Author's Note

This is my first work of fan fiction, though not my first written work. I do hope that you enjoy it, as my desire is to entertain readers just as much as it is to get this story out of my head.

I despise typos, continuity errors, and formatting mistakes. Do not hesitate to point them out so I may set them on fire, though I would prefer you DM me so my shame does not live eternal in the reviews.

Please. Review. I cannot stress this enough. Your feedback, both positive and negative, motivates me and helps me to become a better write.

Do. Not. Post. Spoilers. In. Your. Review.

Disclaimer: I am not the immensely talented and inspiring woman known as J. K. Rowling, and therefore hold no claim to the fantastical world she allows our imaginations to frolic in.

Chapter 07: The Dragon's Challenge

The last time Harry had left the Great Hall it had been one of the most miserable moments of his life. Certain of the harassment he would receive, and terrified of losing his best friends, he had wandered off in a daze just to avoid it. Now, however, only a few hours later, he couldn't remember a day he was looking more forward to.

Unfortunately Harry's good moods were rarely allowed to last for very long.

"Think you are something special now, scar head?"

Harry's grin evaporated when he saw the boy who he had hoped to avoid today. Draco Malfoy was standing between him and the staircase leading up from the entryway. His bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, were standing on either side of him holding their big meaty fists threateningly. He also noticed a few of the other Slytherins in his year standing in the hallway. At first he was worried that he might have been ambushed, perhaps Malfoy had convinced them to attack together. But as he glanced around that didn't seem to be the case.

Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were sitting on the steps of the main doorway, facing each other with a book open and holding different pieces of parchment, apparently talking over their homework. Blaise Zabini was stopped halfway up the stairs with Millicent Bulstrode, as he apparently needed to tie his shoe. And out of the corner of his eye, as he glanced backwards, he caught the image of Theodore Nott reading a book, just to the side of the Great Hall's doors.

Harry severely doubted this was a coincidence, but at the same time if it were an ambush it was a poor one. The girls doing homework were sitting, and it would take them time to reach their wands. The staircase could have been a good place to cast spells from, if Harry had been closer to it. As it was they were at a bad angle that would be hard to aim from. And though off to the side, Nott was probably too close to the Great Hall to cast a spell without being noticed.

He realized that this must be one of the free periods for the Slytherin fourth years. He very much doubted that they had decided to skip a class just for the sake of harassing him. He knew for a fact that both Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass were near the top of their class, after Hermione of course, and even though he had never spoken to them he doubted they would risk their grades over this.

Not knowing what was going on, and deciding that they didn't seem to be a threat, Harry decided to forget them and focus on the more obvious issue.

"Malfoy? McGonagall said things had to look nice while the other schools are here, why are they letting you wander around?" Harry stated while trying to give his best expression of being confused.

A deep snort came from the stairwell, though he couldn't tell if it came from Zabini or Bulstrode. Tracey Davis, however, promptly buried her face into her assignment as her shoulders seems to vibrate. Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other confused, trying to decipher what Harry had meant, but Draco's face turned bright red as he scowled towards him.

"Shut up Potter! When they find out how you cheated to get into the tournament they'll expel you for sure. And then we'll see how tough you are with no wand to defend yourself." The blonde boy snarled with a growing sneer on his face.

Harry almost started to move towards the exit of the hall, but he stopped himself. Normally when he ran into Draco he would have Ron and Hermione at his side. Someone else might see that as an advantage as he would have two friends to back him up, evening the odds in these situations. But the truth of the matter was that their presence always seemed to limit what Harry could do. Ron would always be too eager to start a real fight, something that Harry would generally prefer to avoid. And though Hermione was very adept with her wand, she was extremely adamant about following school rules and would be more likely to let herself be hexed rather than cast a spell at another student.

Now, however, Harry only had to worry about himself and going at his own pace. He could still hear people in the Great Hall, and knew that even if there weren't any professor's still inside there would be enough students that Malfoy wouldn't cast spells openly at him . . . he hoped.

