Despite Professor Flitwick's warning, he did not go to the hall for breakfast that morning after returning from the forest. He would not sit at the table with all those turncoats and pretend everything was fine. Screw them all! As far as he was concerned, Gryffindor was not his house anymore. Even if the younger years and some of the younger years hand been part of kicking him out, they'd stood by and done nothing. So fuck the lot of them he though savagely.
He also did not want to be in such close proximity to them. That would have just been stupid and asking them to hex him black and blue. No, thank you.
Harry did not really want to go down the the kitchens to eat breakfast, not after having slugs crawling inside him the day before. But Harry did give in to Winky's pleading and agreed to a light cup of ginger tea and his daily nutrient potion. So he headed down to the kitchen and was joined by a very worried Hermione, Fred, George and Neville. They all looked exhausted and ranged from angry to miserable.
Hermione rushed up to him and pulled him into a tight hug. He flinched and stiffened, pushing her away gently, but patted her on the back.
"Oh Harry! Are you okay?" She asked. She had bags under her eyes, and her hands were shaking, "I can't believe they did that Harry! And unhousing hasn't happened in over a century! I won't let them get away with this Harry! We'll fix this!" She fumed.
"I'm okay," was all Harry said.
"Yeah mate, what happened after they kicked you out?" Fred asked,
"We tried to go after you, but we were outnumbered," finished George.
"It was horrible," added Neville, sounding as miserable as Harry felt.
Harry sighed, "I'm fine. I managed to find somewhere safe to crash, and Dobby helped me replace my things. I'm good." He assured them feeling numb again, "what happened to you after I left?"
"Well," Hermione began with a sigh, "they kept arguing and yelling for ages, going on about how you were no Gryffindor and must have been a dark wizard in disguise all along. They were brainstorming how to get you expelled." She started, "it's easer now you're un-housed apparently."
"I'ts a really old tradition," Neville cut in.
"Yeah," Harry said, "it's mentioned briefly in Hogwarts: a history." He said making Hermione beam at the reference, "it is when a house pushes someone out, if the person is shaming said house or acting in a way that is detrimental to the house or it values. It's a way of punishing them. It's a really extreme punishment. If that issue between the person and the house is not fixed, Hogwarts magic will permanently un-house them. If it's totally unanimous as apposed to merely majority rules, it happens quicker."
"We won't let it happen!" Said Hermione "We'll fix this Harry, we'll fix this. This is so stupid."
"I'm not sure I want to fix it."
"What?"
"I actually I know I don't! I might be a Gryffindor. Or I was a Gryffindor. But not any more. Not their brand of Gryffindor. I'm still brave, still courageous, but I'm not one of them. Not one of them who continually turn on me and have now cast me out. I want no part of that. I won't go back to those who cast me aside.
Hermione looked at him a long moment, "okay Harry," she said nodding, "but I don't want to be part of that. I want to fight them over it. I want them to take it back, because I don't want to be part of a house that does that to someone." She said, "I don't want to be like that. And I know I'm not the only one really mad about it. There's a small group of us, mainly muggle borns that think its stupid, casting you out over a language, over being sensible! They just weren't able to say anything without the older years turning their attention on them."
Harry scowled but said, "just be carful then," he said slowly, "and do it for you, not for me. I'm done with the lot of them."
Hermione just looked at his with steely determination, then added "I'm still going to research this. It's insane that none of the teachers can do anything or over ride it. I need to make sure we're not going to be blindsided by anything else, or that it doesn't have any nasty consequences we don't know about."
"Thanks Hermione."
"I can't really believe they did that," Neville said quietly.
"Do they really hate me that much though?" Harry asked in morbid curiosity.
"I don't think it's that. I think some honestly don't like you because they don't know you. You've always been rather withdrawn and antisocial. And it didn't help that Ron hogged so much of your attention." Neville said considering, "They all believe whatever rumour is going around. None of them ever really got a chance to know you, not that that's an excuse, you're a Gryffindor and that deserved house loyalty. It's as simple as that. But I think half of it's the hype, herd mentality, one get's angry and it spurs others on."
