Harry awoke with a start, the beginning of sweat beginning to form, awoken by yet another nightmare courtesy of Voldemort. It was moments like these, that reminded him that despite how seemingly useful their connection might be, it was still a terrible curse.

The first thought that reached through his internal fog was confusion, as he tried to take in his surroundings after his eyes shot open. It only took a few seconds for him to realize that he was on the train back to Hogwarts, remembering that the Winter holiday was over.

He remembered the journey to the platform, where various Order members wished them a safe journey, yet he remembered that one person wasn't present. Fleur and her family were noticeably absent from the platform, causing to wonder if she was avoiding him.

The last time the pair saw each other was when the two had fought, and neither word nor letter was exchanged between them. He knew that they needed to resolve the conflict between them, he was still angry, but more importantly, he was still hurt. He had hoped that with all the time he spent with his girlfriend, that she would understand his reasoning behind keeping the prophecy a secret, or that she would at least accept it as Ron and Hermione had, but alas, that wasn't the case. Now he couldn't help but worry that their spat had made her choose to not return to Hogwarts.

He looked at the other occupants of the compartment, and saw that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny weren't woken up by outcry. He remembered the first night after Fleur had left was when the visions had started, waking up all the occupants of Grimmauld Place. He had told them that it was nothing, which might've been believable if the nightmares hadn't continued to come not only every night, but every time Harry tried to sleep. They were thankfully getting less frequent, but had yet to stop completely, leaving him a tired wreck.

Deciding that trying to go back to sleep was futile and that he needed fresh air, Harry exited the compartment as quietly as possible and started to walk along the rows of compartments, absent mindedly. He was met by the stairs of various people. Though there were some sympathetic faces from DA members and other who had heard about the attack at the Burrow, many of the faces were of distrust after the increased werewolf attacks. He couldn't be bothered to care about the hate filled stares he was getting, he was used to people's opinions of him flip-flopping frequently where he was concerned.

After a few minutes of wandering, he happened upon a compartment that at first glance didn't seem too abnormal, until one were to take a closer look at the occupants of said compartment. Seeing Neville and Luna sitting together wasn't too stranger of a sight to see, Harry had noticed that the two of them had been getting closer over the course of the year, even though there was no evidence to suggest that they were actually an item. No, it was the sight of a visibly distraught Lavender Brown sitting with them, her back facing away from the door that had peaked his interest.

Deciding to see what was wrong, he opened the sliding door, and his senses were assaulted by multiple stimuli. First, he was now able to discern that there was a single rapid heartbeat in the room, and judging by how Neville was acting slightly fidgety, it was most likely from him. More startling perhaps, was the fact that one of the scents was that of a werewolf. It didn't take much guess to figure out where that scent came from.

He had read about the other werewolf attacks that occurred on the night of the attack at the Burrow, but at the time, he didn't think anything of it when he saw that the Brown family had been attacked that night as well. He had read that there were no casualties, but that one of the owners' daughters had been bitten that night, while everyone else had managed to get out of it unscathed. Realization dawned on him, that that must've been Lavender's family and that she was the one who got bitten.

At the sound of the door opening, Lavender whipped her head around, a truly haunted look in her eyes that could only be described as lost, absolutely lost. Feeling a rush of sympathy for her, Harry entered the compartment and shut the door behind him. Inside, it seemed that whatever conversation had been going on prior to his entrance had stopped dead in its tracks.

"Hello Harry," began Luna jovially, her cheerful demeanor in complete contrast to the rest of the compartment, "what brings you here?"

"I decided to go for a walk to clear my mind, and I saw you guys sitting here and-"

"You don't have to lie to us Harry," piped up Lavender suddenly, a surprising amount of contempt bleeding through her words, "I know that you're here because of me. I can smell the pity on you."

Harry was caught off-guard by how resentful she sounded there, but quickly tried to regain himself. He couldn't find it in himself to be upset with her. Not when he completely understood where she was coming from. He knew what it was like to feel like a monster.

"Come on Lavender, Harry just wants to help."

"I don't care!"

Harry put a hand on Lavender's shoulder, in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "Listen Lavender, I know what you're going through."

"No, you don't! Everyone looks at me like some kind of freak!"

