-8-
Screw the Tournament!
By Time-Traveller-1900.
-8-
Angrily pacing the Room of Requirement - finding the room in his first year had given him a sanctuary - which was configured into a small house, but much more airy and more spacious and more comfortably cosy than the cold, effeminate dolls house the Dursleys favoured, Harry Potter could honestly never believe he could be this pissed off.
The Room of Requirement had been a home away from….well, since he didn't really have a home, this place was a true home to him since he could be left alone and there was little chance of anyone knowing where he was. The only ones who did - the House Elves who had helped him find the room after he'd asked around - were unlikely to be asked; House Elves were considered to be nothing but vermin, and even some of the so-called light viewed muggle-borns as scum, despite the contributions and actions they made, so the thought of them speaking to House Elves would never click in their brains.
Harry had learnt about the Room around his first year and he had sought it out, hoping for anything that could give him some peace and quiet and also because he wanted more knowledge of the magical world. Over time he had used the place as a practice room for spells but he had often used it as a place to stay. Harry had never been comfortable being in one place, and he felt even less comfortable sleeping in a place where there was so much hostility.
If there was one thing he had learnt growing up with the Dursleys, it was to have a few contingencies in place. Harry had used the Room of Requirement and a few of the disused classrooms. Hogwarts was a massive school, it was littered with disused halls, dorms, and classrooms which hadn't been used in decades, and were so dusty because the House Elves and Filch hadn't seen the point in cleaning them. Finding a few places to set up shop was not difficult.
Harry had used the Room of Requirement before, during his second year when the whole school turned on him because he could speak parseltongue, but ever since his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, and he had become a Champion in the Triwizard Tournament, Harry's life had gone to hell.
He had hoped for a peaceful year without the drama of Voldemort returning or Dumbledore's pointless schemes and the way Ron and Hermione stalked him, demanding to know what he was thinking, how he felt, etc etc.
But he hadn't gotten it.
During Halloween, the Goblet of Fire announced who would be the champion of the tournament. Harry had found it truly nasty for the Goblet to choose the names on Halloween, of all days. Bad things had always happened to him at Halloween; at the Dursleys, he would be tormented, or beaten even worse than ever, but at Hogwarts, there was always a troll, a basilisk attack, Dementors, and now this.
Harry was now wondering if Dumbledore had deliberately chosen the day to get to him, but he could not even prove it.
His name came out of the Goblet, and while Dumbledore seemed…convinced he was innocent since it was impossible to tell what he was really thinking, it was clear Dumbledore truly did not care about announcing his innocence. And now every student and teacher was attacking him.
The Hufflepuffs were furious with him, believing he was taking the glory away from their champion, Cedric Diggory. Harry could understand their anger, of course; they were the most undermined House of the lot, and they now believed their chance for fame and glory had been snatched away, by Harry. Their own Head of House was worse, but Harry had stopped going to the classes.
The other schools had joined in, and now Harry's life had become a living hell, as the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had joined the charge. And now Harry had been hexed, spat at until he had begun fighting back. The teachers did nothing, except hand out detentions for whenever he fought back. Harry never bothered to go. Why should he? The teachers were defending the bullies, and they didn't care about dealing with the problem. They only cared about the bullies, not the victims.
His decision not to attend classes so he could care more for his safety, never mind the detentions, made his reputation worse, but he didn't care. Harry was not going to put up with pointless detentions for fighting back. He had spent more time in the Room of Requirement, only getting out in the early morning, using the tunnels and passages to reach the grounds for a walk, plundering the books he summoned to help him.
His so-called friends in Gryffindor had turned on him. They believed that he had put his name in the Goblet of Fire, for fame and glory. A cruel smirk crossed his face as he remembered how he had cursed Granger and Weasley; it had earned him a detention, but he hadn't bothered going. He had thought Granger losing the ability to read and regurgitate her knowledge as poetic justice.
But in these few days, Harry had learnt a painful lesson, especially when Black, already in the literal doghouse with him for not bothering to get out of Azkaban sooner, sent a furious letter. In short, Black believed he had put his name into the Goblet of Fire, and he had disowned Harry as his godson. Harry had sent back a cursed letter with a tracking charm on it. The DMLE had found Sirius, but the dog had escaped.
The message was clear, he was on his own. You cannot trust anyone.
He had committed a cardinal sin. He had learnt his lesson in Little Whinging, and he should have kept it for good.
"I'm tired of this school," Harry muttered to himself. Only today, Harry had dealt with the wand-weighing ceremony that all the champions had to attend to check over their wands to make sure they were functioning properly.
Thinking of the ceremony where Harry had had to deal with the snide remarks from the Delacour bitch had nearly made him snap. He had been tempted, so tempted to torture her, to hit her with the Killing curse just to shut her up, but he had resisted the urge unless he wanted to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban.
But, the temptation was there.
The moment the wand weighing was done, Harry had cast wandless spells to escape unnoticed. He had no desire to spend even five minutes with Rita Skeeter, the reporter from the Daily Prophet. She had a nasty reputation for writing up lies about people, which tarnished their reputations. Harry had enough problems as it was, without the bitch causing more trouble.
