And bitter. Bitter because no matter how hard he had tried to be a good person, no one cared. No one had ever appreciated his efforts to help them. To be there for them when they needed someone. Bitter because even those he'd thought of as friends were really just enemies in sheep's wool. He'd saved people from certain death and not a single one had ever thanked him for it. They'd taken it for granted that of course he'd save them. They deserved it. Because they were worthy people. Worthy of his efforts and sacrifices. Yet they gave him nothing. Nothing worth having. What they gave in return was only what they themselves didn't want. Would never want. Pain and misery. And of course accusations that called into question what he'd really been trying to do to them even as what he did saved them from what was endangering them at the time.
And he was tired. Tired of always having to be on his guard. Tired of never knowing who could be trusted or when to trust someone. Tired of being used as a punching bag or a scapegoat for crimes he hadn't, and wouldn't have, committed even if he'd been asked. Tired of having to explain himself over things he hadn't done or that had occurred long before he had even been born. Tired of watching for the hand that held the knife to be shoved in his back this time. Tired of paying for sins not his own.
Snape still singled him out in Potions class to ridicule. He took more points from Harry than he did any other two students in the castle combined. But no one protested his treatment this year any more than they ever really had and Harry no longer cared either. He refused to rise to the challenge the snarky man was issuing. He didn't care if the man vanished his potion attempts or what Draco or his cronies threw into his cauldron to cause it to explode. Draco had the idea since Harry had caused him injury via an exploding cauldron it was his right to explode Harry's whenever he felt like it regardless of how the exploded potion would affect Harry once he was covered in it. And of course, Draco never got into trouble for doing so as Harry had. Just as he'd never been lectured for refusing Harry's apology for that long ago exploded potion. This year Harry didn't even try to make the potions correctly. Instead he used his lab time to experiment with the recipe of choice that day. Snape wouldn't ever accept anything Harry Potter did as being acceptable anyway. So there was no point in doing the assigned potion as it was assigned.
Draco soon lost his enjoyment of getting Potter detentions when Harry quit rising to the bait and simply looked at him without expression and cold, dead eyes covered in whatever they'd been told to brew that day. Never once did Harry cry out or even say a word no matter how painful the results of the explosion had to be. And sometimes even Draco knew he'd gone too far. That Harry was really injured by the explosion. Yet no one, including Harry, ever said a word. He'd just look at Draco with those cold, dead green eyes that silently asked if Draco was happy now. Did he feel avenged now? Feel superior because he'd trashed another's work? Caused them an injury?
Draco had never known the color green could be that cold before. Nor that so much could be conveyed simply by the eyes alone. But there was no doubt in his mind Harry Potter's eyes could. And did. It became clear to him his rival had changed. The Harry Potter in the school now was not the same boy he had declared as his rival when they were eleven. He didn't know how or why but he did know it was true. So he took to stalking the Gryffindor and observing his few interactions with people. He saw at once just why Harry had changed and decided he didn't like it. He saw why he couldn't get a reaction from his rival any more. Pain was something the Gryffindor Golden Boy was all too used to seeing as how he was being injured daily left, right and center by almost everyone in the Castle. Only the foreign students weren't actively trying to harm his rival.
Slowly, he got the rest of the Slytherins to back off by pointing out to them how the other students were doing all the work for them. Harry Potter was no longer the Prince of Hogwarts that he had been in previous years. He pointed out the treatment the boy was now receiving even from their teachers and told them, "If he doesn't kill himself outright, there's a damn good chance he'll allow this bloody tournament or any of our fellow students to do it for him. Merlin knows some of those so-called pranks he's getting hit with are deadly enough to do the trick." He didn't know it but Harry had heard him.
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