Chapters The secret origin of Discord
In the chaotic realm, a realm where order does not exist, there was a little house that was home to none other than the realm's only inhabitants. Discord the lord of chaos. The former enemies of Princess Celestia, Luna and equestria most dangerous villain. Now one of its greatest heroes and defenders, all due to the friendship of one Pegasus, Fluttershy.
Said resident was currently in his room, just finishing eating his lunch, which was just papers from a book. As he was finishing eating his food, he tossed the bowl he was eating the paper from, which hit the closet nearby, causing it to open. Discord turned to the closet and saw something he hadn’t seen in years. A little box containing something from his past. Getting up from the bed, he went and picked up the box and opened it. Inside was a piece of paper next to a pair of glasses.
He put the box on a nightstand nearby and picked up the glasses and paper before making a full body mirror appear in front of him.He looked at the paper and read the two words on it. Harry Potter.
“Harry Potter,“ Discord said as he looked in the mirror. ”That is a name I haven’t heard for centuries. I used to go by Harry Potter, but due to the manipulation of others, I became Discord.”
“Yes, Discord,” he said as his body changed form and took on the form he hadn’t seen in centuries , which was of his old human form. ”Lord of Chaos,” he said, placing the glasses on as he said that last one. Seeing this form, he can't help but think back on the events that caused him to become the person he is now. For the first time in centuries discord, the Lord of Chaos thought back on his past—a past that he never told anyone, not even to his only friend Fluttershy.
Azkaban is a prison that has been considered the most terrifying prison to exit in the wizarding world, as it is guarded by creatures called dementors, a terrifying species that would constantly torture its prisoners by attacking them mentally. So it came as a surprise to everyone that in one cell, a teen was fully fed and looked fine. Unlike everyone else, he has a bed, shelves full of books, and a table where he can eat decent food. This teen is none other than Harry Potter.
As the young teen eats, he can’t help but think back on how he got to Azkaban. He couldn’t help but think back on how during the Tri Wizard Tournament that he became the unofficial second champion for Hogwarts, and shortly afterward, his so-called friends and everyone turned against him regardless of how many times he protested that he did not put his name in the goblet, but no one believed him to the point that they joined the smear campaign that Malfloy started with Ron being the worst as he started spreading false lies towards the daily prophet, saying he was arrogant and used his title of boy who lives to bully people. They even went so far as to kick him out of the Gryffindor dorm room, and the teachers there did nothing but watch. He thought it couldn’t get worse, but it did, as Voldemort had cast on the Triwizard Trophy and massacred so many people so quickly, including so many students and even a few teachers. It was one of the reasons why the teachers had been furious and had refused to help him, never mind listen to him when he had tried to talk about what happened. The students turned on him, and by the time of the trial, he hadn't been able to find anyone willing to represent him, never mind giving him the chance to explain.
Fudge had already moved quickly like the politician he was, determined to appease the public and send him on a one-way trip to Azkaban; the teachers had allowed his things to be destroyed; and his so-called former friends were testifying against him.
When his godfather Sirius heard what happened, he, Remus, and Nymphadora tried to help by smuggling him to America until they managed to think up a way to clear his name. Sirius managed to secure a smuggler to help, and on the night they would sneak off, they were ambushed. The smuggler turned them in and set up an ambush. An intense battle occurred, and while they managed to put up a good fight, it ended horribly, as during the battle Remus was hit with a bombardment spell on his face that resulted in his death. This caused Tonks to get distracted, and as she was busy being distracted over his death, he ended up leaving her open to being killed. Sirius, seeing this, was furious and started throwing lethal spells on the Aurors and on the smuggler who betrayed them. However, he ends up leaving himself open, causing him to be killed, and it wasn’t long before Harry was arrested, was given a sorry excuse for a trial, and was sent to Azkaban.
When he was sent to Azkaban, he was instantly tortured by the soul sucking foul creature dementors, but as time went on, his mind began to slowly change, either through the dementors constant attack on him or due to his time being isolated. Whatever the case, he began to feel different, and his vision started changing until he began to not only see but feel the magic that flows in the air around him. It wasn’t long before he found a way to manipulate them with his mind and will alone. He first manipulates the magic in his cell, which prevents him from using magic, to now let him use magic. Next, he began to manipulate the magic that the dementors are made from, which now allows him to control them. It was due to this that they ended up leaving him alone. By this point, Harry has basically taken over the jail and could have easily left whenever he wanted; he just simply chose not to since he does not know where to go afterward. Dobby arrives a few weeks after he has taken over the prison to burst him out, but Harry instead has him go out and get him food and other items to make his stay more comfortable. However, one day the dementors reported to him of Voldemort's arrival and how he is now breaking everyone out of their cell.
“It seems my stay in this cell is over,” Harry said as he used his magic to make all the items in his cell disappear, making it look like a normal cell.
“Dobby” Harry called.
"Yes, Harry Potter,” the house elf said as he appeared in his cell.
“Get me out of here,” Harry said to the elf, who nodded and took him out of the cell. By the time Voldemort and his followers made their way to his cell, Harry was gone.
“His gone,“ the dark lord said in fury. ”Find him!” he shouted to his followers, as he still believes Harry is in Azkaban, not knowing he is somewhere far away.
….
After his escape, he had Dobby take some camping gear he could use for his stay in the woods. He knows it will be idiotic to walk in public. As he continued to walk, he felt something strange, something powerful. This got his interest, so he followed it, with Dobby following him behind.
He doesn’t know what it is, but he was entranced by it. He eventually followed it to the inside of the cave, and as he went further, he could feel it more. He eventually stopped in front of a small lake. It might look normal from the outside, but inside, he can feel powerful magic. He took a closer look, and due to his new ability, he could see it was a portal to somewhere.
However, Harry was so distracted by his new discovery that he did not notice an auror had managed to spot and follow them. The auror quickly called a Diffindo at him. Dobby, who saw that, quickly jumped in front of Harry, letting the attack cut him in half. Harry, who has heard that quickly turn behind, saw Dobby's dead corpse, and The Auror, who did it.
Fury quickly filled his mind as he manipulated the magic that was in the water to blast the man. However, he underestimated how powerful it was, as when the blast hit the man, he was pushed further into the cave, where he would then land on a rock, breaking his neck in the process. Harry, due to the backlash of the magic, was pushed backward and into the water, where he ended up entering through the portal. The portal closed instantly as soon as he went through it.
He could also feel like his body was changing; he wasn’t sure how, but this world somehow prevented him from eating, sleeping, or anything else. He just floated. However, it didn’t stop there. As he was pushed back further, he could feel his body slowly disappearing, as if it were being dissolved into this world until nothing of him was left. Somehow, however, despite having his body break apart, he managed to be still alive. Apparently, even though his body is gone, his mind still goes on. He had at least hoped that once his body was fully dissolved, it would put an end to his misery, but fate would not have to torture him again.
Now he is nothing more than a consciousness being forced to remain in this strange world for as long as possible. However, as time goes on, he can feel his mind being affected too. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the isolation or this world affecting him, but his mind was changing. It was like someone was taking pieces from his mind and then putting them back haphazardly while also putting in the wrong pieces.
After a while, he can feel something different; he feels some kind of connection with the world he is in, like he is an extension of it. He can feel the magic in this realm, down to its tiniest detail. He decided to concentrate and try to channel it to try restoring his body.
He opened his eyes and saw that his body was slowly being formed. After that was done, he decided to try and focus his mind to stop the current, and to his surprise, it worked. He then focuses his mind to form a platform he can rest on.
After that was done, he decided to sit down on the platform he was on and try to think about what to do now. After a while, Harry decided to just practice with the new abilities he now has in this world and see what he was able to do now.
He decided to not think too much about it and pick up both parts of Dobby's body and put them back together in one piece before disappearing from the cave and finding a place to give Dobby a proper resting place.
Currently, all the surviving order and minister employees have been gathering at the center of the atrium, where Voldemort and his followers have used their magic to bind their bodies in order to prevent them from moving.
“How pathetic the great and powerful Dumbledore and his great order of Phoenix defeat,” Voldemort said as he smiled evilly. ”Then again, you aren’t as smart as you think you are, as it was quite easy for me to frame you precious savior as you were quick to listen to what Barth Crouch Junior said when he was disguised as moody and snap once they brought you false evidence.”
“How could you have betrayed us like this?“ Dumbledore said to his former spy.
“You shouldn’t blame him since it was your fault for trusting him in the first place when others told you he was untrustworthy,“ Voldemort mocked.
“This isn’t over yet; Harry is still out there, “Ron said. “As soon as he hears of this attack, he will come and stop you.”
“And why he would come save you, given the fact that you and everyone here are quick to turn on him and send him to Azkaban,“ Voldemort said, and as soon as he said that, everyone was silent.
“That is a good question. Why would I? a voice said, gaining everyone's attention. Their turn went to the source, and they saw Harry had walked into the lobby, "Except to take revenge on the person who ruined my life.”
"Potter, so you did come,"Voldemort said. ”So you came to save your friends.”
“As if I don’t care about what happened to them,” Harry said coldly to everyone, shocked. ”I only came to kill you for revenge for everything you did to me.”
“Do you think you can actually defeat me, boy?” Voldemort said.
“I don’t think I know,” Harry said.
“We shall see," Voldemort said before he fired at Harry, only for him to just snap his fingers, and turn the attack into confetti.
"What?” he said in a confused voice.
“It's that all you got, “Harry mocked. Voldemort, hearing that, broke out of his confused state and fired again at him. Only for Harry to do the same thing as before. Turning the spells he blasts at him into something harmless, from ballon’s to butterflies to balls, much to everyone's shock. The dark wizard's anger continues to increase, seeing all this.
"Let's see how you use your trick on this, Crucio,“ Voldemort shouted, pointing his wand at him. Harry instantly backs away as he holds his body and screams. Voldemort smiled in glee at seeing this; however, that ended as he heard Harry suddenly laugh.
“Stop it that tickles,“ Harry laughs, which shocks everyone. Voldemort eventually stops the spell, seeing how it has no effect on him. Harry just simply smiled back at him. ”My turn.” Harry then fired back at Voldemort, who didn’t have time to defend himself. The blast hit Voldemort, causing him to scream in pain. It didn’t stop there , however, as Harry channeled his magic to also attack his followers by using his connection with the death mark he imprinted on them. This caused them to also feel the attack on them, causing them to scream in pain. He has also indirectly channeled his magic through the connection he has with his horcruxes, destroying them in the process. Harry eventually stopped his attack, and immediately after he did that, Voldemort and all his followers fell to the ground dead.
Everyone looked on in awe and silence as Harry had just ended the death eaters with what appeared to be ease.
“Harry," Ron said cautiously to his former friend, trying to think of something to say that would help him recover their former friendship.
The dark, shaggy head turned in his direction, and the expression on his face was anything but pleasant. "Do not ever speak to me again! You and Granger lost that right the day I was arrested. This is the only warning you will receive."
Dumbledore took a step toward the young man, only to be halted by the glare from the emerald eyes that were peeking out from under the long, shaggy bangs.
Harry pushed some of the hair out of his eyes, and the Headmaster saw for the first time the streaks of white running through it. "Don't you say a word either, old man. I want nothing from you." Harry's raspy voice sounded very menacing. "As soon as I have my freedom, I am leaving your damned hypocritical world."
Dumbledore started to assure him that there would be a meeting of the full Wizengamot and he would be freed by tomorrow evening, but Harry just told him to be quiet. He then snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Author's Note
The part where Harry said it’s tickle was a shout out to Ivan ooze a villain from the power ranger movie.
Leave a comment on what you think of my story so far.
The secret origin of Discord
After the attack the ministers are making effort to clean the mess from the battle with the dead bodies being send to the morgue while the injured wizards and witches are sent to the st mungos hospital.
Meanwhile while all of this is happening Dumbledore was making attempt to contact the members of the Wizengamot here as soon as possible, if he were to have a chance of preventing Harry from disappearing. He wasn't going to have another angry young wizard disappearing, only to reappear as the newest Dark Lord. Harry's anger needed to be negated or at least turned outward so it could be dealt with and since he was partially responsible for the situation, it was up to him to try and fix it. However unknown to Dumbledore his actions will indirectly lead to something more worst than a new dark lord.
He then made his way inside Gringotts, where it was fairly quiet, but surprisingly enough, there were several wizards in the bank conducting business. Not wanting to alert the wizards to his identity, Harry walked up to one of the goblins seated behind a desk and said, "I would like to speak with an account manager regarding my account."
"And which account might that be?" The goblin asked in a disinterest voice.
Handing over a folded slip of paper, Harry said, "I would like this matter to remain confidential."
After taking a look at what was written on the paper the goblin gaped at him like a stunned shark. He quickly recovered and requested, "Give me a moment to fetch a manager."
He returned a few minutes later, accompanied by an elegantly dressed older goblin.
"If you'll follow me, sir." Harry was surprised by the slight hint of respect he could hear in the new goblin's voice.
Once the door was closed, the goblin gestured to the comfortable chair on the other side of the desk and requested, "Would please drop the glamour, Mr. Potter? I need to be certain of who I am speaking to."
Seeing no reason not to, Harry dropped the disguise.
The goblin gave a quick glance to the scar on his forehead before saying, "While I may not be the first, I want to thank you for ridding both our races of the Dark Lord."
Harry just nodded not saying anything since he wanted to end his business as quickly as possible.
Getting down to business, the goblin said, "My name is Ironknife Greeva. I am a branch manager for Gringotts. How may we assist you today, sir?"
Before Harry could say a word there was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me a moment, Mr. Potter." Greeva apologised. "Come."
"Sorry to disturb you, sirs," the goblin in the doorway apologised, "but Headmaster Albus Dumbledore wishes to speak with your client."
The goblins watched Harry's face take on a look of disgust as he commented, "I wonder how the old fool found me."
"Probably tracked you by your magical aura." Greeva told him. "It gives a more precise location than a point me spell. It's similar to what is used with the tracking clocks, but it requires Ministry or Wizengamot approval to use and you have to be a fairly powerful wizard to work it. Those who are aware of the Ministry's ability to cast this spell are generally also the quickest to learn how to mask their aura."
"Which means it would be pointless to deny I am here." Harry ground out between clenched teeth.
"We can ask him to wait," the goblin by the door offered.
A smile appeared on Harry's face at the thought of the great Albus Dumbledore having to wait. "I would appreciate that."
"I'd better get down to business," Harry told Greeva. "I don't think Dumbledore is going to wait out there too long before he comes barging in here."
"He is a wizard with a rather inflated sense of his own importance though he doesn't flaunt it much." Greeva observed. "We goblins have also noticed that he is very good at talking people into doing things. Even things they don't want to do."
"I've had first hand experience with that aspect of Dumbledore's character." Harry commented dryly. "I came here today to get a listing of all my holdings."
Greeva looked thoughtful. "While I can provide you with a listing of the vaults and holdings from both the Potter and Black Estates today, that would not tell us if you are entitled to any other properties or vaults in either the wizard or muggle worlds. To find that information, you would first need to go through the Inheritance Ritual."
"I've never heard of this ritual. Then again I don't know that much about the wizarding world, other than what I've picked up during my short time in the wizarding world. What does this ritual involve?" Harry asked curious.
"It would be easier to show you." Greeva got up from his desk and went over to tap a section of the panelling on his office wall. The panel melted away to reveal a small door similar to the ones in the vaults below the bank. Greeva ran a finger over the door in an intricate pattern and the door popped open.
The goblin pulled out a thin metal box about the size of a legal pad and after restoring everything to its original state, brought the box to his desk.
"After I say the spell to activate it, you place your left hand here." Greeva indicated the hand shaped depression on the top of the box. "It will draw a little blood and read your magical aura, then any estates or holdings, that you are entitled to inherit will appear on a list within the box. Until the document within is removed, you will be the only one who can open it after that since it will be keyed to your magical signature."
After a few moments debate Harry placed his hand in the handprint on the box. There was a small stab of pain then a green glow surrounded his hand and the box.
When the glow disappeared, Greeva said, "You can remove your hand. Now we wait. This could take a bit."
Greeva quickly concealed his surprise. There hadn't been a wizard who could sense auras from more than a few feet away since the time of Merlin."No he wouldn't. With the advent of magically binding wills about two hundred years ago, the inheritance ritual has become a thing that is rarely used these days and generally only in instances where there is no clear line of inheritance. We may start seeing it used more often though, now that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone. A good many families were wiped out during the Dark Lord's reign of terror, leaving those with only the most tenuous ties to a family with a chance to inherit estates and monies."