Harry was tired of Hogwarts and he would very much like to leave the school. What did he have here? A school where he was attacked every single day? A school where the teachers cared more for the bullies than the victims? A school where the Headmaster had his own agenda?
Why should he stay?
Harry had considered leaving the school a couple of years ago, and he was furious thinking about the way he was accused of setting the basilisk on the school. But he had stayed because of all the knowledge here, but now he didn't care.
Now the idea had taken root, Harry was tempted. It felt as if a weight was being lifted off of his shoulders. He could leave here, and make a new life for himself without anyone interfering. But then he remembered, his magic would be stripped from him if he didn't take part, but after a few moments, he decided he didn't care.
Harry could return to the muggle world, becoming a muggle for good and returning to his education there. Why should he care about the magical world? He had come to Hogwarts to learn magic to get away from the Dursleys, but also to get revenge on them for their abuse. But after what he'd gone through, Harry now knew he didn't care.
By the time he went to bed, Harry had a plan in mind.
-8-
The next night, an exhausted Harry was waiting for curfew. He had spent the whole day arranging for his escape; he had filed his dimensional trunk which he'd bought in secret a few years back with the books he wanted to take, and he would use a floo connection to take him to Gringotts. From there, he would remove his account, all the Potters had, and he would change it all into muggle currency and then he would live anonymously in the muggle world.
He had that worked out. He knew his mother had several properties waiting for him, he could live in one of those, and perhaps use the others to rent out and get more money to hide his assets.
And with his being isolated, despite the attempts by students and teachers alike to find him, Harry was safe in the Room of Requirement even if he had to persuade the Room to hide him and his presence.
Harry had a long nap, just to prepare for the whole night. When he woke up, checking the time, Harry finished his preparations. He closed his eyes and a fireplace with the Floo connection was in front of him. As he looked sadly around the Room, Harry grabbed the powder after making sure everything was on him, and he found himself spinning through the Floo network to the bank.
The goblins were stunned he was there, but they attended to him. They were surprised by why he was there and what he wanted, but they didn't care. Harry had asked to be checked to see if he was joined by the contract to the Tournament, but when the goblins revealed he wasn't, he threw his head back and laughed.
Harry came down from his laughter and asked them to check for any spells, and they discovered there was a piece of Voldemort's soul in his scar. Harry instantly had it removed, desiring to have Voldemort out of his life forever. And then, he hatched a plan with the goblins.
-8-
On the day of the First Task, Dumbledore went into a panic as he tried to summon Harry Potter to take his part in the Tournament. He didn't regret using the boy as part of his plans to bring Voldemort back, but he was becoming frustrated by the lack of response. In the end, the task ended…with Professor Moody (oh, Dumbledore knew only too well he was a disguised Death Eater; Voldemort was truly stupid if he thought it would work) screaming in agony, his face melting away, revealing Barty Crouch Junior.
While he would have preferred to keep things in school, in this case, Dumbledore couldn't, especially with how many people in the audience suddenly screamed, clutching onto their forearms.
All of the Death Eaters across the country screamed as they lost their magic, and since there was so much of it, nobody really paid any attention when some magic popped in a town called Little Hangleton.
-8-
After the First Task, Harry Potter's name was cleared and everyone realised he couldn't have put his name in the Goblet of Fire, but now nobody knew where he was. The students had realised too late they had ostracised him and driven him away. But the damage was done because now Harry was long gone. Searches in Diagon Alley yielded nothing, and when the Dursleys were questioned it was discovered that Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, had spent his whole life abused by his muggle relatives.
The outcry against them was fierce, especially since Dumbledore had claimed he was safe there. The only thing that saved the muggles from Azkaban was because of their muggle nature, so they were sent to prison for their crimes.
The goblins revealed that Dumbledore had been stealing from the Potter estate, as had Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and the Weasley family had planned revenge against the Potter for destroying their family standing 200 years before. The newest outcry saw Hermione expelled, her magic bound and her memory erased, and the Weasleys were ostracised even more.
A lot of the evidence gathered during the investigations was sent to the ICW, resulting in Hogwarts being closed down and Dumbledore losing his titles before being put on trial in the ICW courts since Britain could not be trusted. Harry would learn later that things got worse for him when it was discovered he didn't kill Grindelwald as history stated, but he had also taken money and other heirlooms from orphans over the years.
The ICW discovered the number of complaints about assaults, bullying, and many other things pushed under the rug, which included a school board far more interested in lining their own pockets than doing their jobs, and the ICW were furious.
Hogwarts was closed down, and the conduct of the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton delegations was also questioned.
In the meantime, Sirius Black realising his mistake while still on the run, risked trying to contact Harry, but no matter what happened, he could not get in touch. He received a message from the goblins, informing them the godfather bond was permanently broken, and there was nothing that he could do about it.
-8-
Harry was only peripherally aware of the events taking place in the magical world. He had moved to the Caribbean after discovering he had no interest in staying in Britain as the place had too many horrible memories. When he'd arrived, he had purchased a nice little villa, and he had finalised his move there.
As he settled down, ready for school, Harry looked out over the beautiful ocean view and the tropical forest, and he smiled.
This was paradise.
He should have left long ago.