Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: Wow, I am amazed by the response this story has received. Thank you so much, everyone. You have no idea what it means to me.

I hope you enjoy the rest of this story as well. I have many plans for it which I hope will be received well. This chapter will introduce a friendship which I wish had been more present in the real books.

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Harry sat in the Great Hall, picking at the pork and mashed potatoes on his plate, barely eating anything. Before the situation with Moody, he'd had a large appetite, but now it was completely gone. The only things running through his mind were the shrieks of the ferret and the cruel, callous way in which Moody handled him.

Around him, many different conversations were happening, but they all revolved around the incident. Harry was appalled to still hear laughter coming from some of his housemates, like what had happened was the most wonderful thing ever to take place at Hogwarts.

Ron had been silent the rest of the way to the Great Hall, but he'd been giving Harry bewildered looks the entire time, looks that plainly said, "Who are you and what have you done with my best mate?" Did Ron really expect me to laugh too? Harry thought, a deep frown on his face. Did I really give him that impression?

It was true that since their arrival at Hogwarts, taking Malfoy down a peg or two had been a common topic of conversation between Harry and Ron. They would even think up ways to show him up, humiliating him in the bargain. They had both thought of some good hexes to cast on him, and daydreamed about catching him off guard in the middle of a corridor and making him squirm.

But now, all those things seemed so petty. Harry had now seen true cruelty displayed, and it still made him sick to think of the vile grin that had spread across Moody's face as he bounced the ferret. Harry could comfort himself with the fact that he had never thought of a humiliation such as that, but now he couldn't even think of his own pranks without his heart flipping within his chest.

He thought back over everything Malfoy had done throughout the years. He insulted Ron and his family, he called Hermione a Mudblood, and he'd done nothing but try and make his life a misery. He dressed up as a Dementor last year and attempted to make him fall off his broom!

But that doesn't matter, the persistent part of Harry argued. What Moody did is still wrong. Even the worst of people need to be treated with decency, with humanity. Malfoy wasn't, and you know it.

"Why'd you do it, mate?" Ron demanded suddenly. Apparently, he couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. "What did you go and defend Malfoy for?"

Harry answered the only way he knew how: with complete honesty. Ron was his best friend, but he felt it too important to hide the truth from him. "Because it was wrong. What Moody did was wrong," he said quietly. "It wasn't funny."

"But it's Malfoy!" Ron burst out, "He finally got what was coming to him, and you had to go all soft! Draco Malfoy, the Amazing Bouncing Ferret! Merlin, Moody had the right idea. What's wrong with your sense of humor, Harry?"

"Yeah, mate," said Dean, who was sitting on Ron's other side. "Why the sudden stick up your arse?"

"That was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen," said Seamus, still snickering. "You know you don't need to save everyone, Harry. And especially not bloody Malfoy."

"And he insulted my family!" Ron exclaimed. "How can you possibly condone that?"

Harry felt anger sweep over him, and he felt more apart from the Gryffindors, the people who were supposed to be his family, than he ever had. Were these really the people he had shared a dorm with for the past three years and counting? He looked at the expression on Ron's face and felt utterly alone. "I don't condone him insulting your family, Ron," he said, his voice still quiet as he tried to not let his anger get the better of him. "I insulted him too, remember? I love your family too. But what Moody did ... it wasn't funny, Ron. And," he continued, now including Seamus and Dean in his stare, "I don't care WHO it is. No one should be treated like that."

"I agree," came a voice from Harry's other side. Hermione was nodding at Harry's words, and he felt a little stirring of hope inside him. At least he wasn't completely alone. "That was a disgraceful display. Moody's supposed to be a teacher, and you should never use transfiguration as a punishment."

"Of course you'd be all goody-goody two shoes about it all," Ron scowled, piling some more pork on his plate. Dean snorted, and Seamus snickered some more.

"Well, that's because you're being awful right now, Ronald!" Hermione shot back, shooting a nasty glare at the redhead. "And haven't you had enough to eat?"

"No, Mum," Ron hissed, his face turning red.

"Enough!" Harry growled, sick and tired of Ron and Hermione's rows, and disgusted with the behavior of the others around him. "I'm going back to the common room. You two can sort this out without me." And with a last, scathing look at them, he stormed out of the Great Hall, leaving a trail of bewildered Gryffindors behind him.

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Harry sat on his bed in the dorm, unable to calm his mind. The common room had been mostly empty when he had arrived, but in the minutes that followed, it had started to fill with students. Many had not been there when the incident with Malfoy and Moody had happened, but as the fourth-years arrived, the buzz of gossip had started to spread. Before long, everyone in the common room was discussing the incident, including Harry's role in the whole thing.