As soon as he'd finished speaking, there was a knock on the door.
"Come," Greeva barked. When the goblin entered, he said, "Yes, Griphook."
"I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but the head of the Wizengamot, Albus Dumbledore, would like to speak with your client. He says it is a matter of the utmost urgency."
Harry snorted at that."Dumbledore must really want to talk to you." Greeva commented unnecessarily. "By invoking his rights as Head of the Wizengamot, we are required to admit him now."
"Bastard no doubt wants to stop me from leaving the wizarding world." Harry said with in a cold tone.
"Since we can no longer delay his intrusion, would it be possible for us to conclude our business another time?" Harrt ask as he gave the box a meaningful glance.
"Of course, Mr. Potter." Greeva was quick to assure him. "Come back whenever you want and ask for me. If I am unavailable, I will make this information available to one of the other managers. Now before Mr. Dumbledore comes in, is there anything else we at Gringotts can help you with today?"
"Yes. After I conclude my talk with Dumbledore, I would like to visit my vault to withdraw some money and get it converted to muggle currency."
"Very well," Greeva gestured to Griphook. "Bring him in and then wait outside to escort Mr. Potter to his vault."
"Potter." Harry was quick to correct him.
Seeing the icy green eyes staring at him from an impassive face, Dumbledore lost his train of thought. "Sorry."
"You may call me, Mr. Potter." Harry repeated. "I am Harry to my friends and those I trust."
Dumbledore winced at the stated lack of trust, but knew he had no one but himself to blame. He had thrown the boy away at the first hint that he might be turning Dark. He, of all people, should have known better. "Maybe we should discuss this someplace else."
"If you think I'm going anywhere with you, old man, then you really are senile." Harry countered hotly.
"Then sirs," Dumbledore looked at the two goblins, "may I request some privacy? Mr. Potter and I have some confidential matters to discuss."
"I want them to stay," Harry quickly disagreed, "as witnesses if nothing else. Just say what you came to say then leave me alone."
"First, I would like to apolo..." Dumbledore began.
"Don't! Just don't! No apology can undo what you did. You threw me to the wolves... you send me to Azkaban and snap my wand and you think a simple apology can undo everything . Just get on what you want to said." Harry said as he was just barely managing to hang on to his temper.
"Very well," Dumbledore straightened up and held out three small rolls of parchment to Harry.
Harry eyed them suspiciously but didn't touch them.
"They aren't intended to hurt you, Ha... Mr. Potter." Dumbledore told him.
Harry still didn't touch them. "What are they?"
"Two are from the Ministry. The first is basically stating that you have been cleared of all charges and the conviction has been overturned. The second states that they have provided monetary compensation for the time you spent in Azkaban. It also shows the monetary compensation that has been awarded to Sirius' estate since he too has been cleared of all charged once Peter have revealed himself to be alive during the attack on the ministry. You are his primary heir and therefore have the right to that information." Dumbledore told him.
"As if money can make up for the damage that place did to me or Sirius." Harry muttered but they all heard him.
Wisely deciding to make no comment, Dumbledore indicated the parchment roll with the purple seal. "That one is from Hogwarts. You have been readmitted to the school and will be starting your fifth year classes on September 1st."
"Well, I won't be going back to that hellhole you call a school." Harry said with his voice full of anger and unseen by everyone his eyes turn red for a second. "I told you back at the ministry , I am leaving .Are you that senile that you forget.”
"I'm afraid you have no choice, Harry." At the icy green glare from the younger wizard, Dumbledore hurried on. "Per a decree by the Wizengamot, any under-aged wizard who is enrolled at a magical school must complete their education at the school where they started, unless their guardian requests a change of school in front of the Wizengamot and provides a good reason as to the need for the change."
"I was expelled by you Dumbledork" Harry growled. "That means you kicked me out, so that decree doesn't apply to me."
Dumbledore looked solemn. "I'm afraid it does. Since you were proven innocent of the crime you were expelled for, your name has been put back on the rolls of those students attending Hogwarts."
"You just can't resist meddling in other peoples life , can you, you stupid old man ?" Harry paused trying to regain his temper, then asked. "And what if I decide to ignore this decree? Which I'm certain is a fairly recent one, or Hagrid, would have been readmitted once it was proved he wasn't responsible for Moaning Myrtle's death."
Dumbledore decided to ignore the accusation of meddling, especially since it was true. And he certainly wasn't going to admit that the decree was less than twenty-four hours old. He was on shaky enough ground with Harry as it was. That decree was meant for one and only one person, Harry Potter. "Hagrid was too old by the time he was found innocent. While that does entitle him to get a new wand, at the time he was found innocent in your second year, he was no longer under-age so the decree didn't and doesn't apply to him."
He paused for a moment looking for the right words to answer Harry's question and avoid angering the younger wizard further. Young Potter during his fight with Voldemort have proven that he have somehow become a powerful wizard one that might even surpass him, though Dumbledore didn't know how he'd gained such power. While he was fairly certain that Harry's basic character hadn't changed all that much, Dumbledore knew he was treading on very thin ice where the boy was concerned. Harry had never been one to intentionally harm another, and would only hurt those who had first hurt him and given that he had done a great deal of harm to the boy, though most of it had been unintentional, right now Dumbledore knew he was a prime target for the boy's rage. The last thing he wanted was that power turned on him the way it had been turned on Voldemort. He decided to tell him a partial truth. "You have no choice about coming back, Mr. Potter. When you first set foot on the Hogwarts grounds, you became subject to a binding magical contract that is intended to insure that you would complete your education there unless, as I said before, there is a request to change schools submitted to and approved by the Wizengamot. It will force you to return, since your name is on the roll of returning students for this year."
"You know that's twice now I've been told I'm subject to a binding magical contract and I've never seen either contract." Harry observed then glanced at Greeva. "I didn't know it was possible for minors to enter into legally and magically binding agreements and I know my Aunt who is my legal guardian, at least for now, didn't agree to it. So it can't be binding, can it?"
Surprised and yet oddly pleased that the most powerful wizard of the age trusted a goblin to tell him the truth instead of Albus Dumbledore, Greeva told him, "A minor can not enter into a magically contract, however, once you set foot on Hogwarts grounds, that constituted your aunt's acceptance of the agreement. Even if your Aunt never gave her vocal or written approval, by allowing you to go at all it was considered implied consent."
The comment was directed to Greeva, but Dumbledore answered it. "No, you don't, Mr. Potter, at least not until you turn eighteen or complete your magical education, whichever comes first."
"And what if I choose to ignore your 'binding magical contract'?" Harry inquired. "Will you send Aurors or members of the Order to fetch me, assuming they are brave enough to come?"
"You have no choice." Dumbledore repeated. "The contract will force you to comply."
Dumbledore wasn't really sure about that, but he could bluff with the best of them. The school might indeed consider the contract null and void in Harry's case, given that he, who in essence represented the school and all powers contained within it, had indeed snapped Harry's wand.
"Ah, so there is a legal version of the Imperious curse." Harry commented. "You just use it on children. I wonder if the parents of muggle-born children are told. I doubt it because if they knew, they wouldn't let their children within a thousand miles of any magical school."
Dumbledore's face grew stormy at the thought of the spell that insured magical children got a complete education being compared to the Imperious curse. "We do not use the Imperious curse on children."
"You don't." Harry just smirked. "What would you call a spell that forces a child to return somewhere they don't want to go? I suppose it does something to encourage them not to change their minds. That is coercion, Dumbledork. Look it up in a dictionary."
Dumbledore knew there was nothing he could say to change Harry's mind about the purpose of the spell that insured children completed their magical education so he didn't even try.
His face once more an expressionless mask, Harry resigned himself to spending a few more years among the hypocrites of the wizarding world, before he could finally be free of it for good. He could probably break the spell, but that would mean going to Hogwarts anyway, since it was probably the source of the spell. The problem was that if the spell had existed since the Founders time, then it was probably woven into the other spells surrounding the castle, which would mean any attempts to negate it, might bring the castle crashing down. Thinking about it for a few moments, Harry decided to comply, at least for now. In a way it was a better solution for the long run, he wouldn't have to rush disposing of whatever property he had in the wizarding world and he would have a chance to make those fools at Hogwarts pay. Yes a much better solution all round.
Deciding not to let Dumbledore know he'd won so soon, Harry asked, ". "Where's Hedwig? Did those fools from Gryffindor kill her after they destroyed everything else I owned, while the teachers stood by and watched?" He said that last one with his voice full of anger as he remembered that day clearly.
That idiotic minister Fudge and the group of Aurors were dragging him out of Hogwarts, they encountered the Gryffindor students who had apparently decided to give him a little send off. His housemates led by Granger and the Weasel, were waiting out on the lawn in front of the main entrance, with the heads of the four houses off to one side, and all his things piled up in front of them. As soon as his fellow Gryffindors had caught sight of him, they began hurling foul epithets at him.
"No, Hedwig is alive." The Headmaster was quick to reassure him. "However... I don't know where she is. Miss Granger decided that she would keep Hedwig, but Hedwig must have decided she didn't want to change masters."
"You mean she knew that miss know it all had betrayed me and wanted nothing to do with her." Harry corrected him. "What did she do?"
"The first time Miss Granger tried to use Hedwig to send a letter, your owl bit her hand to the bone and raked her talons across Miss Granger's head. She took off and hasn't been seen since." Dumbledore told him.
"Good for her.I hope she is okay, but at least she is free of your world of double-standards." Harry was pleased by the news that Hedwig might still be alive. He hoped she would return to him now that he was free but if she didn't he at least took comfort in the knowledge that beloved familiar wasn't serving one of his two-faced former friends. "If there is nothing else we need to discuss, then I will see you in September."
Dumbledore looked a little sheepish as he said, "There is one other matter."
"What now?" Harry couldn't think of anything else the old bastard could want with him.
"We need to make arrangements for where you are going to be staying until the start of term." Dumbledore finally said.
" "You will not tell me where to go."!" Harry got to his feet tired of dealing with the interfering old wizard.
"You are still considered a minor, Harry," Dumbledore backed up at the icy glare. "We have been trying to come up with a suitable wizarding family for you to live with for the next month and a half, since you no longer need to be hidden from Voldemort or his Deatheaters."
"I will not say this again ." Harry growled. "You will be making no living arrangements for me! I already have my own place to live in and I don’t need anyone especially especially from you to tell me where I should sleep " Unknown to Harry and everyone for a second Harry right hand turn into a lion paw before turning back to normal . "One more thing Dumbledork I want no contact with anyone from the wizarding world, unless I choose to initiate it. No letters. No packages. No nothing. If anybody send me anything they will get it back with a very nasty hex attached to it. Do we understand each other?"
Off course non of them know that their can’t contact him at all even if their did try as he had made his home in the void.But no one knows that and he intend to keep it like that for now.
At the Headmaster's nod, Harry pushed past him and went out the door.
"Harry, dear," a voice suddenly said. This cause Harry to turn and scowl as he saw the group of people he hated the most ,the Weasley family.
Mrs Weasley blustered forward, but Harry let out a powerful magic aura that made her step back in sudden fear while the Weasleys tensed. "Harry, please-."
"No, leave me alone," Harry said barley containing his anger as his eyes quickly flash red before turning back to their normal color.
"Harry, you must understand, the twins were hurt that-that night."
"So you decided I was guilty?" The disdain in Harry's voice was so thick you could cut it with a knife. "Tell me, Mrs Weasley, do you really think I'd want to spend any time with a family who lied about how dark and how evil I was? Nothing you say or do is going to make me change my mind, Mrs Weasley," Harry said,as he remembered that day clearly how she and all of his so call friends regaled the court with tales of how evil he was. Every adventure at Hogwarts was twisted to show him in the worst possible light. "Now, get this into your minds. I do not want anything to do with you and you stupid family . Stay away from me. Don't try to contact me because I won't reply." Harry walk away angrily from the Weasleys, ignoring the distraught expression on Mrs Weasley's face, wishing he could do more to make her and her entire family suffer for what their did to him. But decided that he does not want to deal with the fallout from it. As Harry walk he suddenly feel something was wrong with his left hand. Curious he check his left hand and saw it was slowly turning into a claw like those of the birds.He quickly put it in his pocket to hide it. Ever since he first left the void he still keep feeling changes happening to his mind and body . He don’t know what it is but it seems like whatever the void did to him it haven’t stop.
Author's Note
Please leave a comment on what you think of my story so far
The secret origin of Discord
Harry was in a house that he created in the void. During his time in the void, he learned he no longer needed to do things like eat or sleep unless he wanted to, and even then, that was just for the experience rather than because he needed to. This was good since it meant he could practice his new magic and learn why he was still changing.
After a bit of training, he discovers that if he uses too much of his new powers or does not control his emotions, both his body and mind will exhibit changes. But if he can keep his concentration, he can undo those changes temporarily. However, as time goes on, he keeps feeling a large craving to let his magic out, to not restrict them and go all out. He has so far managed to keep this desire under control, but he can feel it growing stronger.
Right now, Harry is on his bed, thinking about what is happening to him. All this changes, as well as his new desire to let his magic out. He doesn’t know why this is happening or what would happen to him if he went all out and let himself be completely changed. Will the effect be permanent, and if so, what will happen to him? He decided not to think too much about it, as he remembered, unfortunately, that he had to go to Hogwarts tomorrow.
Once he stepped through the Barrier, Harry heard the silence spread outward like a wave as those closest to the Barrier spread the word that he was on the platform.The wizards and witches stared at him silently, not sure what to do or how to act. This was Harry Potter the Destroyer-of-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the young man they had betrayed. Finally one parent gathered up his courage and began to move toward the Boy-Who-Lived and that seemed to be a signal to the others.
As the mob of people began to move toward him, Harry gripped the straps of the backpack containing his shrunken trunk and the books he was going to be reading throughout the year. After snapping his fingers and putting up a shield to keep them from being able to touch him or get too close to him, Harry started moving through the crowd. There were yelps from those who first encountered the shield as they were knocked off their feet. That gave those further away enough warning so that they didn't get too close to him, but they still shouted their thanks and good wishes. Harry responded to none of them. He wanted none of their praise or their thanks.
Once he was settled into a compartment, Harry pulled out a few books and after restoring them to normal size, settled in to read. He ignored the noise outside his compartment and most of the students who were getting on the train were not stupid enough to enter his compartment.
Professor McGonagall brought up one final subject that had been on the minds of all the teachers. "Headmaster, given how powerful Mr. Potter has shown himself to be are you sure it is safe to have him here? I mean given the animosity he must feel for the other students because of the events that occurred last year and the fact that you have basically forced him to come back to Hogwarts, what is to stop him from taking his anger out on his fellow students?"
The expression on Dumbledore's face was serious as he said. "I wouldn't have forced the issue with Mr. Potter, if I thought he might prove to be a danger to the other students. Part of the reason those laws were enacted was so that he would have to come back here and resolve the issues he has with us and with his yearmates. As to what has happened to Mr. Potter over the last year, he has a great deal of unresolved anger toward the wizarding community." Dumbledore told the assembled teachers. "We have two years to try and work through the anger, so that we do not lose him. He needs the wizarding world as much as we need him, though he does not realise it yet."
"Albus I don’t this is good ideal”said Professor McGonagall ” I fear you interfering is only going to make things worse.”
"We need to do this McGonagall" Dumbledore said , before his expression became serious once more. "I am willing to take that risk and I am asking you all to take it with me. I, for one, will not allow the anger he is carrying around to fester within him and warp him into something evil, the way anger turned another promising young wizard named Tom Riddle into Voldemort. We have a lot to make up to Mr. Potter for, not the least of which was our lack of faith in him last year, which led to his unjust incarceration."
Everyone had fallen silent at the mention of the Dark Lord's name and some of the teacher's flinched. However unknown to everyone McGonagall warning turn out to be true as there interfering in Harry life resulted in creating something more worst than a dark lord.
He undid the shield and use his magic to open the door to reveal Malfoy with Crabbe and Goyle behind him, wand drawn and his mouth open ready to utter his curse, but Harry just snap his finger frozen them in place. He had left Malfoy's head free to move around. He was interested in hearing the threats and posturing the little ferret had come up with this year, especially given that he couldn't threaten Harry with Voldemort or his father.
