Content warning: transphobia and transphobic slurs
If Harry could be anywhere but Hogwarts right now, that'd be lovely, she thought.
Harry stepped back in the Great Hall as quietly as she could, having just changed into something more dry. And despite the quiet, all eyes were on her. This was it. Her first day where all her classmates, the ones who had been gone for holiday, were here.
Rushing as quietly as possible to the Gryffindor table, she sat down next to Ron and Hermione, where she was too nervous to eat. All she could focus on was the whispers, people quipping back and forth with their friends - all Houses, and it seemed like all years.
"So you think Rita's right?"; "Of course she is."
"Apparently he's already switched dormitories."; "That fast? Really?"
"He probably just wants the spotlight."; "He didn't 'put his name in the Goblet' either, remember?"
Harry's breathing was getting erratic, was getting worse, choked up, and Hermione and Ron both seemed concerned. Harry couldn't tune out the talking, the rumors, the quips, and she didn't even notice her friends trying to reassure her. Most of her fellow Gryffindors seemed to be waiting with bated breath, as though scared to say anything in Harry's presence - that presence being a key factor.
With each sentence, Harry felt smaller and smaller. But there was one voice she hadn't heard for most of it, until she got up and tried to leave.
After Ginny decided to be the first Gryffindor to start the talking - not that Harry stuck around to hear her - she got up and started rushing out the doors, even at the request of Ron and Hermione to stay.
She shouldn't have been surprised when she saw a fourth-year in green robes in the way.
"I've heard of blood traitors before." Came a familiar voice, cutting the girl who lived off. "There's those that sympathize with the Mudbloods, there's those who ruin everything." Draco Malfoy scoffed, leaning in front of the small hallway door that would've led to the Gryffindor common room. "But at least the Mudbloods didn't choose to be broken."
"Move, Malfoy." Harry said, voice breaking. She wasn't going to cry, she wasn't going to cr-
"Or else what? Your tranny friends will hex me?" Draco sneered, taking two steps forward. Harry stepped back, and stammered, trying to speak. "Or you'll go crying to Dumbledore? Hell, you'll go crying anyway."
"Please." Harry said, and Harry silently, for the first time since arriving at Hogwarts, deeply regretted having made bad relations with Malfoy on a first day.
"And why should I?" Draco asked, smirking, and he pulled out his wand. "If you want parts gone so much, I'm sure there's a curse that'll suffice. Maybe a Blasting Cu-?"
"Mr. Malfoy, that'll be enough from you, and one hundred points from Slytherin." Came a voice.
Harry turned to the voice, surprised at who it was. Severus Snape.
"B-but, it's your hou-" Draco started to argue, and Snape muttered something, waving his wand, and Draco stopped talking.
"Exactly, and I'm currently appalled to say you're a Slytherin." Snape said, walking up to the two of them. "Triple detention with me, too." Before Draco could start to argue, "Whatever your outlooks on Potter's lifestyle may be, it does not give you the grounds to threaten a fellow student, with a Blasting Curse of all spells."
"But he's being a goddamn atten-"
"That's another ten points." Snape said. "Go to the dormitories. I will deal with you later." Malfoy stammered nothing in particular, before leaving.
"As for you, Potter, I'm taking fifty points from Gryffindor for leaving the Great Hall with such an outburst. Go to your dormitory, remain there until end of day." Snape said coldly, before following Malfoy's path.
Harry paused a second, confused, before jumping to her legs and running to the common room. Halfway there, she felt the tears starting to run down her face, terrified.
"Harry, oh my, what happened?" Hermione asked, running into the girls' dormitory. She had left a short bit after Harry. She and Ron were gonna leave right away, but Ron started arguing with Ginny again; it was only after almost ten minutes and an arrival of the Daily Prophet did Ron finally tell Hermione to go without him. "Harr-"
Hermione's voice choked up, as she saw Harry. Or didn't see. Harry was on her bed, which was already in the further back corner, with the blankets wrapped at her back, so no one could see her. The only sign she was even here at all was the person-shaped lump on her bed, and the sobbing sounds coming from it.
Hermione was mad, yes, from Rita Skeeter's brand new article about Harry Potter's Muggleborn girlfriend; but seeing Harry like this caused that frustration to dissolve, as she moved closer to Harry and started rubbing the girl's back.
