Chapter 1 v2!
A simple question
Chapter one
Sometimes the smallest thing can have the biggest change. It's not something that's always noticed right away, normally one only really catches it in hindsight. Often it's a combination of a few small things that gradually lead to something bigger. Like pushing a pebble down a cliff and it knocks a rock, then another, and eventually you've caused a rock slide. In this case it started with a simple question..
" 'ave you finished wiz ze bouillabaisse?" The question came from a voice Harry didn't recognize over his shoulder. It was almost musical, a light French accent with something warm, almost compelling with it. Almost compelling but not quite.
Harry looked up from his food seeing Ron's face go slack and Hermione's brow deepen into a scowl. Sliding the only bowl of food he didn't know the name of towards the voice Harry spoke in a soft voice, "yeah, here you go." The bouillabaisse was picked up and a quick "merci'' was said before the girl left. Little did either know that the simple question was the first pebble, the beginning to something special.
In fact Harry had been feeling pretty special in the last couple months. He had recently gone to the Quidditch world cup with his best friends Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and his family, or most of them. Ronald's dad, a multitude of brothers and his only sister went. Pretty much his whole family except his mother who wasn't a fan of the sport and the couple brothers out of the country.
The match itself was pretty amazing, even if Harry didn't really care who won. It was just amazing to be away from his relatives during the summer before school started.
The aftermath of the game was definitely something Harry could have done without though. Having Voldemort's old followers get drunk and terrorize the place before running away was not something Harry could say was a good time.
The first month after returning to school was smooth. From classes to trying to learn new spells in empty classrooms with his friends to lazing around and playing chess.
The second month brought the news of the Tri-wizard tournament and with it came a multitude of small competitions that would follow alongside the main event. This motivated Harry and Hermione to try to join in a couple of them. Ron seemed to like the idea but didn't really want to put in the effort.
MA
"Harry Potter." Dread filed the gut of the young man who's name was just called. Like the calm before the storm. That moment of silence before everything came apart.
The great hall was silent.
Like a sinking stone in the black lake the feeling in his gut got worse and deeper by the second.
"Harry Potter." The voice of Dumbledore called out a second time, this time louder as a million thoughts raced through Harry's mind.
-Was it a mistake? How was it possible that his name came out? A joke by the twins? No. There isn't any laughing. It's probably serious then-
Hermione pushed Harry's back whispering "go" forcing him to get up and move towards the Headmaster. Whispers started to fill the hall as Harry was given his piece of paper with his name on it and pointed to the room with the other champions.
A few moments of silence while the other champions stared at him. The awkward quiet was broken when the door burst open and a multitude of Headmasters, teachers and officials burst in. Dumbledore went straight to Harry, grabbing him by the shoulders rather painfully and almost slamming him against a shelf of trophies.
"Did you place your name in the cup?"
"No sir"
"Did you get an older student to do it for you?"
"No sir" was that all it took? Simply getting someone old enough to pass the line and put it in the cup? Harry couldn't help but think that was a really stupid flaw.
A staring contest between the two seemed to stretch out for an eternity. Green eyes holding their ground against striking pale blue ones that seemed to search his very soul, as I'd trying to dig into Harry's memories and find the answers.
The impromptu staring contest was broken by an official that Harry couldn't remember the name stuttering and almost shouting.
"Astonishing! Truly astonishing! Here we have for the first time in history a fourth champion!"
Harry's head felt light. If it weren't for Dumbledore still gripping his shoulders he might have fallen over.
An argument between the adults broke out about getting other students to compete to make things fair as Hogwarts had two champions. Harry couldn't focus on it.
"Zey are saying zat zis leetle boy is going to compete!"
It was only with those words Harry realized she had spoken to him before, now he had a face to match the voice who asked for the bouillabaisse.
Fleur Delacour, that was her name. Tall, thin, beautifully pale with silvery blond hair, she was almost glowing to harry. However, beauty aside, she did just insult him, so his opinion of her fell quite a bit.
The rest of the evening just kept going down hill, life didn't take its time when Harry was involved.
First his name came from the goblet of fire, then being grilled by the school staff if he had entered his name on his own . Followed by being insulted by Snape in front of them and having no one stand up for himself. Finally after all that when Harry got back to his common room it was eerie quiet as Gryffindor house sat all around, hateful and jealous eyes staring at him as the portrait door closed behind with a click.
Ron was the first to approach "Harry mate, how did you do it?" Much more of a demand than a question.
"I didn't put my name.." but before he could finish Harry was cut off
"Common you can tell your best friend"
"Ron, I didn't.."
"Fine, keep your secrets!" Ron folded his arm over his chest and turned away, clearly not going to listen having already made up his mind.
What happened? Just this morning it was practicing with Ron and Hermione for the minor competitions that would be held between years. Things like Quidditch, dueling, academic studies, runes, transfiguration, potions, they were all getting their own smaller competitions divided up by years. Harry and his friends had been studying and practicing since the start of the semester.
They were happy.
Harry was happy.
Now in a single night it was all falling apart.
Harry stepped forward into the common room and wanted to wither and disappear. It was obvious that Ron wasn't alone in his anger or opinion. Harsh silence and angry stares met him by all. The older years angry that Harry was chosen and not them and the younger ones staring at him for taking all the attention once again.
"Bastard"
"Glory hound"
"Attention seeking"
"Liar"
"Cheater"
It started as whispers but soon gained volume, harsh whispers soon turned into frenzied shouts as Harry tried his best to make it to the stairs. Old teammates and other housemates alike shouting and demanding how he put his name in the cup.