"Well, if it isn't Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret." Harry commented as he removed the wand from the blond's frozen hand. "What did you think you were going to do to me?"
"Let me go, Potter." Malfoy growled.
“Or what you will tell your father? Oh, wait, you can’t his dead,” said Harry in a mocking voice. This causes Malfoy to be furious..
"You're going to pay Potter, for what you did." Malfoy spoke in anger.
“Good luck with that malfloy “ Harry said in a mocking voice.” Since giving what I see of you you nothing but a bully who need to use his parents money and connection to get what he wants. I heard Slytherin were force to be cunning and sneaky but from what I see of you and those two dumb statues behind you you nothing but a thug who only know how to use brute force.” Harry then snap his fingers sending malfloy and his two henchmen to the luggage room of the train.
However shortly after he was done with that two certain people walk near the door. Anger instantly fill him and unknown to him and everyone through his trousers his right leg turn into a lizard leg for a second before turning back to normal.
“What do you want?” he said with a voice full of fury.
“We came to see you, Harry,” Hermione said nervously.
"Oh, so it’s Harry again,” Harry said again. ”I thought it was bloody traitor. And while we on the topic on my name, you will only call me Potter since only my friends call me Harry, and right now I don’t have friends, especially ones that are as idiotic as you two. So leave me alone.” He shouted the last one.
“Now that's not fair!" Ron shouted in anger . "We made a mistake last year and we're trying to make up for it. You have no right to insult people or not listen to what they have to say."
The emerald eyes that stared back Ron and Hermione were like chips of ice. The expression on his face looked a lot like Professor Snape's did. The one that said he thought you were a bug that he was deciding whether or not to waste the time stepping on. Hermione and Ron tried to swallow the lump that seemed to have suddenly appeared in her throat.
“Oh, so when it is you insulting people and ignoring what they say, it is alright, but when they do it to you, it is suddenly a crime,“ Harry said, glaring at Ron. ”You didn’t listen to me when I told you I did not put my name in the goblet and began insulting me nonstop. So not only are you a traitor but a hypocrite as well.”
"Ron isn't a traitor." Hermione defended her friend.
"Oh and what is the definition of a traitor, Miss Know-it-All?"
Hermione hated that nickname. She thought she had gotten beyond that with him and Ron and now she was clearly back to square one at least as far as Harry was concerned.
"Well, we're waiting." Harry told her, doing an impression of Snape at his worst. "What is the definition of a traitor?"
When she said nothing Harry decided to spoke out again
"What nothing to say." Harry observed. "You certainly had plenty of things to say both during and after my trial. And don't think I've forgotten what you did the day I was arrested. The Dementors made sure to play that memory over and over again."
Their was silent for a few moments before Hermione spoke up.
"One who commits an act of treason," Hermione stated, knowing full well where he was going with this.
Harry then mockingly clap his hands and spoke in a mocking voice.” And now we Miss Know-It-All Granger, the fount of all knowledge manage to answer the question correctly . She who can't resist poking her nose in to other people's business and who is never wrong." Then he stop clapping growled, "but you were wrong, weren't you and not for the first time either. You didn't listen to me last year when I tried to tell you that I was innocent so give me one good reason why I should listen to you now. I guess your passion for justice and fairness only extends to house elves and things that are not human, not to those who are supposed to be your friends. How could you throw away our years of friendship? How could you possibly think I was capable of murder? Did you forget that I saved your life during our first year at Hogwarts? Remember the troll, Granger? Or do you have a very short memory, like your boyfriend here? Surely the fact that that I was responsible for you not dying during our first year should've been worth a few precious minutes of the know-it-all's time. But noooo, you preferred to join the 'Harry is an evil Dark Wizard' club without even listening to my side of the story. I should have let that troll end you because in the end of the day you are nothing but an ungrateful bastard who act holy than thou against anyone who she doesn’t agree with. You no different that Malfoy and the rest of Slytherin in that you willing to back stabbed other without a second thought. And now you came here believing a simply I am sorry will make everything okay. Not only did you lock me in Azkaban but you also destroyed the only memories, I will ever have of my parents and godfather. By ripping my soul to shreds with your hateful, hurtful words. By not even bothering to take the time to find out what really happened." His gaze roamed over the whole group. "I thought you of all people would know that I couldn't do what I was being accused of, but no you're no better than the rest of the hypocritical wizarding world. I thought that all of you knowing how Hagrid and Sirius had been framed would've taken the time to find out the truth, instead of believing what you are told like little children who need to be led by the hand. But nooo what do you do. You tow the party line, instead of bothering to think for yourselves. Why is it that no one in the wizarding world can think or reason?"
He glared at Granger, as she opened her mouth to say something. "Don't bother to tell me you can think and reason, because we both know you can't, Granger. If you had been using the brain you were given back then, then you would have remembered that the wizarding world has this wonderful thing called Veritaserum and that it compels people to tell the truth. Why didn't you bother to ask why I wasn't given it at my trial? None of you even spoke up and asked why I wasn't being given it. Just like the rest of the wizarding world, you preferred to assume I was guilty. As it seems the you and the rest of the wizarding world think it is better to see justice quickly done, never mind that the person being condemned to hell wasn't guilty. We have swift justice and that makes up for the fact that the truth gets trampled into the ground and the guilty party goes free to kill again."
His eyes bored into Hermione and Ron as he commented. "I wonder how many people Voldemort have tortured and killed besides the people in the tournament,I mean . I wonder how much blood is on your family's hands, Granger's hands, and the hands of Dumbledork and his Order, because you all couldn't be bothered to speak up and force Fudge to use all the tools at the wizarding world's disposal to determine the truth? I know that Voldemort was very busy during the time I was in Azkaban. How many of those people is Voldemort and his followers is responsible for killing? How many people's lives could have been spared, if you had just spoken up and asked that I be given Veritaserum to confirm or disprove my guilt? Or if the Ministry had just done its job properly?"
There was a pause as the two former friends didn’t know what to say.
“You know I really don't want to hear anything further that you have to say. Leave now, before I do something I won't regret." Said Harry as he snap her fingers and the door close with the shield being put on again.
Harry got quite a few stares as he was walking towards the thestral drawn carriages, given that he was the only one not wearing the school uniform and the fact that he was carrying a backpack.A couple of Hufflepuff second years joined him iin the carriage, before it took off and wound its way up to the castle.
Professor McGonagall was in the entry hall of the castle, and when she caught sight of Harry, she snapped out. "Mr. Potter, where is your school uniform? You can't go into the great Hall looking like that. And you should have left that bag on the train. It would have been brought up to your dormitory."
"Why would you think I would leave anything of mine where anyone in this school can get hold of it? All my possessions were burned up the last time I was foolish enough to trust anyone in this school and leave my things unguarded, remember Professor?" Harry's face was an expressionless mask. "Your memory can't be that bad, ma'am, given that you had a front row seat for what the Gryffindor Prefects did."
McGonagall looked flustered for a moment, before she asked, "Why didn't you purchase a new uniform?"
Harry told her flatly. "I didn't destroy the ones I had and saw no reason to waste my money replacing something I hadn't damaged or outgrown, not to mention something I didn't want in the first place. If you want me to have a school uniform that badly, then I suggest you have those who destroyed my possessions replace them."
Professor McGonagall, raised her wand, and attempted to transfigure the clothing Potter was wearing into the appropriate outfit, but nothing happened to the muggle clothing. She tried again, with the same result.
"Are you finished with me yet, Professor?" Harry sounded bored. "I would either like to go into the Great Hall, or if as you say, I am not to be allowed in there, dressed like this, then I will go down to the kitchens and get something to eat."
"I must insist that you change your clothing into the appropriate school outfit, or remove the charm that is preventing me from doing so." McGonagall ordered, not realising that a small crowd was gathering in the doorway to the Great Hall behind her.
"No ma'am, I will not." The expression on Harry's face was unyielding. "So if you will excuse me, I will be on my way to the kitchens to get some dinner. Would you mind telling me where I will be staying during my time in this prison of yours and the password to get in? That way I can get in since I apparently won't be eating with the rest of the students."
"You are a Gryffindor. You will be in the Gryffindor tower, in the fifth year boy's dorm." McGonagall winced at Potter's choice of the word prison for Hogwarts. She had never thought she would hear any student call Hogwarts a prison. "The password is Victory."
"I am not a Gryffindor." Harry disagreed. "The students who make up the house you head made thatquite clear last year."
She had also never thought she would see in her lifetime a student in this school openly defy her and for the first time in her life she felt trapped because of it. Mr. Potter needed to be in the Great Hall, not isolating himself, if the Headmaster's plan was to work, but she could not allow him to enter the Great Hall in an inappropriate outfit. And Dumbledore had specifically said that Potter was to be treated like any other student. "Five points from Gryffindor for improper attire. You will either change your current outfit into the correct attire, or remove the charm that is preventing me from doing so. Failure to do so will results in you having detention tomorrow night."
"So," Harry shrugged, "I really don't care what you do. I didn't want to come back here anyway. Dumbledork forced this situation on me and so you're just going to have to live with it. I will not allow you to change the clothing I spent my money on into what you deem appropriate attire. If you wanted me dressed in the correct attire, then you should not have allowed the students of your house to incinerate all my clothing last year while you stood by and did nothing you sorry excuse for a teacher."
The crowd in the doorway was stunned by the tone of Potter's voice. Other than the Weasleys and Hermione Granger, no one had ever heard such malice from the Boy-Who-Lived before.
McGonagall knew she didn't have much time. The first years would be arriving in a few minutes and she must be here to greet them. Looking back toward the Great Hall she saw the crowd of student standing in the doorway and yelled, "All of you take your seats in the Great Hall immediately!" She also caught sight of the Head Girl and ordered, "Miss Granger escort Mr. Potter to the side room off the Great Hall and ask the Headmaster if he would speak with him."
"Mr. Potter," Hermione gestured for Harry to follow her.
Harry said nothing as he was led through the Great Hall to the side room.
"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore spoke up as soon as he saw Harry. "I understand there is a problem with your choice of attire."
Harry looked down at what he was wearing. "I don't see any problem with it. At least I didn't come in starkers."
"There is a uniform code, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore began.
"And unless you have forgotten, old man," Harry interrupted, "all my possessions were burned up by the pyromaniacs who live in Gryffindor tower."
"You should have gotten yourself a new school uniform then." Dumbledore told him.
"And pray tell why should I have spent m money to replace what the Gryffindors destroyed ?" Harry inquired sarcastically. "Aside from the fact that that would mean they got off scott free for their acts of vandalism and arson, I didn't want to come here in the first place. Why should I buy something I have no intention of using once I leave this place forever?"
"The school requirements state that you must have and wear the school uniform." Dumbledore countered.
"Then kick me out." Harry told him. "I don't want to be here in the first place remember!"
"Tomorrow morning Professor McGonagall will take you to Diagon Alley to purchase your school uniform." Dumbledore told him. "For tonight, and tonight only, you will be allowed to attend the opening feast in what you are wearing."
"Unless you plan on making those who destroyed all my school supplies last year, cough up the money to pay for them, then she will be wasting her time and mine." Harry told him. "I told you, I will not be spend one single knut of my money to replace what was destroyed while the Heads of House made no move to stop it. They will also have to cough up the money for all the other supplies on your list, because I didn't get those either."
"Harry," Dumbledore began, but seeing the angry expression on the young man's face, quickly said, "Mr. Potter, how do you expect to pass your classes, without any of the necessary materials?"
"I don't." Harry stated simply. "I am just here, marking time and taking care of some business until I can get out of here. You may have forced me to come here, Dumbledork, but you can not force me to learn anything that your inept teachers may try and teach."
"Harry," Dumbledore said quickly. "Don't waste this chance you've been given to start over. Not many people get the chance to start over. Don't let the anger you have within you keep you from making friends and moving on with your life. You have to let go of it and forgive those who have wronged you."However what Dumbledore said just anger him more.
"Need i remind you that I wouldn’t need another change at all if you and all the wizarding world weren’t so stupid,“ Harry yelled as he let out a large magic aura. His eyes were turning red, something Dumbledore immediately noticed. ”Or are you saying that it was my fault I was put in Azkaban? Well, is that what you are saying?”
“ No I am just saying ….” Dumbledore try to said but was interrupted by Harry.
“ Save it” Harry yell as the aura began to lessen before disappearing and his eyes turn back to normal.” I don’t want to hear anything else from you right now and if that is all I will be leaving. “ Harry then began walking out of room leaving Dumbledore . His thought still fill with anger.
Dumbledore after seeing Harry red eyes become determined more than ever to try to get Harry to forgive the wizarding world not knowing this decision will be his worst one yet.
"Minerva, tomorrow, you will be taking Mr. Potter to Diagon Alley to get all of his school supplies. And you will charge the purchases to the school account." Dumbledore told McGonagall.
"Why the school account, Headmaster?" McGonagall ask as while she had no problem with taking the boy to get his supplies, she didn't understand why the school would be paying for them when the boy clearly had more than enough money to pay for them himself.
"Young Harry had a valid point about one thing." Dumbledore told the two professors as he sat back down after making his welcoming speech. "If the Heads of House hadn't stood by and allowed it to happen, he would have had his school supplies for his fifth year as well as the invisibility cloak that belonged to James, the photo album, and the Firebolt Sirius gave him. Since no teacher made any attempt to stop the destruction of his personal belongings by students of this school, then Hogwarts must pay to have them replaced."
"And what of the Gryffindors who destroyed the items in the first place." McGonagall ask. "Are they to avoid having to pay for the destruction they caused?"
"No, they will not." Dumbledore told him. "The cost of replacing one Firebolt will be divided among the parents of all Gryffindor students from second year through seventh, since we will not be able to charge it to those who were not here last year and are not here now. A letter will be sent to every parent explaining the reason for the charge. We will allow the Gryffindors to present the Firebolt to Harry. It may help to heal the rift between them."
"In that case Headmaster, we might want to turn the task of replacing the photo album and presenting it over to Miss Granger." McGonagall suggested. "It might help repair the damage to her relationship with him as well."
"An excellent idea, Minerva," Dumbledore told her.
Once they were released, from the Great Hall, Harry took the quickest route to the Gryffindor tower. He wanted to get an idea of who his dorm mates were going to be before they got there given that he hadn't been at the feast during his second year.
There were six beds in the fifth year dorm. And five of them had trunks in front of them, which made the sixth one his. The names on the trunks were vaguely familiar, but the only sixth year he knew by sight was Colin Creevy and that was only because the fool had kept jumping out and taking pictures of him like a celebrity stalker. He wrote a quick note and left it on Colin's bed warning the little fool that if he tried to take pictures of him this year, he would stick that camera of his somewhere painful.
He still hadn't decided if he was going to stay where they put him, or go to the Room of Requirement. Though that might not be a good idea, given that everybody and his brother now knew about it. After a few moments thought he decided he would stay in Gryffindor for a few days and if the attempts to try and get him to forgive them got to be too much, he'd find some place else to stay. The Chamber of Secrets was an option if he couldn't find anywhere else, since he was the only one that could access it, though it was a bit of a gloomy option.
Opening his backpack, Harry pulled out his trunk and restored it to normal size long enough to remove his pyjamas, robe and shower gear. Once the shrunken trunk was back in the pack, he headed out of the dorm room to take a shower.
"Harry!" Colin's voice called. "Hermione is looking for you."
"Any idea why?" Harry asked .
"She didn't say, just that she needed to talk to you." Colin told him.
"Okay, I'd better go see what Miss Know-it-All wants." Harry headed down to the common room. He wasn't really interested what Granger wanted, but knowing how persistent the know-it-all could be, he really didn't want her bursting in on his shower.
As soon as he reached the stairs that led to the common room he saw Granger waiting for him.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall wanted me to pass on a message, since she didn't have a chance to tell you herself." Hermione told him. "She wants you to meet her in the Great Hall at eight tomorrow morning. Dumbledore has made arrangements for her to take you to get your school supplies and uniforms."
"Okay. Anything else?" Harry really didn't care, but he thought he would be polite, at least right now.