"Well." Harry said, coming out of his thoughts. "You can barely manage any spells, and you seem to be doing just fine. Having no magic can't be much worse than being terrible at it."

SNAP.

Theodore Nott had closed his book so forcefully that the sound caught Harry by surprised and he glanced back. His face was expressionless, but the muscles in his cheeks were clearly strained, and he seemed to be holding his breath. As he turned and headed back into the Great Hall their eyes met for a moment, and Harry could swear he saw a wink come from the Slytherin boy.

Draco, however, was furious. His sneer had turned into a snarl, as he stalked towards Harry, reaching into his robes. Unfortunately Harry had been distracted by the other Slytherin and didn't have a chance to react before the angry boy was directly in front of him. Though he hadn't drawn it yet, Harry could clearly see him holding his wand just inside his robes. Crabbe and Goyle had both followed and were now on either side of Harry, glowering down.

Harry knew that the situation had escalated, and that he wasn't in as safe a position anymore. He wasn't as confident he could get to the Great Hall with Malfoy's body guards now so close, and the blonde boy already had his wand in his hand. He could call for help, but all of his friends were in class now and he didn't think he knew anyone left in the Great Hall.

Even then Draco would probably attack him if he tried. The only witnesses besides him were all Slytherins, and he was sure they would manage to convince Snape that it had all been Harry's doing. The only way Harry might be able to get out of this without getting hurt would be to talk his way out.

"Think you're funny, orphan?" Draco sneered. "Think you can just say anything because of a filthy mark carved into your face when your mudblood mother failed to be witch enough to stop it? Or is it because you cheated to get into the tournament and now you think you're actually something other than a kid no one wanted?"

Draco had begun grinning wider and wider with each further insult, to the point that now he looked practically gleeful at the situation. His eyes shimmered malevolently as he began pulling his wand further and further out.

"Since you are so special, maybe you would like to see some spells that are truly powerful."

Harry was seeing red. He no longer cared if he ended up hurt, he wasn't going to let the boy talk about his mother like that. But Harry knew he wouldn't reach his wand fast enough, and with Crabbe and Goyle next to him he doubted a punch would ever reach Malfoy. So instead Harry decided simply to smile back at the other boy and make him as mad as possible.

"Sure Malfoy. Do you know anyone powerful enough to show me them? You should have said something before Nott left, isn't he the strongest Slytherin in our year?"

Draco practically spit with rage as he stepped back quickly and drew his wand high into the air, a curse on his lips. Harry tried to leap back, hoping that even if Draco's goons grabbed him he could try to dodge the spell. But his back immediately hit something solid behind him and he wasn't able to move more than an inch or two. He considered rolling out of the way, but he knew he would have to time it for just when the spell was cast. However, as he waited for Draco to aim his wand at him he realized that the boy himself seemed to have stopped casting.

"Is there a problem here Harry?" Came a voice from directly behind him.

When Harry looked back he was surprised to find that, not only had he backed up right into another person, but that there were actually several people piled up behind him. Over half a dozen older Gryffindors seemed to have taken up positions at his back and were glaring over at Malfoy and his friends. Crabbe and Goyle had begun backing away, not enjoying being suddenly outnumbered, while Draco was sneering venomously at the older fifth year boy who had spoken up. The boy wasn't particularly tall, but still much taller than Harry, and had dark hair that was rather short. He was looking at Malfoy like he would rather curse him than talk to him.

Harry in the meantime was bewildered. Beyond recognizing them from the common room he didn't know any of these people. However that didn't stop someone from taking his shoulder and pulling him to the back of the group, as the original fifth year boy stepped forward. Seeing how things had turned out Malfoy stowed his wand and motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to follow him towards the exit, which Harry now noticed was clear of the earlier Slytherins.

The person who had grabbed Harry turned out to be an older girl, a rather pretty girl actually, who began looking Harry over in a critical manner very similar to that of Madame Pomfrey. As she did he noticed the bright badge on her robes signifying her as a Gryffindor prefect.

