"Harry, have you heard the news?" Ron Weasley, or Weasel as Harry thought of him, said excitedly.
Harry didn't look up from his book which happened to be a sci-fi novel. He didn't bother looking up from his book, he already had a good idea of what the idiot wanted to tell him. It had been just 5 days since he had drained the Ravenclaw diadem of its Horcrux, which had a cascading effect on all of the other Horcruxes, and the Death Eaters; already more than a large chunk of the school's student population had vanished. The rumour was they had gone home, due to family emergencies, but the rumour mill was running rampant.
Dumbledore, aided by his cronies among the staff, had been too quick to use the old family emergency quick-fix clause, but so many students? Just another example of Dumbledore not thinking clearly and being rushed, but since the old bastard hadn't been at the school for the last few days, was it such a surprise?
Five days.
Five days since the draining of the Horcrux, and in that time so many students had vanished, many of them Harry knew had taken the Dark Mark. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Zabini, Nott…
There were also many students whom Harry would never have imagined nor suspected to be the type of people who would fall for the brainwashing disease of Tom Riddle. They were all gone, but Harry found he didn't care half of the seventh years, a quarter of the sixth, and even a couple of the staff had vanished.
Five days. Over the last few days, the Ministry had noticed the disappearances and investigated them before they had likely discovered their connection was the Dark Mark; after that it was likely they'd found Voldemort's remains, so truly Harry didn't care about the news Weasley had. He'd managed to avoid the idiot and Granger for the last few years he'd been at this school while he waited for the day he could sit his OWLs and then take his NEWTs and then be free at last.
Unfortunately, his lack of an answer made Weasley frustrated; without a word, he just snatched the book away from Harry and threw it aside, where it landed near a first-year girl's meal. The girl let out a startled cry. Harry growled irritably and lifted his head, taking his wand and silently summoning the book back, cleaning it as he did.
"What do you want?" Harry snapped.
Weasley was taken aback by the harshness in his 'best mate's' voice, but he went on, "Harry, You-Know-Who is dead!"
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, even if he did notice Umbridge's presence in the hall. She was watching him beadily, her expression far from happy. For a moment, he was tempted to mock her with a smirk but he decided against it. "Is he?" Harry asked blandly. In truth, he didn't care, so long as one of the biggest problems in his life was out of the way, for good.
"Yeah! So are all the other Death Eaters; I always said Malfoy was a Death Eater in training-!"
Harry tuned the idiot out. He had never really understood why so many Gryffindors were so narrow-minded about the world, despite being one himself, and with his Ravenclaw and Slytherin thirds of his personality, he could see for himself just how utterly thick the idiots were.
"Does it matter who's a Death Eater and who isn't?" Harry cut through Weasley's stupid rant, looking up from the pages of his wonderful book to gaze impatiently at the redhead. "Who cares? They're gone, now."
"Of course it matters, Harry!" Weasley gaped at him in surprise, and Harry wondered how the boy, who was already infamous for his voracious appetite was able to go without eating. He was tempted to put a spell on the idiot to just sit down, shut up, and eat. Anything to give them all a bit of peace. "It means we've won, Harry!"
Harry groaned put his book away and went back to eating, and he piled a bit more onto his plate, his mind already on the plot of the book he'd read and wondering what he was going to read next. It helped him to concentrate on more than the exams. "Does it?" Harry lifted his gaze from the wonderful food the house elves had made. "Grindelwald was a Dark Lord, and he had whole armies of followers. Did the Dark Side fade into obscurity after his fall? No. Will it fade now? No. Nature abhors a vacuum, there will always be Dark Lords and other Dark Wizards, so I wouldn't be celebrating if I were you."
Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed more than one student listening to him as the noise level rose, and dozens of students were chattering in surprise, panic, and even regret as they gazed at Harry.
Xxxxx
Harry looked in astonishment at Susan Bones; the blushing redhead had stopped him as he was leaving the library to return a few books. He didn't need them since he had the resources of the Room of Requirement, but he had to keep up appearances before he left the school for good. It had been 3 days since the end of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and now the Wizarding World were only now just cleaning up the mess. Dumbledore was out of the castle more and more these days, but he didn't know what the old wizard was doing now, Harry merely hoped the wizard just stopped meddling in his life.
As for Harry, well he had several more problems. He hadn't bothered to convince anybody Voldemort was back. What would be the point? He had no proof except his word, and with how many people were going on about him being a liar, a murderer who killed Diggory just to win a thousand galleons. Okay, he had been tempted a few times to just project a memory of the encounter, but he had decided it wasn't worth the effort. He had even ignored Granger and Weasley when they had tried to manipulate him into creating a defence group to counter the mess caused by Umbridge.
Harry had decided the wizarding world didn't need or want his help, and he decided if Voldemort did take over then they could face the consequences by themselves.
