonagall's classroom. Ron and Hermione angrily watched Harry, clearly wanting to teach him a lesson, but they couldn't due to the increased risk of Professor McGonagall catching them in the act. As all the Gryffindors sat down, Professor McGonagall walked out of her office.

"Alright," she said. "As Professor Dumbledore mentioned, there will be an event on Christmas Day night. This event is called the Yule Ball. This event starts at 6 PM and lasts until midnight. It helps with interacting with our guests. Students third year and below aren't allowed to attend unless they are invited by a student who is a fourth year and above."

Professor McGonagall brought out a record player for practice.

"Now," Professor McGonagall went on. "You all are to be on your best behaviour at the Yule Ball. I expect you all to behave like Gryffindors. I will not tolerate you all acting like a bambling, bumbling band of baboons. Now it's time to practice the dance for the Yule Ball."

Everybody got up for practicing, with Harry no longer worrying about accidentally stepping on anybody's toes. Soon, the Gryffindors were dismissed to do what they planned to do until dinner.

"Wait, Mr. Potter." said Professor McGonagall. Harry stopped to face his head of house.

"Yes professor?" he asked.

"To give you a heads up," said Professor McGonagall. "It is crucial that you find a date for the ball. The three champions, where in this case, four will be starting the opening dance. Is this understood?"

"Yes professor," said Harry. "Understood."

"Good, well enjoy your afternoon." said Professor McGonagall.

So Harry left the classroom, wondering who he might ask to the ball.

Harry went outside for some fresh air, only to be "confronted once more" by Ron and Hermione, who were also accompanied by Draco, Pansy, Susan and Hannah.

"I want an explanation for this!" Ron demanded, holding up a letter he had received from his mum.

"You are to read it this instant!" insisted Hermione, so Harry took the letter which read:

Ronald Weasley,

I'm outraged by the fact that you turned your back on Harry. Your jealousy is becoming a bad influence on you. This behaviour of yours is inexcusable. I'm kind of surprised that you haven't been expelled. It's also an outrage that Hermione even turned her back on Harry. You better start realizing the error of your actions right now. If I hear of anymore of this behaviour, there's going to be alot of trouble for you.

From,

Mum

Harry just stood there silently.

"Well, what have you got to say for yourself?" barked Ron.

"That you WILL realize that I've been telling the truth all along!" said Harry.

"Wrong answer!" snapped Hermione.

"You've corrupted my mum and dad," assumed Ron. "Your attention seeking behaviour is inexcusable!"

"I'm not an attention seeker!" snapped Harry.

"Fine," said Ron with pure rage. "We'll just keep you here until..."

"Oh, I think Professor McGonagall is on her way out here." said Harry.

Ron and Hermione panicked and ran off. Susan and Hannah stepped up to Harry.

"That newspaper article Rita Skeeter wrote was entertaining," taunted Susan. "It just shows that you're letting your ego get to you."

"Yeah," assumed Hannah. "You're allowing yourself to be corrupted, and you did that to our head of house! Because of that, Professor Sprout is no longer in her right mind!"

"No girl in their right mind will want to go to the Yule Ball with you," Susan assumed. "Attention seekers like you will also brainwash any girl for personal gain!"

"You don't deserve any friends!" Hannah and Susan declared, leaving Harry stunned.

They walked away as Draco and Pansy "confronted" Harry as well.

"Thanks alot, Potter," said Draco sarcastically. "You have also corrupted Professor Snape."

"Thanks to you," Pansy scowled. "He gave Draco two months of detention and deducted seventy-five points from Slytherin."

"Well, am I surprised!" Harry replied with sarcasm. "You were caught in the act by Professor Moody."

"You still corrupted Professor Snape, you DOLT!" said Draco.

"Yeah, Draco is right," said Pansy. "Now you have to receive a penalty!"

With that, she slapped Harry in the face. "That's for corrupting our head of house," Pansy continued. "And this is for causing Draco his detentions!"

She slapped him in the face again, making Harry cringe in pain. "Oh," Pansy went on. "This is also for causing the large point deductions from Slytherin!"

So she slapped Harry in the face a third time, enough to make Harry close his eyes tight.

"Now be thankful that I'm not giving you anymore!" said Pansy as she and Draco walked away (making sure their smirks were hidden).

