"Harry," Dumbledore said quickly. "Don't waste this chance you've been given to start over. Not many people get the chance to start over. Don't let the anger you have within you keep you from making friends and moving on with your life. You have to let go of it and forgive those who have wronged you."
Harry got to his feet and asked tonelessly. "Are you done?"
"For now." Dumbledore realised it was too soon to expect to make any headway, but he had hoped that some of the boy's anger toward the wizarding world had begun to ease, so that he might at least hear what was being said.
"Good," Harry pushed past the Headmaster and walked out into the Great Hall.
..... .....
"I see the favouritism has begun." Snape commented once the sorting was completed. The yellow t-shirt that Potter was wearing stood out amongst the sea of black, even if the brat hadn't been sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table.
"Not at all Severus," Dumbledore assured him, then turned to McGonagall who had just joined them. "Minerva, tomorrow, you will be taking Mr. Potter to Diagon Alley to get all of his school supplies. And you will charge the purchases to the school account."
"Why the school account, Headmaster?" McGonagall had no problem with taking the boy to get his supplies, but didn't understand why the school would be paying for them when the boy clearly had more than enough money to pay for them himself.
"Young Harry had a valid point about one thing." Dumbledore told the two professors as he sat back down after making his welcoming speech. "If the Heads of House hadn't stood by and allowed it to happen, he would have had his school supplies for sixth year as well as the invisibility cloak that belonged to James, the photo album, and the Firebolt Sirius gave him. Since no teacher made any attempt to stop the destruction of his personal belongings by students of this school, then Hogwarts must pay to have them replaced."
"And what of the Gryffindors who destroyed the items in the first place." Snape wondered. "Are they to avoid having to pay for the destruction they caused?"
"No, they will not." Dumbledore told him. "The cost of replacing one Firebolt will be divided among the parents of all Gryffindor students from second year through seventh, since we will not be able to charge it to those who were not here last year and are not here now. A letter will be sent to every parent explaining the reason for the charge. We will allow the Gryffindors to present the Firebolt to Harry. It may help to heal the rift between them."
"In that case Headmaster, we might want to turn the task of replacing the photo album and presenting it over to Miss Granger." McGonagall suggested. "It might help repair the damage to her relationship with him as well."
"An excellent idea, Minerva," Dumbledore told her.
..... .....
Unaware of the plans being made at the head table, Harry filled his plate and ignored anyone's attempts to get him to talk. Those few who were somewhat persistent, he glared at until they left him alone.
Once they were released, from the Great Hall, Harry took the quickest route to the Gryffindor tower. He wanted to get an idea of who his dorm mates were going to be before they got there given that he hadn't been at the feast during his second year.
There were six beds in the sixth year dorm. And five of them had trunks in front of them, which made the sixth one his. The names on the trunks were vaguely familiar, but the only sixth year he knew by sight was Colin Creevy and that was only because the fool had kept jumping out and taking pictures of him like a celebrity stalker. He wrote a quick note and left it on Colin's bed warning the little fool that if he tried to take pictures of him this year, he would stick that camera of his somewhere painful.
He still hadn't decided if he was going to stay where they put him, or go to the Room of Requirement. Though that might not be a good idea, given that everybody and his brother now knew about it. After a few moments thought he decided he would stay in Gryffindor for a few days and if the attempts to try and get him to forgive them got to be too much, he'd find some place else to stay. The Chamber of Secrets was an option if he couldn't find anywhere else, since he was the only one that could access it, though it was a bit of a gloomy option.
Opening his backpack, Harry pulled out his trunk and restored it to normal size long enough to remove his pyjamas, robe and shower gear. Once the shrunken trunk was back in the pack, he headed out of the dorm room to take a shower.
He could hear the noise in the common room as he moved down the hall toward the showers.
"Harry!" Colin's voice called. "Hermione is looking for you."
"Any idea why?" Harry asked smirking as he noticed that Colin was also sporting 'I am an idiot' on his forehead.
"She didn't say, just that she needed to talk to you." Colin told him.
"Okay, I'd better go see what Miss Know-it-All wants." Harry headed down to the common room. He wasn't really interested what Granger wanted, but knowing how persistent the know-it-all could be, he really didn't want her bursting in on his shower.
.....
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