"I swear.. I didn't.. No it wasn't" but Harry couldn't even get a couple words out before someone would cut him off with another accusation. Looking around for the rest of his friends and spotting them nearby at a table Hermione had a thick tome in front of her but wasn't reading and instead looking at Harry and scowling. Neville sitting beside her wouldn't look Harry in the eye instead preferring to look at his lap. Fred and Gorge had serious faces, but looking closely had small smirks threatening to break out. As one, both of the girlfriends placed hands on their shoulders and the trace of smirks vanished.
Does this mean they were on his side? Maybe they couldn't show it because of Angelina and Alicia? Or did Harry just imagine the smirks?
Too many questions and no clear answers.
Taking a calming breath and stepping towards his friend "Hermione?.. You.. you believe me right?"
A silence followed the question for a moment before a soft reply came "I need time to think about it. I'm not sure what to think" for a moment there was no sound before the thump of her heavy tome closing, the chair scraping back on the floor before soft footsteps heading towards the stairs of the female dorms.
Not sure what else to do, Harry went up to his dorm and crawled into bed closing his curtains around his bed. Taking a few moments to calm his nerves and then sort out his emotions on the events that just Transpired.
MA
Over the next couple days none of Harry's friends hadn't spoken to him, instead they chose to keep their distance. On the other hand the rest of the school had no issues speaking their words of hate and accusations.
It was dinner in the great hall, Harry was sitting alone, all of his housemates refused to be close to him unless it was to say or do something less than friendly.
"Do you like them scar-head?" Malfoy asked, stepping up to him with a group of Slytherin in tow. The usual group Crabb, Goyal, Nott, Zabini, Parkinson, Bulstrode, All with their own smirks like someone just told an inside joke. Yellow and black circular badges pinned to their robes.
Malfoy pressed the badge on his robes forward reading it out loud as he did "support Cedric Diggory. Even though he's a Hufflepuff he didn't cheat his way into the tournament so I've made these to help support him. Want one?" Harry eyed it warily, Malfoy wouldn't just offer something like this to Harry without some extra reason. Before he could either accept or reject the offer Malfoy pressed his badge and the picture spun and changed into -Potter stinks- in a sickly green. The rest of the Slytherins laughed and pressed theirs too making Potter stinks show up with the little spinning motion.
"Well at least I'll always know when to shower." Sighing, Harry got up from his half finished meal looking at the head table and seeing that professor McGonagall had a frown, almost like she wanted to do something. McGonagall looked at Dumbledore but he shook his head. At that moment Harry felt a heated rage spark with him inside.
He's letting it happen! Dumbledore isn't allowing the other staff to do anything! Then I'm on my own. Nobody is in my corner, at least during the heir of Slytherin I had Ron and Hermione. Fine! I'll make do..
Harry pushed past the Slytherins one shoving him from behind as he did. He gave one last look in the head table before walking out the doors going to his dorm.
MA
Between classes the other students had taken to doing everything they could to show what they thought of Harry's name coming out of the goblet of fire. At first it was just the taunts, name calling, and mostly harmless pranks like spelling his clothes different colors or causing Harry's ink bottles to open in his bag ruining his work. The pranks grew exponentially into more malicious and harmful acts. Tripping jinxes, stinging hexes, cutting curses made to rip clothes.
At first it was only the odd student per group and the rest would watch but the more days passed the braver the rest of the students would get until almost everyone would say or cast something at Harry. The older years were the worst with their greater knowledge and more experience with magic. Spells Harry had never seen before and didn't know the counter measures causing more than one trip to Madame Pomfrey in need of help.
One really bad incident caused Harry to start carrying his fathers cloak and the marauders map at all times in order to avoid everyone between classes. Someone cast something to tie Harry's legs together as he was heading down stairs towards the great hall, he managed to reach out and catch the railing but before he could think to remove it or even look at his attackers everything happened too fast.
"Hurry up potter, don't block the path" a foot slamming into the center of Harry's back, the rush of air as he plummeted down the stairs bouncing off them as he went before the sudden stop at the bottom.
Flashes of living with the Dursleys flew through Harry's mind. Punches, kicks, screams, beatings, frying pans, knives, belts, Dudley and his gang. The bruises, scabs, broken bones, the hours of agony in his cupboard trying to heal before it all started again once morning came.
Grabbing those memories and stuffing them deep in the confines of his mind one thought came to mind.
I wont show any pain! The Dursley's no longer get a reaction and these people will have to do a lot more than this to get one.
"Champion yeah right! Potter can't even get down some stairs without hurting himself."
A group of laughter followed that statement but Harry knew that voice. Looking up from his position on the ground he saw Marcus Flint the slytherin quidditch captain. Standing with him and laughing at the statement were most of the other Slytherin players and upper years.
Taking a quick inventory of his own condition Harry stood up albeit shaky from the pain.
Pain he was very familiar with came from his left arm and some ribs on his right side.
Broken then, or at least cracked He thought. Pulling his wand out and holding it defensively in his right hand.
None of the Slytherins made any indication they were going to do more and after a moment Harry turned to start on the next flight of stairs intending to find some unused classroom to see how badly he was hurt. Harry got two steps down the stairs when over his shoulder he heard "Depulso!" shouted from Flint.
In the half second before the spell hit Harry all he could think was Banishing charm!
The charm hit in the same spot he was kicked earlier but the force of this was easily ten times harder. Instead of being shoved this time he was thrown. All Harry could do while flying through the air towards the ground floor was a simple Damn. Don't turn away next time.
*crunch* and Harry knew no more as his world went black.