A/N
The Houses Competition
Round Eight Story 1
House: Hufflepuff
Student: Year 6
Category: Drabble (750-2000 Words)
Prompt(s): Category 1: Dark/Evil!AU
Word count: 1493 (Per Google Docs)
Beta(s): Aya

Notes: WARNINGS! Blood, gore, violence, torture, major character deaths, mutilation. 4th!Year

Don't Cry

It was too much. He had to get away from the jeers and cacophony of hatred. It was bad enough he had to deal with those stupid 'Potter Stinks!' buttons, but now he actually had students accosting him in the halls.

"It's not my fault!" Harry hissed quietly. He clenched his hands over his ears and bit off a whimper. No need to let the sharks in the water find him. He finally made his way to the Headmaster's office.

He threw out candy names one after the other until finally, the door opened. He stumbled up the stairs and wrenched the door open.

"Harry, my boy," Dumbledore said as confusion crossed his face. "What can I do for you?"

"Get me out of the Tournament, Professor, please! I didn't put my name in! It wasn't me! You can't let them put me through it!" Desperation painted Harry's words as he lurched forward.

"There's nothing I can do," Dumbledore responded. "Anything that could have been done to stop this is no longer available. You should have come to me sooner."

"I DID! I came to you the second you put me in the same room as the other Champions. I told you it wasn't me! Moody verified that I don't have the power needed to trick an ancient artifact!" Harry's breath started coming in gasps. It wasn't loud enough to drown out Dumbledore's near-silent statement, though.

Dumbledore steepled his fingers in front of his face as he considered the nearly hyperventilating boy in front of him. Dumbledore sighed and mumbled to himself, "I knew I should have upped the payments to Granger and Weasley to keep an eye on Harry. Maybe another book for Granger when he leaves here will help."

Harry stilled, as his eyes narrowed on the Headmaster. "You what?"

Dumbledore smiled. "I didn't say anything."

Harry saw red.

Screams pierced the air. Pale blue eyes held no remorse as their owner twisted the knife just a bit further.

"Don't cry, Cho. You knew this was coming. After all, you were the one to lead the reign of terror down on me." Luna sat back on her heels and surveyed her handiwork.

Marietta was already dead. Blood loss with no hope of a blood-replenishing potion soon had her body give out on her. Of course, the evisceration may have had something to do with it as well.

Luna stood and wiped a bloody steak down her side. "Harry?"

Dull green eyes landed on her as Harry slit the throat of Draco Malfoy next to his already dead hulking friends. "Yes, Luna?" He smiled as Draco took one last gurgling breath and expired at his feet.

"Do you think we might have been a bit...overzealous?" Luna asked as she took in the bodies surrounding them. Few were still breathing, and many of those wouldn't last the night.

Harry shrugged. "Does it matter? There are always more where they came from. People that think they can suppress us because we're different. Or people who think that, because we're supposed to save them, therefore we should listen to them." He gave a dirty look to the wall where Hermione and Ron hung in shackles. He'd silenced them when they brought in Ginny. In fact, the only person in the Great Hall not harmed was Neville. He was sitting in the Headmaster's chair with a grim look on his face.

"Nev?" Harry called as he glanced around the room to see if anyone of their tormentors were missing. "Did you want to get in on the action? I know I took your chance at the Slytherin Three away, but they weren't the only ones to try to shove you down the stairs in here."

Neville blinked and shook his head. "No, carry on. I'm just thinking of our next plan of attack."

Harry grinned ferally as he finally turned toward his so-called friends. He stepped over the lifeless form of Fleur Delacour and sidestepped the bound and gagged Viktor Krum. Cedric had been released along with most of the younger students as he had actually tried to help Harry when his name came out of the Goblet of Fire. He'd even tried to get his friends to take off those idiotic badges that Draco was so proud of. Everyone else? Every single person that spit or hissed at him, Luna, or Neville was now, in one way or another, going to pay for their actions.

There were several bodies wearing the light blue of Beauxbaton, and many more wearing the red and furs of Durmstrang. They were the ones that tried to make Harry tell them how he'd tricked the Goblet. Like he had any desire to be in a bloodthirsty Tournament with a higher death toll than any other competition he had ever heard of, including the accidental deaths in Quidditch, which had been around for nearly the same length of time and was considered a full-time job to many.

He snapped his wand out and cancelled the silencing spell. He wanted to savor their screams.

"Harry! Ha-Harry, please!" Hermione sobbed as Harry approached them.

"Now now, Hermione. Don't cry. You know better than to believe the herd mentality, and yet, you went along with them. You actually had the audacity to ask me how I had tricked a magical relic to allow me to participate. You knew I wanted nothing to do with the Tournament." He sent a low-powered slicing hex at her and relished in her harsh cries.

"You, however." Harry turned his full attention to Ron. "You turned your back on me completely. Hermione will live...if she wants to once I'm done in here, but you—you won't. You deserve everything I'm about to do and more." Harry pulled out the knife he used to end Draco's life and snarled. "You think my life is great? Do you think money solves everything? You saw the bars on the window and locks on the door!"

Harry made methodical nicks and cuts on Ron's arms and legs as he spoke. "You want my money? I wanted a family. You have—well, had—" Harry turned his head to the right and took in the twins. Together in death as they were in life. "—a family. Don't worry, Percy will be following you all soon. He was just as cruel and vicious as you and the twins."

Harry tilted his head to the right as he took two steps back. "Luna, do you want to play?"

Luna skipped through the chaos and stopped at Harry's side as she gave a shark-like smile. "Harry, I don't think I'd leave anything resembling a body behind." She waved a careless hand towards the sickening display of what was left of Cho Chang.

"That's fine. I don't think Hermione wants to survive after we kill her not-boyfriend. After all, she cares more for him than she ever did for me." He gave Hermione a searching look then sighed. "I had hoped that Dumbledore was exaggerating when he said you would do anything for knowledge and money, including spying on me. I killed him for his lies. Looks like I was wrong, and you won't live even if you want to."

Harry turned his back on the treacherous duo and let Luna have her fun wringing scream after scream from them. "Neville, I think you do need a bit of cathartic chaos."

Neville shrugged as he surveyed the room. "Unless you have Snape tied up all pretty for me, I don't particularly care about getting my own revenge."

Harry clapped his hands with a devious grin. "Dobby!"

Dobby popped in wearing a militant outfit. "Sir, yes, sir!" Dobby saluted Harry.

"Remember that little present I had you wrap up for Neville? Can you bring it here, please?" Harry smiled sweetly at the only creature aside from his two human friends that cared about him.

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby snapped his fingers and the bound form of Severus Snape appeared in front of Harry's booted feet.

"Happy late birthday, Neville. It's your very own Potions Master Dungeon Bat."

Neville stood from his lounging position on the Headmaster's chair. "Cut out his tongue Harry. We don't want him using wandless magic and I know he can't do nonverbal casting."

Harry reached down, and with a deft twist of his hand, the Potions Master was down one body part.

"Now it's my turn to have some fun," Neville said darkly as he stepped down from the dais and made his way toward his goal. "You are the cause of it all, Severus Snape. Gran told me that you were the one to paint targets on my and Harry's backs. You deserve to be punished, and I'm going to see to it that you are."

The muffled screams from Snape drowned out the gurgled end to the Granger line and the death of the youngest male Weasley.

It was a bloodbath, but the elves were on standby, waiting for the dark trio to give them the go-ahead to clear out the dead and deposit them silently in front of their families with a warning: Don't retaliate or your deaths will be far more torturous.