Over the next few minutes, Harry had endured many repeats of the same question: "Why did you stick up for Malfoy? He's just a slimy Slytherin, and Moody gave him what he deserved." The more this question was asked, the worse Harry felt. He always gave the same answer, with mixed results. Some students walked away, thinking of him as nothing more than someone who wanted to play hero. Others actually thought about what he had said, which gave Harry some faith that they would understand him. Harry also had to remember that most of the students had not been there; maybe seeing it on display would have changed a few of their opinions.

He did not seek out Ron, Dean, and Seamus, though, and he saw that they were also avoiding him. He noticed that Ron and Hermione were staying away from each other. Harry sighed; he'd been dealing with those two rowing for as long as they'd been friends, and he wished they would stop.

Eventually, Harry started to feel mutinous again, just like he had in the Great Hall. Couldn't his housemates talk about something other than a ferret being bounced around on a stone floor? Wasn't there homework to be done and games of Exploding Snap to be played? The humiliation of a fellow student couldn't be the only interesting thing that had happened at Hogwarts!

So here Harry was now, sitting in his dorm, staring into space. It felt like a veil had come off his eyes, and they had been opened to hypocrisy he had never seen before. He realized that if it had been someone like Ron who had been bounced around on a stone floor, many students would have risen up to defend him. And it wouldn't have mattered what Ron would have done first. But since it had been Malfoy and he was highly disliked by many, no one did a thing. Malfoy may be an awful person, but there were ways of punishing him which did not involve making him scream.

"Harry?" Harry jumped; the unexpected, timid voice had brought him out of his stupor. "Are you in here?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, recognizing the voice belonging to Neville Longbottom.

"Er, can I talk to you for a minute?" Neville asked hesitantly.

"Sure," said Harry, wondering what the shy boy wanted to discuss.

There were a few moments of silence. He could hear the springs creaking as Neville sat on his own bed. Then he said, "I think you were right today. I saw what happened and I-I-I ..." Harry heard him take a shuddering breath. "I didn't like it either. I hate Malfoy, but he-he didn't deserve that. It wasn't funny."

"No, it wasn't," Harry agreed, realizing that throughout the whole evening, he had never heard Neville laugh about the scene or make any derisive comments.

"I'm glad you stood up to Moody," Neville sighed, a wistful edge creeping into his voice. "You're much braver than me. I could have never done that."

"That's not true," Harry said at once. "You are brave, Neville. Remember the end of first year? You won us the House Cup!"

"Yeah, but I was wrong, wasn't I?" said Neville, and Harry could detect the self-recrimination in his voice. "You were saving the school, not trying to get in trouble."

"But you didn't know that," said Harry quietly. "You didn't understand what was going on, but you did the right thing in trying to stop us. You can't beat yourself up about it. And last year, you admitted that you were the one who left the passwords out instead of letting someone else take the blame for it."

"It was my fault," said Neville simply, like it was the easiest thing in the world. "Why should I let someone else take the blame when it was my fault?"

"But not everyone is like that, Neville," said Harry. "Many people wouldn't turn themselves in because they wouldn't want to face the punishment."

"Well, I don't want to be like that," said Neville. "But I wish I was braver."

"You are brave, Neville," Harry repeated. The uncertainty and wariness in Neville's voice made Harry realize that he saw a little of himself in the other boy. Over the years, he hadn't really talked to Neville all that much; there seemed to be much more to him than the bumbling, clumsy, forgetful clown that others thought him to be.

"Thanks, Harry," said Neville, his tone displaying all too clearly that he didn't believe it for a second.

All was quiet then, and Harry made up his mind that he would talk to the other boy more. Neville was someone he had underestimated, and there was a lot Harry didn't know about him. He had spent so much time with Ron and Hermione that he had neglected others that were very much worth befriending.

Later, as Harry lay in his bed, hearing the snores of the three other boys around him, he realized that this had been one of those days at Hogwarts that was a turning point for him. He had seen a teacher be extremely cruel to someone he hated, but had decided to intervene because it was the right thing to do. He had truly been upset with his housemates, and had wanted to avoid Ron for the first time since their friendship began in first year. And he had realized that Neville needed a good friend, just like he himself had done when he'd arrived at Hogwarts, cautious and unsure of anything around him.

And when sleep finally claimed him, Harry didn't know what was going to happen next, but he had a feeling that things were going to change.