"Just so," cut in George, "Gryffindors are brave and will follow a leader doggedly, but are not always,-"
"The most loyal or open-minded, astute people in the world," Fred finished, "they're fiery and hot headed."
"And Ron, we checked Harry," Neville said, "Hermione asked Fred and George to do it, but we checked him for magic, he's clean."
"Yeah, mum would never let anyone potion or compel her baby's," Fred said slightly condescendingly.
"It's all him," finished George, "Bill taught us how to check."
Harry slumped, a small part of him, had still been hoping it was magic on Ron. "I guess now I think about it, his jealousy has been getting worse, and he had always tried to hog my attention."
"You would not believe how many people he gives the stink eye to when they try and talk to you," Neville said.
Sighing, not wanting to think about it too much, Harry pushed it from his mind and said, "I'm out, but will you lot be okay?"
"We'll be fine, won't we?" George said and the others nodded.
"Ron won't actually hurt anyone. We were surprised he hexed you so bad, to be honest. He's generally just hot air." Fred said
Harry shivered at the memory of slugs crawling around inside him again, and shut his mouth tightly, feeling queasy. What if there were still some slugs left?
"Where are you staying, Harry?" Asked Neville, "did you go to Professor McGonagall?"
"No," Harry said, "she has too much on. She doesn't have enough time to worry about my issues. I'm not about to ask for her help when I know she'll tell me to stop waisting her time or to stop bothering her like she did after my name came out. She doesn't like me much anyway," Harry said, "I can look after myself. I found a bolt hole away from the tower, I'm fine."
"Not even the hospital wing?" Neville asked.
"Why bother? Pomfrey nocks me out and will keep me there all day, and theirs nothing you can do for the slug hex anyway except wait it out." Harry said irritably.
"True, Ron got himself with it in second year." Hermione said before sighing, "It was the seventh years, and McLaggan. They'd been conspiring after the task, really up in arms about the Parseltongue thing. It was as if your oath didn't matter at all!"
"It started with a few of the older years, and the wizard raised," Neville said.
"Then it just kept picking up steam, the younger years stayed out of it, but when the prefects supported it, and the seventh years were intimidating those that disagreed it got out of conrole." Hermione said.
"Ron pointed out your bed, when they started getting rowdier," Fred said.
"He panicked when he realised they were destroying your things. He tried to rescue the photo album, but they said either they burnt it or he had to destroy it. So he tore it up and cut the blanket," George added "so that they didn't piss on it or hex it, like the rest.
"I think he was in a small way, trying to save them, Harry," Neville said quietly, "so they could be repaired with magic."
Harry scowled, and muttered, "shit fucking job he did of it."
He took a fortifying sip of his tea, then said "it's better if they do un-house me properly? If you let them? It's better on my own, I think. As long as we can keep the teachers from finding out, I don't need more scrutiny, I'm happier on my own. Really. Now I'm out of peoples eye, and it will be harder for people to get to me without me knowing."
"But Harry," Hermione protested, "this isn't right! Unhorsing is meant to be a punishment! And you haven't done anything wrong!"
"You shouldn't let them get away with it mate," Fred said
"But you're not going to fight back are you?" George guessed.
"what? Why not?" Neville said, "get a lawyer if
"can't afford a lawyer! I'm literally stuck under Dumbledore's thumb. If I draw his attention now, he'll know I'm slipping out of his shackles. He'll then make entrap me even worse and I may not even know he's done it. I can't take any risks like that before the holidays. Not when I'm so close to getting out." Harry explained, after casting a few extra privacy spells, and filling the others in on what had happened at Gringotts and what he'd found out.
