THE LAST STRAW
J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.
Chapter 1 – No More
Harry Potter hated his life. If he hadn't hated it before (and he did) he definitely did now. It was now his fifth year at Hogwarts and he had just finished yet another detention with UmBitch the Ministry toady from hell where yet again he had been forced to write lines with an illegal blood quill. It was evident that the hideous excuse for a woman got off on torturing children, especially when one of those children was named Harry Potter.
And of course, there was nothing he could do about it. But then, there was nothing he could ever do about ANYTHING IN HIS LIFE THANKS TO THE MANIPULATIONS OF OTHERS.
As he painfully walked back to Gryffindor Tower, he once again he did a mental recap of run his life throw his mind.
Parents killed by evil Dark Lord after Peter, a "best friend" betrayed them and then framed their other mutually best friend, Sirius, who was sent to Azkaban for life without a trial.
Best friend Sirius should have been the guardian of the now orphaned Harry but instead he went off in search of revenge, letting the orphaned, traumatized baby with the bleeding, gaping untreated wound on his little forehead be taken off by another friend on orders of the Headmaster of their former school, who had no legal right to order such a thing and for Sirius to "obey" those orders. But he did and ended up in the worst hell hole in probably the history of the Magical World if not the Muggle world also.
Speaking of Sirius, his idiot godfather had the power to escape Azkaban the entire time he was there, but instead chose to languish in that awful place for 12 years before reading a random newspaper article and THEN DECIDED TO ESCAPE, but not because he should have escaped long before this time to find and take care of the godson who he had pledged on his magic to take care of.
No, he decided to finally escape because the newspaper gave him a clue as to where former best friend Peter had been hiding all those years and he escaped to enact his long denied revenge. He tried saying it was to protect Harry, but from the way he went about it, nah it was to finally get revenge. Revenge for James, not for Lily who had also been killed and not for Harry who had been left an orphan, but revenge for James dying. Go figure (and think naughty thoughts).
The main thing Sirius' escape accomplished was to put fear in Magical Britain because he escaped and for that truly idiotic Minister of Magic Fudge to place 100 Dementors, one of the foulest creatures in the entire world of magic, to be used as a large search party for the wizard. Yes just what was needed at a school full of basically helpless children – 100 horrible creatures nearly impossible to control or defend against with free rein to keep looking for an insane prisoner who if he had any common sense (but this was Sirius Black so no he didn't have any common sense) wouldn't go near that school.
But that was what the Minister of Magic did and it didn't do anything except scare the hell out of the children, make many of them physically and mentally sick and nearly got Harry Potter worse than killed several times. As fate would have it, Harry ended up not only meeting his godfather but saving him from the 100 Dementors and getting the kiss of death when he was caught by the Ministry.
However, with the help of Hermione Granger, Sirius was saved, and then flew off to safety (thanks to two school kids) after asking a desperate boy if he wanted to live with him and the boy immediately saying yes without hesitation. Now that should have been a warning sign to the biggest doofus in the world that a boy, who until a few hours before thought Sirius was a mass murder, who had betrayed his parents, helped to make him an orphan and was only at the school to kill the kid that something might be seriously wrong with the kid's home life. But it hadn't and it didn't matter anyway because Sirius promised a lot and never came through.
Thanks to mostly to Peter, Sirius and most especially Dumbledore (with Voldemort only helping a little bit by killing Harry's parents), Harry was then dropped off in the middle of a cold November night, without having any medical treatment on the doorstep of his only living relatives. The baby was wrapped in a blanket, stuffed in a basket with only a letter of explanation basically saying "your sister and husband killed by murdering manic, here's the kid you take care of him whether you want to or not.
The fact that said relatives hated magic and might resent finding any baby on their doorstep early one morning instead of their milk order let alone THIS PARTICULAR MAGICAL BABY, apparently didn't bother Albus Dumbledore. He was use to giving orders, having them obey without question and the feelings of others or the interruption of their lives meant nothing to him.
So Harry Potter's life had been made a living hell until he was finally informed about Hogwarts. Then it was only made a living hell during his summer holidays.
Then began Harry's Hogwarts career. It began all wrong as it should have been the "great wizard himself" introducing Harry to his real world, especially since Dumbledore had himself illegally appointed Harry's magical guardian to "protect him" from those who wished him wrong and to control his life.
Had he been too busy, then McGonagall, Flitwick or Sprout should have retrieved the boy as they were in charge of introducing Muggleborns or Muggle raised magicals. Harry would have learned at least some of the things which he should have learned if only what extra books he should buy to help him adjust.
