Harry sat at the dining hall playing and picking with his food. He was staring at his plate not really thinking about anything and listening to the general chatter of the children around him. He'd been losing his appetite more and more recently, especially when it felt like all eyes were on him every time he sat down for a meal. Eventually, he decided to stand up, tired of wasting time in the hall and intending to head towards the room of requirement. As he looked up he noticed Marissa across the hall who smiled and waved for him to come over.

For a moment, he hesitated; being seen at the Slytherin table would probably ruin his reputation even more especially considering the way people reacted in his Second Year to his parseltongue. He'd already experienced once how any association with the Slytherin house could instantly ruin people's perception of him. But a part of him, the more Gryffindor part of him thought, 'Screw it,' and he picked up his plate and headed towards the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Harry," she said brightly, "You looked pretty bored over there!" She now had her black curls in a tight plait that came over her shoulder and was tied back with a silver hairband.

"Yeah, I guess I am."
"How did the wand-weighing session go?" she said between mouthfuls of food. Harry was slightly confused by her eagerness to talk to him but was happy to have someone to talk to so answered.

"Alright, I guess. I did this ridiculous interview afterwards with Skeeter from the Daily Prophet," he sighed. Looking up, he noticed that Marissa had a deep scowl on her face that nearly scared Harry back to his table. Before he could ask he was interrupted by another one of the snakes.

"Potter. What do you think you are doing here?" Draco said, looking down at Harry.

"I invited him," Marissa said, her positive demeanour back with a smile on her face.

"Why?" he snapped back.

"He's my friend," her eyes piercing as they stared into his grey ones, a smile still lightly playing on her lips. Seemingly satisfied, or perhaps afraid Harry thought, Draco sat a couple of seats down with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Now then, Harry," she said as she turned back to him, "eat up, your plate is still full."

"I'm not really-"

"Don't lie to me, Harry. I've seen you here at every meal and every time you have, like, a grape or a pea. Eat. You can't take on the incredible dangers boasted by the tournament on an empty stomach."

"And if not?" Surprisingly, she grabbed hold of his spoon, took a spoonful of his food and shoved it into his mouth. They laughed as he wiped off the food that had smeared all over his mouth. She continued to feed him as though it were nothing between her own cuts of food keeping a confused grin on Harry's face for the remainder of the meal.

That Saturday, Harry was heading up to the Room of Requirement until he stumbled across Marissa coming out of the library carrying a few books.

"Hey, Marissa," he said with a smile to someone he now considered his only friend. Perhaps friend was a little strong for a few days of interaction, but at the very least she was nice to him.

"Hi, Harry!" She had a huge grin on her face but as Harry looked over her shoulder he saw Hermione glaring at him incredulously. She barged past Marissa and looked Harry dead in the eye for the first time in a fortnight. "Who is that?" she hissed. Harry felt a sudden surge of rage and felt words tumble out of his mouth as days of bottled up anger exploded out of him.

"My friend, Hermione. My only friend right now. The only person who hasn't attacked, belittled or degraded me due to their own ignorance and lack of ability to actually research for themselves. Don't think you have the right to speak to me like that, Granger. For someone who spends all their time library, you think you'd be smart enough to realise when your friend of four years isn't lying to you." Harry spat out every word looking coldly at Hermione before stalking off behind her as Marissa followed behind him a slight smirk playing on her face as she glanced back and saw the shock and few hints of regret in Hermione.

"You alright, Harry?" she said as she caught up to him, unsure of where they were going.

"I'm fine."

"I mean, you're clearly not but if you want to say anything I'm willing to listen."

"Why?" he snapped.

"Sorry?" she said, stepping back for a second before collecting herself and standing a bit taller.

"Why do you care about me? Why do you talk to me? Number one, you're a Slytherin, you snakes hate me. Number two, we didn't know each other until a week ago and rather than ignore me for the whole lesson like any other normal student in this damn school you started talking to me. So why, why are you willing to listen?"

"Because I know what it's like to be ostracized and alone. I know what it's like to have nobody because of idiotic rumours and ridiculous people. You looked like I did just a few years ago. It doesn't matter that you're a Gryffindor, you're another person. Shouldn't that be all you need?" Her eyes flashed with… not anger but passion perhaps? Harry couldn't place it. She sounded angry, she looked aggressive but she was coming from a place of… care?

"I... I guess," Harry stopped for a moment and turned to look at her, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped."