"Still we won't let them do this to you Harry!" Hermione said angrily
"I'm serious, they'll pay but not until I'm safe. I can't afford to be stupid or carless about this!" he cut them off
"I don't want to be Gryffindor any more. I'm now out of the way and will be left alone. Honestly, it's better this way, no one will find me, it's brilliant!" he said, "anyway talking about it won't fix anything. I appreciate your support, and you're joining me, but I don't want your association with me to make your life hard. What if they un-housed you too?"
Fred, George and Neville paled at that thought, but Hermione said, "I don't care. My parents don't really care about houses as long as I get good marks."
"We'd be in serious trouble from mum," Fred admired reluctantly.
"Everyone's been in Gryffindor for ages. She'd be really mad if we were kicked out." George said, "but it would be just another stupid delinquent thing her idiot sons have done so..." He trailed off darkly.
"What do we care?" Finished George.
"Gran's disappointed in me anyway," Neville said with a miserable little shrug.
"Guys, no." Harry said, "let it go. I don't want them coming at you to get to me. I don't want you guys getting into trouble with your family for me."
"We'll be fine," Hermione said stubbornly, "Neville and I can stick together in class, and we're all together in the common room."
"We're always left alone," Fred said,
"We have a certain reputation for trouble you know," George said with a wicked grin.
"Fred, George" Harry said hesitantly, remembering how horrible the slug hex had been, and his father's 'pranks,' "do you ever hurt people with your pranks? Humiliate them?"
Fred looked at Harry very seriously, then said, "no. Not deliberately anyway."
"We accidentally hurt Montague once when we pushed him into the vanishing cabinet, but that was an accident," explained George "We didn't realise it was broken. We thought it just looked a bit banged up, and that he'd appear someone where else in the castle, or maybe somewhere outside,"
"but mostly that it would be pretty cool, and might teach him to actually leave us alone." Said Fred
"We didn't think he'd get hurt, just end up somewhere else," George added.
"And then there was the salamander, we tried to feed it a firework," Fred pointed out
"Oh yeah, Charlie really ripped us a new one for that, when he heard" George said with a wince, "one of the few times I've seen him genuinely mad at us."
"We all have our thing that sparks the red head temper," Fred said jokingly, "but Charlie's is animals. Nothing makes him loose it faster than animals not being treated right."
Harry remembered suddenly Charlie screaming at the Captain after the task at the sight of the Fireball.
"You'd think that as fire creatures, Salamanders wouldn't disagree with fireworks." Fred said, "if fire is their playground, why is a firework not okay? We thought they'd like it, not that it would blow them up. Lucky it was smart enough not to eat it really."
"We've may have gone a bit far a few times," said George, "with Ron, we were kids, mostly without really understanding what we were really doing."
"But we didn't intend to really hurt him or upset him, or anyone," Fred went on.
"But there were accidents," said George "turning our teddy into a spider, freaked Ron right out,"
Fred sniggered at that, then added "The acid pop."
"Ouch, we didn't realise it was that acidic. Who lets kids have them anyway if they're that bad? We just thought it would be like mum's stinging hex's when she doesn't want you touching something."
"There was the unbreakable vow" added Fred
"What's that?" asked Harry.
"It's like a promise, but if you break it, you'll die," explained Neville "they're not something that's generally talked about and are serious business. How'd you guys hear about them as kids?"
George shrugged at Hermione's horrified look and said "didn't realise it would kill him. Only time we ever saw Dad as mad as mum."
"We just thought it would make Ron keep his promises for a change and stop stealing our shit." Fred finished.
George considered making a joke about Fred's left buttock never being the same, but considering Harry's history, thought better of it.
"We didn't really adjust that well at first when Ron came alone and having little siblings taking up all of mum's time even more," George said, "and sometimes let our temper get the best of us, with Ron as kids. But Bill and Charlie set us straight and explained to us where that line was."
"We apologised profusely, to Ronnie," said Fred, "haven't done anything like that in ages,"
"Seriously," George said to Harry, "with pranks, we don't try and hurt people. We like making people laugh Harrykins."