"I don't see any spell damage Murphy, I think we got here just in time." The girl said while ruffling Harry's hair forcefully.

"That boy's a disgrace to his house. What Slytherin starts a fight twenty feet from the Great Hall just after breakfast?" The older boy said while shaking his head. He turned back and walked over to the group, which had seemed to relax their positions now that the Slytherins were gone. "Alright Harry?" He said with a smile.

"Yeah, uh, thanks um . . " Harry struggled to think of what to say. Not only was he caught off guard talking to a group of people he wasn't used to, but he was feeling embarrassed to have been in the same house as them for four years and not know their names.

Whether because he sensed Harry's confusion, or just to be polite, the boy thrust out his hand with a smile.

"Name's Murphy. Roderick Murphy. Everyone just calls me Rod."

"No one calls you that." Said one of the other boys in the group.

"This is literally the first I am hearing of this." Said the female prefect standing next to him.

Harry reached out and took the boy's hand, and quickly regretted it as it was vigorously shaken. The boy, Roderick, didn't seem to mind his friends' comments and just beamed happily.

"If you ever get into trouble Harry don't hesitate to call on us. We're a house that stands together, and we've got to protect our own. Wouldn't want you getting hexed by a tosser like that anyway, at least find someone respectable to fight with."

A light went on in Harry's mind as if someone had just lit a torch. These people had been there for Fred and George's speech that morning. Was that why they were treating him this way? Did their plan actually work?

But before he could think too much more on it Roderick had smacked him on the shoulder, still smiling. "We've got to get to the library, you'll be okay on your own, right Harry?"

"He could come with us?" Said another girl, this one a bit shorter with dark hair and freckles. "I mean, he's cuter than any of you at least. I wouldn't mind if he stuck around."

A few of the others laughed, while Harry stared wide eyed at the girl, who was looking at him seriously and didn't sound like she was making a joke. Roderick too was giving him a serious stare, looking him up and down.

"Nah." The older boy said thoughtfully. "His eyes are gorgeous, but he's still too scrawny to be called cute. Give him another year though and maybe . . ."

The female prefect grabbed the older boy and girl by the shoulders and began moving them forcefully towards the staircase.

"Murphy, Norden, leave the kid alone. We said we'd use our free period to study, remember?"

The group of Gryffindor's began heading towards the staircase, leaving Harry behind where they had found him. More than one gave him a pat on the back before they left, someone even deciding to mess up his hair again.

As Harry watched them leave the prefect turned around near the top of the stairs to wave to him, only to pause and look past him before smiling and giving a thumbs up. However, when Harry looked over his shoulder the only one he could see was a slowly departing Theodore Nott who was heading towards the dungeons and reading his book again.

Author's Thoughts

The dialogue with Draco was the third of three scenes I wrote that made me decide to do an entire story. In the first draft Draco's dialogue was a lot more cruel, and I spent a lot of time trying to tone it down without losing its edge. For the longest time this scene ended with a fight, but then I realized it didn't fit. Harry needs to work a bit harder before he can start kicking people's butts.

I had more fun writing the older Gryffindor's than I expected. Just like with Harry's class schedule I knew I wanted consistent information I could draw on for my story, so I looked up the names of students that are mentioned but we aren't told what year they are in, or even sometimes what house they are in. Then I essentially sorted them and wrote down a few personality traits for each. I honestly could have written a lot more with them, but I didn't want to give the impression I was adding a bunch of OC's that we were going to focus on.

Obviously I am going to try to write about a lot more characters than we just see in the books so Harry can get some new experiences, but while Harry is at Hogwarts I am going to try to avoid introducing a ton of original characters. Once Harry graduates (assuming he lives that long muhaha) I expect he will need to deal with a lot more adult wizards than just those that are mentioned in the books, so I am already writing up a few character biographies for later.

Assuming anyone is still reading my story by then.