As Harry entered the great hall accompanied by Ron and Hermione he immediately noticed the stares and whispers. Everyone appeared to have spotted his long ponytail, and the great hall was ripe with subtle pointing, whispers, and snickers, all of which he was sure were directed at him.

"Come on Harry, might as well get this over with." Ron said as they joined the gryfindor table.

The food was decent, or at least Harry assumed it was, as he hadn't much an appetite. Ron engaged him in small talk at which he was grateful for any reason to take his mind off the current situation. Hermione though, kept mostly to herself speaking only when spoken to, and otherwise being quiet. It was a little unnerving for Harry to see her that way. He was used to her giving detailed accounts of inane things they'd rather not discuss, from her day in class, to a fascinating spell she had discovered.

"Harry, umm, you alright then?" Dean Thomas who was sitting just a few seats down asked in rather concerned low tones.

Harry nodded. "I'm fine, though things aren't looking so swell."

"I heard you got kicked out of the boys dormitory, that's not true is it?"

Harry felt his cheeks redden, "Yeah, it's true."

"You really going to sleep in the girl's dormitory then?" Dean asked sounding a bit incredulous at the idea.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Dean. Though turning Snape and Malfoy into some sort of rodent is starting to sound more and more appealing."

"What was that, Harriet? I thought I heard my name?" Harry felt his nerves grind as Malfoy approached him from behind with thugs Crabbe and Goyle flanking him.

"Shut it Malfoy, unless you want to share a similar fate."

"Yeah blow off," Ron suggested.

"Go back to the slytherin table, Malfoy. Nobody asked you here," Dean followed.

"Now now, Harriet no need to get upset. Just because you're a girl and I still won't date you doesn't mean we can't be friends." Crabbe and Goyle guffawed loudly.

"I said piss off Malfoy," Harry retorted, losing his cool.

"Careful Potter, I'm a prefect after all. I'm sure I could get another week stacked on to your punishment."

Harry's face was burning red. His fingers were aching to grab his wand.

"Aww is ittle Harriet getting upset?" Malfoy taunted. "Maybe you can date Crabbe or Goyle then?"

Harry pulled out his wand and was half a second from jinxing Malfoy from here to hell and back, but was too late as Malfoy had been waiting for this moment from the start. He pulled his arms from behind his back and drenched Harry with a cup of water he had been hiding.

Harry felt a small strange feeling stretch like lightening through his body and his viewpoint was lowered several inches from loss in height.

The entire great hall seemed to quiet as several hundred eyes glued to her. Fierce whispers followed by snickers and in larger quantities laughing, which came mostly from the slytherin table, seemed to echo through Harry's ears. It was too much; she couldn't control herself. Her emotions were too unpredictable, too powerful to subdue as she had done many times before as a boy. She could feel herself tearing up which was the last thing she wanted to do in front of Malfoy; cry.

Malfoy roared with laughter, and Harry found herself doing something for the second time that year. She decked Malfoy.

Malfoy fell back to the floor clutching his cheek, and Crabbe and Goyle quickly reached to pick him up. Harry couldn't take it anymore, and fled from the hall back toward the common room, all the time considering how to get out of there. She needed to leave, go anywhere, but definitely away from Hogwarts. She wanted desperately to return to Grimmauld place, back to her godfather, back to Sirius who understood her.

As she reached the common room and flung herself through the doorway she made a leap for the stairs to the dormitory and once again was flung from them as she had forgotten in her haste that she was banned from the boys' dormitory. She made for the girls' dormitory intent to simply go in and grab her stuff to leave on foot if need-be, but stopped at the foot of the stairs as her thoughts cleared slightly and she began to realize she hadn't the slightest idea where to go. Despair began to well up inside her and she slid in a heap to the bottom most step, where she could contain herself no longer, and began to cry. She was trapped.