It was quiet, and it seemed like no other Gryffindor girls seemed daring enough to leave the Great Hall and come back here, so they had the room to themselves.
"I'm..." Harry stammered, choking on her words. "I can't do this." She said with such conviction that Hermione nearly cried for Harry's sake.
"Harry." Hermione said, turning Harry's head so they could see each other's eyes. "Just because Ginny and the other students have their wand up their ass, doesn't make them right." She said, and she hugged Harry, whispering gently to her, "Everything will be okay, I promise." She said, holding Harry tightly.
"H-...Hermione?" Harry started quietly, just loud enough for the other girl to hear. "D-do you mind if I s-sleep?" She asked, and Hermione felt caught off-guard that Harry was asking.
"Of course. Do you want me to stay here?" Hermione asked, "Make sure no one bugs you?" Harry nodded quietly, and with a word of confirmation, turned over and started sleeping.
Hermione quietly pulled out some loose schoolwork to work on, and as the Gryffindors filed into the dorm, she maybe might have grabbed the blankets from her own bed to try and make a sound barrier of sorts. Or how she led Ginny out of the dormitory before flying of the handle at her.
It was a rough week for Harry.
Each day was playing out the same - breakfast began as it did before the break. Then classes begun, and Snape's class was hell, McGonagall's a break from the pressure of everything, and the other classes being so and so. Lunch was when people started the whispers, and by dinner, those whispers were full-blown discussions. Harry had started getting... used to it, in the most loose sense of the term.
And then, Friday rolled around.
For Ginny's sake, Harry was truly glad that it arrived after dinner instead of the Great Hall for all to hear, but a small red envelope arrived in the Gryffindor common room for her. Harry had missed parts of it, arriving late, but she heard the familiar voice of Molly Weasley, and a completely surprised and seemingly-humiliated Ginny on the receiving end of a red Howler.
"-AND TO GO TO THAT SKEETER LADY AND FURTHER MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE, I HONESTLY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF NO ONE WAS HAPPY WITH YOU, I'M HORRIBLY DISAPPOINTED IN-"
It was loud. Harry had to cover her ears to avoid a sudden migraine, and that wasn't enough to even block it out enough to stop making out the words.
"-CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS, BUT FRED AND GEORGE, WITH THAT JOKE SHOP FANTASY AND ALL THE TROUBLE THEY CAUSE, HAVE BEEN MORE WELL BEHAVED A HUNDREDFOLD, AND FURTHERMORE-"
Fred and George - who were in fact in the common room - seemed to take offense at the 'joke shop fantasy' line, but were too busy watching the Howler unfold. As Harry got closer, Fred tapped her on the shoulder.
"Mum's been going for around twenty minutes now." Fred yelled, and Harry could just make it out over the screaming. "She's been calming down, believe it or not."
"-WEASLEY NAME, AND AS FOR THE CRUSH YOU SAY YOU HAVE ON HIM, I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF HARRY NEVER WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN AFTER YOU PULLED THIS STUNT ON-"
Oh that was new, Harry thought. Ginny had a crush on her? Had, has? Either way, Harry couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, Ginny had possibly messed up any chances.
"-HAVE TO GO, BUT WHEN THE SEMESTER'S OVER WE ARE HAVING A LONG TALK GINEVRA AND I HOPE THATS CLEAR!"
As the end of the Howler arrived, the red envelope combusted into a small burst of flame, curling into black ash and smoke. Ginny seemed like she wanted to melt into the sofa, and Hermione, who had been sitting near her, looked at Ginny.
"You deserve that, you know." She pointed out, and before Ginny could argue, got up and walked over to Harry and the twins.
"Heya, Harry." She said, sitting down.
"So, Hermione, you were arguing with Ginny when the Howler arrived?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow. Hermione nodded sharply, and Fred smirked. "Alright."
For once, George seemed to be on a different page than his twin. The two has a very fast hushed discussion, and Harry made something out about her, but couldn't make anything else out.
"Anyway, so, how's class coming along?" Hermione said, a blush creeping into her face, trying to distract herself. "Do you need help?" She asked, and Harry nodded.
The two left for the girls' dormitory, and the twins left for their own.
It had been a few weeks of this pattern on repeat, and one morning in mid-March, Harry was called to a meeting with the champions at the Quidditch field.
Harry walked there, and saw what appears to be a bushy amount of grass... no, hedges.
