Chapter two
Fast forward to where our story begins: Harry Potter's Fourth year and the Triwizard tournament.
Harry had only been at Hogwarts for three years prior, and he knew something wasn't right about the school. First-year, he and his new friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had to save a particular stone from a possessed teacher. In the second year, Ron's sister was taken into the Chamber of secrets to be soul food for Tom riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, the man who killed his parents. Last year Harry found his godfather, Sirius Black, and thought he had a chance to escape the Dursley, but that was taken from him when Peter Pettigrew, the man who betrayed his parents, escaped. It was getting to be too much. Due to the abuse, Harry still refuses to cry. This year he is being forced into a competition for only wizards and witches who are 17 or older only. Almost all the school believed he had cheated to get selected, which was a lie. Even his first ever friend, Ron, thought so. If it weren't for Hermione, Harry would lose it. She had believed him. She had kept him from breaking down for now. Thanks to Hagrid, Harry found out that the first task involved dragons.
On the day of the first task, Harry waited for his turn. He was shaking in fear, but there was nothing he could do. Suddenly Harry heard the cannon and knew it was his turn. He slowly walked into the arena, eyeing the egg Mr. Crouch told harry to get. Harry heard a roar and saw his dragon, the Hungarian horntail, above him. He dove behind a large boulder, trying to get a plan together. As Harry stood there, everything came up at once. Harry could feel himself losing it. He didn't know what to do.
"Harry!" Someone said. Everything around him went dark, and he looked up to see the dark figure he saw as a child. This time Harry could see her more clearly. She looked like him, but at the same time, she wasn't "it's you. You saved me when I was little. Who are you?" he asked. "You know who I am, in a way," she said. Harry thought for a moment and could only think of one person "mama?" Harry asked hopefully "in a way; I am your mother, and yet no. It isn't apparent, But I can help you again, but I need you to trust me. Please allow me to free you from the binds, sweetie." She said as she held out a hand. Harry couldn't help but believe what she was saying. "I trust you, mama," Harry said as he took her hand. The women smile lovingly.
Outside everyone was watching as the dragon's fire started overtaking the boulder. Suddenly, a light of energy shot up into the sky and disappeared. It caused the dragon to back up. Everyone watched as the boulder crumbled to reveal a woman with shoulder-length layered black hair wearing a black bell sleeve dress with a slit in the side and a low cut that everyone saw a bit of cleavage. She had a silver chain belt around her waist. She looked at the dragon who was getting ready to fire again. with a flick of her hand, vines came out of the ground, tried up around the dragon, trapping it. 'Easy, great dragon mother, I will not harm you. My task is simple: I must retrieve a fake egg from you. I'll show you.' Harry said in a parseltongue. She walked over and picked up the golden egg. She walked back to the dragon and held it up to its nose. The dragon sniffed the egg and made a disgusted moan 'once I am free from the area, ill free you.' Harry said as she bowed to the dragon. The dragon relaxed and waited patiently. True to her word, once Harry was out of the arena, she snapped her fingers, and the dragon was free. Still, the horntail just sat there staring at Harry Dragons are not mindless beasts as everyone, save Hagrid, thought They could see the power in certain people, and the horntail could tell that whoever this human was, she was powerful.
Everyone stayed quiet until Harry left the arena. All the judges ran to the contestant's tent to find three out of four contestants either laying down or sitting in a chair getting treated for injury from Madam Pomfrey, with Harry leaning against a post studying the egg. Dumbledore approached this person first "who are you, and what did you do with Harry potter?" he said, trying to sound intimidating. Harry slowly took her dark green eyes from the egg to the judges. "I'm harry potter. I have been free from the binds someone had placed on me, and now I will not be taking crap from anyone. If anyone messes with me, I won't hold back. Now I need to study this egg for the next task." She said, returning to study the egg, "Forgive, miss, but if you are Harry potter, then can you please explain what you did out there, so was a judge it accordingly." Ludo asked. "Because you ask nicely, I didn't want to hurt the dragon, so I tried it up using vines from the earth; then, as you know, I can speak parseltongue. I told the horntail that there was a fake egg in its nest and showed her. I didn't let her go until I was out of danger." Harry explained, not taking her eyes off the egg.
