A/N: Chapter 2 has been extensively re-written. If you have problems with continuity, that might be worth re-reading. And this chapter has been updated to make explicit some things that were only implied.

Chapter 3

Harry was able to escape the hospital wing after breakfast - Professor Snape was going to be released just before lunch, Poppy said. Lunch was chaotic and loud; Harry was hoping that everyone else talking would make people not talk to him. He had spent the morning trying to beat into Gryffindor skulls the notion, 'wanting to know did not mean that you actually got to know.'

Success was … mixed. But for the moment, they were not abusing him for gossip, so he counted it a partial win. Sadly, his efforts only educated Gryffindors.

"Scar-head! What did you do to my godfather!? I'm going to get back at you …" Malfoy was as Malfoy as ever, Harry noted.

Harry stood and spun to face his … would-be-nemesis. "Snape ran into my new policy, and Poppy tells me he nearly died. I'm not putting up with bullying any more, Malfoy. So tell me, do you want to change your behavior and live?"

The Great Hall was silent enough for everyone hear the question, and they quieted even more to hear Draco's response.

Draco avoided the enquiry, and instead said, "On behalf of my godfather, I challenge you to a Wizard's Duel! Right here, right now, Potter!"

Harry nonchalantly put his wand in his pocket – slowly – and responded, "I have wondered if all that Pure-Blood upbringing was worth anything, and you have finally proven that it's not. As the challenged, I get to declare terms for this duel, you malfunction." Harry spit the word. "But to make it clear to you just what a shit wizard you are, we will load the terms in your favor. Here and now, and I'll even speak my spells really clearly so everyone will know just how badly you represent your family." Well, the emotional factors will be loaded in my favor, actually. He won't think clearly enough to realize that what I agree to is in my best interests.

That taunting worked, and Malfoy immediately backed up to the edge of the Ravenclaw table, giving the regulation space between the duelists. Students scrambled to clear the space between them and the space behind each of them, assuming that spells would be flying.

Malfoy immediately brandished his wand, inhaled, and began casting something with a long incantation. Harry whipped his wand from his pocket, and clearly spoke, "Lumos!"

The assembled students, many standing on the tables, began to laugh. Harry's light was of medium strength, and the laughter swelled – Malfoy stopped casting to join in.

Abruptly, the light sped off Harry's wand, moving fast enough to leave afterimages that elongated it to a rod that plunged directly into Draco's skull.

Harry internally grasped his magic … and pushed.

Draco's head turned translucent as he screamed, his skull outlined in a brilliant white light, and he dropped his wand so he could ball his fists in front of his shining eye sockets. It didn't help, of course, just outlined his skeletal hands in their cocoon of flesh, in front of the shadow of his skull. A few spectators screamed, too.

Draco's shining skull hit the stone floor, and then Harry spoke, "Nox." The light winked out, leaving Malfoy's unconscious body breathing softly on the floor. Harry wasn't sure if the boy's brain was in a functional, or even repairable, state, but he wasn't bothered. One warning.

"POTTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE…" Harry immediately raised his wand vertically in front of his face, and whispered, "Accio breath." The greasy professor's arms looked like they spasmed out from his body a few inches, ended his sentence with "URRK!", and then Snape lay unmoving on the stone where he collapsed. After a few wiggles of his torso, even that subsided, and Snape was dead.

Students edged away from Harry, uncertain looks of fear and trepidation flitting across their faces. He stood still, in a growing ring of emptiness, and tried to look confident. Instead of just weary.

Following his usual schedule, the Headmaster appeared through the wide double door that the students used, rather than the customary staff entrance at the other end of the hall. There is no way that he wasn't watching what just happened.

"Harry, my boy …"

"I am not your boy." Harry's voice, while quiet, was heard throughout the Great Hall – probably because it was so quiet. "Think very carefully about your next words."

Harry turned to address the students that had yet to run away. "I'm not putting up with bullying any more. Not from Whiskers," Harry hooked his thumb to indicate the Headmaster, "not from Greasy," Harry waved his hand at Snape's unmoving form, "not from Blondie," Harry indicated Draco's unconscious body, "not from you. If you live through your warning, and your behavior doesn't change, then I'll just end you. Any questions?"

