[Hope]

[1]

From his potion induced dreamless sleep, Harry woke to the sounds of his housemates bustling around the Gryffindor common room. He reached for his glasses before sitting up in his bed. Harry sighed even though he'd only been back at Hogwarts for a week and he was already drowning in assignments, mostly from potions because Snape worked his students like a slave driver. Harry in fact had two of said assignments due in for today and he hadn't done them once again. He cringed, knowing he was in for some rough detentions especially from Snape, last time he was in the dungeons cleaning potion supplies for hours.

Harry got dressed in record time, knowing that he'd have to be quick to avoid Ron, his tormentor and a bloody git. Most of Harry's days are spent trying to stay out of sight of Ron, to the whole school Ron made out that him and the boy who lived were best friends but that wasn't how things truly were when they were alone.

One would've thought that the famous Harry Potter would be very popular at school being the saviour of the wizarding world and all. However, it's the opposite and Harry wished he knew why. Draco had said it was because they were all jealous of him and that they act out of envy. Harry couldn't see why anyone would want to be him, he'd had his life threatened numerous times, his only living relatives hate him and he's ugly. Overall, he couldn't see why his life was so appealing.

On his way to the way to the great hall for breakfast, which for Harry usually only consisted on nibbling on a piece of toast, Harry ran into Draco Malfoy. Unexpectedly, even though the two had a history after the war Draco became his only friend and one of the only people in the school to show him kindness. Also, having been raised in a strict pureblood family with every intention to groom him into the perfect heir, Harry knew that Draco understood the pressure that he himself was always under from his peers, his teachers and pretty much the whole wizarding world.

"Potter mate, are you okay?" The ironically blonde boy asked with a concerned tone before placing a hand Lighting on Harry's shoulder. Harry flinched but continued to make his way into the great hall.

"I'm fine Malfoy." Harry responded dismissively, not willing to share his troubles with anyone simply because that's the way he'd always been and he'd got on just fine. Draco frowned at Harry, obviously not pleased with Harry's answer but he wasn't going to push him either.

"Fine." Draco sighed leading them both to a mostly empty table.

Breakfast was passed with meaningless conversation, that Harry honestly didn't care for, about the two-foot-long essay for transfiguration that neither himself or Draco completed.

The morning's classes went much too slowly for Harry's liking, he once loved his classes and strived to be the top of the class but now in each lesson instead of raising his hand, he was bombarded with cruel notes from his peers. The teachers either never saw or they didn't give a rat's ass about what was happening to Harry because it never stopped.

'You look sad Potter, gonna go cry to your mommy... Oh wait even she didn't want you.'

This note in particular hurt. Harry knew it was all lies, his mother loved him with all her heart when she and his father were taken from his earth but the words still stung. He should've known by then not to open the stupid fucking notes but he always did and each and every one dampened his already lacking spirit. Tirelessly, Draco had tried to make Harry let him tell his godfather and head of Slytherin about the constant bullying but every time Draco pushed, Harry refused as it would wound what little pride he had left.

For weeks, every day of Harry's was the same gruelling routine. He was this year at Hogwarts wasn't going to be a pleasant one. Then again have any of the last seven here actually been pleasant? Harry knew the answer was no, he was pretty sure that if he actually had somewhere to go other than the Dursley's, he wouldn't have even came back. It's not as if anyone would miss him.