Chapter 1

The water lapped at Harri's feet as she stood on the banks of the black lake. It had been a week since she had been at the bottom of said lake as part of the second task and it was that very task that now haunted her. Her problems had started when her name had come out of the Triwizard cup forcing her to compete in this nightmare of a competition. It was the last thing she could have possibly wanted but that hadn't stopped Ron, someone she thought was her best friend, from believing she had cheated her way into the contest to gain more fame despite her numerous complaints over the years of her already overwhelming fame. She couldn't believe he had been such an idiot and they had not been on speaking terms since.

Hermione had stuck by her side though, not believing for a minute that she wanted to be in this tournament. The bright young witch had helped her through the emotional turmoil that being hated by the whole school had brought on and when she had discovered that she would be facing down dragons for the first task having a shoulder to cry on during the emotional breakdown that followed had been the one thing keeping her together. That emotional support that Hermione had been providing led Harri to realize just how much she cared for the girl, more so then just as a friend. However, when she had acted on these feelings and asked her to the Yule ball Hermione had freaked out. In a display of emotions that had cut her to her core, Hermione had screamed at her with an amount of disgust she had never seen in her before. Apparently, Hermione had grown up in a very conservative family whose opinions on homosexuality had been less than positive.

Even worse Hermione had decided to out her to the whole school at which point she learned of the Wizarding Worlds equally negative opinion on the matter. She shouldn't have been surprised, with its cruel treatment of magical creatures and rampant racism towards muggleborns any other reaction would have seemed out of place but it didn't make it hurt any less. Insults, curses, and hexes all became a constant aspect of her life but by far the worst was the Yule ball itself. McGonagall had still insisted she go to the dance despite all her troubles and finding a date had been impossible with her current ostracism. So, it was with great humiliation that she showed up to the dance alone, McGonagall had almost murdered her on the spot but it was too late for anything to be done about it. She still wasn't allowed to leave the dance though and probably thinking she had was just trying to get out of it McGonagall had instead made her dance by herself in front of the whole school. As if that wasn't bad enough the looks Hermione sent her as she danced with Krum had told her just how pleased she was with the situation. That night she had cried herself to sleep in a classroom not wanting to have to face her classmates again.

She had spent the next month following the same pattern, sneak into the kitchens to avoid having to join the other students in the great hall, hide out in abandoned classrooms between classes while trying to find out the mystery of the golden egg, and find a nice quite space to sleep at night. Finally, the day of the second task had arrived and she had dived down to the bottom of the lake to find whatever it was that she would most miss. It hadn't been what though it had been who, in the city of the mermaids there were four tall poles three of which had a person on them. On the poles were Hermione, some young blonde girl, and the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang. Unsure of which of these people she was supposed to care about she stopped for a moment. Krum quickly swam by and took Hermione at which point Harri decided to just wait around and see which of the other hostages got taken. After a few minutes Cedric had swam by and freed Cho so Harri in turn took the blonde girl. She had been a little confused as to how this blonde girl whose name she didn't even know was supposed to be who she would miss most in the world but unsure of what else to do had just gone with figuring she would find the answer soon enough.

And what an answer it had been, when she reached the surface she had learned that the girl had not been here hostage it was Fleur's hostage that she had saved. So she had asked Dumbledore who her hostage was and what had happened to them. Dumbledore had told her that when the goblet of fire chose the person in the world that she cared about the most it had chosen no one. Not being sure what to do about it he had just decided to not give her a hostage and see what happened. Eventually though Harri had put together the reason the goblet hadn't chosen anyone, it was because there was no one she cared about. It made sense really, before Hogwarts the only people important in her life had been the Dursleys and she certainly didn't care about them. Sure there had been people she cared about at Hogwarts but all of them had abandoned her and at this point even if they tried to make amends she didn't think she would except them. They had pushed her too far, caused her too much pain, how could she ever look at their faces without thinking about that. So here she was on the banks of the black lake. Alone.

There she was. Fleur had been trying to find Harri Potter ever since she had saved her sister during the second task. It had been a week and she had yet to see her around, none of the students that she had asked had been very helpful, most gave her odd looks ranging from confusion to disgust and the rest just stared at her blankly, overcome by her Veela allure. It was just another thing to add to her growing list of problems with the school.

As she walked down the hill the youngest champion seemed to hear her approach and turned to face her, the nervous look on her face was hard to miss.

"I've been looking for you all over," Fleur said. With that the look of nervousness quickly turned to one of dread. The girl just continued to stand there though not even making an attempt to respond, so Fleur tried again.