Nobody wanted to sound like they had any questions.

Albus was a slow learner. "Mr. Potter, for your unprovoked attack on staff and a student, you have detention tonight."

"No." Harry waved him away negligently. "You have no authority over me, and I'm no longer pretending that you do. Go away, I need lunch." And he headed over to the Gryffindor table, taking the first seat on the end, where firsties usually sat. Today, they had all scurried away to the top end for some reason.

"Harry, my boy, you cannot attack people in this school!"

"I defended myself. Each one attacked me before they responded. And I am not a student here at Hogwarts; the Tournament put me in an un-named school that is definitely not under your control. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to attend Hogwarts next year, the way you and your staff attack the victims instead of the offending students is completely appalling." Harry's voice was calm, but carried. By design.

Dumbledore immediately responded to Harry's threat. "You may have discovered a few tricks with simple spells, but you can scarcely defend yourself against a trained adult, my boy. Surely you can see how you need to finish your schooling?"

Harry found it instructive that the Headmaster thought that the immediate threat was 'Harry not attending Hogwarts', instead of 'Harry committing violence against students.' He kept to his calm tone, saying, "Actually, I have only displayed a few of the tricks I've come up with using simple spells – I learned quite a bit to prepare for the Tournament, Headmaster." He waited for Dumbledore's face to begin registering alarm, and then added, "And don't call me Shirley."

Dumbledore's face instead went to confusion as several Muggle-born sniggered. "My meal is more important to me than listening to you argue that I should let people hurt me. If you insist on bothering me, take it up again after lunch." Harry sat down and began filling his plate from the available dishes. The roasted vegetables were almost untouched, while the beef, chicken, pork, and lamb dishes had been completely pillaged by the first wave of Gryffindor eaters.

Hermione and Ron were seated a ways further up the table, and on the other side. Harry found that was fine, as he didn't really want to address Ron's status as a nominal friend, and Hermione's conversation would inevitably include some hectoring about how he should do what Dumbledore dictated – bugger that for a load of kneazles!

As he was slowing down and considering what to put on his plate for a third course, Mr. Dumbledore stood across from Harry's seat. "May we continue our discussion in my office, Harry?"

"Nope. In public or not at all. Take a seat."

The Great Hall, just about empty of students, had a few run out and almost immediately return with friends by the time Dumbledore had struggled to take a seat at the luncheon table.

Harry started out, trying to reverse the usual route this discussion went. "Why do you want me to spend the summer with my Uncle and Aunt?"

The surrounding students didn't visibly bother Dumbledore, but Harry could tell that the man was carefully editing his words for the audience – one of the things that Harry had counted on.

"I promised them, when you were first placed with them, that they would receive protection from the Wizarding World. And your exaggerations about their treatment of you do not help matters, Harry."

Harry was silent for a long while, looking at Albus's face. Finally, he said, "Why do I have to make good on the promise you made to them, Headmaster?"

Clearly, Albus didn't have a ready answer for that.

Harry then went on, "And why do you believe that I'm exaggerating?"

Here, Albus was on more familiar ground. "Children always exaggerate the discipline that their families give them. A parent would never actually cause harm to their child."

"First of all, I'm not their child." The 'you idiot' was clearly implied, though unvoiced by Harry. "And as for the first," he turned to their small audience, "If your parents have ever used force against you, physical, emotional, magical, please raise your hand."

Out of the twenty or thirty students around them, unabashedly listening in, five raised their hands. Harry turned back to the Headmaster, who looked a little abashed. "Not all of us are exaggerating. And your insistence that I am is insulting." He leaned across the table to give weight to his words. "The only person that will fight for me … is me. I'm the only one that cares about my well being. I'm the only one that puts my happiness first. You have failed me, continually, literally from the first time you involved yourself in my life 13 years ago, up until today. You get no more chances."

As Harry got up from the table, he spoke again. "You made a promise, keep it yourself. I don't belong to you."

He walked out of the Great Hall, murmuring rising up around him as the students left as well. Albus seemed distressed and sorrowed, but it didn't concern Harry. He knew that this was just the latest round in his determination to control his own life and ensure his own safety.

But it was his fight. He was, finally, making the efforts that mattered. And if it left dead enemies behind him, well … then that's what freedom takes.