Early the next morning, Harry stretched and pulled himself out of bed. He didn't want to wake Ron. He had no idea what time it was, but it couldn't be later than 4 AM. He wasn't tired, even though he came in very late. He had gone to see Hermione, she had always known how to talk to him and calm him down. He was having the same mental battle as Ron. It seemed that the 3 of them had changed a lot over the summer. Hermione wasn't too pleased with him waking her up, but she masked it and helped him out. Harry had noticed how different Ron was at the beginning of the school year. He was no longer the follower he had been.

Tip toe-ing down the stairs, Harry heard a crash and a girl whimper. He raced down to the bottom but stopped short in the shadows. There was a girl and a guy fighting. Well it looked more like the guy fighting. The girl turned and scrambled under a nearby table.

"Stop it Tyler!" the familiar voice cried.

"What makes you think you can tell me stop? You're just my little dog! It's about time I punished you! Without me you're just a fat girl with no friends!" The guy growled at her.

"That's not true!" She cried back.

Harry finally made the connection just as Stephanie turned and saw him. She stopped. She stared.

Tyler followed her gaze, "Jesus. . ." He groaned. "Go back to bed Potter! This is a private conversation!"

Harry took a step forward. "Playing pirates?" Harry sneered. "Can I play too?" He asked sarcastically. Tyler just glared at him. "What's the matter Tyler? The football player and soon to be quidditch captain, sounds fair, right?"

"Harry no!" Stephanie, still kneeling on the floor, held up a hand to prevent him from saying anything else. Ignoring her, Harry continued toward Tyler. Tyler took a step backwards.

"Hey, you weren't scared when you kicked your girlfriend around, what's the matter now." Although Tyler was a good 4 inches taller then Harry, Harry wasn't scared. He had learned early on that crazy beats size any day.

Tyler found his anger and stepped forward again. He raised a fist and took a wild swing. Harry ducked and grabbed his wand from the pocket in his cloak. Instead of using it on Tyler, he threw it to Stephanie for safe keeping. If Tyler wanted a real fight, he'd get one. Harry ran behind Tyler and put him in a choke hold. He learned it from all the American Wrestling shows that Dudley liked to watch. Tyler was so surprised that he didn't even try to fight back.

"Stephanie, Go!" Harry cried. He didn't want her to see him like this. "Go!" He repeated himself. Stephanie scrambled up and raced to the stairs; she looked back once, and then ran to the top.

Harry held Tyler here for a minute before he realized that Tyler stopped trying to fight him off. He released him and Tyler dropped to his knees. "Potter" he gasped, "I'll get you" with his final warning, he crawled to the stairs and sat on them. Not quite ready to go up yet, not quite able to fight or talk with Harry any more.

Even though it was too early for anyone to be out in the halls, Harry slipped through the portrait, and slid down on the floor next to her. He had awoken her. She searched up and down the hall before her eyes finally fell on Harry.

"Well Mr. Potter." She said gruffly. She was never pleased when a student awakened or, or interrupted her, or annoyed her. "You'd better make this worth my while!" Harry jumped. He looked up at the angry woman in the portrait.

"Look, I'm sorry, but no matter what I say to you, you'll be bored." Harry said sadly. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. Things like that just don't happen at Hogwarts.

"You might as well tell me, maybe you'll bore me to sleep" She said sarcastically.

Ignoring her tone, Harry started to describe what he had just seen.

"And he was just kicking her around, calling her a dog, and I couldn't stand it, something snapped in me." He looked up at the portrait expecting her to be snoring. Instead she had covered her mouth with a chubby hand. "Are you yawning?" He asked slowly.

"Of course not!" She said with a waver in her voice. "You've got to tell someone Mr. Potter!"

Harry looked at her in surprise. "If I tell anyone, he'll come after me! He already made that clear!" The woman rolled her eyes.

"Not if he's suspended!" She said angrily.

"You don't understand, Dumbledor will just look the other way. The Johnson's have given this school so much! They're responsible for-"

"Their son beating up on sweet innocent little girls!"

"You don't understand, I can't tell anyone!"

"And I thought you were one of the more noble students at this school Mr. Potter, now I see you're a nobody that only does things to benefit yourself! Back in my day that was called selfish." She held up a hand to show Harry that this conversation was over. Without him asking, she swung open and he climbed through the hole, into the Common room. Tyler had left; perhaps he had gone to bed. The portraits words were ringing in Harry's ears. He had never been called selfish before. Of all the insults people had thrown at him, Draco, Snape, Voldemort, Dudley, none of them compared to what she had said.