Another day, another chapter. Ends somewhat strangely since Chapter 6 is effectively Part 2 of this chapter. Still, on with the show!

xxx

FIVE: The Lions Den

Friday, September 1st 1995

It wasn't until Harry's auror escorts abandoned him at the portrait entrance to Gryffindor tower that the boy was finally without his new shadows. Harry had only two problems to contend with now, one of which was how he was going to be received by his house mates when he stepped into the common room. If the opening feast was anything to go by then it wasn't going to be pretty.

The other, more pressing concern right now was the fact that he was left standing in front of the entrance with no idea as to what the new password was. So Harry hung back in the shadows of the corridor and watched and waited for a fellow Gryffindor student to use the portrait guarded door. Eventually two Second Year girls, Natalie MacDonald and her friend Evie Sloane, stepped up to the door and muttered True Lions under their breath.

It was loud enough however for Harry to catch and taking settling breath he approached the door to give the password. Harry had thought he'd mentally prepared himself for some negative reaction and as such was completely caught off guard by the fist that connected with his face when he'd stepped into the common room, leaving him flat on his arse in the doorway and nursing a rapidly swelling eyelid.

"You're not welcome here, murderer," hissed Cormac McLaggen, one of the Sixth Year boys, his right hand still clenched in a fist like he wanted to take another shot at Harry.

Behind the glowering Sixth Year Harry could see a large number of students from his House. There were students from all seven years attending Hogwarts and they all wore similar expressions to that of McLaggen. Harry's heart sank and he knew that this was going to be a long year if he didn't even have the support of the majority of his House to rely on. It was like the Heir of Slytherin mess all over again.

"Go home, squib!" cried one of the Fourth Years.

That it seemed was all that was needed and quickly the common room filled with everyone hurling all sorts of verbal abuse at Harry, who still sat awkwardly in the doorway, stunned by both the punch and his reception by Gryffindor. Some were beginning to chant something about Harry and murder, but the Boy-Who-Lived couldn't make it out over the general din.

It appeared that he wasn't quick enough in picking himself up off the floor as the rest of his House vented, as he found arms grabbing him under the armpits and hauling him back out into the corridor. He was unceremoniously dumped onto the hard, stone floor of the passageway, those who'd carried him out making a great show of dusting their hands as if to touch him was repulsive. Then, with a harsh word to 'stay away from Gryffindor', the door to the tower closed and Harry was left on his own again.

Harry weighed up his options as he sat on the floor. It was now almost curfew by his reckoning, the Dursleys unwilling to fork out to pay for a new wrist watch after the last had been felled by a dragon, and he didn't want to be found by Filch, lest his day get any worse than it already was. There weren't that many places that Harry could go, as student study areas were restricted to the library and the respective common rooms. The only other places of some space that the students frequented were the Astronomy Tower and the owlery.

The library was tempting, simply because it would be warm, but Harry knew that Filch and Mrs Norris were likely to find him there. So too was the Astronomy Tower ruled out as a potential hideaway as Filch always patrolled it in order to catch couples out for a snog after-hours. That left the owlery and Harry had to admit that the company of Hedwig was a big draw. She felt like the only person who hadn't abandoned him. If he'd been able to get a hold of the Marauder's Map, currently languishing in his trunk in the Fifth Year Gryffindor boy's room, then he might have had more choices of places to sleep out the evening.

With heavy steps Harry picked himself up off the floor and began to walk to the owlery, keeping a sharp ear out for Mrs Norris and Filch. Along the way he tested random classroom doors to see if they were unlocked by chance and provided a better place to sleep, but none of the doors he tried would budge. When he got to his destination he remembered why it hadn't been his first choice and why Filch wasn't likely to go looking for errant students there, a cold wind wrapping itself around the exposed tower. Harry trudged over to a corner between two of the openings that allowed the traffic of owls and sat down, back against the wall and his legs pulled up to his knees. He covered himself with his thin robes as best he could in a vain attempt to keep back the cold and tried to settle back to sleep.

Sometime later Hedwig flew into the owlery after hunting and spotted Harry asleep against the wall. Rather than join the other owls in their roosts she flew down to the human boy and settled herself on his shoulder, determined to keep a look out for any danger while the boy slept.