"Good thing I took Felix Felicis beforehand," Draco whispered to Pansy. "Otherwise, Potter would've retaliated."

The two Slytherins continued smirking secretly as they walked away. Just when Harry thought it was over, Angelina, Alicia and Katie decide to "confront" Harry.

"We would've been sympathetic, Potter." said Katie.

"But all that was to teach you a lesson!" spat Angelina.

"Did the first task wake you all up?" asked Harry, doing his best to fight back the tears. "Didn't that tell you that I never wanted to be in this STUPID tournament?"

"I will not be spoken to like that!" snapped Angelina.

"Ron and all of them have a point. It's time to stop lying and just admit you were just trying to steal the spotlight from Cedric!" said Alicia.

"Yeah," said Angelina. "You've already been stripped of your position as seeker, and that's official, and you won't be getting it back!" Alicia and Katie agreed to that.

"Professor McGonagall won't be pleased by that, since that would be her job," said Harry. "Oliver wouldn't be happy to hear this either!"

"You LEAVE him out of THIS!" snapped Katie.

"I helped to get those Gryffindor victories, and helped Oliver acheive his dream," reminded Harry. "Treating me like dirt is a poor way to repay me!"

The three Gryffindor chasers ignored Harry's reminder and walked away. So Harry went for a walk in the woods, outraged that this was all a repeat of his name emerging from the goblet of fire incident. He made it to the Black Lake shore that showed an island. Harry started walking to the island, thinking that it could be useful for isolating himself from most of the student body. This treatment he'd been receiving has been getting out of hand. Harry started walking back to the castle, but then he behind some tall bushes as soon as he heard footsteps. He then cast a one-way privacy charm, where he could hear everything outside of it, but nobody could hear him, as he layed down on his stomach to peek out through the bottom. The footsteps were that of Ron, Hermione, Draco, Pansy, Susan and Hannah, clearly looking for Harry to tell him they weren't finished with their so-called confrontations.

"I guess Potter decided to be a coward, yet again!" declared Ron. "He'll be sorry for throwing me and Hermione off track!"

"Yeah, you should've seen Pansy slap him in the face three times." said Draco.

"Hopefully that'll be enough to teach him a lesson." said Pansy.

"He just keeps making this worse," said Susan. "If he would just admit the truth, we would've been able to put all of this behind us."

"Ron and I tried to assure Harry that we would forgive him," said Hermione. "But he just continued lying."

"Yeah, his attention seeking attitude remained," said Ron. "Just proves how big of a prick he really is."

"He shouldn't be having any friends," assumed Hannah. "People should just realize what kind of egotistical person Potter really is!"

"I warned him to stay away from Ginny," stated Ron. "If I see him anywhere near Ginny again, ooooh, he'll be sorry!"

The rest agreed and continued walking, intending to find Harry. Harry waited until they were out of sight, but waited a little longer, just to be safe before emerging and started heading back to the castle.

(Meanwhile, in the headmaster's office)

Professor Dumbledore was going over the next part of his plan with Barty Crouchs Sr and Jr, Mundungus Fletcher, Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge.

"Now, since the Yule Ball is on the night of Christmas Day," said Professor Dumbledore. "Harry needs a date!"

"Who shall be his date to the ball?" asked Cornelius.

"I would think Miss Weasley or Miss Granger would be suitable choices!" stated Professor Dumbledore.

"Yeah," said Mundungus. "At least he has to start the next task first!"

"True, very true!" stated Ludo.

"We do have to make sure that Harry Potter remains in first place," stated Barty Sr desperately. "The plan must succeed!"

"That's right, father," said Barty Jr. "Our plan depends on that!"

"Yeah, it's the only way to toughen Harry up!" assured Professor Dumbledore.

So they all went back to going over their plan once more, to make sure it would remain fail-proof.

Over at the Ministry of Magic, Amelia Bones, director of the DMLE, was looking for Cornelius. As she started heading back to her office, she saw Rita Skeeter's Daily Prophet article about Harry supposedly being the boy-who-toys-with-affections. Amelia was angered, already knowing that Rita was notorious for writing lies. Upon reading the article further, Amelia was outraged upon finding out that her own niece also fed Rita some lies about Harry. Amelia started shaking with anger, vowing to herself that she'll give Susan a stern talking to at the first opportunity.

To be continued!