Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and I don't intend to make any profit out of this story.

Author's Note: This story begins after Harry's name came out of the Goblet of fire. It is an AU story with a lot of divergence from the canon. Here, in my story, even Hermione didn't believe Harry when Harry pleaded to her that he didn't put his name.

It was midnight. Harry was standing very close to the edge of the astronomy tower contemplating his action. He had brought his invisibility cloak with him as well as his broomstick, with his trunk containing all his possessions shrunken in his pocket. He was very well intending to get out of this hell-hole called Hogwarts. His life had become quite unbearable ever since his name had come out of the Goblet of fire. The whole school had immediately turned against him with many people calling him a glory-hound, attention seeking prat and things like that. The Slytherins as usual made use of this opportunity to harass and ridicule Harry for daring to become a school champion. It was immaterial to them, whether Harry had entered on his own or not. He was highly unpopular with them having beaten Slytherin in house cup & quidditch cup over the past three years. So, when Malfoy and his cronies and all the other Slytherins in his potions class mocked and harassed him by wearing those disgusting, stupid "Potter Stinks" badges, he was definitely unhappy but not very much surprised, since he hardly expected anything better from the slimy snakes. After staying here for 4 years, Harry definitely believed that all Slytherins were evil, inhumane creatures with no sense of goodness. Not even one of them had shown any sort of kindness towards Harry.

Next came the hufflepuffs who were greatly displeased with Harry for stealing their champion's spotlight. Harry understood their sentiments even though he didn't like it when even many hard-core loyal hufflepuffs started wearing those stupid badges too.

But what surprised Harry was the behavior of the Ravenclaws. Many members of the supposedly house of the intelligent believed that Harry had somehow cheated his way into the tournament to earn some extra glory, as if he already didn't have enough of it with the stupid "Boy who lived" title. It seemed as if the sorting hat had made a huge mistake in placing those people in Ravenclaw. Meanwhile, his crush on Cho Chang had immediately vanished when he saw her sporting a "Support Cedric Diggory" badge.

But what hurt Harry was the behavior of the members of his own house. Many senior house members like the members of Harry's Quidditch team who were quite cordial to him had suddenly turned on him and accused him of cheating and shaming the Gryffindor house in front of the entire school. Some of the 7th years who had put their names into the Goblet but didn't get selected were clearly jealous of Harry, and they took out their jealousy by hexing Harry in the common room. There were a few people who believed him, like some 1st and 2nd years, Ginny Weasley, Katie bell, Colin & Dennis Creevy and Neville Longbottom but they didn't dare support him openly being afraid of retaliation by the senior house members.

To his immense shock, Ron had sided with those who claimed that Harry had cheated his way into the tournament, as did the twin brothers Fred and George who still hadn't got over the humiliation of being ejected from the age-line with white beards. Harry was immensely hurt that his best mate had rejected his claims and insulted him so openly in front of so many others in the common room. But even more shocking was his other friend Hermione's Granger's stony silence when Harry was being accused of cheating his way. She didn't take part in insulting or hexing Harry but she made it very clear to him that she didn't believe his claims of innocence and that she didn't approve at all of his blatant rule-breaking. She also accused him of shaming Professor Dumbledore in front of the foreign delegates due to his actions.

The rejections from both his friends was too much for Harry and he had cried himself to sleep that night. What added salt to Harry's already sore wounds was that, even Hagrid refused to believe Harry's claims of innocence and cited that he was very disappointed with Harry for being the reason why the great Albus Dumbledore was facing a lot of flak.

Dumbledore, Dumbledore, Dumbledore, oh not him again! Harry was just fed up with the blind faith of some people on the heavily over-rated old man, who had done absolutely nothing to curb the bullying and slander against him ever since his name had come out of the Goblet, just as he had done nothing 2 years back when Harry was being falsely accused of petrifying muggleborns. Not just Dumbledore, but the other teachers too were slack in this regard when the matter came regarding punishing and disciplining those who were bullying Harry.

Harry never expected much from his Greasy haired tormentor, the shampoo phobic potions master who had a grudge against him just because he was his father's son. That man just allowed and even encouraged his Slytherins to bully Harry to the maximum limits.

The other teachers, especially Professor McGonagall were too loyal to Dumbledore. If Dumbledore didn't believe that the slander of Harry Potter was very much concerning, then there was absolutely no need to do anything to curb it. Apparently that was the attitude of some of the teachers. But it was not much surprising, since most adults had hardly been helpful to him in his life with the exception of Professor Lupin who had taught the patronus charm to him last year and Florean Fortesque, who had helped him immensely with the history homework and given him free sundae ice-creams.