It only took a moment or two for the Lavender to realize what had just come out of her mouth. Her eyes immediately began to water, as she realized that she was yelling at potentially the only person in Hogwarts who could understand what she was going through.

"Oh Merlin! I'm sorry Harry. I had no right to say such things. This has only just happened to me, while you've dealt with it for so long, and-"

Harry placed both hands on her shoulders to stop her rambling, "It's okay Lavender, I understand what you're going through." She finally lifted her head to look him in the eyes again, and he was once again stunned at the hopeless look in her eyes. "After…well everything, I started pushing people away too. I thought that everyone would abandon me and that my life was over. But you know what?" He paused to look over at Neville and Luna, who had shifted closer together while he was consoling Lavender, "I found that there were still people who cared about me. You still have those people Lavender, even if you're having trouble finding them. Anyone who doesn't see the same girl that has been at Hogwarts for the past 5 years, they aren't worth your thoughts. Prove to them that you're more than what they think of you."

For the first time since he had joined them in their compartment, Lavender eyes lit up incrementally, showing him a small watery smile that proved that his words had worked at some level.

"Thank you, Harry, that means a lot," she paused momentarily, fear returning to her features, "I'm just scared of what's going to happen after...well."

"Don't worry you won't have to go through the moon alone. If you want, I can help you out until you feel more comfortable."

Her smile returned at his promise, before she squared her shoulders up, reached into her nearby bag, and pulled out some make-up and began doing her face. Harry smiled at her actions, thankful that he had managed to get through to her.

"So how was your break Luna?"

"It was fine. Dad went off to find some more creatures for his next issue of The Quibbler, and I went by Neville's home a few times. It was a lot of fun, especially when he took me out by his garden and he-"

"Shhh!"

Neville attempts at silencing Luna were successful, but got Harry's attention. Looking at the two, he started to wonder why the two were sitting so close together, until he noticed that hidden in the little space between them, he could see that his two friends' hands were intertwined. Not needing any more clarification on what was going on, figuring that they would tell everyone when they were ready. It was Neville who decided to try and get the conversation going again.

"Not much else happened besides that. Once we got on the train, I saw Lavender looking sad, and having heard about what happened through the Daily Prophet, I asked her if she wanted to sit with us."

Lavender smiled at the pair, before the conversation turned less serious as they continued on their way back to school. Their happy journey went on for some time until they were interrupted by Malfoy and his two goons.

"I'm surprised you two were able to show your faces after all the commotion involving you people over the holiday. "Harry had little patience for Malfoy's cheek today.

"Shove off Malfoy."

"I'd stay away from him if I were you," Malfoy turning his attention to Luna and Neville, even though it was apparent that he would like nothing better than to ignore them, "people tend to get hurt around Potter."

Harry jumped off of the bench he was sitting on, and got directly in Malfoy's face. The Slytherin recoiled, but quickly righted himself and gave a cocky grin towards his adversary.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Potter, I would hate to be responsible for another person's death if I were you." Without another word further, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle continued up the corridor in the direction that they had come from.

When he finally sat back down, Harry stayed quiet for some time before he rejoined the conversation. For a while, he mulled over the words that Malfoy had said, and the more he thought about it the more he convinced himself and the more it made sense.

Harry was positive that Malfoy had something to do with the attack at the Burrow.

-HP-

After nearly all the students were sat in the Great Hall, Hermione looked across the table at the spot next to Harry that was usually reserved for Fleur, but found that the spot was still empty. She immediately became concerned not just for her French friend, but also for Harry as well. Once her and Ron had met up with Harry once the train docked at Hogsmeade, Harry had relayed his fear that Fleur's absence might've been because she was avoiding him, and had even expressed the thought that she may have transferred back to Beauxbatons because of this. Hermione severely doubted this but she was concerned nonetheless. Harry and Fleur had had a few fights since getting together, but none like this and she worried about the status of their relationship.

Movement from the front of the Great Hall caught her attention just in time to see Fleur herself entering the Great Hall. Following her gaze, Harry too looked in that direction and visibly stiffened at the sight of her, yet at the same time there was a hopeful quality to his eyes as Fleur stopped her walk when her eyes locked on Harry. Neither budged an inch for several seconds, before Fleur seemed to visibly gather herself and chose to sit with Angelina and Alicia, who both at least had the decency to look apologetically towards them.

