Dumbledore and Harry's Adventures

Goodbye Hogwarts!

AUTHOR NOTE – This starts right after the defeat of the basilisk in Book 2. This is intended to be a continuing story.

Harry Potter was dying. He had accepted that fact. He knew that he was likely going to die when he decided to come down to the Chamber of Secrets to save Ginny Weasley and was at peace with the reality that he was presented with. He wished he would have been able to save the poor girl, but Riddle (the memory of a teenage Voldemort) was still draining her life force. At least Harry had defeated the basilisk and protected the school. It was a Pyrrhic victory, as the serpent had managed to break off a venom infused fang into Harry's arm. And now, in death, the basilisk was finishing him off.

As Riddle bragged and Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, began to cry sadly on Harry's wound, Harry wondered if it had been worth it. He had saved the children of the school, but he felt no real joy about that. Intellectually, he knew it was a good thing. But, in his heart he could hardly bring himself to care about the school full of children who thought he was a Dark Lord in training.

Ever since that fateful day where, during a dueling club, he revealed himself to be a Parselmouth, the school had turned on him. For some reason he could not fathom, people believed that holding a conversation with a snake means you are evil. He supposed it was eeeeevil to discover that a snake wanted to go to Brazil.

At first, he had been happy that his friends were sticking with him. Hermione, Ron, and the Weasley twins were all treating him like normal. It had made it bearable, until one day when he had decided to relax under his invisibility cloak, and he overheard Hermione whispering to Ron and the twins.

"No, I looked through the books, and they are very clear. Being a Parselmouth is not just a sign of possibly being a Dark Wizard, it is a sign of DEFINITELY being a Dark Wizard! I don't want it to be true, but we have to accept that Harry is the one attacking the school."

Ron and the twins (raised up with the standard prejudices of the British magical world) agreed with Hermione and resolved that it was safest to pretend that they believed in Harry. After all, Harry only seemed to be attacking those who had crossed him and wanted people to think he was innocent. They just needed to avoid making themselves a target.

The year moved forward, with his friends going through the motions of helping Harry find the "real culprit". Hermione finished her Polyjuice Potion and they snuck into the Slytherin dorms as Crabbe and Goyle, only proving that Malfoy was innocent. Harry shared his experience with Riddle's diary saying that the Chamber had been opened five decades previously (the diary had not revealed its evil intentions at that time). And finally, Hermione was petrified.

Once Hermione had been petrified, the Weasleys must have decided that it was safest to keep their distance. Ron and the twins kept finding excuses for not helping Harry. As such, Harry was alone when he snuck down to Hagrid's hut and watched the gentle groundskeeper be sent to Azkaban without a trial. He looked on numbly, as Lucius Malfoy smugly informed Dumbledore that he had been removed as Headmaster. He was alone when he followed the spiders and met Hagrid's murderous monster spider friend named Aragog. Luckily, he had been saved by the Weasley's self-aware car. He was in the common room when he discovered that someone had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and saw the suspicious looks shot towards him. He had a moment of inspiration, grabbed his invisibility cloak, and went to talk to Moaning Myrtle in desperation. And so, he was alone when he discovered the entrance to the Chamber, he was alone when he entered the Chamber, he was alone when he confronted Riddle and the basilisk (Ginny's unconscious form didn't count as company), and he was alone as he lay there dying.