"Hello there, Harry!" came the friendly voice of Ludo Bagman. "Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he bragged, before stopping, noticing the unhappy look on Harry and Cedric's faces, "you'll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"
"It iz a maze, iz it not?" Fleur asked, seeming almost offended at the question.
"Ms. Delacour seemed to have nailed it!" Bagman said proudly. "Indeed, it's a maze. It's simple, too, you just need to get to the middle of the maze."
All four champions waited for the but that was clearly in that sentence.
"But, the catch being, there will be obstacles. I'm having all the teachers from all the school contribute to some degree, as well as some members of the Ministry. To make things exciting. Should be fun, eh?"
Harry disagreed, as that didn't seem like fun at all, but she held her tongue, waiting for Bagman to dismiss them.
Krum tapped Harry on her shoulder, waiting for the rest to leave, walking her the trees. Krum had simply wanted to talk with Harry, wish her luck - he had wished Fleur on the way there, and Cedric after he arrived; as much as Karkaroff wanted Harry to lose, Krum was telling her that if she could win, she had earned it.
He was, until they were cut off by the ravings of a complete madman.
Mr. Crouch was the madman. He looked sick, like he had been injured badly, and had been running through the wild for weeks. His robes were torn and bloodied, his usually professional hair all over the place and slimy, and somehow, his behavior was worse.
"Aah, Weatherby," Mr. Crouch said, seemingly mistaking an oak tree for Percy Weasley - although Percy's sense of humor was akin to an oak tree, that was where similarities ended. "Do, uh, do me a favor, and write to Fudge, confirm the numb- number... It's numb." He looked around, giving a faint wave to Harry, before turning back to 'Weatherby'. "Yes, I mean, of course I'm... I'm fine I think. H-here, let me... let me write you, uh, a..." He blinked, before looking back at Harry.
With zero time to consider, he jumped at her.
"Who are you, L-L-Lily Potter died," He said, eyes widened, seeing Harry, and Harry noticed he didn't have a wand - or at least, it wasn't available for Crouch when he reached for it. "And y-you, you're... Durmstrang, c-correct?" He got up, dusting of his robes (as though that fixed things), and his voice wavered, as though he wasn't put together. "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Lily, Mr. Durmstrang, I... Do you know Albus? Albus Dumblydor-Dubmledore." He twisted his words on the name. "I almost have it..." He said, his eyes widened. He seemed to be erratic, his mood shifting like a broken pendulum. "Dumbeldor, Dumbledore." He finally said, pride on his face that gave way to horror. "P-please get him. Please get Dub-Abus, Albus."
Krum and Harry looked at each other.
"Should I get him? I, um, I know the school better maybe." Harry offered, and Krum nodded. "We both go?" At this, Crouch snapped from a distorted reverie about cauldron-thickness and seemed to start begging Harry and Krum not to leave him alone.
"Mr. C-Crouch, what do we tell Dumbledore?"
"It's my fault, I made a mistake, oh god, the Dementors and my son and Azkaban and..." He looked at the ground, flailing back. He seemed to slipping between lucid and deranged.
"Mr. Crouch, where were you?"
"Little Hanging, Little Hang, Hanging, Hangnail... Hangfire..." Crouch started, rambling off a ton of words that started with Hang.
"Mr. Crouch, why so much urgen-"
"The Dark Lord is coming back." Said the judge, and he had snapped out of his broken state for that one sentence, saying it with so much conviction and certainty, Harry knew he might not have been really mad after all.
AN: Most of the people who are against Harry's transition are against the common belief transphobes like Rowl Rita publish, to sway people. It's a herd idea, and if everyone thinks trans people are creeps, that's where a hate comes from. And there are those who are just terrible people, who understand fully what they're talking about, and why the words hurt. Malfoy is the second of these two.
As for the Howler, Ginny needs to learn her lesson. I think Molly would be supportive, just woefully bad at the pronouns and stuff. A for effort, F- for execution.
As for Crouch, I... I picture him looking like J. Jonah Jameson? J.K. Simmons, I guess, I mean. So if you want the perfect idea, picture JJJ losing his marbles, and maybe demanding pictures of Spiderman :) As for Crouch (again), poor guy. I based his ramblings off of my various typos in this story ALONE, complete with my bad habit of having too many, uh... Like, these things-
Next chapter, help arrives. Late.