Sadly with everyone now accepting Voldemort's return since his recent unexplained death along with the loss of so many Death Eaters, everyone was now trying to get into his good books. When he'd seen Susan Bones approach him, Harry had resigned himself to it happening again. Only for her to ask him out for a date, which left him speechless, his memory flashing back to his second year, where he had seen the girl agreeing with McMillan about how he was the Heir of Slytherin; how she had tried rallying the students into throwing him out of the safety of the school so Black wouldn't be a threat anymore; seeing that fucking badge on her robe and smirking at his reaction even as he gazed coldly at everyone who wore them; hell, only a few months ago, the braindead bimbo had agreed wholeheartedly, saying he was a murderer…and now she was asking him out on a date?
"Thanks, Susan," Harry said, stressing the girl's name. "But I'm not interested."
"Oh, but why not?" Susan pouted.
Harry narrowed his gaze. "I have a long memory, Susan," he snapped, his voice becoming angrier and colder, and Susan visibly shook with terror as she began taking a step back from him. "Why are you asking me out on a date?" Susan took another step back. "Why, only a few months ago, you were claiming I was a murderer. You walked around with that fucking badge last year, and you practically tried to start a Lynch mob to throw me out of the school so Black could get his hands on me. Hell, you even made a gang of Hufflepuff fifth years come after me and curse me to death! And now you have the nerve to ask me out on a date? Do you suddenly think I'm going to forget about all of that, just 'cause it happened in the past? Are you serious? Are you thick?"
Susan's lip was wobbling and she looked down and blushed. "I'm sorry, Harry," she mumbled, and she backed up and left him.
"I don't think you are, not one damn bit," Harry called after her and he shook his head and went on his way.
Xxxxx
"Come in, Mr Potter," Dumbledore's voice came from the other side of the office door.
Harry gazed up at the two-way mirror stuck on the ceiling, shaking his head in contempt at the old wizards' need for dramatics. He walked inside and sat down without being told, absently holding onto his rune cluster to stop the old charms and old compulsions from taking control. He noted Dumbledore was looking him in the eyes, and Harry saw those eyes widen a touch, he felt the old wizard try to desperately prod into his mind, but Harry managed to keep him out, using memories of his lessons and his current issues to stop him from going further.
Dumbledore just looked at him quietly for a moment, waiting for him to crack, but thanks to his occlumency he never did. "I just wanted to know if you felt anything in your scar recently?"
"You mean now Voldemort's gone?"
Dumbledore's facial expression changed; it looked like a scowl mixed with a grimace. "Yes, My Boy, now Voldemort is gone," he said, and Harry realised the old wizard didn't believe it; thanks to the Room, and his own experiences, he'd gotten the impression Dumbledore just could not live without conflict in his life.
"No, I didn't," Harry replied.
Xxxxx
For the rest of the year, Harry was heckled by Weasley, Granger, and several other students who'd forgotten that at the start of the year, they had called him an attention-seeking liar, and a murderer. Now they knew he was telling the truth, everyone wanted to get on the good side of the Boy Who Lived, but Harry didn't care about any of that. At the same time, Sirius Black, his man-child of a godfather, had just been declared free and innocent now they'd found Pettigrew, and even Fudge, who was in a lot of hot water now the now-squib Death Eaters had been questioned, couldn't ignore it anymore.
He was just focusing on his studies. Or at least he would be if the DMLE weren't questioning him. Amelia Bones, Susan's aunt, was the head of the DMLE, and she wanted to know more about what happened the night.
Harry had been flabbergasted; he should have spoken to the DMLE ages ago, but Dumbledore had kept them out, and it had annoyed him since it seemed Dumbledore wanted the finger of suspicion to fall right on his shoulders, and he had been surprised Bones had even allowed it. But now it seemed even Dumbledore wanted answers.
Harry had been questioned, even under truth serum. By the end of the meeting, Bones was on the warpath. She now knew everything, from the philosopher's stone, his abuse, the heir of Slytherin mess, the way the Dementors had been out of control, and the whole mess that was the Triwizard Tournament which culminated in Voldemort's rebirth, and he had even dropped in hints of Umbridge's brutality.
Xxxxx
Harry looked at the owl that had just landed on his part of the Gryffindor table, seeing his name in the familiar handwriting, and he sighed with irritation when he saw it had come from Sirius. His godfather just didn't know when to quit, did he? The man had ignored him for months on Dumbledore's orders, especially during the summer which told the young boy all he needed to know; Dumbledore would always come first, and Harry would come second.
Still, he took the letter, and after running a few quick checks on it he found there was a compulsion charm to open the letter, which he dispelled quickly just as it brushed against his occlumency barriers, he opened it and read. He had only gotten a few sentences in before he tore the letter up. Black had nothing good to say, begging him to get in touch without bothering to realise Harry had seen the numerous articles acting like a fool as he celebrated his newfound freedom, but what disgusted him the most was how Sirius mentioned Dumbledore was letting them be together. There was no doubt in his head that Dumbledore would make him go back to Privet Drive before giving him 'permission' to spend time with his godfather.
But it was not going to happen.
