1 A Lonely Champion

"So...tell me what happened Potter?" McGonagall asked.

Harry Potter, fourth year Gryffindor, sat in front of McGonagall and he really wasn't feeling good about himself. This year was supposed to start off good, it was supposed to finally be the one year where he didn't have someone trying to kill him. First year it was trolls, three headed dogs and Quirrell who was possessed by the dark lord Voldemort, the dark lord who he had apparently stopped when he was a baby and was the reason for his fame. Second year it was a good intentioned but rather idiotic house elf plus a seventy foot basilisk and an evil diary belonging to Voldemort that possessed Ginny Weasley.

In his third year it was soul sucking demons, because it naturally never got easier, plus a werewolf attack just after discovering the escaped mass murderer that he thought killed his parents was actually innocent and his godfather and actually escaped to get the actually mass murder and traitor who was disguised as a rat and pet of the boy who was his best mate.

It didn't help that he had to go back to his relatives every year.

At the start of this year he thought it was actually possible for him to have a good year, it was the second time he had a defense teacher who was actually good at teaching defence and he would have hopefully been able to watch the tri-wizard tournament along with the others.

Unfortunately this year had already gone balls up. His name had come out of the goblet of fire even though he did not enter his name into the tournament. Now after years of generally being a quiet boy and also stopping Voldemort in his first year, defeating Slytherin's monster in his second and getting attacked by dementors in his third he expected people to naturally realise that getting into a tournament famous for death rates was the last thing he wanted to do.

Unfortunately Harry had very clearly overestimated people.

The Hufflepuff's who had already turned on him in second year after thinking he was the heir of Slytherin, despite the fact that he was a Gryffindor with a muggleborn friend and mother, turned on him this year as well because he 'clearly entered the tournament just to show up the Hufflepuff champion and ruin their opportunity to make their house more famous', they also seemed to be ignoring the fact that nobody even knew that there would be a Hufflepuff champion until Cedric Diggory's name came out of the goblet. The Ravenclaws were divided but most kept neutral in the love/hate Harry Potter trend going on.

The Slytherin's, or at least the majority of them, were gladly using this opportunity as they had pretty much hated him anyway. Draco Malfoy had even began selling badges that would say 'Potter stinks' if you touched them. As for the Gryffindor's, they were divided. Some easily believed that he did it and others didn't, but those that didn't were very little. So far the only people that had told Harry they didn't believe he did it were the Gryffindor chasers and Ginny Weasley.

He didn't know about the twins as they were too busy treating the whole thing like a joke, he might have found it funny if it wasn't his life that was being affected. Harry had at least hoped that Ron and Hermione, his two best friends, would believe him. He was once again disappointed, Ron had called him a lying git and Hermione had told him in length about how she was disappointed in him for entering the tournament.

And now he was here in Professor McGonagall's office, a cut lip and a bruised right cheek.

"Mr Potter?" McGonagall said impatiently.

"Well...I was walking through a hallway and then the next thing I know I get hexed and I fell down some stairs."

"Do you know who hexed you?" McGonagall asked.

"No," Harry shook his head. "I just look up and I see a lot of students and pretty much all of them looked like they were the ones that hexed me or at least wished they could take credit for it."

"Mr Potter there is no need to exaggerate."

"I wish I was exaggerating, the students hate me professor! I didn't enter the bloody tournament!"

"Watch your language Mr Potter," McGonagall said sternly. "now unless you know who hexed you I cannot do anything."

"Alright...fine...but what about the other stuff?" Harry asked.

"Other stuff?" McGonagall repeated. "What other stuff?"

"Gee I don't know," Harry said sarcastically. "how about the fact that ninety nine percent of the school are treating me like I belong in Azkaban?"

"I'm sorry Mr Potter but there is not much I can do about that..."

"But you can do something about those badges that Malfoy is selling." Harry argued.

"What possible reason would I have for removing these badges?" McGonagall asked. "I see nothing wrong with supporting the Hogwarts champion."

"But the professor the badges change to say 'Potter stinks', when teachers aren't around nearly everyone does it. I'd like to at least be able to walk around the hallways without people following me and blocking my way just to shove them in my face and act like I can't read what they're saying."

"Mr Potter, I understand you are feeling frustrated, but I assure you that this will pass..."

"And I'd rather prefer if it happened as soon as possible."

"Mr Potter, do not interrupt me."

"Wait so I can't even interrupt you because it's rude yet it's fine for me to have to endure being treated like I belong in Azkaban."

"Mr Potter please stop being dramatic."

"Dramatic?! Do you know how many people have tried to hex me and insult me this week alone?! I've lost count! The only plus side I can see is I've gotten better with my verbal comebacks, physical dodging and magical healing spells and shields, though I would have preferred to do that because I can, not because it was necessary."

"Mr Potter, I am sorry but with this many people it'll be difficult for me to do anything. Your situation was already discussed with the headmaster and he feels that the there is no need to escalate the situation by having the Hogwarts staff interfere with it, he has asked me to tell you that he advises you to keep your head down." She said, but that did not help Harry in anyway at all.

"But that's bullsh..."

"Mr Potter I'd advise you to control your language," Professor McGonagall cut him off with a warning tone in her voice. "now I would advise you go to Madam Pomfrey if you feel that you need her help, if not then I would advise you to go and complete any homework you have remaining.