But Hagrid the groundskeeper had fetched him, confused the boy, exposed him unnecessarily to a mob of fans and well-wishers and with the exception of taking him to Diagon Alley in the first place and buying him his owl Hedwig, he had done nothing but unintentionally harmed him and sabotaged his entry into the Magical World.
Not that Hagrid would purposely do it, but no he too had been used by Albus Dumbledore and it had been part of his mission (unknown by the lovable half giant) to praise Dumbledore to the hilt, indoctrinate him into distrusting if not hating Slytherins, informing him that he just had to be a Gryffindor, because his parents were, Dumbledore was, it was the only possible place for the Boy-Who-Live, and not telling him how to find Platform 9 ¾.
Which left Harry opened up to being "found" by the Weasleys who Harry had realized in his first year were a complete set up. By his fifth year he realized that ALL THE WEASLEYS were nothing but lackeys of Dumbledore dedicated to keeping Harry…well keeping him isolated, urging him to goof off, not study or rather not doing better than Ron his "first friend" and official "best mate."
Yes Ron Weasley Harry's "best mate" was in reality, his keeper. Keep him isolated and from making friends with anybody else (even his other roommates) especially from the other houses. Keep him from finding out things he should know about and needed to know, at least from a Pureblood and/or Magical World perspective, keep him from studying and doing well in his courses and basically to just squeak by so as not to outshine Ron and "make him feel inferior" and thus threaten their friendship.
Yep, Ron was a "keeper" all right as Harry found himself "keeping" Ron around and staying his friend when most of the times he didn't know why he put up with the obnoxious git. Every time he was managing not to be react to Malfoy's taunts, Ron reacted for him and a fight started. Every time he was trying to avoid getting into trouble, there was Ron, goading him into it, or starting the trouble and then Harry had to defend him resulting with Harry getting into more trouble than Ron.
He knew what Ron had been doing to him for the past four years, talking behind his back, telling of their secret adventures and always building up his own part in the adventure, again behind Harry's back. And was Ron JEALOUS! Jealous, hot-tempered, lazy, bigoted, a braggart, a slob, ill-mannered, obnoxious, rude – and those were his good points.
Then there were the "adventures" or "Dumbledore's tests" which Harry had to endure. First year could have been a fluke but second year? Nope, Dumbles had to know about the basilisk, plain and simple. Third year he knew about Sirius. Fourth year, well fourth year Dumbledore could have gotten him out of the tournament, could have stopped the abuse, torment, the lies, the libelous newspaper articles. Hell bells, he could have prevented EVERYTHING from happening but didn't. He had to know Mad Eye Moody was an imposter, but he just let things happen. Apparently he wanted Voldemort to come back.
Harry didn't even want to remember his summer. Between being isolated, abused by the Dursleys, not receiving counseling or a kind word or help in dealing with Cedric's death and Voldie's resurrection, and then his "friends" ignoring him because Dumbledore told them not to contact him. Then the Dementors incident and the trial before the entire Wizengamot! No it was all too fresh and too insulting and hurtful.
And Sirius! Sirius was acting like an immature…Marauder. He didn't want to think about how Sirius had let him down. All the "help" Sirius had given him was to tell him about his jolly times and pranks he and James – oh and Remus and Wormtail, too – played. The girls they got, the players they had been and why wasn't Harry following in his father's footsteps in the pranking and girl-getting area?
Nope, after this summer Harry had officially written Sirius off as anything other than a big kid who never grew up and never would. He was all talk, all bluster and damn it, he kept calling Harry James. It seemed that he wanted Harry to be James reincarnated. He didn't want to be the adult figure in Harry's life, he wanted his favorite playmate back.
No, Harry hated his life and as he trudged back to Gryffindor Tower, his hand in pain, his mind exhausted, his future bleak, several of his homework assignments not done because of his detentions, he thought about his ball and chain - Hermione.
Yes Hermione. His "female best mate." She didn't abandon him last year when so many had, especially Ron, and she did help him. She also nagged the hell out of him but then she had been doing that for the last four years and probably would for the rest of his life.
Ah yes, Hermione Granger. He hadn't completely figured her out yet. He knew that she was a socially inept girl, one of the very few girls her age who didn't care about her looks. How could the only child of dentists come to Hogwarts needing dental services? Didn't they have a professional reputation to uphold? Her teeth had been fixed due to a mean spell cast by Malfoy which Madame Pomfrey had fixed and Hermione had taken advantaged of to finally get her teeth corrected. She now had a lovely smile and it had improved her looks greatly.
Her hair was still a mess, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a decent haircut and a little more care as even Harry, being a boy and therefore clueless, had heard the term "make-over." Okay he read about the term from the women's magazines his aunt was a slave to. But the magazines showed before and after pictures with easy instructions and tips on how to choose a hair stylist who could help you with a "new look" and other such girlie things.
