Warning: contains homophobia (hopefully this is obvious but homophobia is wrong and should never be tolerated, the characters that promote these views do not reflect my own)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, that series belongs to J.K. Rowling

Chapter 2

As Harri walked down the last of the steps before the great hall she hesitated. Here she was about to do the exact thing she had been avoiding for months and why because someone she knew nothing about had told her she should. But what was the alternative spend the rest of her life alone, even she wasn't that stupid.

And into the great hall she stepped

There were no curses, no one got up to throw her out of the room, she got a few surprised glances but no one did anything. As she looked around the hall she saw Fleur who nodded towards the empty space across from her and Harri made her way over.

"I'm glad to see you came" Fleur said as Harri sat down

"Yeah, I thought about what you said and realized you were right. I can't just hide from the world forever." Harri replied

Fleur smiled at that "Well I'm glad to see that you are not completely hopeless. Now tell me what should I eat for breakfast, even after months here I still can't find anything worth eating."

"The bacon is good, maybe try it with the pumpkin juice, that's been one of my favorite things since entering the wizarding world."

They entered into a brief silence as the two witches enjoyed their meal until Fleur started up again "I don't think you have very good taste in food Miss Potter, it's so fatty and sweet. Though I suppose that sums up just about every English food. You should come to France some time, everything there is elegant and refined."

Harri snorted "Elegant and refined have never exactly been staples of my life"

"Oh, so are you the rugged adventures type?" Fleur said with a grin

"Everyone always assumes that," Harri replied "and I guess I can see where they get the idea. Every year I seem to get wrapped up in some adventure that ends with me facing down something that really should have killed me. But its not that I go looking for trouble, trouble just seems to find me. All I wanted was to find someplace I belonged, to have friends that care about me, maybe even someone to love."

"The public would be disappointed to learn that The Girl Who Lived has such boring ambitions."

"Well its not like I have much of a reputation left at this point."

"True but that is not the point, the point is that while it is a lovely story, life does not work that way. You are a talented witch, that is obvious to me with just the little I have seen of you. To waste such talent living a quiet life would be a crime. It is nice to sit back and let other people take care of everything but in the end, you are the only person that can make sure that what needs to happen does."

At some level Harri knew she was right, the whole reason she had gone down to get the Sorcerer's Stone, to stop the Basilisk, to save Sirius had been that she knew that it was the only way it would get done. But was it really too much to ask for the insanity to end, hadn't she done enough? "There is only so much one can give though Fleur. Why can't someone else do something for a change?"

"You are a fool if you think they don't. Everyone tries to do the best that they can, they don't always succeed but as long as they don't stop trying, they will be a better person, will have accomplished more, than if they had given up. Which is the exact thing you are wanting to do."

Harri would admit, that stung. She had never considered herself one to give up but here was Fleur saying she was doing exactly that. And the worst part was that she couldn't say she was wrong. She had given up, maybe not in the way Fleur was talking about, she still didn't really agree with her that pushing herself to the limit her whole life was the best idea, but in the current moment she had. She had let her fear drive her to spending her days hiding from the rest of the world, had let it drive her out of her own bed. Were those really the actions of someone who had not given up?

"I…thank you Fleur, I think I needed to hear that" Harri said knowing she looked more than a little uncomfortable. Fleur seemed to notice and switched to a much lighter topic of her sister Gabriele.

"She is rather smitten with you, you know. Just the other day she told me she was going to marry you. She even drew a lovely little picture of your wedding and I must say you look rather good in white."

Harri blushed a little at that "I hope your not trying to talk her up to me. Dating a nine-year-old isn't exactly on my list of things I plan to do."

"Certainly not, I hope you know if you that if you ever try anything with her I will rip you into tiny little pieces. Her dreaming is just how little girls are, didn't you have dreams of some lovely lady sweeping you off your feet as a girl."

"Not really, most of my dreams involved running away from my aunt and uncle, girls weren't really something I was too concerned about at the time."

"Ah, how dull a child you must have been. If I had been in your place, I think I would have dreamed of a tall dark woman on a motorcycle driving up to the house and kicking in the door and telling me that she had seen me from afar and thought I was the most beautiful woman in existence and had come to rescue me from my awful life. We would then hop on her motorcycle and drive away constantly running from one adventure to the next."

Harri laughed "So the young rebel is your type huh."

Fleur nodded "Everyone loves a rebel Harri, when I was fourteen I actually tried to run off with some muggle punk boy. We said we were going to America and start a band. By the next night we had both gone home. My parents were furious of course and I wasn't allowed to leave the house the rest of the summer."