"Why didn't you get your supplies in Diagon Alley before school, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Because I didn't feel like spending good money for something I didn't want and that the pyromaniacs of Gryffindor destroyed last year." Harry snarled then told her. "Granger, how about we keep things simple. You and I will talk to each other only when it concerns Hogwarts business. I'll at least pretend to be civil to you as long as you adhere to that boundary. If you try to get involved in my life, or try to pry into my personal business, then you will regret it. You are no longer my friend and I really wonder if you ever were. Once my time in this school is over and we go our separate ways, I never want to see you or hear from you ever again. Have I made myself clear?"Harry said and as soon as Hermione nodded her head Harry walk away from common room and into his room. As he walk away he can’t help feel the desire for him to go all out with his power grow stronger. He immediately try to ignore it but find it getting more and more difficult. A part of him can’t help but be afraid of what will happen to him if it grow too strong for him to control.
The secret origin of Discord
The bell over the door to Ollivander's shop rang as Harry followed McGonagall inside. He had been trying for the last twenty minutes to convince her that he didn't need a wand, but the infuriating woman wouldn't budge. She had told him that Dumbledork had told her to get all his supplies for school and they were going to get all his supplies.
Ollivander appeared suddenly out of the back area of his shop and caught sight of McGonagall. "Minerva McGonagall. Eleven inches and hair from a sphinx, correct?"
"Yes, Mr. Ollivander," McGonagall agreed, used to his method of identifying people by the wands he'd sold them. "We are here to get a new wand for Mr. Potter."
Ollivander looked around for the young man and found him standing in the corner in the shadows. His lips quirked in a smile at the words on the t-shirt the boy was wearing: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." It was a sentiment he agreed with, especially these days.
He'd been around a long time. With their current prejudices against any they considered non-human, he was glad that the last wizard who had known what he was had died a thousand years ago. During his lifetime he had seen the rise of wizard kind and was now living through its rather rocky decline. He didn't know what had caused the situation, but wizarding kind thought they were at the pinnacle of development, but they weren't. There hadn't been any real change here for over two hundred years. The wizarding world was currently stagnant. If they were going to survive, then what the wizarding world needed was something or someone to jumpstart another period of growth. What he did know, having lived through the rise and fall of several civilizations, was that if nothing happened to change the situation, then one day, probably within the next couple of hundred years, then the wizarding world would disappear forever.
Who knows, he mused, maybe the catalyst for change will be young Mr. Potter.
Bringing his mind back to business at hand, Ollivander commented. "I was expecting to see you last month Mr. Potter."
"I didn't see the need to get a new wand." Harry told the wandmaker. "I tried to explain to Professor McGonagall that I no longer needed one, but she wouldn't listen." He looked up at the ceiling and muttered loud enough to be heard, "not that she ever does listen to anything I have to say."
"I always listen to what you have to say, Mr. Potter." McGonagall replied through gritted teeth.
"You may hear it, but you either don't listen , or you don't believe it." Harry countered.
"Name one time, you told me something that I didn't listen to or believe." McGonagall challenged him.
Harry took up the challenge. "First year, I and two others who shall remain nameless, told you that someone was going to go after the Philosopher's Stone the day Dumbledore was sent off on that wild goose chase to the Ministry. I believe you told us something along the lines of: 'rest assured the stone is too well protected, no one can possibly steal it' and when I kept insisting, you said 'I know what I'm talking about.' You even threatened to take points from Gryffindor, when we were trying to protect the stone. And what happened later that night? Someone did make a try for the stone and if it hadn't been for me, Quirrell or should I say Voldemort would have had the stone. The protections you had in place a first year could get past, or rather three of us did. If they were that strong and that impenetrable, then we shouldn't have been able to get past even the first of them. But that wouldn't have suited Dumbledore's purpose which was to mould me into the perfect weapon to take out Voldemort, now would it."
McGonagall stood there speechless for several moments as Harry marked off one point in the air. "How dare you accuse the Headmaster of trying to harm you? He has always done his very best to try and protect you and all the other students at Hogwarts!"
"Reeeeaaaallllyyy," Harry drew the word out, the sarcasm very evident in his voice. "His very best included hiring at least two incompetent teachers for Defence Against the Dark Arts. There may have been more, but I can only count the years I was there. Allowing two, count them, two followers of Voldemort free access to Hogwarts. Forcing a fourth year student to compete in a competition that was clearly meant for seventh year or higher students. Allowing me to be condemned to Azkaban without a fair trial. And wait, I saved the best for last. Dumbledore, who was the executor of my parents' will, violated the terms of it, by placing me with the Dursleys. If that is the very best that Albus Dumbledork can do, then god help us when he does his worst."
"What do you mean he violated your parents will?" McGonagall couldn't believe the venom she was hearing from the young man she thought she had known so well. She was also so surprised by Potter's litany of the Headmaster's supposed crimes that she completely missed the insulting name that he had given to Dumbledore.
"That's none of your business, ma'am. I will deal with Dumbledore on that matter in due course." Harry told her. "I believe we are here to prove why I don't need a wand so that you can return to your school and I can be returned to my prison."
Ollivander, who had been watching the argument with interest, suddenly realized they had both returned their attention to him. "Oh yes, of course, Mr. Potter. Now as I understand it, you can now perform wandless magic, is that correct?"
"Yes."
"Do you have to make the movements as if you were holding a wand when you do the wandless magic?" Ollivander asked. "Do you have to say the incantations?"
"It's not really necessary." Harry told him. "All I have to do is think what I want to happen and then just snap my fingers and it happened.Of course I don’t actually need to snap my fingers. I can just use my thought only but it is must easily using my fingers.
Ollivander nodded, "then you are quite correct, Mr. Potter, you can no longer use a wand. No single wand core would be strong enough to channel and enhance your magic at the level you are capable of working at. You would burn out the core of any wand you handled. You will need a staff."
"A staff!" McGonagall stared at the wandmaker in surprise. There hadn't been a wizard who required a staff since the time of Merlin! Even the Founders of Hogwarts who were the strongest wizards and witches of their age had used wands!
"What's the difference between a staff and a wand other than size, I mean?" Harry couldn't help being curious.
"A staff can have up to ten different cores in it, each selected by the wizard who will be using it. No two staffs are ever exactly the same and no staff will work well for another wizard, unless it is passed on before the current wizard's death, using a blood ritual. Usually what will happen is the staff is buried with the wizard who used it." Ollivander told him.
"Then it would be a waste of your talents to make one for me, Mr. Ollivander, since I do not intend to remain in the wizarding world once this year is up." Harry informed the wandmaker.
"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Potter." Ollivander was sincere and Harry could tell that he meant it.
"Well, you're probably only one of about a handful." Harry observed. "Personally I think they'll be glad to see the back of me, that way they don't have to be constantly reminded of their stupidity and their narrow-mindedness. Tell me something, Mr. Ollivander. Did you believe I was actually responsible for what happened in the Tri wizard tournament.
"I'm sorry to say, that I never decided one way or the other." Ollivander told him honestly. "I tend to want to hear both sides of a issue before forming an opinion. The only side of that I ever heard was the Ministry's and that was undoubtedly slanted to make them look good. I will say this much. There were many unanswered questions, at least in my mind that left me in doubt about your guilt. And as you've experienced first hand the Ministry is very quick to assume guilt and about not bothering to take the time to find out if they have the right person or not. You are not the first they have condemned who was innocent and I doubt that you will be the last. I know for a fact that during the time of Grindelwald, they sentenced a wizard to be Kissed and only found out after the man had been Kissed that he was in fact innocent. That left three children orphaned and the Ministry did nothing to correct their mistake. Because of their actions, the oldest boy became one of Voldemort's staunchest followers until he was killed, and the two girls disappeared while they were still very young and to this day, I do not know what happened to them. You would have thought the Ministry would have learned a lesson from that to use all the tools at their disposal to determine guilt or innocence, but they haven't."
"Well, I thank you for your honesty sir." Harry bowed his head slightly in the direction of the other man, before turning his attention back to McGonagall. "Are we now done, Professor?"
"No, Mr. Potter, we are not done." McGonagall told him firmly. "We came here to get you your wand, but since you will need a staff, then a staff is what we will get."
"Oh and just who is going to teach me how to use it?" Harry sneered. "You? Professor Flitwick perhaps?" He paused then added, "Oh I know, how about the great Albus Dumbledork himself?"
McGonagall heard the insulting name this time "Mr. Potter, I must insist that you show the Headmaster some respect."
"My respect was freely given the first time around to both you and the Headmaster." Harry informed her. "This time both you and he will have to earn it back. And I can tell you right now that, if you keep towing the party line you never will."
Harry turned back to Ollivander. "Well Mr. Ollivander, it seems that you will be making a staff for me, since the Deputy Headmistress wants to waste Hogwarts' money."
Ollivander turned to Professor McGonagall and said, "Professor, just so you are aware, a staff takes at least two weeks to create, once the materials have been chosen by the wizard. Mr. Potter will not be leaving with one today. Do you still wish to have one made?"
"May I borrow your fire, Mr. Ollivander?"
"Brilliant observation, Lorring." Harry sneered. "I'm heading down for lunch now. You might want to warn the others not to touch my trunk or they'll get a nasty surprise."
"You booby-trapped your trunk. Why?" Lorring wanted to know.
"Surely your memory can't be that bad?" Harry countered sarcastically. "I have no intention of losing another trunk to the pyromaniacs of Gryffindor."
"Harry," the other boy began.
"Potter." Harry corrected him.
"Potter then," the other boy tried again. "You have to give us a chance to try and make up for what we did last year."
"Have to, have to." Harry said angrily before grabbing the boy by the throat and lifting him into the air with ease. His eyes turn red, frightening the boy more. "Have to!” he shouted. “I see that even when you are trying to apologize, you and everyone in Gryffindors still act entitled and believe that I should straight away accept your apology and forgive you by simply saying I am sorry. Well, let me make myself clear: I will never forget or forgive what you did to me. There is nothing you can ever do to make up for sending me to Azkaban or for destroying the only memories I had of my parents and my godfather. I will never get those memories back. However, I know from experience that most Gryffindors are too stupid to realize that and will continue to try or do something equally stupid, so why don't you pass the word to all the other traitors in this tower, that unless it has to do with school, to leave me the hell alone."
Harry then threw the boy on the ground hard before leaving.
McGonagall stared at the report on her desk of Harry's afternoon classes. His determination to make things as difficult for everyone apparently had not changed. So far he had gotten detention from at least three more teachers and Gryffindor was currently in negative points, despite the efforts of Miss Granger and other students. He was currently serving the detention she'd given him, for failure to comply with a teacher's orders, with Filch. She dreaded to think of what the House points for Gryffindor would look like after Potions on Friday.She shook her head wondering if turning young Potter around was going to be worth all the effort they were going to. A knock on her office door distracted McGonagall from her thoughts. "Come in."
Hermione Granger stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. "You wanted to see me, Professor?"
"Yes, Miss Granger," McGonagall even though she had originally proposed Miss Granger for this task was now having second thoughts about asking her to do it. "I have a task for you, but I want to let you know that you do not have to do it if you don't want to."
Hermione was curious about what could have her favourite teacher so nervous. "What is it ma'am?"
"If you are agreeable, the Headmaster and I would like for you to contact the friends of Mr. Potter's parents and try to get pictures of them so that the album Hagrid gave him his first year can be recreated." McGonagall said quickly.
Hermione was silent for several minutes before she said, "I'm afraid I will have to refuse this assignment, Professor."
"If it would not be prying, may I ask why?"
"I have no desire to be the target of Harry Potter's vengeance. I've found out that he has a mean streak that makes Malfoy look like a wimp by comparison." Hermione told her. "Did you know that in August, he had the Weasleys and I summoned to court at the Ministry?"
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Miss Granger." McGonagall told her.
"That wasn't the thing that convinced me to avoid having him angry at me." Hermione told her. "When I got home, there was a box waiting for me. There was a note on the top of it that said that since I found house elves much more worthy to defend than those I called my friends, that I probably wanted the contents. When I opened the box, I found the shrunken heads of the house elves from Grimmauld Place."
"Oh, my dear," McGonagall looked properly horrified. "How could he do such a thing?"
"Now you understand, why I want to avoid drawing his anger, if at all possible." Hermione told her. "Last night he presented me with a sort of truce. He said that as long as I keep any conversations with him to school matters and did not try to interfere in his life, that he will be civil to me." She looked at McGonagall, her expression serious. "It's a start ma'am and I don't want to blow any chance I may have of getting Harry to forgive me."
"I understand, Miss Granger." McGonagall was pleased to hear that there were at least some signs of thawing from Potter.
By Friday, Harry still had no wand, but he knew he would be receiving a staff from Mr. Ollivander sometime in the next few weeks. Since Dumbledore had given McGonagall the go ahead, Ollivander was making one out of Ash with seven wands cores. Despite the slight looks of awe when they first saw him either because he was the first wizard since Merlin to need a staff, or because he had destroyed Voldemort, Harry had also managed to rack up detention with every teacher but Hagrid and Binns and that beat the Weasel twins record. He hadn't done anything to deliberately disrupt the classes, but he also hadn't done any of the expected work either. He would just sit in the back of the class and stare at the teacher. If things worked out the way he expected, he would have one of the worst grades at Hogwarts for a fifth year, if they didn't expel him first and knowing Dumbledore, they wouldn't do that.
Currently right now potion class had been canceled on the account of snape being dead and Dumbledore haven’t found a new potion teacher. Which is good since it means he does not have to interact with any of the students or teachers of the school. Harry is currently eating breakfast. However while he eat he can feel the presence of a certain Slytherin boy.
Draco moved cautiously down the far side of the Slytherin table, trying to avoid detection. Not that anyone would have noticed him, given the chaos and crowd of people trying to get to the end of the Gryffindor table, where Harry Potter was currently seated. It looked like quite a few of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were still trying to talk to him.
Draco reached the best vantage point just as Potter apparently decided he'd had enough because he got up and started pushing his way through the milling crowd of students.
Draco waited until he had a clear shot before raising his wand and firing off the curse.
A moment later there screams as students scattered out of the way of the curse that was heading toward Potter. Those who were closest to him noticed that Harry made no attempt to dodge the curse as they had done. Without looking he raised his hand and just snap his fingers and the curse stopped mid air just before it would have hit him. However instead of dispelling the curse with a finite as they expected, Potter just simply snap his fingers again and the curse sped off back the way it came.
As it reached the far side of the room, near the Slytherin table, the watching students saw it swerve as if it were looking for someone or something. The Slytherins were scattering out of its way like the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had a few moments before as the spell sped down their table, so all anyone saw was a burst of yellow light as the curse found what it was looking for.
In the almost deafening silence that filled the Great Hall they heard a squeak and several students caught sight of a streak of white on the stone flagged floor that was headed toward the Great Hall doors.
"Not this time." Harry commented making a gesture with his hand.
The white ferret flew backwards and came to a halt in mid-air in front of Harry. It was trying to curl up into a ball as Harry studied it.
"I wonder which Slytherin you are." Harry murmured. "I also wonder if you were stupid enough to try and make the transfiguration permanent."
"It's Draco Malfoy the Amazing Bouncing Ferret!" Ron shouted. "Remember last year, Harry."
This announcement earned Ron laughter from his fellow Gryffindors who remembered the incident where Moody or at least someone pretending to be Moody had turned Draco in to a white ferret. The laughter quickly stopped however when Harry gave Ron a death glare, that would have rivalled one of Snape's. Ron quickly vanished into the crowd of students as Professor McGonagall strode up to Harry, looking furious.
"Mr Potter!"
Harry spoke up before McGonagall could get started. "I believe you may want to take care of Mr. Malfoy, Professor. He seems to have had an accident with a spell he cast."
"Mr Potter, how could you be so foolish?" McGonagall glared at the young man. "Fifty points from Gryffindor. That curse could have hit anybody when you sent it back. Why didn't you simply dispel the curse once you stopped it from striking you? "
"It wouldn't have hit anybody." Harry countered. "I put a return to sender charm on it, so the only one who was going to hit with it would be the one who sent it in the first place."
"Nevertheless you endangered your fellow students." Professor McGonagall went on. "You should have just dispelled the curse, so no one was hurt."
Harry just stared at her his face an expressionless mask. "I'm a big believer in reaping what you sow, Professor. Malfoy sowed this, so he should reap it. I do hope you are able to reverse the transfiguration, otherwise the Malfoy line will end right here."
He turned on his heel to leave and then turned back for a moment and glared at the ferret . The silence in the Great Hall was again almost deafening, so everyone heard his final words. "Malfoy, consider this your last warning. I have had enough of you and the rest of the Slytherins. However if you or any of the other Slytherins are stupid enough to try and harm me, let me warn you here and now, you will not like the results and your children's children will be feeling them, that is a promise from me to you. We just have to get through the last few year together and then we can go our separate ways and never see each other again."