His godfather Sirius Black was the only person who believed his word at face value when Harry had mentioned in a letter about how someone had put his name into the Goblet of fire. When Harry had mentioned about the behavior of Ron & Hermione, Sirius had gone into a lengthy rant against them which had somewhat comforted Harry.

So right now, Harry was planning to leave this castle for ever because this place had become quite hellish for him recently. Honestly, he didn't care that by doing so, he might break the iron-clad "Goblet of fire" contract and lose his magic, as long as he could spent time with his godfather. That is what Harry was going to do. He would somehow seek out Sirius and both of them could hide somewhere together, in a place that was free from dementors and the aurors. Though living with a fugitive on the run was not a great prospect, at least he would be staying with someone who loved him dearly for who he was and didn't care about his "Boy who lived" status.

As soon as he was about to mount his firebolt, he heard screams of a girl from a nearby classroom. Putting on his invisibility cloak and keeping the firebolt aside, he went to investigate what was going on. His inner Gryffindor wouldn't let him ignore a lady's screams. He slowly crept into the classroom where the screams had come from. What he saw inside made his blood boil.

Two Slytherin boys, Montague and Pucey had cornered a 5th year Slytherin girl and they were leering at her in such a way that made Harry's veins crawl.

"How dare you disobey us Shafiq! You will do exactly as we say and wear these badges proudly as everyone else in the house is doing. Or else, you will pay for it" said Montague threateningly.

"I will not wear these pathetic, disgusting badges Montague. What you people are trying to do is horrible. What harm has Harry Potter ever done to any of us to deserve this kind of scandalous treatment? Just because he has helped in beating our house in house & Quidditch cups for the past few years, are you guys going to harass him just for his name being entered into a tournament? Well guess what, I won't support this at all. It is quite likely that Potter is being forced into this tournament against his own will because as far as I know, he seems to hate all the attention on him. So, I will not involve myself in slandering him" said Shafiq defiantly, glaring back at Montague.

Harry could hardly believe what he was hearing. A Slytherin believed that he was telling the truth and was moreover defending him quite passionately? Never in a million years would he have imagined something like that happening.

Pucey grabbed Shafiq's throat and pinned her against the wall, his face dangerously close to her.

"Zarina Shafiq, you are a traitor to the house of Slytherin for showing sympathies to Harry Potter. We are going to teach you a lesson about what happens to women in Slytherin house who side with the enemy" hissed Pucey.

As Montague started advancing menancingly on Shafiq who was pinned to the wall, Harry grew furious. No woman deserved to be taken advantage of like this. And, He wouldn't let anything happen to this woman, not after she had defiantly expressed her support for him.

Taking aim from within the cloak, he pointed it at Pucey and whispered "Petrificus Totalus". Pucey went stiff and he fell down. Montague turned around to see who had cast the curse which gave Zarina the opportunity to kick his crotch making him howl with pain. She immediately fired two stunners at both of them and they fell unconscious.

"So, who decided to help me?" she called out.

Harry hesitated. He didn't prefer revealing himself but he was curious about this Slythein girl who had defended him quite passionately. So, lowering his cloak so that his head was just visible, he said "That would be me".

"Potter, what are you doing here?"asked Zarina in surprise. "Not that I am complaining, after all you might have just saved me from a fate worse than death" added Zarina gratefully

"Umm… I was just taking a mid-night stroll" lied Harry, but he felt somewhat uncomfortable lying to her. "And, I just saw that those perverts were trying to molest you and you know, no woman deserves to be taken advantage of like this" he mumbled with a small voice.

To his immense surprise, she smiled at him brilliantly. Her smile was so amazingly beautiful that it made butterflies erupt in his stomach. At that moment, the last vestiges of his crush on Cho disappeared and a new crush was implanted inside him.

"I never thought that I would ever be thanking a Gryffindor. But thank you so much Potter. I am so glad that you were here somehow. Otherwise, I shudder to think what might have happened" she said honestly.

"You're welcome. And Shafiq, I just wanted to ask you one thing. The thing is, I heard you talking to Montague some things about me. Did you really mean it?"asked Harry in surprise.

