Dis...ah, feh..

Speech

Thought

xxxxxxxx

"Surprisingly therapeutic, that was." Harry mused as he watched the unwelcome cat somersault down the stairs before returning to his letter. Hedwig was letting out a barrage of rapid hoots he could only guess was laughter.

"I'm rubbing off on you, Hed. Now, where was I..?" He retrieved his scroll and found his place:

"Needless to say, Snape's developed a bit of a tic since then. Guess he never expected an 11 year old to more or less manhandle him mentally.

I should've gotten to know Prof. Flitwick last time. Guy's actually kinda cool. Did you know he likes to listen to muggle music?? I was surprised myself when I headed to his classroom to ask him something.

Flashback

xxxxxxxx

"Professor Flitwick?" Harry said knocking on the door to the charm teacher's class. No answer.

"Hello?" Deciding to check himself, Harry slowly nudged the door open. The moment the door and frame separated, he was greeted by music from inside...

I cannot take this anymore..

Saying everything I've said before..

All these words make no sense

I find bliss in ignorance..

"The hell? I know that song!" Harry suppressed a laugh as he peeked in. Flitwick was at his desk grading homework, his head bouncing to the beat. The music was coming from what resembled a miniature tripod with a big glass marble on top. The marble itself was flickering with light in time with the tune.

"Fan of rock, Professor?" Harry said once he inched his way up to the desk.

"Who..wha-huh?!" Fliwick nearly fell out of his chair, "H-Harry..w-what..oh uh..."

Harry laughed, "That thing's kinda cool." He looked at the device, "Where'd you get it?"

"Hm? Oh. well..it's something I threw together a few years ago. Took a bit of trial an error to get it to pick up radio waves through all the magic surrounding this place." Flitwick rubbed his head sheepishly.

Harry looked closer at it, "You know, you could probably market this. A lot of muggleborns would probably get a kick out of it."

Flitwick raised an eye, "You think so? I mean, I just thought it up after hearing a group called the Commodores one time. There's something about muggle music..."

End Flashback

xxxxxxxx

Now that I think about it, I forgot what it was I wanted to ask him...damn!

Anyway, I better finish this up. It's almost time for Herbology class and I better get going.

Catch you later,

Harry"

After rolling it back up, and making sure it wouldn't come unraveled in flight, he handed it off to the snowy owl, "Ok, girl. It's all yours." He watched as Hedwig sailed out over the grounds before heading to the greenhouses.

.Along the way, he caught what sounded like a argument around the corner. Deciding to check it out, he followed the voices and came upon a scene that both exasperated and angered him: Malfoy's goons, Crabbe and Goyle had a dark-skinned girl pinned against the wall while the ferret himself was acting smug about his 'catch'.

"I'm not going to tell you again, Malfoy; get these filthily cretins off me!" The girl snarled, trying her best to wrench herself from their grip. Harry quickly recognized her as Blaise Zabini, another Slytherin first-year.

Malfory simply let his smugness increase, "Why don't you just give up and admit defeat, Zabini. You should feel honored I'm even bothering to make you one of mine." He lightly flicked her chin upwards, "You know I always get what I want. All I have to do is let my father know and.."

"When trolls fly!" She spat, letting out a kick that came close to colliding with Draco's nether region. Instead the toe of her shoe struck him in the stomach, making him double over slightly.

Malfoy's expression quickly changed to anger, "You'll pay for that you little...!" He brought his hand back to 'discipline' her. However his attempt came to a sudden halt when another hand grabbed his in mid-swing.

He whipped his head around to tell off whoever it was only to find himself staring into the face of one Harry Potter. The green of his eyes were glowing brightly, giving them an almost unholy appearance.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own gender, Malfoy?" Harry spoke in an icy tone, his grip on the boy's hand tightening painfully, "Like me!" With those two words, Harry gave Draco's arm a hard tug, pulling him towards the green-eyed wizard in time to see, and feel, his other arm come up, the elbow connecting to deliver a clothesline that sent the blond crashing to the floor.

While Draco lay sprawled out, Harry immediately turned his attention to the minions, who quickly forgot about their prisoner and went for him. First up was Goyle, the larger of the two. Goyle attempted to simply overpower him like Dudley. That failed when Harry sidestepped the attack and spun around to drive his elbow into the side of his face. It seemed for all his girth, Goyle had a glass jaw as he quickly went down in a heap.