"And no-one's laughing if someones hurt or truly humiliated," added Fred, "We're not above teaching people a lesson if they've been really horrible, but we don't hurt people."
"We're not like them, Harrykins," George said, "we're carful with our pranks, we're not bad people," and there was an old hurt in his voice that made shame coil in Harry's gut.
"Whoever them is, we're not like that, promise" Fred added, "we're not"
"We like laughter and good memories, not the other way round." Finished George, as if the old hurt was forgotten so easily.
Harry looked away, "sorry... I'm sorry, I know your not bad people, you guys are good to me, I just- I just-" he trailed off thinking of his dad. And was surprised when they both pulled him into a hug.
"It's okay," said Fred
"You tell us if you think we're crossing the line," George whispered.
"Thanks," Harry said shakily before for pulling away, "come on, we better go, or we'll be late to morning classes. Seriously though guy, just drop the house thing. Let it go."
*
They had transfiguration all morning. Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice all the frosty glares the Gryffindors were sending Harry or all the hex's he had to constantly deflect. She didn't notice Hermione helping him deflect them, now that she was on the receiving end of them as well because she'd sided with Harry. And McGonagall also didn't notice the looks of fury Hermione shot Ron and the other Gryffindors between spell deflections or the looks disappointment Hermione shot her.
McGonagall didn't seem to notice anything had changed at all. But Harry didn't really expect her too. It didn't stop him from being mad about it though. Honestly, when half the class was hexing each other and the tension was high enough to cut with a knife, how did she not notice? Was she really that over worked that she wasn't noticing anything that she didn't want to see?
Defence against the dark arts was... odd. He'd been increasingly wary and uncomfortable since his little realisation about Moody, but the class ended without any trouble, as did his Arithmancy meeting after dinner, and he hurried back to his cupboard to do his homework in peace.
Dobby had found him a wall sconce from somewhere, so he lit it with a small fire spell. It lit up the cupboard brilliantly with a warm flickering glow. His warming charms had held up, so it was quite cozy inside. A transfigured mop acted as a wonderful lap desk so he could curl up on his blanket nest to do his work, in peace, quiet and comfort.
It took much less time than in the crowded library where he was often jumpy, or the noisy common room where he was always hyper-alert and constantly being distracted.
He looked up as Hedwig flew in. Winky had found some kind of wooden ring, that after she'd worked some elf magic on, allowed Hedwig to fly in and out of his cupboard. They were both rather pleased with the arrangement, and Harry transfigured one of the shelves into a stand for her. It was nice being able to stay together again.
She had a thick letter tied to her leg. He cast several detection charms on it before he freed her of it. When he took it from her, it grew a little, and he found far more sheets of parchment inside, than it should have been able to fit. He frowned and had a look at the letter.
To Harry's delight, it was from the WEA, the Wizarding Examination Authority. They had happily replied to his letter with a full curriculum study guide for OWLS and NEWTs. He'd not had a chance to look at it earlier. But now the task was over, he dove into what they sent him with relish.
They'd included all the Hogwarts subjects, not just History of Magic and Defence like he had asked. They had even gone a step further, so pleased to have someone interested in history and schoolwork, that they'd also sent guides for the other subjects not offered in Hogwarts like; Politics, Etiquette, Estate Management, Ancient Studies, Religion, Language, Enchanting, Spell Creation, Alchemy. They even included enrolment forms for their correspondence courses, which was interestingly enough covered under his tuition feels for whatever institution he was part of. There were then enrolment forms for the OWL and NEWT exams sat at ministry, with were held every easter and summer holidays.
Harry was delighted with their over-enthusiasm. He was surprised to find out that anyone could book in at the Ministry to sit an OWL or NEWT in any of the term breaks. As long as they were over 14, that is. Apparently, many Pureblood students did that during their easter and summer breaks, to test in the subjects not offered at Hogwarts like Etiquette and Culture as well as Estate Management and Politics for the Heirs.