"Of course I meant it Potter. I don't care for this meaningless, stupid house-rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor. I am damn sure that you didn't put your name in the Goblet. Your facial expression when your name came out of the Goblet is proof of that. So, why would I want to wear those stupid badges? What they are doing is quite childish actually" she said smiling gently at him.

This time, it was Harry's turn to smile back at her, which he did.

"Please call me Harry. All my friends call me Harry" said Harry genially, giving out his hand for her to shake.

"I will, only if you call me Zarina" said Zarina playfully as she shook Harry's hand. At that moment, a beautiful friendship was forged between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, something which happened only once in a blue-moon. It was the rarest of all kinds of friendships forged at Hogwarts.

"And Zarina, I too never though that I would ever thank a Slytherin. Thanks a lot for believing me when not even my so-called friends did. In fact, you are the only person at Hogwarts till now who has supported me so passionately. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me. I will help you in whatever way I can since you are my only friend in this castle now" said Harry sincerely.

Zarina was shocked by Harry's admission. She was startled on hearing that things had become so bad for him even in his own house. At that instant, she vowed internally to become a great friend to him and support him in whatever way she could.

"Thanks Harry. You are so sweet. But it is in fact you who saved me. So, please name your favour. If you want any help in preparing for the tournament, please tell me. I will help you in whatever way I can" said Zarina.

Harry's first instinct was to deny her help but then he thought that, since he had no one else except Sirius to rely on, he might as well have some extra help. After all, Moody had mentioned that cheating had been an integral part of the tri-wizard tournament in the past.

"I would love to have your help Zarina" said Harry smiling at her.

Zarina smiled back brightly, her face dazzling with happiness.

"Excellent, so now we have to decide on a place where we can meet regularly. So, what do you say?"asked Zarina.

"Well, we can choose this classroom itself. What about the time?"asked Harry.

"It will be better if we meet here everyday early morning from day after tomorrow at 6 AM just after the curfew ends. Because, nobody usually wakes up by that time. So, both of us can easily sneak out and come back before our dorm members wake up. And don't feel bad when I say this Harry, but we have to hide our friendship from our housemates because if word gets out that a Slytherin and Gryffindor have befriended each other, the backlash from our house members would be terrible. Harry, this is not because I am ashamed of having you as my friend. This is an essential precaution. I hope you understand" said Zarina tenderly, looking at his eyes intently as if begging him to believe her.

Harry nodded at her in a reassuring way.

"That is quite reasonable, I suppose. So, see you then day after tomorrow. It is getting quite late" said Harry.

"Yeah Harry, see you day after tomorrow. Good night Harry. Take care" said Zarina smiling brightly at him.

"Good night Zarina" replied Harry grinning back.

Zarina then put a disillusionment charm on herself and started walking towards the Slytherin dorms.

Harry picked up his firebolt and put on his invisibility cloak and started walking back towards the Gryffindor tower with a spring in his step, all thoughts of leaving Hogwarts completely forgotten. His encounter with Zarina had completely lifted his spirits. It gave him such a warm and comforting feeling that there was at least one person in this castle who believed his word and supported him wholeheartedly, and surprisingly it was an older Slytherin girl with whom he had never talked to before.

When he reached the common room, he was relieved to see that there was no one there and everybody had gone to sleep. He went to his dormitory and immediately pounced on his bed. As he laid down on his bed to sleep, the image of a smiling blue-eyed, black-haired, fair-complexioned Slytherin came to his mind. Tonight had been an absolutely wonderful night. He had saved a beautiful lady from a fate worse than death, made a new friend, gained a lot of self-confidence and finally decided to stay back at Hogwarts.

And that made him think about Zarina. She was sweet, compassionate, kind and a dazzling, beautiful smile. What confused him was that how could she be a Slytherin with all these fine qualities? Then, it struck him that he was thinking in terms of labels, which he absolutely hated when people applied it to him. He thought of Zarina as a person and found her to be super-amazing and that was good enough. Her being Slytherin or not was totally irrelevant. He was really excited about interacting more with her in the future.

With such positive thoughts, Harry immediately fell into a deep sleep with a smile on his face and for the first time in so many months, he didn't have any nightmares that night.

Completely unknown to him, this would be the turning point in this life that would change his life for the better.

Author's Note: Hope everyone liked this chapter. Meanwhile, I would like to inform everyone that I could be busy with my project and learning in future, my updates might be very slow and I may not even be able to continue this story. But I will do my best to see that it doesn't happen and ensure that this story is complete.