Turning on his heel, Potter left. Those nearest the Great Hall doors saw him walk out the main doors of the castle and on to the grounds.
….
“Well, since I have free time right now, I think it's best I gain some more information.” Harry said as he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Dumbledore entered the Staff room after dinner his face solemn.In the staff room he saw McGonagall was already inside waiting for him.
"Albus, I need to speak with you about Mr. Potter." McGonagall spoke up after the door close and casting a silencing charm on the room.
"What about Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore looked old and tired.
"I am beginning to have my doubts about the wisdom of having him back at Hogwarts." Minerva told him honestly. "I know you want to try and get him to forgive those who wronged him last year, but I don't think Mr. Potter has any intentions of going along with your plans. He made it quite clear."
Dumbledore nodded his head in acknowledgement of her concerns. "Yes, that young man has a lot more anger in him than I originally thought. Most of it unfortunately is justified, given our actions last year. All we can do Minerva is help him work through it."
"Headmaster, that plan will only work if the boy is willing to be co-operative," McGonagall pointed out. "And so far he has proven to be very rebellious. From what I and the other teachers have seen so far he has no intention of co-operating with us. He has racked up more detentions in the past couple of weeks than the Weasley twins did during any of the years they attended Hogwarts."
"We must wait him out Minerva." Dumbledore told her. "Maintaining that level of anger day in and day out will soon become very tiring for Mr. Potter and then we should be able to make headway in bringing him back to us."
McGonagall sighed. "I hope you are right, Albus."
Harry grimaced as he realised that his having a staff would undoubtedly make him even more desirable as a husband, given the fact that he had to be an extremely powerful wizard to use a staff instead of a wand to channel his magic. In fact he had already had a number of young witches from the other houses trying to get his attention over the past few weeks and this would probably make the foolish girls redouble their efforts in trying to snag Harry Potter: The-Boy-Who-Lived-And Destroyed-Voldemort as their husband.
Remembering the one and only time he had seen the Malfoys together Harry was willing to bet that in the old and influential wizarding families arranged marriages were usually the norm and that love was not a factor; power, wealth and influence were. However he now knew that he was now the target of some of those families having accidentally overheard a conversation a few weeks ago between several girls that he knew came from those proud old wizarding families. The girls were doing their level best to try and snag him as a husband obviously on the orders of their parents. Apparently they were willing to overlook the fact that his mother was a muggle-born, in favour of getting their daughter married to someone as powerful as he was proving to be.
In fact, several of them who never would've even looked at him before, had tried to get him alone in the past few weeks. They were apparently counting the fact that he was largely ignorant of wizard courting customs, to try and trap him into a situation where he would be forced to marry them. Ginny Weasley had been the most persistent of those trying to snag him as a husband, refusing to believe that Harry didn't desire her, given that she desired him. He had been very careful not to eat or drink anything she might have had contact with, just in case she decided to escalate matters and try a love potion. He still remembered the giggly conversation she and Hermione had had with her mother about love potions that summer before his fourth year when they were staying at the Burrow for a month.
Harry couldn't help wondering just how gullible they thought he was, given how he had been treated by the wizarding world over the last year. Maybe they believed if they treated him like a hero, that he would forget the past year and their previous ill treatment of him. Did they really think his memory would be that short? Obviously their memories were if they thought that treating him like a rock star would make him forget how quickly they had turned on him not once but many times. Well that would happen… never
He shook his head, willing to bet that in their minds they were already revising the events of the past seven years and especially this past one to make themselves look better or at least feel better about their actions. He couldn't help wondering what the next generation of witches and wizards would be taught about Harry Potter and how he defeated Voldemort. By the time the wizarding world was done, he had no doubt that they would have it firmly established that Harry had deliberately allowed himself to be placed in Azkaban to trap and then destroy Voldemort, instead of facing the truth that they had all betrayed him and that no one in the wizarding world had bothered to stand up for him. For them that fantasy would be far more palatable than reality, because they definitely wouldn't want the truth getting out that they could turn on someone who had never done them any intentional harm like a pack of hungry jackals.
The students started whispering when they saw the Headmaster and the wand maker approach Harry Potter who was seated at the end of the Gryffindor table.
There was a brief conversation between Harry and the wand maker that was too low for those Gryffindors closest to Harry to make out, but after a few moments, he got up and followed the wand maker out of the Great Hall.
"I am sorry it took so long to finish your staff, Mr. Potter, but some of the cores were very temperamental." Ollivander told him as he searched for the best place to do the binding ritual. "It took a little time to get the thunderbird feather and phoenix ash to work together with the basilisk and horntail scales. And then I went through several clusters of Tourmaline before I found one the staff would accept."
"I thought I'd already chosen a cluster for the cap."
Ollivander looked a little sheepish. "It shattered the first time it was mounted. While it was responsive to you, it apparently wasn't compatible with your cores once they were all within the staff."
Ollivander stopped when he got to a spot halfway between the castle and Hagrid's hut and Harry stopped right beside him.
Laying down the cloth wrapped bundle, Ollivander undid the wrapping, but didn't pick the slender ash white staff up. Instead he used the cloth to roll it onto the grassy area between them. "Please extend your wand hand, palm up, Mr. Potter."
Harry did so and Ollivander pulled a slender dagger from a pocket in his robes.
"I'm going to make a shallow cut across your palm, then I want you to pick up the staff and set the tip of it on the ground." Ollivander instructed.
"Why?" Harry didn't sound concerned that what they were doing might be classified as Dark magic, since there was blood involved and the Ministry usually classified any magic than involved blood as Dark, even the ones meant to help.
"In order for you to be able to use the staff at all it must be bound to you." Ollivander explained. "This requires blood containing your magical signature, so it will know who it belongs to."
"You make it sound as if this staff were alive and going to become my familiar." Harry commented.
Ollivander shrugged. "In a way it is. Everything within it and even the staff itself were all living things at one point in time. As for the other, that is equally true, because once this staff is bound to you, no one else will be able to touch it with their bare hands without causing great harm to themselves." He paused a moment then asked, "Are you ready?"
Harry nodded.
Ollivander dragged the dagger across his palm and blood welled up in the cut it made. Harry waited a moment before kneeling down to pick up the staff.
As soon as the tip of the staff made contact with the ground, those few who were brave enough to follow the pair outside, saw the top of the staff burst into life with deep emerald green fire that flowed down the staff and met a deep golden glow that rose up from the ground. The two merged, encasing Harry in an emerald green and gold swirling sheath that gave off occasional bursts of gold and green sparks.
The minute the staff touched the ground, Harry felt as if there were something he couldn't see starring at him, judging him inside the swirling green and gold shield that surrounded him. It took all his determination not to try and look around to find the source of that feeling.
You do not want us, mage. A chorus of voices spoke in his head. Why did you have us made if you do not want us?
I did not have you made. Harry told the staff at least he assumed it was the staff. You were commissioned by another.
Yet you co-operated in our making, otherwise we would not exist, the staff's chorus told him. No staff can be made for one who is unwilling. So we ask again, Mage, why did you have us made if you do not want us?
Harry mentally shrugged and told the staff I had two main reasons for not wanting a staff. The first being that I have no intention of remaining in the wizarding world after this year is up and a staff would not be needed in the non-magical world.
And the other, prompted the chorus.
There is no one in the wizarding world who could teach me how to use a staff.
We see that you do not intend to give up your magic once you leave the wizarding world, so you will need us to help you keep it under control. The chorus of voices decided.
I've been doing just fine without you so far. Harry pointed out dryly. And I would still need someone to teach me how to work with you.
That is what we are for, the chorus told him. Your reasons while sound have no affect on us. There is much good that can be done by you whether in the magical or non-magical world. We accept that you are ours to guide and teach.
"Great, just what I need," Harry grumbled, "a bossy staff."
He heard the chorus chuckle as the green and gold shield vanished from sight.
"I take it the bonding was successful?" Ollivander inquired.
"I would say so," Harry glared at the staff. "I'm now the proud possessor of a very bossy staff. When you said it was alive, you weren't kidding."
As Ollivander chuckled, Harry caught sight of the small group watching them.
The expression on Harry's face made the group of students scatter to the four winds. For some it was because they didn't want to face his wrath and for the rest, it was because they wanted to be the first to tell their classmates that Harry Potter was the first wizard since Merlin who had a magical staff.
McGonagall led the group to the chamber off the Great Hall. "Gentlemen and Ladies, if you would please wait in here until we return," she requested. "Minister, the Headmaster has requested that I bring you to his office."
"I have come to see Mr. Potter, not the Headmaster." Fudge told her as he followed her to the Headmaster's office.
"I am aware of that Minister, but as he is presently in class, you will have time to see the Headmaster first." McGonagall told him.
"I know what he intends to try and do Minerva. He wants to try and talk me out of giving Potter the honour due him by awarding him the Order of Merlin." Fudge's tone made it quite clear he had no intention of being talked out of anything.
"Maybe you should listen to his reasons, Minister." The deputy headmistress told him as they came to a halt by the stone gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office. "Mars bars."
Dumbledore looked up at the knock on his office door. "Enter."
Professor McGonagall came in followed by Minister Fudge.
"Ah Cornelius, good to see you," Dumbledore got to his feet and gestured toward one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat."
"No thank you, Dumbledore," Fudge declined the offer. "I have some very important business to take care of today with young Mr. Potter, so let's get this over with so I can do what I came to do."
"That is what I wish to speak to you about, Cornelius." Dumbledore told him. "I would like to request that you wait until at least after the first of the year, before you present this award to Harry."
"And why should I want to do that?" Fudge demanded. "We at the Ministry have had numerous owls telling us we should have done something long before now to show the wizarding world's appreciation for his destroying He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I have also heard rumours that Mr. Potter intends to leave the wizarding world once this year is over. Right now the rest of the wizarding world doesn't know about his intentions and I intend to see to it that he stays here. He is needed here."
"I am well aware of Mr. Potter's stated intention to leave the wizarding world behind Cornelius." Dumbledore tried to keep calm. "This is what we are trying to avoid. I agree with you that we need him, but he needs us just as badly. However, given his present level of anger over what he sees as the betrayal of the wizarding world, not once but several times, he is unwilling to acknowledge this fact. I also believe that because he has never wanted or sought the spotlight, that young Harry will not be too appreciative of the honour you want to bestow on him. We must work through his feelings of anger and betrayal first before Harry can properly appreciate his place in our society."
"Poppycock! I'm afraid I must disagree with you, Dumbledore." Fudge told him pompously. "What that young man needs is to see is how much we… the whole of the wizarding community value him for what he has done in destroying the Dark Lord once and for all. You'll see, once he's had a taste of how much the wizarding world respects and admires him, it will bring young Harry around."
"Mr. Potter has already had a taste of the wizarding world's regard." Dumbledore reminded the Minister. "He has also seen how quickly wizardkind can turn on those it claims to respect... including the Ministry, if you will remember. I think I can safely say that he has no desire to return to that spotlight."
Fudge squirmed for a moment before saying, "nonsense. Young Harry is like any other young man. The attention and regard of young witches will be heady stuff to him and that will bring around, you'll see."
Dumbledore shook his head. "Cornelius, he has already had the attention of a number of the young witches here at the school since his return and he either ignores them or treats them with contempt. Please, I beg of you, put this off for a little while. Give us more time to help Harry work through the issues he has with us before you try and shove him into the spotlight. I'll warn you now, that it is a place he has never wanted to be and desires even less now. If you force this issue, I'm afraid it will backfire in ways you can't even begin to imagine."
….
The Head Boy, Terry Boot walked down to the Care of Magical Creatures class near Hagrid's hut. He'd been sent to fetch Harry Potter for a meeting with the Minister.
The Fifth year students were all sweaty and panting, but Terry couldn't see the creature that Hagrid had had them working with.
"Hagrid," he called, taking the half giant's attention away from his students. "I've been sent to fetch Potter and bring him back up to the castle. The Minister has asked to see him."
Hagrid nodded. "'Arry, ye need ta go back up ta the castle with Mr. Boot. The Minister would like ta see ya."
Harry stepped out of the group of students without a word and headed toward where Terry was standing. Once he got close enough to be heard without shouting, he asked, "Can I clean up first? I don't think the Minister would like to see me like this."
"I suppose so." Terry nodded. "They didn't say it was urgent, just that he wanted to meet with you as soon as possible. While you're getting cleaned up, I'll let Professor Dumbledore know."
"Where am I supposed to meet him?" Harry wanted to know.
"In the anteroom off the Great Hall," Terry told him. "Oh and when you change, you might want to dress nice."
….
"Where is he, Dumbledore?" Fudge hissed under his breath. He could see the waiting reporters were beginning to get impatient.
"Mr. Boot said he needed to clean up after the Care of Magical Creatures class." Dumbledore told him. "From what I understand, Hagrid had a baby Axex in class today and they are known to be rather rambunctious."
Just as Fudge was going to ask Dumbledore to have Boot check up on Harry, the door to the anteroom opened and a young man with messy dark hair walked in and Fudge couldn't help noticing the staff he gripped in his right hand.
The conversations of the reporters ground to a halt as they got their first good look at the Boy-Who-Lived. No reporter had really seen him since the day he was sent to Azkaban and any attempts to try and take pictures of him had all failed, because they all came out blurry. He hadn't changed that much from the last time they'd seen him. He was still rather short and very slender, but unlike on previous occasions a few things stood out. His hair while still messy was now shoulder length and he had long bangs covering the trademark scar. Also his hair was now a mixture of black and silver, making it resemble a lake reflecting the night sky. His face was expressionless as he caught sight of the reporters, and his eyes seemed to burn with emerald fire. He was wearing a deep green and silver robe that was opened in the front and underneath it he appeared to be wearing a muggle t-shirt and jeans. Those closest to him could see there was writing on the shirt and it took them a few moments to make it out: 'Don't let your mind wander. It's too little to be out on its own.' They also noted that on the emerald green robes there were three House emblems. They recognized the ones for the Houses of Potter and Black, but they couldn't place the third, even though it looked familiar. They made a note to research that house device because depending on which House it belonged to Potter might wield almost as much power as the Minister, though most of it was bound to be economic.
The item that attracted the most interest among the reporters was the staff he was holding in his right hand. They had heard rumours that he had gotten one, but since they hadn't been allowed on the Hogwarts grounds until now they hadn't been able to confirm it. It wasn't very tall. The deep green, glowing gem cluster mounted on the top of the staff, was just level with the top of Potter's head. The staff itself was ash white in colour and from what those closest to Potter could see there appeared to be intricate grey lines, like Celtic knotwork running all over it.
Following the instructions given by the Minister, they stood back respectfully to let Potter through. Fudge had promised all their questions would be answered by Mr. Potter after he had made his presentation.
"You wanted to see me, Fudge?" The tone of Potter's voice left little doubt in the mind's of the reporters, that he was not fond of the Minister.
"Y-yes Harry," Fudge stammered.
"That's Mr. Potter to you, Fudge." Harry corrected, pleased with the effect he was having on the Minister.
"Y-yes, of course," Fudge had to look away from the icy green eyes that seemed to be looking right through him as if he weren't there.
He took a deep breath and tried again. "I asked you to meet with me today, because I wish to present you with the highest award that a Wizard or Witch can receive."
His new aide stepped up and handed Fudge a scroll, which he opened. "For saving the Wizarding World from the threat of Lord V-V-Voldemort, it is my privilege to award to Mr. Harry James Potter the Order of Merlin First Class."
The aide handed Fudge a small opened box, containing a medal. Fudge held this out to Harry, but he simply snap his fingers causing the box to be set on fire and the aid to let go and drop the box in shock. Everyone look at Harry in shock. His eyes glow red as he glare at the minister.
"I don't want your stinking medal. I didn't destroy Moldyshorts for you, Fudge, or anybody else in the wizarding world." The contempt in Harry's cold voice could be heard from one end of the room to the other. The temperature in the room seemed to drop as he continued "I destroyed Voldemort for my parents, for Sirius and Remus. I destroyed him for Cedric and everyone that monster kill. And I did it for me. I also did it for those in the non-magical world who couldn't protect themselves from Voldemort and his Deatheaters. If it hadn't been for the fact that he wanted to destroy them as well as you, I would have let Voldemort raze the wizarding community to the ground."
