The Fallout from Gryffindor’s Mistakes

Harry gave the password to the Fat Lady and then stormed up the stairs to the sixth year dorm. Once there he set the trunk down and unshrunk it. He made sure to put a charm on it that would give anyone a nasty curse if they deliberately touched it. Not that he intended to keep anything he valued in there.

He'd learned his lesson last year. The things he valued would be kept in the trunk he had shrunk down to the size of a matchbox in his bookbag. He had placed charms on the bookbag and its contents to prevent them from being destroyed and to keep anyone but him from getting into it.

"Potter, you're back." It took Harry a moment to remember this boy's name: Terry Lorring. He came from a non-wizarding family.

"Brilliant observation, Lorring." Harry sneered. "I'm heading down for lunch now. You might want to warn the others not to touch my trunk or they'll get a nasty surprise."

"You booby-trapped your trunk. Why?" Lorring wanted to know.

"Surely your memory can't be that bad?" Harry countered sarcastically. "I have no intention of losing another trunk to the pyromaniacs of Gryffindor."

"Harry," the other boy began.

"Potter." Harry corrected him.

"Potter then," the other boy t

ried again. "You have to give us a chance to try and make up for what we did last year."

"I don't have to do anything." Harry interrupted hotly. "You all think that all you have to do is say, 'I'm sorry' and all will be forgiven that things will go back to the way they were. Well it's not going to happen. The Harry Potter, who let people walk all over him, no longer exists.

You killed him that day when you burned up his things and condemned him to hell without even bothering to listen to his side of the story. Nothing you do can ever make up for destroying the only memories I had of my parents and my godfather. I will never get those memories back. However, I know from experience that most Gryffindors are too stupid to realise that and will continue to try or do something equally stupid, so why don't you pass the word to all the other traitors in this tower, that unless it has to do with school, to leave me the hell alone."

Terry Lorring watched the older boy leave without giving him a chance to voice any of the arguments he'd come up with over the summer or since seeing him yesterday. He had been shocked when he first saw the article in the Daily Prophet proclaiming Harry Potter's innocence and the fact that he had defeated Voldemort.

At first he had been so relieved to read that Voldemort was dead, but then the knowledge of what he had helped the others do to the saviour of the wizarding world had set in.

He had spent most of the next day trying to write a letter to the Boy-Who-Lived to let him know how sorry he was and to thank him for destroying He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He was just glad he hadn't sent it when he got a letter from Colin, warning him not to write Harry Potter, because of the nasty hexes he would get back if he did.

Remembering the look of satisfaction on Potter's face when he saw Colin sporting the words 'I AM AN IDIOT!' on his forehead, Terry shivered. It had reminded him a lot of Malfoy. He was beginning to wonder if it might not have been a mistake for Harry Potter to return to Hogwarts.

.....

McGonagall stared at the report on her desk of Harry's afternoon classes. His determination to make things as difficult for everyone apparently had not changed. So far he had gotten detention from at least three more teachers and Gryffindor was currently in negative points, despite the efforts of Miss Granger and other students.

He was currently serving the detention she'd given him, for failure to comply with a teacher's orders, with Filch. She dreaded to think of what the House points for Gryffindor would look like after Potions on Friday.

She shook her head wondering if turning young Potter around was going to be worth all the effort they were going to. A knock on her office door distracted McGonagall from her thoughts. "Come in."

Hermione Granger stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. "You wanted to see me, Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Granger," McGonagall even though she had originally proposed Miss Granger for this task was now having second thoughts about asking her to do it. "I have a task for you, but I want to let you know that you do not have to do it if you don't want to."

Hermione was curious about what could have her favourite teacher so nervous. "What is it ma'am?"

"If you are agreeable, the Headmaster and I would like for you to contact the friends of Mr. Potter's parents and try to get pictures of them so that the album Hagrid gave him his first year can be recreated." McGonagall said quickly.

Hermione was silent for several minutes before she said, "I'm afraid I will have to refuse this assignment, Professor."

"If it would not be prying, may I ask why?"

"I have no desire to be the target of Harry Potter's vengeance. I've found out that he has a mean streak that makes Malfoy look like a wimp by comparison." Hermione told her. "Did you know that in August, he had the Weasleys and I summoned to court at the Ministry?"

When McGonagall shook her head, Hermione continued. "We didn't have to appear before the Wizengamot, but in a smaller court. As the main heir of Sirius Black's estate, he was trying to have several aspects of Sirius' will voided. He apparently hired a very good wizarding solicitor, because he won.

Of course that may also have been because the wizard judge, didn't want to do anything to anger Harry. I remember his solicitor saying that based upon the wording of Sirius' will, claiming that we were the friends and family Harry needed while he was growing up had been disproved by our actions at his trial, because real friends and family would have stood by him and not immediately assumed his guilt."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Miss Granger." McGonagall told her.

"That wasn't the thing that convinced me to avoid having him angry at me." Hermione told her. "When I got home, there was a box waiting for me. There was a note on the top of it that said that since I found house elves much more worthy to defend than those I called my friends, that I probably wanted the contents. When I opened the box, I found the shrunken heads of the house elves from Grimmauld Place and the freshly decapitated head of Kreacher. It was still bleeding."

"Oh, my dear," McGonagall looked properly horrified. "How could he do such a thing?"

"Now you understand, why I want to avoid drawing his anger, if at all possible." Hermione told her. "Last night he presented me with a sort of truce. He said that as long as I keep any conversations with him to school matters and did not try to interfere in his life, that he will be civil to me." She looked at McGonagall, her expression serious. "It's a start ma'am and I don't want to blow any chance I may have of getting Harry to forgive me."

"I understand, Miss Granger." McGonagall was pleased to hear that there were at least some signs of thawing from Potter.

....

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