He'd been a fool. He'd been happy to take the fall, thinking he was sheltering his friends and glad to do so since they were helping him prove his innocence. How they must have laughed at him. So foolish. So gullible. So stupid!Hindsight made it clear what he'd done had been extremely dangerous as well proving to Professor Snape that Harry was every bit his father's son as he had always claimed he was.
And because Malfoy had actually suffered a real injury, minor but still real, he'd given Dumbledore and his cronies all they needed to further isolate Harry and set him up to his peers. Something Harry had never been able to recover from. Something he was still forced to deal with even now. Years later.
Harry had been removed from Gryffindor Tower and into Protective Custody by the Headmaster and his Head of House when it became clear none of his dorm mates were willing to stand up for him or wanted to share a room with him any more. After all, even though they all knew Malfoy had been getting in his face and taunting him ever since he'd first set foot into the magical world, he'd still hurt him.
And if he could hurt Malfoy, who wasn't even in their Tower, just for taunting and teasing him, what could he do to them if they upset him? Thanks to Ronald talking about him behind his back, those other boys in his dorm all believed he had a superiority complex and a hair trigger temper. They also believed he was quite capable of holding grudges and getting payback against those he felt had somehow wronged him which Malfoy had done by bad-mouthing his parents and the manner of their deaths.
He was given his own chambers on a different floor with a portrait under strict orders not to let anyone except the teachers, Headmaster, house elves and Harry inside the room without express permission, to guard the entrance to his sanctuary. Because Dumbledore had provided the portrait with Harry's class schedule, the door portrait would go into lockdown as soon as Harry was escorted back after his last scheduled class.
It wouldn't unlock until breakfast time the following morning except for one of the afore-mentioned persons minus Harry himself. In essence, he was a prisoner and there was nothing he could do about it but serve his open-ended sentence. All for throwing a firecracker into the cauldron of another student.
He had been heavily and obviously escorted to and from all his classes allegedly because it wasn't safe for him to be in the halls alone and since he was being shunned by his school mates, there was no one else to walk with him.
Once a day, he'd be escorted to a bathing room by one of the male teachers, usually Professor Snape who spent the entire time regaling him with what a waste of time and space he was, so he could take a shower but otherwise he spent all his time in his room. He got used to the invasion of privacy as Snape refused to leave Harry alone in the shower room for his daily showers. How could he rag on Harry if he wasn't in the room with him? He wasn't even allowed to visit the library for extra books on homework assignments as the teachers claimed not to have the time to stand guard over him while he was there.
So his grades, which were already only average, took a nosedive since he had no reference materials outside his own textbooks to use. And no matter how many times he asked, Hermione always seemed unable to bring him any extra books for his assignments. Either she forgot or the book was checked out or in use by another student.
Or she was currently using it herself but she'd give it to him when she was done with it. A story Harry knew even then meant too late to use it for his homework.
He'd even lost his spot on the Quiditch team because as Professor McGonagal said, "There's no way for us to protect you while you are flying and the team claims they don't feel safe flying with you." She hadn't been happy about that as in her opinion that meant Gryffindor was at a disadvantage to win the cup and it was very clear to Harry she blamed him entirely for no longer being able to play as the team Seeker for her.
And her guilt trip worked. Harry had felt so guilty over what he had done in throwing that firecracker, he had eagerly and willingly done whatever she asked of him in penitence. In fact, he'd done everything he could to please the teachers and get moved back into his dormitory. Including apologizing to Draco both in private and in front of witnesses though he'd refused to accept it claiming Harry was only saying that because he wanted to get out of trouble and not because he meant it.
And of course, Draco didn't get pulled aside by the Headmaster and lectured on the benefit of forgiveness as Harry would've if it'd been the other way around. Nor did anyone else speak up for Harry or admonish Draco for not accepting the apology.
But not once had he seen how being under that heavy guard had only made him look guilty of being exactly the monster the students thought he was. Or substantiated the claims of his detractors that he required special treatment.
To the students, he was being watched carefully because he was guilty of whatever they accused him of being in their rumors or he was such a spoilt ponce he demanded to be treated special compared to how everyone else was treated.
So even at the end of the year when it was proven he wasn't guilty of turning the monster loose on the school, it didn't matter. His reputation was litter in the drainage ditch. No one wanted to know him. Let alone befriend him.
A student had died that year. Eleven year old Colin Creevey had been an avid fan of Harry's. No one could convince him Harry was anything but the Hero he'd been told he was and the child had followed Harry everywhere he went when he wasn't in class.
Even after Harry had been removed from the Tower, Colin had still managed to find and follow Harry around. He had a stalker personality and Harry was half convinced the boy would grow up to become a member of the paparazzi. His favorite possession was his camera and he took copious amounts of pictures of Harry further fueling Harry's belief.
But he would never grow up now. Because he had died in the second floor corridor outside an out-of-service girls' loo. The same loo where Hermione had insisted they brew that Polyjuice Potion so they could interrogate the Slytherins in their nest.
About halfway through the year Colin had noticed one of his classmates was acting oddly and had switched to following her, trying to figure out what she was up to and why she was acting so oddly. Neither Harry nor any of the other students had given any thought as to what could cause Colin to give up on following Harry around. Harry had just figured peer pressure had finally gotten to the first year.
Everyone else, for their own reasons, had simply been glad he had. Harry had never suspecting the danger the child was in. Unfortunately, Colin had followed the girl straight into danger and he had died for his curiosity. But he had left them their first solid bits of evidence that Harry wasn't the student posing the threat against the muggleborn and halfblood students.