That answer seemed to satisfy most of the people in the room "very good, we will discuss it and let you know; your score later." Ludo said she wanted to get away from this person. Even he could feel the energy radiating off Harry. Harry nodded and left the tent. "Where are you going?" Dumbledore asked, "to the library; how else do you think I will be able to prepare for the next and find out what is the deal with egg," Harry said coldly and left without another word.
Dumbledore didn't live this long being stupid. If this person was Harry, he knew she was angry. He will let harry go and hope it will blow over. How wrong he was.
Harry stopped by the Gryffindor commons room to get her bag Inside; a party was taking place. A large banner with her name, streamers, and other party decorations were everywhere. Fred and George were the first to see Harry. "There he is, Gryffindor champion," they yell in unison. Everyone was about to surround harry when she stomped her foot and sent them all flying back. All the decorations were shredded in seconds. Everyone stared at Harry in fear "did you think after everything this house has done the past few weeks, I would just come in here and celebrate with you, Gryffindor house of the brave? More like the house of the backstabbing cowards. Only a select few had chosen to stand by me just last time when you all thought I was the heir of Slytherin." Harry said coldly "know this house of Gryffindor, I am no longer the forgiving harry potter you knew before, I can't trust you." She said Hermione couldn't take it anymore and walked up to Harry. She wanted to say something, but Hermione found she couldn't. Because she knew, harry was right. "Hermione, one of my few loyal friends, I could use your help fingering out this egg." Harry said as her eyes softened as she looked at Hermione. Hermione could only nod, "Accio harry potter's and Hermione granger's bag." Harry said, and two bags came flying at them. Harry turned and walked out of the commons room with Hermione following her leaving everyone in the room speechless.
"He is right, you know," Fred said. Everyone looked at him "we didn't stand by him with the heir of Slytherin crap. George, we even made fun of him." he said, looking at his twin, "but it was all good fun." George said. Neville walks over to them "sometimes, what is fun to one person is hurtful to another. We all saw harry when his name came out of the goblet. He was scared. If he cheated, would he have looked that scared? Every year, someone tries to kill him. I don't think he will accept any apologies right now. We should give him space and back him if he needs it. Maybe Harry might forgive us over time, but I don't know." He said. Everyone nodded in agreement "you are missing one thing." Ginny said. Everyone looked at her. "Harry is no longer he. Unless you are blind, you can't miss that rack." She joked, pointing to her chest, which everyone chuckled lightly at this "no matter, I stand with Harry potter." Neville said. One by one, they all agreed. Ron was on the stairs listening to everything. He felt ashamed of his actions but didn't know what to do. He would have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione sat at a library table with thousands of books surrounding them. Harry was trying to decipher the runes on the egg. So far, she had got water and time, but that was about it. Hermione kept looking up at Harry, wanting to ask a question, but for the first time in her life, she couldn't form the words "ask Hermione." Harry said, not looking at her. "What happened to you?" she asked. Harry closed the book and moved it away from her. "When I was a little kid, someone placed powerful binds on me shortly after my parents were killed. I can only guess because even then, I was strong, but I am not sure." Harry started subconsciously rubbing her arm "what I am about to tell you, you can't repeat to anyone until I say you can." She said, "do I need to swear an oath?" Hermione asks, placing a hand on Harry's. Harry shook her head. "I trust you, but muffliato." Harry waved her hand, and an invisible bubble formed around them, pissing off a little water beetle.
"When I was first placed with my aunt and uncle, they hated me. For the first three years, they beat me. I still got some wounds as evidence of their 'loving' care." She said, showing deep hatred for her muggle family. "Why did no one notice." Hermione asked, squeezing Harry's hand "no clue, but when I was four, it got so bad that I thought I was going to die. Let's say an angel came to me. I thought she would take me to heaven to be with my mother and father, but no. she told me it wasn't my time, but she was going to make it where they couldn't physically harm me again. The next morning my aunt came to get me out, and I was healed. I thought she was going to hit but found she couldn't. since then, they couldn't touch me." Harry said, not realizing she was crying for the first time. "But they could still verbally abuse you," Hermione concluded.
Harry nodded "and when you add that to what we went through these last three years, I couldn't take it anymore. When I was behind that boulder, I was going to give up. I was going to let the dragon kill me." She said, looking down, not wanting to see Hermione's reaction. Hermione was shaking. Her best friend just told her she was going to commit suicide in that arena using the dragon "the angel came back; she saved me again. I took her hand, and she freed me from the binds." Harry said, "Why are you now a girl?" Hermione asked. "No clue, But I figure out that late. I can tell you one thing; I feel better than I have in a long time; I will never allow anyone to put me in that position." Harry said with a fire in her eyes that Hermione could see how serious she was "ill help you. I won't let anyone hurt you again." Hermione said. Harry smiled at her.
