He had also spent a great deal of money buying magical study books for Hagrid and arranging for the half-giant to get a new replacement wand since it was very clear to him, Hagrid had only been a convenient scapegoat used by the gang leaders fighting their turf war for control of the local playground. While Hagrid would have to keep his new wand hidden just as he had hidden his broken wand, he did deserve to have it and to learn all the magic tricks other witches and wizard could perform. Hagrid had been very grateful and had sent Harry the class books for his Care of Magical Creatures class which Harry had signed up for as an elective in his third year.
In third year, while Dumbledore had been forced to stop his game, there had still been outside interference in Harry's educational process. This time the interference came from the Ministry supposedly in the interest of keeping Harry safe from an escaped convict. The Ministry sent Dementors to patrol the Castle grounds and keep a watch over all the students. Dementors were monsters used to control the inmates in Azkaban, the wizarding prison. Unfortunately, the dementors were drawn to Harry and he had a definite weakness to them that no one could explain. Or at least, no one would explain. Luckily, thanks to the Headmaster forcing him to remain in lockdown when not in classes or the Great Hall for meals, Harry didn't have much actual contact with them.
Because of this Ministry Protection, the Headmaster decided to add his own layer of protection for Harry. He'd refused Minerva's request for Harry to be moved back into the tower with his year mates. Now that Harry was a hero to the school again, she'd wanted him back in his dorm. Dumbledore didn't. And what Dumbledore wanted, Dumbledore got.
So Harry remained in the isolation room. Nor was Harry allowed to freely wander the halls or grounds between classes as the other students were. Harry was still in the rooms he had been given during his second year. And he was still being escorted any time he was out of his rooms. He also had a new stalker. Only this stalker was a simpering fool of a girl instead of a budding paparazzi.
Somehow Ron and Hermione, with a fawning, simpering and adoring Ginerva, had gotten permission to walk with him in the halls between classes. All three had made it a point to tell Harry they forgave him for everything from the previous year and still considered him to be their friend. Which was really ludicrous coming from Ginerva as she and Harry had never been friends at all and she was the reason for everything that had occurred during his second year. Yet she forgave him! For what?
Harry couldn't stand the redheaded girl but after hinting at that once and receiving a very sound lecture from both Ronald and Hermione, he'd never said a word against the stupid girl again. Or to her for that matter. He ignored her completely. Even when she spoke to him. Or insisted on trying to hang off his arm like a limpet. She even tried to hold his hand a few times. But he grew adept at switching which hand he was using to carry his bookbag so she couldn't stake a claim to him as she wished. He wanted nothing to do with her which only got him more lectures from Hermione and Ron who were determined to make him accept her.
Hermione had told him he should be more accepting of others and allow them to get to know him as a means of demolishing his perceived image. It was rather tarnished after the thing with Draco last year she'd reminded him. Which he needed to apologize for since there was no reason to actually injure him. Ginny, she said, was very popular with her age group and could carry the truth about him to her classmates. And contact with Harry personally would help her realize he was just a normal boy like all the others. Harry personally thought her age group were fools if they really liked and trusted her considering she'd already killed one of their number. Nor would he be apologizing again when he already had twice and been rejected both times.
Ronald claimed Harry was only angry with her over something that wasn't her fault and could've happened to anyone which was true to a degree. He berated Harry for repaying his friendship by trying to make Ron choose between Harry and his sister, though Harry wasn't doing any such thing. Once again he tried to play the life debt card to force Harry into accepting Ginny into his circle. Then capped it all off by saying Harry should be grateful Ginny thought she liked him as she was a girl of high station and could have any boy she wanted when she grew up. But she believed she wanted him. So he should be grateful and accept while she wanted to be with him.
Both of them claimed Harry needed to forgive her since she'd only been a child and hadn't had any way to know the nature of that cursed diary. Which Harry thought was utter bull given what her father and oldest brother made their lives doing. Besides which, both claimed there had never been any danger to Harry personally in saving her. They both openly claimed she'd been the one in actual danger. Not him. And if she was willing to forgive Harry for the danger she'd been in, then the least he could do was accept her offer of companionship. Nor would they hear anything Harry said to disagree with them about the matter. Not even the mentioning of Colin's name had made them retract that foolish statement. Dumbledore had told them the basilisk had only been a common variety snake and not even a poisonous one. Since Hermione believed she knew there were no poisonous snakes in Britain, she believed him and convinced both Ron and Ginny the Headmaster was right. So in their eyes, Harry had never been in danger of dying as Ginerva had been from the diary shade.
Neither paused to wonder how then Harry had destroyed said diary with a fang of a basilisk if said creature was only a common variety non-poisonous snake. Or how Colin had died from making eye contact with it if the snake was merely a harmless little gardener snake. Or how his scar on his arm was so large if the snake had been so very small. Just like neither of them bothered to remember Dumbledore hadn't actually been present in the Chamber and had even gone so far as to deny all year long that he knew the location of said Chamber. Let alone who was opening it or letting the Creature into the halls of the school to terrorize the student body. So how then had he known what kind of a snake Harry had come up against? But then they worshiped at the Altar of Dumbledore and his word was unquestionable to them.