Harry had read these girly mags because he had to take out the trash and sometimes he just wanted something to read to take his mind off of things. There was nothing like an inane female fashion magazine to give a guy a good laugh. Besides, he needed to figure out girls in the hopes that he would someday be able to get a real girlfriend and not just stalked by crazed fan girls like Ginny Weasley.
Hermione had cleaned up to go to the ball last year, but then she was going with Victor Krum so she had to make an impression. She had looked awesome, therefore IT COULD BE DONE. So why wasn't she still at least "trying" as looking like a geek only left her open to more insults and attacks from the likes of Malfoy and other girls.
Just because Harry played at being stupid didn't mean he was. He did have brains and knew how to use them otherwise he would never have survived the Dursleys. It was better to have your enemies underestimate you.
He only got average marks at Hogwarts mostly because of Ron and even Hermione at times. Ron's job was to make sure Harry goofed off and couldn't study or do well. Hermione ALWAYS corrected Harry's homework and he wasn't allowed to turn it in until she checked it over. Even if he waited until the last minute to do it (like Ron) she checked Harry's homework and made him rewrite it according to her "suggestions" but strangely she never made Ron rewrite his no matter how poorly done it was.
At times, just to test a theory, Harry "slipped up" and wrote a decent essay in a precise, informative and a scholarly way. He knew how to write properly because he had to do Dudley's homework for him (and not his own) because Dudley was lazy and stupid and would have flunked if Harry hadn't done his work for him. All their teachers knew it was Harry's writing but ignored it probably because Vernon was friends with the Headmaster of their primary and slipped a bribe or two in as well.
Whenever Harry did his homework extremely well, Hermione "corrected it" by dumbing it down so that Harry would only receive an average grade. Whether it was done because Dumbledore ordered it or jealousy on Hermione's part, it showed that she was controlling his grades. Like it had been at the Dursleys, at Hogwarts Harry would never be allowed to do better than average – except in Quidditch as that benefitted Gryffindor more than it did Harry.
Because he had detention with Umbridge Harry had to do his homework before he went to serve it. He had to hand it over to Hermione who would have it ready for him to do the corrections which she automatically assumed he would need to do. What had been really infuriating Harry was the fact that Hermione knew he would be in pain and bleeding and it would be late when he returned from his punishment, yet she ALWAYS made corrections in red ink necessitating that Harry had to rewrite his essay.
It also meant that despite her treating him with murtlap, the late hour, the pain, exhaustion and being forced to listen to her latest chastisement, he still had to rewrite all his homework despite his pain before he went to bed because for some reason his alarm spells never worked (even though he knew he did them correctly) Ron couldn't be trusted to wake him in time to get him up for breakfast let alone do morning homework.
Everything was pointing to both Ron and Hermione sabotaging him. But why? He had more than enough misery in his life between the Ministry attacks, the Prophet turning the public against him, most of the student body, including his own dorm mates like Seamus and others, calling him a liar and verbally and physically attacking him, the Hufflepuffs accusing him of murdering Cedric, the Slytherins tripling their usual torment, Snape being even worse than usual, Dumbledore ignoring him, and his own Head of House refusing to listen to him and telling him to keep his head down.
Umbridge had been sent by the Ministry with the clear purpose of ruining Dumbledore and most especially Harry. Dumbledore just sat around acting like there was nothing he could do about the situation but that was a bunch of dragon dung. Dumbledore always had everything under control and was letting everything the Ministry was doing to Hogwarts and Harry just to happen.
Harry knew Dumbledore better than most people did. Although Dumbledore was seen to be attacked also, he really wasn't. It was all an act so that Fudge would think he was hurting Dumbledore when he really wasn't. According to a secret source of Harry's, Dumbledore couldn't be removed from his place on the Wizengamot on the flimsy grounds which Fudge had used to remove Dumbledore. Ergo, it was all a ruse and part of one of Dumbledore's Machiavellian plans. As usual, it would serve to cause Harry pain as well as being one of those annual tests which Dumbledore so delighted in, which also caused Harry hurt and pain.
Harry was almost back to Gryffindor Tower when he said to himself "No. Not again. Never again. Screw them all THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!" He walked away from all portraits and then cast a notice-me-not charm on himself. He then hurried away from where he was going and went instead to a secret passageway which was not listed on the Marauders' Map.
That night he went missing. He simply disappeared from Hogwarts and would not be seen again at least by those who wanted him, needed him, meant him harm and thoroughly controlled him. The pawn had fled never to be controlled by anyone ever again.