"Hermione, there will be people who want to know what is going on with me. I'll tell them but on my terms." Harry said, reaching in her bag. "Again, do you want an oath?" Hermione said, pleased that Harry trusted her with this information. "No, but I want you to learn Occlumency: A practice of protecting your mind. Till you master this skill, please wear this." Harry said, holding a simple necklace with a large dark purple gem and a book on occlumency Harry found a couple of days ago. "It will protect your mind, and here is a book to help you," Harry said. Hermione immediately put the necklace on.
"Thank you for trusting me. In the commons room, you are not the same forgiving harry, but what about Ron?" she asked. "He was my first friend. He should have known I would never cheat, nor do I want the attention. Maybe someday, I will forgive him, but not now." She said Hermione understood where Harry was coming from. "I think we have learned all we can tonight. Let's get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning, mione." Harry said, not realizing what she called Hermione. "Mione?" Hermione teased, "I am sorry it just slipped out." Harry said, trying to run, but Hermione stopped her. "Only you can call me that. You know I love you right as a brother, well I guess sister now," she said with a smile, "and I love you too, my sister." Harry said, returning the smile, "where are you going to stay? I don't think you want to sleep in the boys' dorm now." Hermione said, packing up her stuff "don't worry, I got a little friend helping me out." Harry said with a wink. Hermione shook her head, knowing who the little friend was. Harry canceled the muffliato spell.
They left the library, said good night to each other, and went their separate ways. On her way back to the Gryffindor commons room, Hermione was stopped by Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall "ah, Miss granger, just the girl we want to see. You haven't seen Harry potter, have you?" Dumbledore asked. "I just left her at the library," Hermione said, not wanting to give out too much information. "You were in there a long time. Has he told you anything?" McGonagall asked gently. She heard what happened in the commons room and was concerned for Harry's well-being. "I am sorry, professors, but what Miss potter and I discuss is between us," Hermione said, feeling the necklace gently heat up, telling her someone was trying to read her mind. "Come now, Hermione; right now, Mr potter's mind is not in a good place. As his teachers, we need to know how to help." Dumbledore said, "if miss potter wants your help, she will seek you out. Good night." Hermione coldly said as she walked past the teachers.
"Maybe miss granger is right." McGonagall said, "Minerva?" Dumbledore asked. "Leave mister-miss potter alone for now, and maybe in a few days, try again. Good night, Albus." She said, leaving Dumbledore alone with his thought.
Meanwhile, Harry went to the 7th floor only to be stopped by Charles Weasley. "Harry, Hi, can I have a minute?" he asked, "What can I do for you, Mr. Weasley?" Harry said, not knowing Charles very well. "Charlie, please, My supervisor wanted me to ask how you controlled the horntail?" he said nervously. "Parseltongue, Charlie, I talked to the impressive creature. They are not stupid, you know." She said, crossing her arms. Charlie felt very stupid. He couldn't help but fall drawn to this person "right, I just, he just." He repeats his words, "Charlie, tell your boss to look for people with the ability. You all will learn more than you want to." Harry said as she walked past Charlie. Almost too quickly, Charlie grabbed her hand "sorry, but could I owl you? In case he has more questions." He asked. Harry didn't know why something was telling her to trust Charlie. She nodded "great and if you need anything, let me know," he said smiling "ill think about it, night Charlie," she said as she continued on her way, not understanding what just happened "night," he said.
Harry continued till she came to a blank wall. After making sure no one was around, she waved her hand, causing a door to open. She walked inside and saw dobby cleaning. "The young master is asleep, mistress." He said. Harry patted his head. "Thank you, dobby; you can go rest now." She said, placing her bag down before going into the bedroom where a little boy of 4-year-old with messy black hair was fast asleep. "I'll keep you safe, my little one." She said as she kissed his forehead and lay down next to him. The little boy seemed to sense her, so he snuggled into her as she wrapped her arms around him. "Good night, sleep tight," Harry said before falling asleep.
Harry found the child sleeping next to me when Dobby showed him the room a few weeks ago when he was looking for a place to sleep. She didn't know where the child came from but knew he was her son, and she had to protect him no matter what.