Harry, however, simply went about his day exactly as he had before the branding of his three servants. He paid them no mind no matter how often they tried to corner him to order him to undo what he had done to them. Which happened at least once per class he shared with them. Which, given he had taken the same electives as Ron, was all his classes.
Regardless of where he slept in the Castle, his tie was still red and gold so his classes were on the Gryffindor schedule. That gave the Triad nearly full access to him on the weekdays. But thanks to the diligence of the Professors, and the wall of students that surrounded him in the Halls, neither Ron nor Hermione could do much more than glare and hiss at him and he was an old hand at ignoring that kind of behavior. He knew they hadn't yet come to understand what he'd done to them or why he'd done it. They were too stubborn to realize the truth this quickly. So he ignored them.
He figured it'd be closer to Christmas before they'd stop being too angry to think clearly. And then it'd be the two Weaselys who'd figure it out first. Granger would never admit she deserved her mark. But the two Weaselys had been raised in this world and they understood magic in a way Granger didn't. So they'd come to their senses along about the time their classmates began to talk about going home for the holidays. And that's when they'd start realizing getting rid of their marks was in their hands. Not his. Ginerva would realize it first. And she'd talk Ron around.
But Granger would never get it because it meant admitting she'd done wrong. And was wrong. In her entire life, Hermione Granger had never had to admit she was wrong about anything. Nor had she ever had to admit she'd done something that did or could have hurt another. She didn't know how to admit such a thing. Which explained why she was haunting the Library now trying to find a curse she could use on him to force him to do her bidding. He'd told her she wouldn't be able to raise her hand against him ever again. But she didn't believe him because she didn't think she deserved her mark.
Of course, he had willing protection in the form of Professor Snape, who always seemed to be nearby whenever Harry was out of his room with Draco at his side, willing and able to distract the triad from Harry, allowing him to escape their trap if they'd managed to set one for him.
Of course, Dobby was always watching as well as he wouldn't even consider that his Harry Potter didn't need someone to watch his back for him. Even Winky was usually somewhere close at hand. Both elves knew they were only waiting for, and working in the Castle until, their Mr. Harry Potter Sir grew up and finished his schooling. Then they would bond with him and be proper elves again. He'd promised to take them both on even if he didn't think he'd have much for them to do. They knew better because they knew their Harry Potter Sir was heir to many Estates and Estates had houses. So their Harry Potter Sir had many houses even if he didn't know it yet. All of which would need much cleaning after having sat empty for so many years. So with all that protection and willing aid, Harry was content with his life for the moment.
Harry didn't fool himself into thinking Snape's and Draco's presence meant they actually liked Harry, though. Well, Draco might but chances were good he just saw an opportunity to add Harry's name to his list of influential people he could call on for backing or favors in the future when they were no longer students at school. With Snape, he knew it was more due to the fact that Snape didn't wish to have the death or serious injury of a student occurring at the school while he was engaged as a teacher here. Bad enough Colin had died and then Cedric at the end of last year. But Cedric's death wasn't school related and there had been nothing he could've done to prevent it. In fact, Harry wasn't even sure how Cedric had died. All he knew was he heard him cry out and then saw the sparks shoot up from what he assumed was Cedric's location in the maze. Nor could anyone have prevented Colin from dying.
However, Harry knew there was no way the Professor was willing allow it to happen again if he could stop it. And since Harry seemed to be the one Death was stalking the most, he'd decided to shadow him as much as possible. Added to that was the purpose everyone seemed to believe he had been born to fulfill and how the world would react if something happened to prevent him from fulfilling that purpose. It never even occurred to him the man might be trying to show Harry he could trust him because Harry had given up on trusting people. He trusted no one.
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