At seeing how quickly his friend and boss were put down, Crabbe, quite possibly for the first time in his life, thought for himself for a moment and hesitated attacking. Sadly, the little used organ couldn't handle the strain and shut back down. The boy promptly charged in swinging. Unfortunately for him, his blows were glaringly telegraphed, letting Harry dodge easily. He ducked under a left hook and came up, wrapping his arm around Crabbe's neck in a reverse headlock Crabbe barely had time to register his situation when Harry suddenly threw himself backwards, bringing the larger boy down with him into a DDT. However, instead of the floor, Crabbe collided headfirst into Malfoy's stomach, still incapacitating the former and knocking the wind out of the latter.

"W-When...When my..my..fah.. my fah-father-.." Malfoy gasped/retched from the fetal position he now took.

"You think I give two shites about the inbred wad of grindylow spooge that sired you?" Harry muttered, giving Draco a swift kick to the rear, "Malfoy, as far as I'm concerned, you're nothing more than a spoiled little git who thinks everyone owes you something. And you don't get your way, you threaten them with your daddy. I don't really give a damn, so go ahead and try it. " He then turned his attention to Zabini, who had watched the scene with a mix of shock and mild amazement, "You ok? It's Blaise Zabini, right?" He took a quick moment to look at her,

She rubbed the places on her arms where Malfoy's goons gripped her, "Yeah. Guess it's only proper I thank you." She turned towards the still curled Malfoy, her face twisted into a scowl that she accentuated by stomping hard on her previously intended target, the resulting shriek making Harry cringe himself, "Little rodent tried to dictate that he'd be my first when we got older. He actually tried to order me to save myself for him and him alone! As if I'd even consider hugging the likes of you!" She let lose with another stomp.

When the even louder shriek died down, she turned her attention towards Harry, calming herself down a bit before speaking, taking note of the house colors he had on. "Never thought I'd see a Ravenclaw manhandle one much less three people like you just did, Potter." A slight grin appeared on her lips, but quickly faded when she fixed him with an interrogating stare, "One question, Potter: I'm in Slytherin House, why would you even bother helping me out? We're the least liked house here."

Harry looked at her like she just told a dull joke, "Does it matter? I don't like seeing a girl being treated like that, regardless of the house she's in. Besides, Malfoy represents the side of the wizarding world I detest; arrogant, bigoted, and thinking only purebloods that act like him matter." He took a look at his watch and cursed, "Bollocks! I'm late for class! I'll talk to you later."

Before she could say anything else, he took off down the hall in a dead run. She watched as he skidded around a corner and vanished from her sight. Little did he know, at that moment he became an object of curiosity for the Slytherin.

xxxxxxxx

Dumbledore slumped down into his chair with a mix of exhaustion and exasperation. He had learned just a few minutes ago that the youngest Malfoy and his two 'associates' had been subjected to a somewhat brutal treatment at the hands of Harry Potter earlier that day. Snape was apocalyptic, demanding that Harry be expelled for an attack that Draco claimed was unprovoked. The boy had already tried to bring his father into it. Throughout it all, he noticed that Harry remained oddly calm, with the exception of a slight annoyance at the loudness of Snape's yelling.

Fortunately, that lasted until Blaise Zabini stepped forward and told her side of things, that Draco was harassing her and Harry had simply intervened. He knew showing any amount of favoritism would be tantamount to suicide for his standing in the community, but he couldn't afford to let Harry leave Hogwarts and his watch. In the end, he managed to settle down all parties, with Draco and Harry each serving a week of detention. Draco for harassing another student, Harry for the physical altercation.

"Harry, I'll like to talk to you for a moment." He called out once everyone else had left, "I have to do something to bring him back to the path I've laid out for him. First step is to break any association with Slytherin. Have a seat."

"Merlin, what does he want now?" Harry muttered to himself as he dropped down in one of the armchairs decorating the office.

"Harry, my do realize that your actions today will only make enemies.." The Headmaster started before he was cut off.

"Professor.." Harry started, biting back the urge to be sarcastic about it, "I don't really care who hates me for stopping Malfoy. The git was trying to basically claim a girl for future..'use' and attempted to beat her when she made it clear that she wasn't interested. I would have done it regardless of what house she was in."

"Admirable convictions, I'm sure...but, several of the more light-sided families won't take kindly to the savior of the wizarding world assisting someone from a house with a noticeably dark reputation." Dumbledore said, mixing his words with a subtle compulsion charm. Unfortunately, Harry's Occlumency shields caught and filtered it out.

Harry rolled his eyes, wondering if his body could handle a mojito right about now. "Not this crap again! Headmaster, like I said, I would have done it regardless of the house. And in all honesty, I don't give a fig about what these families think of me for what I did. What I believe in is really no one else's business." Hearing enough, he stood up and headed back out, ignoring Dumbledore's following calls.

xxxxxxxx

Just wanna say sorry for not putting anything up for a while. Kinda lost the drive to write for a bit, but it's coming back, slowly but surely.