Introduction
Headmistress McGonagall peered at Harry over the top of her half moon glasses, making him squirm in his seat slightly. It had been a really long time since he'd sat in the seat in front of the headmaster's desk, feeling vaguely like he'd done something wrong.
"Do you want to tell me why you threw your glass at Ms. Granger today during breakfast, Mister Potter?" The witch asked, not unkindly.
Harry sighed.
This morning had been rather rough. He'd woken up from dreams about Tonks and Remus staring up at him, eyes glassy, unmoving except for lips whispering that it was his fault their son would never have a father. It wasn't an uncommon dream, but it always resulted in embarrassing hot tears sliding down his cheeks as he tried to be quiet and not wake everyone in the dorm up. Not that there were too many people in the dorm nowadays. Dean and Seamus hadn't felt the need to come back after the Battle for their last year. So now it was just him, Ron, and Neville.
Anyways, he hadn't wanted to wake them up, so he'd just gotten up and gotten dressed at three AM and gone down to the common room. That had resulted in him being cranky and sleep deprived at breakfast.
Then Hermione had told him that he should really being doing his homework, because just because they were seventh years now didn't mean they could skip their responsibilities, and Harry threw a cup at her.
It was meant to be teasing, but something about the way she thought he was just fine and could do his homework, after all that had happened...
Well, he had thrown it a little harder than intended.
"Is she okay?" Harry asked miserably, refusing to look up from his lap and meet McGonagall's most likely disappointed gaze.
"Madame Pomfrey is healing her, it was only a bruise," the headmistress said, then paused and spoke again in a softer voice. "It's alright for you to still be healing too, Harry. You went through more than anyone, and it's normal to have... outbursts."
He didn't say anything, trying to keep from yelling that he was falling apart, that Hermione and Ron were dating now and Ginny had something going on with Luna and barely half of his friends had come back this year and half of the ones who hadn't come back didn't because they were dead, and he had no one at all.
Instead, he just mumbled "I'm fine," and crossed his arms.
"No, you're not," McGonagall said sternly, and Harry glanced up to see her looking rather frustrated. "So, regretfully, you're suspended."
"What?" Harry exploded out of his seat, standing up and staring at her incredulously. "I didn't mean to hurt her, Headmistress, you know that, I can't leave Hogwarts right now, I'll go crazy!"
"You're already going crazy here," McGonagall pointed out, arching an eyebrow and waiting for Harry to sit down once again. When he did, she continued. "I want you to go to a retreat Hogwarts has. It's a forest, with cabins. It's secluded, meant to be a place for any student to go when they need to. There's another student there already, although he's far enough away that you shouldn't run into him." Harry arched a skeptical brow and she crossed her arms, simply adding "it's a rather big forest."
"Harry," McGonagall continued, leaning forward and looking directly into his eyes, "you hate being here. Your best friends have apparently annoyed you to the point where you're throwing things at them. Go to the forest. Practice magic, practice cooking, read books, take walks, recover and heal on your own. Hogwarts will be here for you when you get back. It's just a break, not a goodbye."
The prospect was, admittedly, not horrible. He could have a whole house to himself, and maybe...
Well, maybe a month or two alone was what he needed. He could deal with this stuff in his head, get a handle on his emotions, and then come back and graduate. It could actually help.
"Fine," Harry said, feeling like he would either very much regret this decision or very much appreciate it. "I'll go."