Harri smirked "I'm afraid I've got you beat there. When I was thirteen I accidently turned my aunt into a human balloon and she floated away. I ended up running away, catching a ride on the night bus and stayed in a pub until school started. I was convinced I was expelled but then the Minister of Magic himself showed up and told me that all was fine and I wasn't in any trouble. It wasn't until later that I learned that apparently a serial killer was after me at the same time."

With a wicked grin Fleur looked Harri right in the eye "No wonder you wanted to know if I was into young rebels, you better watch out or I may just have to run off with you."

The blush that covered Harri's face would have made Fawkes look pale.

But Fleur just ignored it and kept talking "I suppose I had best get to class soon. A word of advice Harri, enjoy the workload you have now. NEWTs are a bitch."

They finished up their breakfast and both headed their separate ways. As Harri walked towards transfiguration she had a smile on her face.

The classroom that she had chosen for the night was dim and grey which suited Harri's current mood just fine. All she wanted to do was enjoy the quiet darkness and go to sleep but her mind wouldn't let her. Her mind kept going back to what Fleur had said earlier. She had given up, people had tried to break her and they had succeeded. Look at her! Instead of sleeping in her dorm like a normal person she was hiding in a classroom just to avoid her classmates.

Harri sighed, she knew what she had to do but that didn't make it any easier. She had to go to her dorm, to face the people that hurt her. So why was she still sitting here?

When she woke up the next morning she was still sitting there.

Breakfast that day was a light affair filled with small talk and laughter. Harri liked talking to Fleur, she smiled easily and often, most of the time at things she herself had said. Harri wanted to talk to Fleur about how she had tried and failed to return to her dorm but every time she had a chance to bring it up, she lost her nerve. By the time they said goodbye she still hadn't managed to mention it.

Through the entirety of Potions Harri was a nervous wreck. She kept looking at all the various Gryffindors trying to figure out what they would do if she tried to go back in the common room. For the most part after she had gone into self-imposed isolation people had been paying less attention to her. Had they just gotten bored or did they feel that they had succeeded so there was no point anymore. With these thoughts consuming her she made an absolute mess of her potion, Snape simply took one look at it and dropped it in the sink.

"This isn't even worth taking the time to grade Potter, if your going to be in my class do try not to waste my time" Snape had said with a sneer.

She wasn't particularly concerned, her Potions grade was hardly an O to begin with so what did it matter if she lost a few more points.

It was finally time, the thing she had been dreading all day was here. Harri looked up at the fat lady for the first time in two months.

"Wattle Bird"

"I'm sorry dear but that password is old," the Fat Lady said "If you don't have the new one I'm afraid I can't let you in."

What had she been thinking, of course the password would have changed by now and with no contact in Gryffindor there was no way she could learn it. She started walking off thinking that once again she would be giving up when she heard a pair of students walking up the stairs towards the Gryffindor tower. Hurrying around the corner she stopped to listen to what they had to say.

"Can you believe the essay McGonagal assigned. Three pages! That's going to take me all night." The first boy whined

"Pig Feathers" the other boy said once they got to the portrait. The painting opened and the two boys crawled through into the common room. After waiting a moment to make sure they had gone on Harri headed back. This time the Fat Lady let her through though she did raise an eyebrow at her clearly knowing what she had done.

When Harri walked into the common room she was greeted with complete silence. Everyone in the room had stopped whatever they were doing to look up at her. The chaser trio were all glaring daggers at her though Ginny looked happy to see her. Neville just looked uncomfortable. But it was Seamus who broke the silence.

"We thought you left" Seamus said darkly

"I came back" Harri mumbled

"Well aren't we glad you did" he replied sarcastically

"I…I just wanted to come home" Harri stuttered out nervously

"Well this is our home to and we don't want you here" Seamus yelled out "Did you ever think about that you freak"

Freak… She had been called a lot of things since coming to Hogwarts but never that. That was a name only they had ever called her and the idea that the Wizarding World thought of her the same way as the Dursleys. Well, that just hurt a bit too much for her to handle. And then she started crying because of course she did. Why? Why did it have to hurt so much? There was everyone just sitting there seeing how much pain she was in and not caring, how was the world so heartless. Then she ran. Past Seamus up the stairs to the girls dorm until she got to the fourth years dorm. Hopefully now she could have some quiet.

But it was not to be. As soon as she opened the door she saw that Hermione was in there. Quite possibly the last person she wanted to see right now. Hermione had looked up the moment Harri had opened the door and had a look of absolute fury on her face.