Saturday, September 2nd 1995

Harry awoke feeling cold. It wasn't a new experience for him as the cupboard that had been his room at the Dursley's for ten years hadn't been warm, lacking insulation as it did. That was probably one of the many reasons why it had been chosen as his room in the first place. At least he had the advantage of being somewhat used to such temperatures and thus probably wasn't as badly off as he might have been had he been raised with a normal, warm bed.

Harry awoke feeling sore. Again, this wasn't a new event in his short life, both Vernon and Dudley, when he'd gotten older and bigger, had been rather liberal with their fists. Even Petunia hadn't been averse to being physical, although she tended to use whatever she could grab from the kitchen, usually favouring the much abused frying pan. The net result of such an upbringing was that Harry wasn't in nearly as much pain as he might have been, even though he had a black eye and the eyelid had begun to swell up. His legs were cramping and his back ached from the way he'd slept.

Something tickled his ear and Harry realised that it was the sensation that had woken him in the first place. Opening his unswollen eye he turned his head slightly to see Hedwig perched on his shoulder, her feathers brushing against his ear.

"Good morning, Hedwig," Harry managed as he began to stand, somewhat gingerly on his protesting legs, and yawn.

Hedwig gave him an affectionate nip on his ear and then took off for a roost and some sleep for herself. Harry's smile soon faded after she was gone, the reality of the situation settling on the boy like a heavy blanket. With a sigh of resignation Harry steeled himself and began the long walk from the owlery to the Great Hall.

It was still quite early in the morning and Harry encountered nobody on his long walk. He would have to treat Hedwig to some extra owl treats for waking him before another angry student happened upon him while he slept in the owlery. The Great Hall proved to be as empty as the corridors, not even any of the Ravenclaws had awoken early to begin their study, an observation that had Harry wondering just what the time was. Harry slumped into a seat at the Gryffindor table and hung his head as his body continued to protest the way he'd slept.

After a few seconds of silence there were a couple of popping sounds and Harry found himself being lightly prodded in the side by a house-elf. When he lifted his head he discovered that it was Dobby who was doing the prodding, a rather shy looking Winky standing behind him.

"Dobby!" cried Harry delightedly, pulling the house-elf into a warm hug in relief at seeing a friendly face. Eventually he let him go.

"Harry Potter gives Dobby a hug? You is happy to see Dobby?"

"Of course! And I'm happy to see Winky too."

The female house-elf blushed shyly and tried to hide behind Dobby, her movement causing Harry to notice the the elf held a butterbeer bottle in one of her hands. Obviously Winky still had a long way to go before she recovered from being cast off by Crouch the previous school year.

"Harry Potter does not seem happy," stated Dobby.

Harry winced at the observation. "Things haven't been going my way the last week or two, but I'm sure things will get better."

Looking up at the teenager with his wide eyes, Dobby added, "Dobby wishes he could help Harry Potter, for Harry Potter set Dobby free and Dobby is much, much happier now."

The Boy-Who-Lived had to smile at that.

"I can't think of anything you can do for me right now, Dobby."

Harry's stomach rumbled and before he could offer his apologies to Dobby and Winky, Dobby was squealing about 'being able to help Harry Potter right now!' and the table top in front of Harry was suddenly set for breakfast. As Harry sat back a bit in surprise, Dobby began urging him to pick up his fork and eat. As he did so he favoured the two watching elves with a smile.

"Thank you Dobby, Winky. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you two looking out for me."

With eyes shining the two elves disappeared with a couple of pops, leaving Harry to sigh and eat his breakfast. After the 'food' he'd been served at the Ministry this simple breakfast was pure heaven. He ate slowly, having nothing that he had to rush to do. As he was finishing up his meal he noticed that other Hogwarts students had begun filing in. They were mostly Ravenclaws, with the other Houses represented by one or two students, and all were from the years above Harry. None of them bestowed a favourable look upon Harry, their faces instead reflecting a selection of fear, revulsion, fury, distaste, and anger. The vibe Harry was getting did nothing for his nerves and he eventually had to leave the Great Hall before it got the better of him.