Fudge's mind raced trying to come up with something to say as one of the reporters spoke up and said. "Surely you don't mean that, Mr. Potter. After all you are a Hero to the people of the wizarding world."
"I rarely say things I don't mean, especially these days." Harry kept his attention on Fudge. "And I'm only a hero until you need a scapegoat. I have been both to the wizarding world and I am tired of it. You are all a bunch of hypocrites, who are led around like sheep believing whatever the Ministry tells you and the rest of the wizarding world follows right along with whatever you put in print." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I have had first hand experiencing with how destructive the lies the Ministry tells, as well as the lies the wizarding press is willing to print can be."
"Come now Mr. Potter, the Ministry does the best it can for everyone." Fudge found his voice. He was not going to let this boy wreck his career or topple the Ministry, no matter how powerful he might be. Public opinion still carried a lot of weight and it favoured the Ministry and the stability it created. "We are only human and I grant you that sometimes mistakes are made, but we correct them as soon as we can."
"You are only human," the look that Harry gave the Minister had him cringing and wishing he had listened to Dumbledore. "I have my doubts about that. Human beings learn from their mistakes, or at least they try to, but the Ministry and the Wizarding world just keep repeating theirs. And none of you have owned up to or corrected your mistakes. Actually I should rephrase that last part. You do sometimes try and correct your mistakes, but only after it's too fucking late for the person you have wronged. And then only after your face has been rubbed in the fact that you were wrong."
"What mistakes has the Ministry made that they haven't owned up to?" Harry recognized that voice as Rita Skeeter's.
"Ah, Rita, if you only knew how long I have waited for this day." Harry smiled as he turned to face her. "You are one of the ones that caused the most damage during my fourth year. If you hadn't written all those nasty articles of yours about how I was only trying to get attention and that I was delusional and dangerous, then the Minister might have believed me when I told him Voldemort was back. I do say might, because this idiot was determined not to have his calm and ordered world disturbed by the truth. Then there were the articles you wrote about me for the trial. They were pretty much in the same vein as the stuff you wrote in my fourth year. I would have thought you learned your lesson after Hermione found out your little secret, but I guess that was too much to hope for."
"What secret?" One of the other reporters demanded.
Harry smirked as he told them. "Didn't you know? Well since Rita is so fond of the truth and getting everything out into the open I suppose it is only fair that you know." He enjoyed watching Skeeter's face suddenly grow pale. " Rita Skeeter is an unregistered animagus, a beetle to be precise. That is how she has been able to get into places she is not supposed to be in and write stories with her own special slant on the truth with information she shouldn't have had. But then the truth is all relative, isn't it, Rita?"
"And to answer your question Rita, actually it's the wizarding world as a whole and not just the Ministry that hasn't owned up to these mistakes, but we'll let Fudge here see if he can answer this question for you all right." Harry turned his attention back to the Minister.
"I don't know what mistakes you are talking about." Fudge glared at Potter, wondering how he could stop this debacle from happening.
Harry made a tsk-tsk sound as he shook his head. "Minister… Minster, you might want to see someone about your poor memory. We'll get into the errors you personally made in a bit, but right now let me quiz you on some history. And by the way if you reporters know the answer, you can speak up too. Some of you look old enough to know. So Minister today's question is: 'In the past say oh about a hundred years, how many witches and or wizards were sent to Azkaban without a trial, or else got the same sort of trial I got, where not all the resources that the wizarding world has available for getting to the truth were used?' And for your bonus question: 'Of those that were treated that way, how many of them was the truth not found out about, until they were either dead or had their souls sucked out by Dementors?'"
"There have only been two," the Minister told him told him confidently. "You and Black and we've made reparations for both of you."
Harry made a buzzing sound and then said, "wrong answer. And Sirius was dead by the time you admitted he was innocent." He looked over at the reporters. "Would any of you care to prove you're smarter than the Minister?"
There was silence as the reporters stared at each other, wondering just what the Boy-Who-Lived was talking about.
"What about you Dumbledore?" Harry inquired. "Surely you know. I mean after all you have been alive for more than a hundred years. Hell for all I know you were probably at the trials."
"Hagrid," Dumbledore offered.
"Yes, there was Hagrid." Harry agreed. "He was sent to Azkaban not once but twice. And the second time he didn't even receive the courtesy of a trial. The last time, I believe, it was because you Minister said something along the lines of: 'we must be seen to be doing something' when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again by Ginny Weasley who was stupid enough to write in a cursed diary and allow the spirit of Voldemort to possess her. I could understand a muggle-born making the mistake of writing in an enchanted diary, since they wouldn't know to be cautious around such an item, but child raised in the wizarding world should have had more sense."
Harry paused for a moment allowing that information to sink into the reporter's minds and send them frantically writing. "I noticed though that neither you nor the Ministry have made an effort to get Hagrid a new wand. A wand he is entitled to owing to the fact that he was innocent and shouldn't have had his wand snapped in the first place, but we are getting off topic. Keep thinking Headmaster, there is still at least one more to be accounted for."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, but he also seemed to be unable to come up with the last one Potter was referring to.
"Let me give you a little hint shall I," Harry offered, "Weyland."
"Kerr Weyland," the Minister spat. "He was guilty on all counts and it was proven using all methods available."
"I'm afraid I must agree with the Minister on that Harry," Dumbledore confirmed the information Fudge had provided. "Kerr Weyland was an ardent supporter of Voldemort, in fact he was one of the first to join him."
"And whose fault is that." Harry spat out, glaring at the Headmaster and then turning his attention to the room at large.
The reporters found they couldn't meet his gaze, because his red eyes seemed to piece them to their very souls and they found they didn't like the feeling.
Harry continued his little history lesson. "It was the wizarding world's actions with regards to his father that led Kerr Weyland into Voldemort's camp. The Ministry had his father convicted and Kissed and it was only after he was Kissed, that they found out that he wasn't guilty. It had been someone else who resembled him, but did the wizarding world make reparations to his family? No! Did anyone help his children given that their mother was dead? No! Take them in? No! He and his sisters got swept under the rug to the point where not even those who were alive at the time remember what they did to the Weyland family or I should say what they didn't do to correct the mistake they made."
"What is the point you are trying to make, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
"What is the point I am trying to make?" Harry parroted back at the Headmaster. "There is a saying in the muggle world. 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Would you agree with that statement, Headmaster?"
"I suppose so," Dumbledore responded cautiously.
"Then what I am saying is that the wizarding world is corrupt, because a number of you see nothing wrong with the abuse of muggles, or of those who are weaker in power than yourselves. You all see yourselves as somehow better because you can work magic and they can't." Harry's gaze swept the room before returning to Fudge. "And Fudge in particular has abused his power in ways that would remind any muggle or even the muggle-born, if they bothered to think about it, of Hitler."
"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore spoke up trying to get the situation under control. "Surely you are not comparing the Minister of Magic to the insane muggle who was under Grindelwald's control during the thirties and forties."
"Oh, but I am." Harry confirmed. "He not only had Barty Crouch Jr, who could have given testimony about the fact that Voldemort was indeed back Kissed without a trial I might add." Harry looked thoughtful for a moment. "Would that make him number five to be treated to the wizarding world's peculiar form of justice? Maybe not, given that he was indeed guilty of supporting the Dark Lord. Fudge also spent the last year alone trying the hide the truth . Edict after edict that controlled what we could do, how we could assemble, even what we were allowed to say or read. Manipulating the press for his own ends."
Harry shook his head. "No, I should rephrase that because they were his willing accomplices in trying to destroy my character and good name after all just so they could sell more newspapers. They didn't care who they hurt as long as they could make a profit out of it and still don't for that matter." He glared at the assembled reporters for a moment, and they wouldn't meet his stare. After a moment his attention returned to Fudge and Dumbledore. " He was a dictator in every sense of the word and it took Voldemort getting in his face in the very halls of the Ministry of Magic before he would even consider that he was wrong."
Potter paused for breath. "He was more concerned with retaining his position as Minister than in doing the right thing. Even now, I'll bet that's what this award ceremony is meant to do, solidify his position, because it is probably very shaky right now. If he is seen honouring the Hero of the Wizarding World then maybe he can hang on to his job. Well no thanks Minister. I've had my fill of being used by you and the Wizarding world. From now on you can sort out your own messes. Leave me out of it."
Harry stormed out of the room before another word could be said.
The secret origin of Discord
Hermione came into the common room from the Gryffindor Head Girl's suite with an armload of books.
From her seat in an armchair near the fireplace, Ginny could see that she was looking around for a place to sit. While the armchair across from Ginny was unoccupied, Hermione clearly wanted or needed to sit at a table.
Ginny stiffened when she realised that her friend had spotted Harry sitting at a table in a slightly shadowed corner of the Gryffindor common room. Ginny had been keeping an eye on that table and had watched him drive off several Gryffindors who tried to join him there, no matter what year they were in, and couldn't help wondering if Hermione would have better or worse luck than the others if she tried to join him. Probably worse, Ginny reflected as she saw Hermione nod and head over to where he was seated.
Harry ignored Hermione as she set her books down in the only clear space available on the table and set her school bag on the floor. It was when she started to clear a space for herself by moving his scattered books into a pile that he started paying attention to what she was doing.
Ginny noticed that Harry did nothing to stop Hermione, until she opened one of his books and started looking through it. Hermione's curiosity must have gotten the better of her, Ginny thought as she watched Harry snatch the book out of her grasp before she'd had a chance to look at more than a couple of pages.
In the sudden silence that filled the common room, everyone heard Harry growl, "I warned you, Granger, to keep your nose out of my life and out of my business."
"I was just curious about what you were reading." Hermione tried to defend her actions. "Those didn't look like school books."
"And they aren't," Harry told her. "But you lost any right you may have had to poke your nose into my affairs last year, remember. Then again the smartest witch of the age seems to be remarkably dumb, because she can't remember what she has been told several times by me. So perhaps you need a more permanent reminder of what can happen if you continue to try and poke your nose into my business."
Ginny saw Harry snap his fingers before he waved his hand over the table in front of him. The books and papers on the table shrunk down and flew into his open book bag. Throwing the book bag over his shoulder, Harry told Hermione, "you can have the table," he then disappeared from the common room in a cloud of smoke.
Ginny saw the look of anguish on Hermione's face as she stared after the departing Harry. Closing her book, Ginny went over to join Hermione. Wanting to cheer her up, Ginny told her, "It'll get better. You'll see."
"I'm beginning to doubt that," Hermione disagreed. "Harry and I were the best of friends for years, but I destroyed that friendship by not being willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I should have known better. The story was too pat, especially given the way Sirius had been framed, but I ignored that in favour of believing the Headmaster could never be wrong."
"Harry's got a lot of anger to work through before he will forgive what we did." Ginny told her, unwilling to accept that she might never get back the man she loved and wanted.
Laying out her books, Hermione reminded her, "Harry seems to be unwilling to let go of his anger. I'm fairly certain that one of the reasons Dumbledore forced him to come back here was so he could work through that anger toward us. He... I want Harry to be able to move on... with us as friends again. I want him to be able to get on with his life in the wizarding world."
"It's only been a few months," Ginny pointed out, sitting down opposite her. "It's just going to take time. What we need to do is continue to show him that we are here for him if he wants to talk... or anything."
Hermione noticed the blush that spread over Ginny's face. "You still want him don't you?"
"I have ever since I saw him that first time in King's Cross Station." Ginny told her.
Before Ginny had a chance to say anything more, Hermione let out a shriek as she stared at the page of the open book in front of her. The Common room fell silent and students came stumbling out of the dorms, wands out looking for the threat. Ginny studied the book lying in front of Hermione, trying to figure out what would have caused her to panic that way. Hermione was usually so calm and unflappable, but she couldn't see anything that would have produce this reaction.
"What's wrong?" Ginny asked.
"Can't you see?" Hermione gestured at the open book. "Harry has destroyed my book."
Picking up the heavy book, Ginny examined it carefully and found nothing wrong with it. Setting the book back down in from of Hermione, she asked. "What's wrong with it?"
"It's blank!" Hermione screamed. "He erased my book!"
Hermione opened another book then another. "HE ERASED ALL MY BOOKS!"
Ginny looked at the books completely baffled. The words were there. She could see them. True she couldn't understand some of the ones she read, but they were there.
Ginny slapped Hermione's face hard. Once the older girl was shocked into silence, she told her, "Hermione, the words are still there. Harry did nothing to damage your books."
"No they are not." Hermione insisted, looking down at the blank page before her.
Ginny picked up the book and began reading from the open page. "Inguz is the rune of Completion and Fertility. The presence of this Rune in any grouping or reading, suggests that tasks that have been initiated will come to completion. This Runic symbol is commonly associated with the Norse Gods Ing and Frey."
Ginny stopped at that point and looked at Hermione. The older girl had gone whiter than Nearly Headless Nick. "What's wrong Hermione?"
"Harry did something to my eyes," Hermione's voice was barely above a whisper. "I can't see anything on any of the pages of these books."
….
Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room a few minutes before curfew. Instead of the older students studying that he expected to find on his return, Harry saw that Professor McGonagall was seated in the armchair near the fire that faced the portrait hole.
"Professor," he greeted her as he headed toward the stairs for the dorms.
"I would like a word with you, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall told him.
Turning around, Harry came over to stand by the fire. "Very well ma'am. What do you want to talk about?"
"First of all, where have you been?" McGonagall wanted to know. "We've had the prefects looking for you for several hours."
"I went to the only place in this whole damn school where I wouldn't be bothered by busybodies and those trying to apologise for things that can never be forgiven." Harry told her a his eyes turn red for a second before turning back to normal.
McGonagall was shock seeing that but quickly regain her barring and try to think of how to respond to that in a way that wouldn't make him angrier and prevent her from getting him to undo the spell he'd placed on Miss Granger, so she decided to come straight to the point of why she was waiting here for him. "What did you do to Miss Granger? And when will it wear off?"
The smile that appeared on Harry's face worried Professor McGonagall. As the way he smiled reminded her the way Voldemort smile when he first took over the ministry. Yet somehow it pale in comparison to what she is seeing."I got tired of her poking her nose into my business. I told her several times to leave me alone unless it had to do with school business, but she couldn't seem to remember that simple warning, so I gave her something else to think about. As for when it will wear off, it won't. She will never be able to read another word, unless I choose to remove the spell."
McGonagall got to her feet. "How dare you interfere with another student's ability to learn?! One hundred points from Gryffindor for deliberate assault upon a fellow student and member of your own house. I demand that you remove the spell at once."
"You demand..." Harry laughed which send a chill down her spine. The way he laugh frightened the professor as somehow it mange to make the one Voldemort give out during his takeover pale in comparison . "You demand.... oh that's very good. Why should I do anything you tell me to do? You are not my mother, nor are you responsible for me. If you were, I would have taken whatever steps were necessary to get the ties between us severed... ma'am."
McGonagall flinched at the contempt in the last word.
"When will you learn that your opinion no longer matters to me?" Harry continued as if he were discussing the weather. "It hasn't since the day you stood by and watched as the students in your house destroyed all the best memories of my life. Lord knows I had none during my time with the Dursleys, but then again no one in the wizarding world gave a damn about how their hero was treated when he wasn't in the wizarding world. Come to think of it, they didn't give a damn about how I was treated while I was in the wizarding world either. All they cared about was that I destroy Voldemort for them, so they could go back to their happy little hypocritical lives with their blinders fully intact and their brains turned off. To all of you I was nothing more than a weapon to be used against Voldemort."
McGonagall finally found her voice. "I cared about you and still do care. I care about all the students in my house, Mr. Potter. You are all my family and each other's family. I never thought I would live to see the day when a member of the noble House of Gryffindor would deliberately attack another."
"Then where have you been for the last twenty plus years, Professor?! Living in a bubble? Or maybe under a rock?" Harry's voice was filled with venom. "Have you forgotten about Peter Pettigrew, the Gryffindor Deatheater, who betrayed my parents? And what about last year, you stood there and watched as the members of your so-called noble House bully and harass me non stop or when their burned up the only memories I would ever have of my parents and godfather? You know you should really think about changing the emblem of your house from the lion to the jackal, madam, because during my time here at this school I have seen Gryffindors turn on each other at the slightest provocation and do it more often than the Slytherins."
