Enjoyed reading this story, very cynical but unfortunately very true.

I was always annoyed at the Rowlings -and others- insistance that Harry's anger in 5th years all due to the Horocrux. I mean, it WAS more than just teenage anst, but there was plenty of clues for it could be normal behavior for someone that had PTSD and no mental health care to address it. With everything that Harry went through 4 years alone (and life really), it would be normal to have PTSD.

One scene really vexed me. It was shortly after the trio returned to Hogwarts, Ron & Hermione start to argue again, and Harry turned around to tell them enough was enough. In this scene Harry wasn't even yelling at them, just grumbling that they were being annoying with the constant bickering. They turned around and snap at him for "constantly yelling at them". Uh hello? Nope! Harry isn't constantly having a go at them. By that scene Harry had only one yelling session (when he first arrived at Sirius' house) and never spoke up when they had a quarrel. Only other time he yelled at them was at the end of 1st year when they decided to go save the stone. But even then, it wasn't really an argument within the trio, Harry was yelling to make a point of Voldemort already targeting him.
I found it deeply hypocritical of them to chastise Harry criticizing their yelling/argument, when each year they are constantly yelling at each other and past few years yelled at Harry.

This take on Madam Bones was refreshing. We usually only see one interpretation of Bones: that she is for justice, no matter if it means she goes against Fudge & Dumbledore. So seeing Bone just toeing the line is different. I mean look at the books, she didn't speak against Fudge clearly changing Harry's hearing into a full trial in front of the full Wizengamot.

I am not surprised that Harry refused to send his kids to Hogwarts ... I am somewhat surprised his decline was polite lol ... but then I remember the tone of this story and yeah it fits.

*snicker* I like this story, it's a completely appropriate response to all the dung dumped on Harry. That Dumbledore and McGonagall are both inconvenienced is a feature, not a bug. This is a beautiful job of playing a bad hand well.

Enjoyed the story

Great story!

A few questions:
1) Near the beginning of the story Harry never noticed that Dobby didn't answer his questions.

2) When the healer ran the scan on him why didn't he notice all the other spells that were on Harry?

3) What all spells were on Harry (that got moved to the wristband) and who put them there?

Thoroughly enjoyed this story and thanks for putting it altogether ((no chapters)).

Thanks,
G. Smith

Great story!

Correction: my previous comment applied up until the end of the summer. I have to admit, even though it makes my soft spot even more sore, that the later conversation between Harry and Hermione was in character for her. Maybe I could argue she should be smart enough to know that it wasn't a good way to reach out to him, especially after what he had just bluntly stated, but I admit she's idealistic and stubborn enough to take that conversation in that direction. I'd just like to think she cares about him more, because the canon examples of her stubbornness against him have been out of care for him. Until the Horcrux hunt, that is... I certainly cannot fault you for portraying her as you did. I think my sore spot just started bleeding... Does anyone have any bandaids?

I know most, if not all, of my critique here can be attributed to this being a one-shot, a very useful if limiting form. But here it is:
I mostly enjoyed the apathetic, teenage, "don't care, just go" tone of the story. Until the moment Hermione left Grimm Manor, which struck a personal soft spot of mine, I admit. I started thinking that the tone, and Harry's mood, softest here: from a pathetic to straight misanthropic. Truly, I think he dances on the line of apathy, sometimes more caring, particularly towards Winky, and sometimes hostile, to Dumbledore and the Weasleys. His reaction is a little bit of a flip of a coin and isn't explored very deeply, which is the one-shot curse.
Here we come back to my sore soft spot, Hermione. She got bunched up with the Weasleys, with no regard for her character or any explanation. This might go unnoticed by readers less fixated on her character and Harry's treatment of her could be made more convincing with more page time. Once again, the one-shot curse. I think a similar thing happened with Hagrid and Harry's treatment of the Wizarding world as a whole and his friends in particular. It's never fully explored how or why Harry decided to up and leave.
Anyway, I'll go back to massaging my sore spot and you go back to writing well-toned stories like this one.

I'm really glad I found this story

This is a great short story. Apathetic Harry does not mean stupid Harry.

straight forward story ...great story

I've spent a long time looking a long time for a apathetic/alienated Harry fic that doesn't suck. I'm surprised that it's taken as long as it has to find this.

It's truly the way Book Five should have gone, though I honestly believe that Rowling should have stopped after the third book. Harry had absolutely no reason to fight for these people, let alone play kamikaze for Emperor Dumblehito.

Also like the idea of Amelia Bones as just another bureaucratic pinhead. It's closer to the truth than the fandom's Amelia Bones, Crusader for Justice

I liked this long one shot. Thanks for the share

awesome story