"In the week since the second task I haven't seen you once, where have you been all this time?"

"umm, places?" Harri mumbled awkwardly

In most cases she would be annoyed at this point but Harri's responses seemed to be coming from a place of social inability more than rudeness, besides considering she had saved her sister she felt she should give her a little slack. So she pushed ahead. She sat down in front of the lake and patted the ground indicating to Harri to sit next to her which she reluctantly agreed to do.

"So what brings you to this dismal lake on such a cold winter day, I would think after the second task you would have gotten plenty of this place" Fleur said hoping this time she would get an answer

"Its said task that made me come out here," Harri replied "Unlike the rest of you I didn't have a hostage and I can't stop thinking about it"

Fleur smiled to herself glad that she had managed to coax the witch out of her shell

"Perhaps it was simply a safety concern, by having three hostages and four champions even if one didn't make it there still wouldn't be any hostages left behind." Fleur replied

"Yeah, maybe" Harri said despondently as she stared at the lake

"But you don't think that is the case, do you? What is it?"

Harri hesitated but after a moment began speaking, "In the past few months I have alienated everyone I have ever cared about, first by somehow getting wrapped up in this stupid tournament and anyone I didn't manage to ostracize with that I certainly did when the entire school discovered I'm a lesbian. Now I spend my days avoiding people hoping I make it through the day without any confrontations. So after thinking long and hard about why the goblet of fire couldn't pick someone that I cared about I realized it is quite simply that there is no one I care about"

That had hardly been the answer that Fleur had been expecting, anyone admitting that they were completely alone in the world, that they had no one they cared for especially to a stranger would have been surprising but the fact that it was Harri Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, only made it even more so. She had heard the rumors about Harri's sexuality of course, it had been being talked about constantly for the past two months but she had hardly payed much attention to it. Though hearing the girl talk confirm the rumors did explain her unusual behavior at the dance.

Fleur sighed "Your going through a hard time right now Harri and I'll warn you its not going to get easier anytime soon. I remember when I came out as Bi people did not take it well at all. France is better about these things than England is but it still has a long way to go. People were freaked out, most of the girls in my dorm suddenly became very uncomfortable around me. I heard more homophobic slurs than I knew existed but, in the end, I made it through. If you want the advice of someone who's been dealing with this a lot longer than you have, I'm more than happy to help. Besides I owe you one for saving my sister."

Harri just stared at her in stunned silence, finally she nodded at her with the slightest look of hope in her emerald eyes.

Fleur smiled "alright the most important thing is to not isolate yourself, in otherwards don't do the exact thing you're doing"

Harri seemed to get more than a little defensive at that comment "I didn't choose to isolate myself, everyone just decided that it was completely ok to treat me like shit. There was nothing I could do about it, what should I have done sit next to them politely while they tell me about how degenerate I am?"

Fleur rolled her eyes at Harri's childish outburst, she really hoped that there was more to this girl than a raging ball of anger and awkward or this was going to be a rather unpleasant experience. "I am not saying that you should spend time with the people that abuse you I'm saying keep an eye out for those that don't hate you because trust me they do exist. They may not be vocal about it but they exist, all you have to do is start putting yourself out there. For example, if I were to ask you to join me for breakfast tomorrow morning would you except?"

"I… um sure?"

"Excellent, I'll see you in the Great Hall tomorrow." And with that Fleur walked off

Harri was confused, confused about several things. Fleur Delacour had apparently decided that she was going to drag her out of the hole she had buried her self in and bring her back to the world of people. Or at least she thought that was what that conversation meant, she really wasn't sure. At the very least she would be meeting her for breakfast tomorrow. It would be nice she supposed to just have a normal meal with someone again. It would be awkward that was for sure, she had never been the most sociable person and spending two months in isolation certainly hadn't helped. After all, just spilling out all her problems to someone you had just met was hardly normal right? God, she couldn't believe she had done that. However despite the embarrassment she still found herself looking forward to breakfast tomorrow, it wasn't like anything good would be happening between now and then. After two months of loneliness it seemed like a bit of light was starting to shine through. Only sixteen hours left to go until breakfast.

AN: So this is something I didn't think I'd ever be doing again. After making several attempts over the years at writing and each time I made a little bit of progress looking back and hating it I had given up on the idea but for some reason I talked myself into giving it another go. Its certainly not great but its better than I thought it would turn out and I find myself rather enjoying the process.

The story isn't going to be too long, currently I'm thinking somewhere around 10,000 words and I'm hoping to have it done before the end of Thanksgiving break so if for some reason your actually enjoying this you wont have long to wait.