"That's alright, you're going through some stuff," she said with a laugh, brushing it off completely. As Harry opened the nearest door she forced the books in her arms into his hands. Confused, Harry glanced back at her, his foot still in the door. Looking down he noticed several sticky notes poking out of the sides of the books.

"Combat and defence spells," she said, "I've researched the Tri-wizard tournament. Every single first task has to do with some form of combat with some ridiculously dangerous magical creature. You're going to need to make sure you're well protected."

"Thanks, Marissa," Harry said with a grin as they stepped into what looked like a huge training area.

"Woah, what the hell is this?" Marissa acted shocked at the room they were in.

"Oh," Harry realised that he had basically dragged her to the Room of Requirement. Apparently just thinking of the tournament had built up a training ground. He quickly explained and watched as her eyes glinted mischievously while her face remained mostly stoic.

"So this room becomes anything you want it to? Anything at all?"

"Pretty much."

"Epic," she replied, causing Harry to laugh at her choice of description for the room as she gazed in awe at the room.

"What?" she asked, surprised by the sudden outburst.

"Nothing, you're just different," noticing the look on her face he quickly amended his statement, "in the best possible way."

Five days later and Harry was struggling not to hex someone into oblivion every time he heard whispers of that stupid article by Rita. She'd made him seem like the most egotistical wimp. The stares he was receiving were completely unwarranted and terribly annoying. Why was he always the damn centre of attention?

He'd mostly avoided Hermione since his encounter with her but did notice that she tried to catch his eye or attempt to sit with him during lesson except Marissa was usually sat with him instead. When he'd brought the article up with her, she'd mentioned an article the witch had written about her father a while back made purely on baseless lies and accusations. Obviously, she didn't like the article either.

"Who is your dad? I might have seen the article?"

"No-one important," she had said, before quickly changing the subject.

Hermione hadn't attempted to come near Harry during meal times, he sat mostly at the Slytherin table which earned him many glares from the other members of the house until they saw him sitting with Marissa who seemed to be friends with all of them. Even generally, in the hallways and classrooms they seemed less hostile. It seemed to Harry, making the right sort of friends could make things easier.

To be fair to his own house, Seamus and Dean weren't that bothered after a while. Dean had even approached him - he'd noticed it was out of character for Harry to lie and after the Daily Prophet article, he'd convinced himself and Seamus that the Wizarding World was probably just out to get him. Classic teenage celebrity slander.

Neville had surprised Harry too. If he caught Harry alone in the common room he was quick to try and start a conversation with him - it was awkward at first but Harry knew what Neville was doing, letting him know he still had a friend in his own house. He appreciated it. He'd never really been that close with anyone other than Ron and Hermione, yes it was hard to ignore the whispering and snickering and glares and stares, but not having them had been the hardest part of this whole situation. He was still mad at them, of course, so much more than he was angry at the rest of the school, but with Neville there trying to be a friend, he didn't care so much that the rest of his house and class mates were so sure he was lying. Though his housemates greatly celebrated him being an addition to the Tournament, they still pestered him with questions of how he got around the age line and why didn't he tell anyone. Honestly, it was exhausting. He found that he now preferred the times he could get away from Gryffindor House.

It had been nice to hear that Hagrid and Dumbledore believed him, though again that didn't really help things in the school. The Hufflepuffs were completely icing him out and the Ravenclaws thought he was just fame-hungry. Surprisingly, the place he felt most comfortable was with a Slytherin.

Now he was once again sat in the Great Hall at the Slytherin table with Marissa, discussing potential tactics and strategies so he could best be prepared for whatever odd task or crazy creature would be thrown at him. Until they were disturbed by Draco Malfoy.

"Did you sleep well, Potter? It's just that, we could hear your tears from our dorm and honestly, we'd like to have one night of good sleep before we watch the tournament and you join your parents," Draco said in mock-sympathy.

"Shut it, Draco," Marissa said, barely glancing up at him.

"And why would I do that, Missa? He's walked straight into our den, why can't we have some fun?" he said laughing as he sat down next to her.

"You're being a jerk, Draco. Stop it."

"Whatever you say," he said with a shrug as he grabbed an apple from the centre of the table. Harry was seriously surprised, Malfoy had honestly just given up a reason to torture him simply because someone had asked; Harry wasn't going to complain though. Any peace was good peace.

Really hoped you enjoyed that chapter, let me know what you think ~ Thank you for reading!