He knew he needed his timetable and wandered in the direction of McGonagall's office. He caught her leaving, with what looked like a pile of timetables in her hand.

"Good morning, Professor," said Harry.

"Good morning, Mister Potter," she replied, a vague Scottish brogue noticeable and her face crumpling into a frown.

Harry realised that she must have been disappointed in him with his having fallen so low. He mumbled about timetables and took the sheet of parchment that she passed to him. Head hung in shame at his failure to be an upstanding member of Gryffindor, Harry feeling like he was the Peter Pettigrew of his cohort, he walked away from the Professor and didn't hear her when she called his name.

He walked out the main door of the school and found a spot to sit down in the courtyard, where he took his time to study his timetable for the year. As it was a Saturday there weren't any classes, which Harry couldn't make up his mind as to whether it was a good thing or not. On one hand he'd have the time to catch up with Ron and Hermione and find out just how they stood with things, on the other hand it gave him two whole days to worry about how classes were going to be and how he was going to avoid getting expelled.

According to his timetable Monday was going to be a very testing day. He had to endure Binns for a double class of History of Magic, and then after a break he had to survive a double class of Potions with Snape. After lunch saw Divination with Trelawney and then a double class of Defence Against the Dark Arts with Umbridge. Harry wasn't looking forward to that class at all. All in all, Monday was looking to be a horrible day with the one class he thought was particularly interesting, thanks to Professor Lupin's teaching the previous school year, ruined by having that toad of a woman leading it.

As he was shoving his timetable into a pocket of his robes he heard the sound of footsteps and looked up so see Hermione standing at the entrance to the school. Once she had spotted him where he sat she practically flew across the courtyard to sweep him up in a bone-crunching hug. "Harry!"

Harry accepted the embrace and hoped that this meant that Hermione hadn't turned away from him like much of Gryffindor House had seemingly already done. He managed to convey such sentiments to her by talking in her ear as she hugged the stuffing out of him.

"Oh, Harry," sighed Hermione, a light blush gracing her cheeks at his thanks. "I was hardly going to stop talking to you because of what the papers were saying."

All Harry could do was apologise for doubting her even a little. "After all," he added, "you were the only person to believe me about my name going into the Goblet last year."

"But why the doubt, Harry?"

The boy sunk to his seat again and frowned. "Fudge and Umbridge told me that my arrest and trial had been covered in the papers. I guess I feel like such a huge disappointment to everyone who had believed in me and thought that, perhaps, you wouldn't want to be around me."

Hermione simply sighed again and hugged Harry to her once more. Eventually she explained that, "Ron and I, we wanted to talk to you last night and tell you that we were going to stand by you."

"I sort of got that idea. If those blasted aurors hadn't been hanging around —"

"True. Plus Ron and I were made Fifth Year Prefects and had to deal with the First Years, so we couldn't hang around to talk to you after the opening feast. Where were you this morning? I peeped in on the boys this morning and Ron said that your bed hadn't been slept in."

Harry scuffed the toe of his shoe on a flagstone. "I didn't know the password to get into the tower," admitted Harry.

"Ooo, what were people thinking?" growled Hermione in a manner that brought a small smile to Harry's face. Then something occurred to her and she stood and towered over the boy. The girl eyed him appraisingly, taking in his now obviously rumpled uniform. "Where did you sleep last night, Harry?"

He averted his eyes from Hermione's.

"Harry?" she pressed.

Harry mumbled something and Hermione asked him to repeat himself. "The Owlery."

"The Owlery? Why didn't you tell someone?"

"Who?" asked Harry, somewhat more heatedly than he meant to. "No body from any of the other Houses would have been able to help me with the password, and those in Gryffindor I did talk too made sure to let me know I wasn't wanted in the tower! Filch would have shooed me out of somewhere warm like the library since I don't have my invisibility cloak to hide under! You and Ron weren't there to ask either."

Hermione seemed a little taken aback by Harry's outburst and he quickly made the effort to apologise lest his anger cause her to walk away from him.

"I'm sorry, Harry," said Hermione earnestly, "we should have been there for you. Only, after we'd dealt with the First Years Professor McGonagall wanted a meeting with us in her office."