Harry Potter and the Baroness

Hello and welcome to Harry Potter and the Baroness. Thank you for taking the time to read this story. A few notes before you begin:

I do not own the Harry Potter series or any products related to the Harry Potter series. I also do not claim ownership over any other works, toys, or pop culture items (or people) that may be referenced from time to time. I am not profiting from the posting of this work. Some lines in this prelude are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This work is canon-divergent beginning after the Department of Mysteries scenes in OotP. While generally adhering to book canon prior to that, I've occasionally incorporated a piece of movie canon or fan theory. I am not British, but have attempted to write using British English, and beg forgiveness for any oddities you may find.

This is a Harmony story, although our protagonists will need to earn their happiness. Other pairings will be revealed in time.

Finally, this work is rated 'T' for approximately canon-level violence, heaps of teen angst, mild swearing, snogging, house elf grammar, and potions use.

Prelude: The Hospital Wing

Harry sat on the end of Ron's bed in the hospital wing at Hogwarts and listened to Hermione read the Daily Prophet. She looked exhausted and pale, but Madam Pomfrey had assured him that she – that all of his friends – would make a full recovery. Luna, Ginny, and Neville had already been released from Madam Pomfrey's care; only Ron and Hermione remained in hospital beds.

Even as he listened to her reading, Harry thought back to that horrible moment when Hermione had fallen to Antonin Dolohov's curse; a flash of purple had struck her and she had simply fallen to the floor, unconscious. It had taken both him and Neville to try and drag her to safety... Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead… repeated in his head.

She's still here in the hospital wing because of me. Ron is covered in welts because of me, Harry thought.

"They're very complimentary about you now, Harry," Hermione observed. She quoted the Prophet's praises of Harry's unwavering dedication to the truth in the face of slander – their slander – and then winced and placed a hand against her ribs. "This interview with you that they're referencing isn't even exclusive, it's from the Quibbler!"

Luna murmured vaguely from her seat at the edge of Ron's hospital bed, "Yes, Daddy sold them the interview. We'll be using the funds to go on an expedition to Sweden this summer and catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

While Hermione admirably stifled her first response and murmured her approval of Luna's summer plans, Harry and Ginny exchanged a grin. Ron just looked at Luna with a puzzled, yet fond, expression.

The friends' conversation turned to the Divination professor and Hermione shocked Harry by defending the idea that prophecies could be real. His palms began to sweat and his heart beat a tattoo in his chest; before he even knew what he was doing, Harry was getting up and making his excuses to Ron and Hermione: that he needed to visit Hagrid. He hadn't yet told anyone else about the prophecy; he couldn't, not yet.

Instead, he met Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in the entrance hall. The four house hourglasses stood to one side, and Gryffindor's was woefully empty.

"You're dead, Potter," Malfoy declared in low tones. His pointy face seemed even paler than usual.

Harry couldn't resist rolling his eyes. "Funny, I don't feel dead," he retorted. Somehow, it loosened something in his chest to watch Malfoy's expression turn even angrier.

"My father is in Azkaban because of you," Draco hissed. "You can't just put my father in Azkaban and expect to get away with it."

Harry smirked. "I rather thought I had, actually." He turned to leave, but Malfoy was drawing his wand, and Harry drew his still quicker. His lips were already forming the words of a hex when he heard Snape's voice.

"Potter! What are you doing?" the Potions professor asked as he swooped into the entrance hall. Harry thought, in his half-hysterical mind-set, that the professor resembled nothing so much as an overgrown bat in his billowing black robes.

"I'm defending myself against Malfoy, sir," Harry sneered.

Snape stared at Harry for a moment, and glanced toward the giant hourglasses. "Put that wand away, Potter. Ten points from…" He eyed the Gryffindor hourglass, which held only a single ruby. "I suppose I can't take any points if there are none to take, can I?" he drawled.

"We'll just have to add some more, then," Professor McGonagall commented, as she reached the final step on the stairs into the castle. She leaned heavily on her walking stick, but Harry noted that she looked nearly fully recovered. She beckoned Crabbe and Goyle forward and handed her cloak and carpetbag to the pair, demanding that they carry her belongings to her office.

"Now then," she said, "I think Potter and his friends ought to have fifty points apiece, since they have alerted the world to the return of You-Know-Who!" As McGonagall spoke, rubies began to fall into the bottom of the hourglass. "Fifty each for Potter, the two Weasleys, Longbottom, and Miss Granger. Oh – and fifty for Miss Lovegood, of course." Blue sapphires sparkled as they fell into the hourglass for Ravenclaw.

"Well, off you go. We should all be outside on such a glorious day," McGonagall declared. As she continued into the castle, her steps punctuated by the thump of the walking stick, Harry left the castle and walked across the lawns toward Hagrid's cabin. He ignored the students around him; many sunbathed, seemingly carefree, and the resentment grew in his chest. At the last minute, he turned away from the cabin and headed for a spot beside the lake, one hidden by the shrubbery.

Harry sat for many hours while the sun moved slowly across the sky. His face grew wet and distantly, as if it came from someone else, he heard low, choked-off sobs. It wasn't until it was dark and the Scotland air around him had chilled significantly that he walked back inside, wiping his face on his robes as he went.