McGonagall tried several times to respond to those accusations, but couldn't come up with anything to refute what he had said, given that it was the truth after all. Peter Pettigrew a fellow Gryffindor had betrayed his parents and not once but several times the members of Gryffindor House had turned against Mr. Potter and shunned or outright attacked him, while she did nothing to prevent it. True in some cases she did it to follow Albus Dumbledore's orders, because he said it would make the boy stronger and a leader who would be needed when the Dark Lord came back. He needed to be strong if the wizarding world was to survive.
Finally realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to appeal to a sense of House loyalty, McGonagall decided to see what kind of bargain it would take to get him to undo the spell. "Mr. Potter, what will it take to get you to remove the spell you placed on Miss Granger? You may not care about your magical education, but she does. And your actions right now are no better than theirs were last year. You have taken away something she values. We may not be able to restore all of what was destroyed, but there is no need for you to sink as low as they did. You are better than that."
"A pity that didn't occur to you last year before you believed me capable of mass murder . Or before you allowed your House to set fire to my things." The expression on Harry's face was one of contempt, but then he looked thoughtful.
After a few moments silence, he told her, "All right I'll remove it... but only if she meets my conditions."
Instantly suspicious, McGonagall asked, "What conditions?"
"Oh, don't worry, it won't be anything dangerous." Harry laughed. "She simply has to get up in front of the whole school at dinnertime on Friday and swear the magically binding oath I will give you and she will have to swear it on her magic...Oh and she can't alter the oath in any way."
"Why not tomorrow at breakfast or even right now, in front of me?" McGonagall demanded. "Why make her suffer for a whole week?"
Harry's face took on an ugly expression as his eyes turn red. "Don't talk to me about suffering. She won't be suffering. Granger doesn't know the first thing about suffering and neither do you. Suffering is spending a year in Azkaban with the Dementors when you are innocent. Suffering is spending the first ten years of your life sleeping in a cupboard and being beaten or starved for things your cousin did or for working accidental magic. Suffering is watching your godfather and those you love being kill in front of you. You and that bitch don’t know the true meaning of suffering."
Harry stormed off up the stairs, before McGonagall come up with anything to say.
….
The rumour mill at Hogwarts being one of the best in the wizarding world, before Friday, every student knew that Harry Potter had cursed his former best friend Hermione Granger so that she could longer see the words on a printed page and why. Nor, as they also found out, could she read handwritten notes, hers or anyone else's. The rumour mill also reported that not even Dumbledore could figure out what spell Potter had used and all possible counter curses had been tried to no avail.
The Ravenclaws and Slytherins had enjoyed watching Granger get twitchier and twitchier as the week progressed because she wasn't able to read. Granger attended classes, but they couldn't understand why she was doing so. It wasn't like she would be able to get anything out of the classes, until she was able to read again. The teachers had tried to find readers among the Ravenclaws for her, so she wouldn't fall too far behind, as well as someone to proofread the homework she had done with a dictaquill, but they always found valid excuses not to do it.
None of the Slytherin or Ravenclaw students were really very fond of her. The Slytherins disliked her because she was constantly beating their scores. And the Ravenclaws because of the arrogance with which she paraded her knowledge and her certainty that all the answers in life could be found in books. They knew this was not the case. The Ravenclaws knew that there were always new things to be learned and that old information sometimes had to be revised or eliminated when some new fact came along to contradict it. It was why they rarely if ever put themselves in a position of power in the Ministry or anywhere else. They disliked looking foolish like Minister Fudge was looking right now after his blunders with Potter and his own aide.
The Ravenclaw and Slytherin students had also enjoyed watching the show put on by the other Gryffindors and Potter as they made repeated attempts to get him to undo the curse he'd placed on Granger. It had been interesting watching him cut them off with a few well-chosen words. Ron Weasley, Granger's boyfriend, had been especially persistent and for two days had sported skin of deep green and hair of silver as well as a tendency to spout complimentary things about Slytherins whenever one happened to be nearby. The Slytherins were quick to pick up on this and had hung around Weasley to make this happen.
Because Granger was unable to read the written word a number of the sixth and seventh year Gryffindor students, her boyfriend Weasley included, had been forced into being readers for her and she had gotten very whiny and snappish when they didn't do it properly. Most of them refused to do it again after the first time and Professor McGonagall had no way of requiring students from other houses to do it. A couple of the more compassionate Ravenclaws had offered to proofread Granger's homework for the classes they shared with her on Wednesday, but they quickly left, and refused to do so again when Granger snapped at them they were wrong about an error in her homework.
The Ravenclaws also couldn't help shaking their heads in dismay at the stupidity of the Gryffindors. They kept trying to make Harry Potter forgive them on their timetable and not on his. The Gryffindors kept saying things like 'get over it', 'it's done and you need to move on'. The Ravenclaws however, or at least a majority of them had taken a different approach. While they were not experts on things involving emotion like the Hufflepuffs who were also being frozen out by Potter they did agree with them on one thing. The forgiveness, if it was going to happen at all, had to be on Potter's timetable not theirs. No one could maintain this level of anger forever, unless it was being stoked constantly and the Gryffindors were certainly stoking the fires that kept his anger going.
….
On Wednesday before he could get out of Transfiguration class, Harry heard McGonagall call out, "Potter, please remain behind. Mr. Creevy, tell Hagrid that Mr. Potter will be late to class."
Sighing, Harry turned away from the door and went to lean up against the nearest wall, his arms folded across his chest.
Once the classroom was empty, Professor McGonagall told him, "The Headmaster would like to see you in his office."
"When?" Harry asked not at all pleased by the prospect.
"Now."
Sighing again Harry followed the Transfiguration teacher up to the Headmaster's office. "Any idea about what he wants to discuss?"
"The Headmaster did not take me into his confidence about why he wants to see you, Mr. Potter." McGonagall told him crisply.
Probably wants to talk me out of making Granger swear that oath. Harry mused as they arrived in front of the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.
"Pepper imps," McGonagall told the gargoyle and it moved aside.
After waiting several minutes for the young man to go up the revolving stairs, McGonagall finally ordered, "Go on up, Potter. You don't want to keep the Headmaster waiting.
Harry gave her a sour look before heading toward the revolving staircase. McGonagall though she heard him mutter, "brown noser," as he passed by her.
When he reached the top of the stairs, Harry leaned back against the wall to wait. He was curious to see just how long it would take for Dumbledork's patience to run out and for him to open the door himself. He was quite content to stay there all day. He had nothing better to do with his time after all it wasn't like he wanted to go to any of his classes and if there was one thing Azkaban had taught him, it was patience.
His watch showed that fifteen minutes had passed before the door to Dumbledore's office opened. He would have thought the old man could hold out longer, but apparently not.
"Come in, Harry." Dumbledore requested as he took a step back from the doorway.
"It's Mr. Potter to you." Harry reminded the old man.
Looking disappointed, Dumbledore repeated, "Come in, Mr. Potter."
Harry settled in the nearest chair and didn't say another word.
Dumbledore went and sat down behind his desk. Waving his wand a tea set appeared on the desk and Harry could see steam rising from the teapot. Picking up the pot and a cup, Dumbledore asked, "Would you like some tea?"
Harry shook his head no and continued to stare at the picture on the wall of Phineas Nigellus, a former Headmaster of Hogwarts and the great great uncle of his godfather Sirius Black.
Dumbledore slowly sipped his tea waiting for young Potter to speak. Despite the fact that Harry had made him come and open the door when he wouldn't knock, Dumbledore knew the boy was generally impatient as all the young were. It was only with maturity that one acquired patience.
Dumbledore was on his second cup of tea and Harry still hadn't taken his attention off the picture of Sirius Black's uncle. Phineas had spoken to the boy several times requesting he look at something else, but Harry just continued to stare at him without saying a word.
Finally Phineas had had enough and tried to leave his picture and found he could not. Turning his attention to the current Headmaster, he demanded, "Dumbledore, make him release me."
Dumbledore turned to face Phineas' portrait. "Make who release you?"
"Potter. Somehow he has managed to confine me to my portrait."
"Mr. Potter, have you confined Phineas to his portrait?" Dumbledore asked the young man.
"Yes," Harry told him.
"Why did you do that?" Dumbledore wanted to know.
"Partly because I didn't like the way he is always looking down his nose at me and partly because I wanted to see if I could." Harry told the Headmaster, taking his attention off the portrait for a moment.
"Why would you want to confine the people in the portraits to their frames, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
"Because I'm tired of being spied on by you through them." Harry told him. "I don't know if the other students have figured out how you always know what's going on but I did. I had a lot of time to think in Azkaban, when the Dementors weren't trying to drive me crazy."
"I do not use the portraits to spy on the students, or anyone else for that matter." Dumbledore denied.
The expression on Harry's face told the Headmaster he was not believed, even before he said, "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."
"Harry, please release Phineas." Dumbledore requested, earning himself another death glare from the young man opposite him.
Turning his attention back to the man in the portrait, Harry said, "Hear me, Nigellus. I expect you to pass the word to the other portraits in this school. If any of you try and spy on me, I will confine all of you to the frames you are currently in. Is that clear?"
"You can't stop us from watching over Hogwarts and those within her." Phineas countered haughtily.
"I intend no harm to Hogwarts or those within her as long as they leave me alone." Harry countered icily. "I suggest you remember that and if you want to have an idea of what I can do to your kind, I suggest you go to Grimmauld Place and take a look at the portrait of Sirius' mother."
"Mr Potter, do not threaten the portraits with harm." Dumbledore warned him.
Harry gave him a sour look. "As long as they stay out of my business, they won't have to worry about what I might or might not do."
Before the situation could get completely out of his control, Dumbledore brought up the matter he had wanted to speak to Harry about. "Mr. Potter, I asked you here to request that you remove the curse you placed on Miss Granger, without making her swear that oath you wrote."
"No."
"Why do you want to cut Miss Granger out of your life?" Dumbledore wanted to know. "She is your friend..."
"Was." Harry interrupted. "She was my friend. She is no longer and will never be again."
"Harry, you can't let this anger consume you." Dumbledore began. "That is part of what lead Voldemort down the Dark road he travelled. We all want to help you work through your anger, but you have to let us in before the healing can begin. You shouldn't cut yourself off from those you once called friends. Angry and alone is no way for anyone to live."
"I've been alone all my life," Harry countered. "Why should the future be any different?"
Dumbledore sighed, knowing he was responsible for Harry's feeling like he had always been alone. Hindsight as the muggles had a habit of saying is always twenty/twenty. He'd never understood that until now. Now when he looked back, he could see all the mistakes he had made with young Harry, when at the time he had thought it was the best for all concerned, including young Harry Potter. He regretted his choice of leaving Harry with the Dursleys but it had been the only way of keeping him safe, even though he knew they wouldn't love him. No, if he were honest with himself even though he knew they would hate him. He had believed that once Harry arrived among his own kind that they could make up for what Harry hadn't gotten from the Dursleys, but that hadn't quite worked out the way he'd planned either.
Shaking his head slightly, Dumbledore returned to the topic at hand. "Harry..."
"Potter." The tone of the young man's voice warned him not to use his given name again.
"Miss Granger made mistakes." The Headmaster tried again. "She is trying to make up for them."
"How? By poking her nose into my private business?" Harry couldn't believe the old man was this dense. "I told her to keep her nose out of my business and I would be civil to her as long as it concerned school matters. But noooo, Miss Know-It-All has to know everything, even when it isn't her business. I gave her two more warnings, when she crossed the line, but she still couldn't seem to get it through her head, not to poke her damn nose in my business. Now she is learning her lesson and once she has sworn her oath on Friday, I will return what was taken from her. I won't have to worry about dealing with her attempts to regain my friendship any more because her own oath will keep her in check and if it doesn't then she can just return to the muggle world."
"Potter, we lost too many witches and wizards during both of Voldemort's reigns of terror." Dumbledore pointed out calmly. "We can't afford to lose a young witch of Miss Granger's calibre. Please reconsider the terms of the oath you want her to swear."
"No."
"Why do you want to drive her from our world?"
"I don't care whether she leaves your world or not." Harry felt pleased at the disappointed look on Dumbledork's face. Get used to it old man. This time I'm the one in charge, not you. "I noticed a long time ago, that you have to practically hit Granger in the head with a brick, to get something she doesn't want to think about driven home. Well this is my brick and from now on any time she thinks about coming near me, that brick will be beating her over the head, reminding her of what it will cost her if she does."
"There are easier ways to get your point across." Dumbledore pointed out. "Miss Granger is an intelligent and reasonable young woman."
The expression on Harry's face was one of disbelief. "Easier ways to get the point across to the witch who is still trying to free house elves, even though she has been told repeatedly by them they don't want to be free and that if they are freed that they will die. Do you know that to the House elves, she is Voldemort. They speak of her with fear in their voices, calling Granger "Her" and "She". They avoid her like the plague. She's been told repeatedly to give it up that she is causing more harm than good and that she is terrorising the House elves, but will she give it up... noooooooooo. She is willing to massacre an entire race just so she can live in a fantasy world where she knows better than everybody else what's best for the House elves and she is acting the same way towards me. I told her to leave me alone, unless it concerned school business, but has she... nooooo. That is not intelligence it is pigheadedness. Well she has brought this on herself and now she will pay for what she has done. I will not alter one word of that oath. If she doesn't want to swear it, then send her home, because I doubt she will be of much use to the wizarding world, unless you want to turn her into a brood mare, and I think if you tried that, you and whoever was her husband would soon live to regret it."
"Is there anything that can be done to change your mind?" Dumbledore wanted to know.
Harry didn't even have to think about that. "No."
"Potter, there is still time." Dumbledore made one last attempt anyway. "Please, I'm begging you, reconsider what you are asking Miss Granger to do. Don't cut her out of your life. You may find out that you actually want her there and then it will be too late to get her back."
"She's the one who cut me out of her life, remember Headmaster." Harry reminded him. "When she thought I was guilty, she couldn't get rid of me fast enough. Now that she knows I'm innocent, she wants it all to be forgiven. Well that isn't going to happen and you and she had better just get used to the idea."
When Dumbledore couldn't think of anything else to say, Harry asked, "Are we done yet?"
Dumbledore nodded.
Harry left the room without a backward glance.
….
Dinner on Friday was nearing its end when Professor McGonagall tapped on the side of her glass to silence the Great Hall.
In the ensuing silence, Dumbledore got to his feet and said, "May I have your attention please. A request has been made that you all act as witnesses to a magically binding oath." He paused for a moment an expression of disappointment on his face. "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, if you would both please come forward."
The silence in the Great Hall was such that everyone could hear the tapping of the butt of Potter's staff. Some of the students who shared classes with Potter also noticed that instead of having a flickering light as it usually did, the deep green stone on the top of Potter's staff had a steady pulsing glow almost like a heartbeat. All the students watched Potter and Granger walk up to stand in front of the Head table. Some of the smaller students had to crane their necks to see what was going on.
"Face each other," Dumbledore instructed.
Once they had done so, the Headmaster told Hermione, "you may begin whenever you are ready, Miss Granger."
There were several minutes of silence before Hermione looked at her former best friend and begged. "Please, don't make me do this."
Those closest to the Head table saw that Potter's face was a blank mask, showing no emotion whatsoever and his voice made it clear to the rest of the room as he said flatly. "The choice is yours, Granger. I know that McGonagall told you my terms. You can take them or leave things the way they are."
Tears filled Hermione's eyes as she took out her wand and laid it across the palms of her hands. "I, Hermione Jane Granger, do hereby solemnly swear upon my magic that I will never deliberately approach Harry James Potter or deliberately speak with him ever again. The day I do so, I will lose my magic."
The students in the Great Hall gasped as a blue aura surrounded Granger and it seemed to be reaching out tendrils toward Potter.
"I, Harry James Potter, do hereby accept the magically binding vow of Hermione Jane Granger to never deliberately come near me or speak to me ever again. And I return that which you value over everything else in your life."
As soon as Potter finished speaking, a deep green aura surrounded him and tendrils flowed outward to meet the questing ones from Granger. As soon as they made contact, they seemed to tie themselves together and then both auras vanished.
"So mote it be," Dumbledore intoned and they could hear the note of sadness in his voice. "The oath has been given and accepted and it has been witnessed by those assembled here. I only hope that one day you do not regret was done here today, Mr. Potter."
"I doubt I ever will, since the day I would regret would be the day Voldemort decided to become a nurse in st mungo ." Harry told him before returning to his seat at the end of the Gryffindor table.