Hermione focus returned to Harry and was met by his downcast expression. His eyes turned towards the table and he seemed to collapse within himself. Knowing her best friend as well as she did, she knew that Harry felt bad for making Fleur feel like he didn't trust her and it was apparent that it was eating him up inside.

For the rest of the meal, Harry backed out of nearly all the back and forth banter of the classmates around them, barely replying to anything directed his way with more than a few words. He eventually stood up to leave long before most of the hall had decided to, slowing down his exit briefly when he approached Fleur but continued to appear downtrodden when she didn't acknowledge his presence. Only after he was several feet away did Hermione see the girl's head turn towards the direction of her boyfriend, before she refocused on the conversation she was in, albeit with a brief look of sadness in her eyes, before they hardened again as if remembering that she was supposed to be mad at him.

Deciding that enough was enough, Hermione decided that she needed to have a talk with Fleur before the night was done. Deciding that the best time to do that would be when everyone was on their way back to their dormitories, Hermione waited until Fleur left the Great Hall and followed her to a spot where they could talk in private.

She intercepted the French witch in the Third-floor corridor and pulled her into the first doorway that the pair had come across. Once it was shut behind them and Hermione could glance around the room that they occupied, she realized where exactly they were.

Fleur opened her mouth to hotly ask why Hermione had dragged her into this room, but Hermione cut her off before she could get a word in edgewise.

"Do you know where we are Fleur?"

This stumped Fleur as she too gazed around the room, finding it bare except for a trapdoor near the center of the room.

"This was where Hagrid's dog Fluffy guarded that trapdoor", she indicated towards the door in question, "Which protected the Sorcerer's Stone." Fleur's eyes widened as she finally realized what room the significance of this room. "Finding this room was the first time that things got difficult for him at Hogwarts, but not the first time things got difficult." She now directed her pointed gaze towards Fleur, causing the older which to recoil as she knew where their talk was headed.

"Harry had his reasons for keeping the Prophecy from us," her voice turned cold, nearly making Fleur shiver from how frigid her tone was.

"How can you be okay with him keeping something so important from you?" This nearly came out rushed, wanting to get her thought across before Hermione had the opportunity to roll through her argument.

"Though Ron and I don't like the fact that he kept it from us, we understand why he did it. He wanted to try and spare us from his burden."

"But don't we have the right to know. You two are his best friends, I'm his girlfriend. Why didn't he trust us?"

Hermione barked out a humorless laugh. "You really have no idea, do you?" Her eyes searched Fleur's for any sign of falsehood. "You know about Harry's Aunt and Uncle, right? Well, what you haven't heard, is much worse."

Hermione began to recount everything that she had put together about Harry's home life that she could gather from what Harry's said, to what the Weasley's had seen the few times they saw him at home, to what she figured out for herself just from watching Harry. She felt a sickly kind of satisfaction when Fleur's expression transitioned through various phases of shock and disgust.

"What they've done to him…no one should ever have to go through that." Unbidden tears formed in her eyes as she thought about what her best friend had gone through.

"I had no idea…why didn't he tell anyone?"

"For the same reason that he didn't tell us about the prophecy, those…people," the venom was practically dripping from her voice at the words, "made him believe that he had to rely on himself and that he wasn't worth it. They made him believe that he couldn't trust anybody and," she paused momentarily as realization dawned on her. Her and Ron had reaffirmed his belief that he couldn't trust anyone when they kept him in the dark over the summer. She hated herself for treating Harry no better than everyone else in his life, and she promised to herself to make it up to him. She would take care of that later, right now, she needed to stop this foolishness between Harry and Fleur.

Hermione felt a ave of satisfaction when she saw the look in Fleur's eyes. Her eyes watered as the truth behind Hermione's words, but the words left her.

"For a long time, I refused to accept that things would change after he was bitten. I understand that now. Especially, when I realized that he didn't want to be a monster, like them."

Hermione could see the understanding form behind Fleur's eyes. He didn't want to be anything like his "family", and he didn't want to hurt anyone just like they had hurt him. Instead of responding, Fleur walked from the room to try and process what she just learned. Hermione let her pass through the door and could only hope that Fleur finally understood.