Now that was food for thought, Harry pondered, staring at the parchment in front of him. It would be a real thumb in the nose to Dumbledore and everyone who thought him stupid, who wanted him stupid, for Harry to actually get all his NEWTs. If he managed to sneak out at Christmas, there was no reason he couldn't sneak out again in the summer breaks to sit more OWLs in the Ministry.
He would have to carefully make a study schedule. He would have to do the bulk of the work over the summer in all probability. He couldn't get much of it done here while the tournament was on...
But wouldn't it be great to see the expression of shock on all those moron's faces when Harry got NEWTs in every subject offered. He grinned. It would be hard, but if he managed his time correctly, he might just manage it. It would be worth it too, to stick it in all of their stupid faces. He'd prove himself better than all of them!
It was a pity he didn't have a time turner, really. That would have made things much easier. He wondered if the Room of Requirement did something similar, or maybe there was one in the Room of Hidden Things...
He sighed. There was so much he wanted to learn. He put away his finished homework and pulled out his planner. He was already working 9 subjects into his time table, as well as scheduling in time in the forest and being tutored and tutoring the Slytherins. He'd have to be careful to add in these new subjects too. Hopefully, his Slytherin lessons would tie in with Politics and Etiquette.
He supposed he'd have a lot to do over break. Which ones would he prioritise? He would probably stretch himself too thin doing all of them at once. Better to focus intently on one or two and do them early. But he was particularly interested in... damn it, all of it, and he was several years behind!
He understood Hermione's frustration at having to drop a few subjects back in third year all too well now. Damn it! He needed a time turner to take them all. But how to get one?
Could he really afford to juggle everything?
He'd manage. He always managed.
*
Harry had stiltedly continued to write to Bill and Charlie, as promised. He hadn't told them about the un-housing, or the school's reaction to his task, nor did he say anything about Ron.
Instead, he sent Bill his ward plans, with a request for advice on how to strengthen and anchor them. He told Bill all about the first task, sending a copy of the Quibbler along, and told him all about the projects he was working on. He had added glasses to his project now, wanting to enchant them to see magic and invisible things like Moody's eye. If he could recreate it he could protect against it.
He told Bill how well the shirt worked and how he was working on finding another power source for it instead of blood so he could work something out for the dragon keepers. He wrote about the WEA's response and trying to work all the subjects into his schedule.
Bill wrote back enthusiastically, clearly passionate about complex magic and warding. Between the two of them, Harry was confident they would be able to ward his new home to keep him safe and to keep others out. He recommended a bunch of new warding books that Harry 'borrowed' from the Restricted Section.
Bills letters were full of laughter and encouragement, and he sent along notes, with a fang earing. He promised it would keep Harry safe from the sun and from sand fly's if he ever encountered them. Harry couldn't wear it yet, but he would. He had some ideas on how to get his ears pierced, and would try it out over the holidays. Bill sent back some of the notes on wards for his cupboard and between the two of them Harry knew they would end up impenetrable. Nearly.
Harry sent Charlie a copy of the Quibbler too and told him about his studies, his projects, and the time in the forest with the centaurs. He thought Charlie know there were things he wasn't saying, but like Bill, Charlie just replied with letters of work, fun stories and talked to Harry about projects and studies. He helped Harry excitedly with fireproof shirts as well, and like Bill's letters, Charlie's were frequent.
They helped. A little patch of brightness in Harry's otherwise bleak world.
Charlie laughed when Harry told him about the little dragon models he'd liberated from the task and how they now sat on his shelf and prowled at night. They were adorable, and he was falling in love with them a little bit. He sent Charlie some photos he took with a forgotten camera he'd scavenged. And often he stared at them late at night when he couldn't sleep, watching their tiny puffs of flames glowing in the darkness.
He did not send another letter to Sirius though; what was the point?