"What are you doing in here?!" Hermione shrieked

No not again she couldn't face this again. Could she not go a minute without someone yelling at her?

"Please Hermione don't do this, you were my best friend." Harri pleaded, hoping against hope that Hermione could see past her bigotry and see the friend she had had for the past four years.

"Yeah well maybe you should have thought about that before you started lusting after me!"

"Hermione, I can't choose who I lo…"

Hermione didn't even wait for her to finish before yelling out her response "Its always a choice, everything you do is a choice, were not just mindless animals."

"Oh, well tell me Hermione when was the last time you fell in love with someone due to completely logical well planned decision."

"You don't know what love is Harri, you're fourteen. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"There's no need to talk down to me like that Hermione. Just because your smarter than everyone else doesn't mean were all idiots." Harri sighed and walked over to her bed. Sitting down she paused a moment to enjoy the feel of the soft mattress beneath her before continuing. "What is it about me liking girls is so hard for you to understand. It's the same thing as you liking boys just directed at a different gender."

"Its unnatural!" at this point Hermione was screeching "Every time I think of a girl with another girl, I just feel so disgusting inside. That seems like a pretty clear sign that that is not the way it's supposed to be."

"To you"

"What?" Hermione said utterly confused as to what Harri was trying to say

"A girl being with another girl seems unnatural to you, but when I think about it, it seems right. The idea of being with a boy though, to me it sounds terrible. We each have our own preference and that's all there really is to it, one isn't the universal natural way, there is just what is natural to us."

"But there is a natural way! Normal people like the opposite sex. That's how this works, people like you are deviants. The fact that you are breaking from such a core part life is just unacceptable."

Harri stopped for a moment and looked Hermione in the eyes and made one last attempt to get through to her best friend. She would pour her soul out to her and if that didn't get to her, then maybe she would just have to except that Hermione couldn't be in her life any more. "Look at me Hermione, for four years we have known each other. For four years you have stood by my side when no one else would, when the whole school thought I was the heir of Slytherin you didn't abandon me despite what everyone thought. In third year when Sirius sent me the Firebolt you were willing to go against me to make sure I was safe. Even though I treated you like shit for that you never doubted that you were doing the right thing and to be honest I don't think I ever even thanked you properly for how good of a friend you were for doing that. This year when my name came out of the goblet of fire, when even Ron abandoned me, you didn't. You were the only one that kept me going through that time, I mean look at what happened to me when you left me, I broke. I guess the thing I'm trying to get to with all of this is that you are the person that cares the most about me in this world. In fact other than you I don't think there is a single person that does care about me. I'm not trying to be melodramatic here, think about it, its true. And if I'm being honest, you're the only person I care about. But look at us now, you hate me and I'm scared of you. Is that really the way you want this to end? I get it, you're not into me or even girls for that matter, but that's fine. I've moved on, you have nothing to worry about from me. I promise I won't try anything like that ever again. I…I just want my best friend back."

As Hermione stood there looking down at her once best friend she saw the tears that had been streaming down Harri's face, saw the hope and sorrow in her eyes, and heard the raw emotion in her voice for a moment Hermione's eyes showed love, love for the friend who had saved her from the troll all those years ago and been by her side ever since. But then that moment ended and the wall of hatred came rising back up.

"I could never care about you, you freak." Her voice was as cold as ice

That one sentence hurt more than anything had in her entire life. Harri now knew that it was over. There was no coming back from this. With those words Hermione didn't just want to end their friendship she wanted to hurt Harri as much as she possibly could. When Seamus had called her a freak, he had picked an insult at random but Hermione, she knew exactly what that word meant to Harri. She had wanted to cause as much devastation as she possibly could and she had done just that.

Harri activated the wards around her bed that kept everyone out, closed the curtain, and cast a silencing charm, all without saying a word to Hermione. Then she cried. She cried and cried. Cried until it hurt, till her lungs were heaving, till her eyes stung, till she felt stabbing pains in her chest. But she didn't care. The physical pain felt like nothing compared to what she was feeling inside. She didn't stop for hours and only did when she was so exhausted that she drifted into unconsciousness.

A/N: That last scene was a bitch to write but it I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Most of it was drawn from my own experiences arguing with homophobes, can't say I ever thought that those experiences would be good for anything. I know I said I was going to have the whole story finished by now but that clearly isn't going to be happening. That was entirely arrogance on my part thinking writing was easier than it actually was. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon. Until next time.