The secret origin of Discord
"Headmaster, I would like to speak with you regarding Mr. Potter." McGonagall told him once the other Heads of House had left the Headmaster's office after their weekly Friday meeting.
"What else has he done, Minerva?" Dumbledore was beginning to regret forcing young Harry to go back to Hogwarts, but he wasn't going to give up on or abandon the boy, not this time. Aside from the fact that the wizarding world still needed Harry Potter, he had no intention of making the same mistake he'd made last year, the one that had led to Harry's incarceration in Azkaban.
"He hasn't done anything else Albus. It's what he might do next that has me concerned, given his actions toward Miss Granger. Not to mention the oath he made her swear that is going to force her to stay away from him or risk losing her magic. I know it was your intention to try and get him to forgive his friends and now that door has been slammed in Miss Granger's face forever." McGonagall told him.
"Not quite, Minerva." Dumbledore told her. "The oath doesn't block Mr. Potter from talking to her and if he does, then it will not cause the loss of Miss Granger's magic. It is possible that we may be able to convince him to release her from the oath he had her swear."
"That will never happen." McGonagall snorted. "It has been almost two months, Headmaster, and I see no signs of his anger diminishing. At best he ignores his fellow students and at his worst he is so contemptuous of them that they want very little to do with him. I don't think your plan is going to work Albus. If it were we should be seeing signs of it by now."
Dumbledore sighed and got up from his desk to stare out the window for a moment. "He just needs time, Minerva."
"How much time and is he to be given this time at the expense of the other students?" McGonagall wanted to know. "Because I must tell you Headmaster the first year Gryffindors will have nothing to do with him. They stay as far away from him as possible and a number of them were quite pleased that they were going to be in the same House as Harry Potter until they met him."
"Has he harmed them?" Dumbledore asked quickly.
"If you mean has he done anything similar to what he did to Miss Granger, then no, but he treats them with outright contempt and they had nothing to do with what happened last year. He is tarring them with the same brush that he has used for the second through seventh year students and they don't deserve that Albus. They are innocent of the wrongdoings of their fellow Gryffindors." McGonagall told him. "I never thought I would ever say this, but it may be in the best interests of all if Mr. Potter were segregated from his fellow Gryffindors, if only for their safety."
Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm sorry Minerva, but that can't happen. Also I doubt that Mr. Potter will do them any physical harm, unless they first try and harm him. He may be an angry young man, but he still has a strong sense of right and wrong and there are lines even he will not cross."
"What do you call what he did to Miss Granger if not physical harm?" McGonagall couldn't believe how calmly the Headmaster was taking this.
"No it was not," Dumbledore disagreed. "The harm he did was emotional and maybe mental. If he had wanted to, I think Mr. Potter could have easily blinded Miss Granger. He did block her ability to see the written word and for an avid reader like Miss Granger that was far more painful. I do have to agree with Mr. Potter about one thing. Miss Granger is a very stubborn young woman and it is very hard to get her to change her mind about some things. Also she is thoroughly convinced that she knows what's best for those around her and that she has the right to meddle in their lives."
"Hmm," McGonagall mused with her first smile of the evening, "that sounds an awful lot like some one I know."
Dumbledore drew himself up and tried to look affronted, "I have no idea who you could be taking about."
"Are you sure?" McGonagall teased, her grin broadening.
"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Dumbledore requested. "As I was saying, all Mr. Potter did was cause Miss Granger severe emotional distress probably equal to what she caused him when she destroyed the photo album containing the only pictures he had of his parents."
"It was far greater surely Albus!" McGonagall protested. "The punishment didn't fit the crime simply for picking up a book off a table."
"But ultimately, I don't think that's what he was punishing her for. I think that was just the trigger. I think he was punishing her for destroying his photo album." Dumbledore countered. "She knew how much those pictures meant to him and she also knew how much it would hurt him to see those pictures destroyed by someone he thought of as his friend. By the same token, Mr. Potter knows how much Miss Granger loves to read and knew how much it would hurt her to not be able to do that."
McGonagall conceded that he was probably right. "I still think his final punishment far outweighed any crime she may have committed. He was Miss Granger's first friend here and I know how much she wanted to make up with him and get that friendship back."
"And that is why he has to stay in the Gryffindor dorms." Dumbledore told her. "He needs to work through his anger at his fellow students and the Wizarding world as a whole and he can't do that if we allow him to hide from us. It is important that young Harry remain in the wizarding world. He is too important to lose."
"You keep saying that Albus, but compared with the future witches and wizard of our world, why is he so important? If this keeps up it is possible that we may lose these students to other schools, if they don't decide to give up their education completely." She pointed out. "Tell me why he is so important."
Dumbledore sighed and met her gaze, the twinkle for once gone from his eyes. "Part of what I am about to tell you is confidential, known only to those in the Department of Mysteries and a few senior members of the Wizengamot. Did you know that the number of new wizards and witches being born is slowly declining and that the Wizarding world is basically stagnant?"
"What are you talking about?" McGonagall knew what the word meant, but didn't see how it related to the current topic under discussion. "I know that because of the deaths caused by the last two Dark Lords that the population of the wizarding world as a whole might be down, but I had no idea the birth rate was going down."
"Inbreeding among wizards and witches has caused the birth rate of magically able children to go down." Albus told her simply. "There are more squibs being born every day."
"Surely the infusion of muggle-borns and half-bloods is able to counter that." McGonagall seemed surprised that things might be as bad as he had indicated.
"It isn't something that is obvious to the naked eye yet," Dumbledore began to explain, "but as head of the Wizengamot among other things, I can get a look at the birth statistics and I did about 40 years ago, when I started noticing, a decrease in the number of witches and wizards attending Hogwarts. I also checked with the Headmasters and headmistresses of other European schools and they were also showing small but steadily declining numbers, more than could be accounted for by the actions of Grindelwald and his followers or even now Voldemort and his followers. Even though the pure bloods will not admit it, muggle-borns and those with a mixed magical heritage far outnumber them and it is among the pure bloods that the decline is the most obvious and the children are some of the weakest magically."
After a few moments pause he continued, "Also except for a few new potions such as the Wolfsbane potion, there have been no magical advances of any kind in the last fifty years or so. It has also been noted that with each generation while our first years start out fairly powerful with the first year spells, but as they progress through their years of school, their power seems to level out by their third year and even at the point where they would normally go through their magical maturity around fifteen or sixteen, their power level doesn't increase all that much. This seems to be the case even for muggle-borns. This trend has been studied for the last twenty years, using records going back over the last one hundred years. There is some speculation among a few members of the Department of Mysteries along with several other departments that more of our kind should be capable of wandless magic given the power levels recorded for them when they start their first year of school. It has also been noted that among the pure-blood families that refuse to even consider marrying muggle-borns or half bloods that the number of Squibs is rising steadily due to inbreeding."
"Do they have any idea what is causing this?" McGonagall was caught up in what she was hearing. She had quickly realized the implications behind the fact that each generation of witches and wizards seemed to be a little weaker than the last.
"Several factors," Dumbledore told her. "Did you know that most muggle-borns, unless they have married into wizarding families or are very clearly powerful, leave the wizarding world within a few years of graduating from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, or Durmstrang."
"Why would they want to do that?" McGonagall hadn't been aware of this.
"Discrimination." Dumbledore told her simply. "About a hundred years ago, the Purebloods of the time realizing that the muggle-borns were growing in number and would quickly outnumber them put legislation in place limiting what occupations a muggle-born could do, because they were afraid of losing their power. They managed to lock them out of most positions of power in the Ministry, so they couldn't do anything to make changes." Dumbledore told her. "Some of those who have left the wizarding community here have immigrated to America or Australia where there is very little distinction between muggle-borns and pure-bloods, so they can exercise their full potential. Others have just returned to the muggle world and for those who can not afford it the wizarding world is forced to pay for their re-education to the ways of the muggle world so they can find a job there."
"And nothing has been done to try and reverse these laws?" McGonagall couldn't believe the wizarding community could be so short-sighted.
"Every time someone has recognized what the discrimination of muggle-borns is doing to our world and tried to get legislation enacted to relax or remove those restrictions, the pure bloods step in and block it." Dumbledore shook his head over the sheer stupidity of it. "As for what is causing the magic levels to decline among our students instead of increasing, besides inbreeding, all we have are guesses. All accidental magic is wandless and while usually driven by emotion, it is quite powerful. It might be how our students are taught, the wands themselves, or maybe a combination of both. We are forcing their ability to do wandless magic to follow a path of specific words and gestures to work and for the power they use to flow through the wands instead of flowing the way it wanted to. This probably causes their wandless magical ability to weaken from lack of use if not completely atrophy."
"While all of this is indeed cause for concern," McGonagall put in, "that still doesn't explain why Mr. Potter is so important."
"There are several reasons." Dumbledore told her. "The first being that as the Destroyer of Voldemort, he has a lot of clout and though he doesn't like the idea he is in a position to make changes and even have abolished those laws that prevent the muggle-borns from being able to make any real contributions in our world so they will stay. Not to mention it would be nice to see him get married and settle down with a nice young witch"
"And possibly father some magically powerful children?"
"Yes there is that." Dumbledore agreed, as if the idea only just now occurred to him, but McGonagall wasn't fooled.
"Any other reasons?"
"Just one other, if at some point we can convince him to become a teacher at Hogwarts, he might be able to help our first years begin to harness their wandless magic, which might lead to them getting more powerful magically when they reach magical maturity. Otherwise, according to the best guesses made by those who have been studying this and also taking into account all the powerful wizarding families that were lost during the times of Grindelwald and Voldemort, we have maybe two hundred years before the only thing being born in the wizarding world will be squibs." Dumbledore's expression was grim as he said this.
"So once again we need to get Mr. Potter to become the wizarding world's salvation without telling him why." McGonagall concluded tartly.
"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore agreed. "If he knew that the existence of our entire race hinged on him remaining here, given his current level of anger, he would run far and fast and that would be the end of wizardkind."
….
The the headline on it said: Boy-Who-Lived Accuses Minster And Ministry Of Corruption! And in a smaller headline: Fudge accused of Knowing about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's return for over a year before announcing it to the public! Actually, Harry reflected, as he skimmed the article, I accused the whole wizarding world of being corrupt, not just the idiot Fudge. They got the second part right though.
Certain sections jumped out at him like: Boy-Who-Lived-And-Destroyed-Voldemort refused to accept the Order of Merlin from Fudge... Minister Fudge accused by Boy-Who-Lived of knowing about the Dark Lord's return since the end of the Tri-Wizard tournament.... Boy-Who-Lived accuses Minister and Ministry of sending more than one innocent person to jail by failing to use all tools at their disposal to get to the truth.
Harry noticed that none of the reporters made mention of his accusing the wizarding world itself of hypocrisy or the fact that he had told them that he would have left the wizarding world to deal with Voldemort on their own, if it hadn't been for those who couldn't defend themselves against the Dark Lord and the fact that he wanted justice for those the bastard had killed. Most of the sections were practically identical, though some of them contained calls for Fudge's resignation and others wanted an investigation of the Ministry justice system, given that at least four innocent people had been sent to Azkaban in the last hundred years. He doubted anything would come of it, and given the rather convenient way the wizarding world had of ignoring anything that didn't directly affect them, he was fairly sure that innocent people would continue be sent to Azkaban.
At least they won't have to worry about the Dementors now. Harry thought to himself. I wonder if they'll employ regular wizards or try to find something as bad as the Dementors to guard the island.
The only article that reported the happenings at the award ceremony accurately was the Quibbler, but even they'd glossed over Harry's intention to leave the Wizarding world at the end of the year. He guessed they couldn't conceive of any wizard wanting to live in a non-magical world. Well they were going to be in for a rude awakening.
Harry glanced at his watch and sighed, time for Transfiguration. Dumbledork had apparently decided it was time to escalate his attempts to get Harry reintegrated into the Wizarding world, because now in some of the classes they had been assigned a study partner. He'd been given Ginny Weasley as a partner. The way it had been explained in the first class was that it was to help them learn to work together without conflict before getting out in the real world.
The real world indeed! Harry grumbled as he headed to class. These fools know absolutely nothing about the real world.
He was one of the last in class, but that didn't matter to him, he still took a seat on the back row.
Ginny who had gotten a seat at a desk in one of the middle rows, glared angrily at him and gestured for him to join her. Folding his arms, and leaning back against the wall, Harry just stared back at her with an expressionless face. Ginny gestured again, but Harry remained where he was.
Slamming her book shut in a way that would have earned a glare from Hermione for her mistreatment of a book, Ginny grabbed her things and stalked to the back of the classroom.
"Since I was here first, you should have joined me." Ginny growled in a low angry voice.
"And why would I want to do that?" Harry countered flatly.
"I'm your partner for this class, remember?" Ginny stomped her foot under the desk, making sure to bring the heel of her shoe down on Harry's foot.
"Not by my choice," Harry disagreed dryly.
Before Ginny could say anything further, from the front of the room, Professor McGonagall asked, "Is there something you wish to share with the class, Miss Weasley?"
Ginny looked down at the desk and said softly, "no Professor McGonagall."
"Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonagall wanted to know.
"Do you really want me to answer that, Professor?" Harry inquired with a smirk on his face.
"Only if it concerns this class," McGonagall told him stiffly.
"Then you have answered your own question, ma'am." Harry didn't bother hiding his grin.
Determined not to let him have any more control over her class, Professor McGonagall returned to the front of the classroom and began the lesson.
At the end of class, McGonagall assigned two feet of parchment due by the next class on how to make a transfiguration permanent and the reasons why the spell might fail and each partner was to do only one part of the assignment.
They were in the back of the group that was headed toward the north tower and Divination when Ginny asked. "Do you want to meet in the Library after dinner to do this assignment?"
Harry shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. I have no intention of doing either part of the assignment."
Harry was caught by surprise when he was shoved against the wall by a redheaded shrieking banshee. "I've had it with your attitude!"
He just stared at her not saying a word and that infuriated Ginny even more. Growling, she took out her wand and pointed it at him. "You may not care about your future, but I care about mine. Since you are my partner in Transfiguration, your lack of participation affects my grade and my future. Now you will be in the Library tonight after dinner prepared to study our assignment, or I promise I will make your life a living hell."
"You've already done that, Weasley, remember?" Harry gestured and Ginny was flung against the wall her wand clattering to the ground several feet away. "You and your whole traitorous family condemned me to hell last year. What more do you think you can do? Scream? Cry? Stamp your feet like a little child when she doesn't get her way? Nothing you threaten me with can be worse than what you did to me last year. You owed me your life! I saved yours during your first year here remember? And nearly lost my own in the process when you were stupid enough to write in a cursed diary, instead of talking to your yearmates or your family about your problems of trying to fit in at Hogwarts. Were you really so stupid that you could forget that enchanted objects might just be dangerous? Then once you realised what was happening, you still didn't tell anyone. You were so embarrassed at the thought of me finding out what you'd been doing, or that Tom might tell me you had this infantile crush on me that you stole the diary back, instead of leaving it with me. If it had been left with me, we might have solved the problem before you nearly got yourself killed because of your own damn ego and refusal to get the help you needed to stop it. I could understand a muggle-born making that kind mistake since they wouldn't know that enchanted objects might be dangerous but not someone who had lived in the wizarding world her whole life."
Harry paused for a moment, then got back on track with what he had originally intended to say. "Even with the life debt hanging over your head, instead of trying to help me, or standing by me, you joined the rest of your kind and condemned me without even listening to me. The life debts you and your father owe me will never be repaid, because I won't accept anything from you ever again. What happens I wonder when a life debt goes unpaid for generations? Will your whole family eventually lose its magic? I know that if your father's debt remains unpaid it is passed on to all of his children for one of them to redeem. That's means that you and your children, if you have any, will have two life debts unpaid, not just one. I rather imagine there will eventually be some kind of stigma, if the wizarding world doesn't turn a blind eye to it the way they usually do to most things. Enjoy your life Weasley, may it be long and a total misery."
From her position on the floor, Ginny stared at Harry's back as he stalked away, not toward Divination, but in the opposite direction.
Tears began filling her eyes as she searched for her wand. She'd wanted to provoke a reaction and she'd gotten one, only it wasn't the one she wanted. While she hadn't pestered Harry over the last two months the way everyone else had and was still doing, Ginny had hoped that time and her quiet supportive presence would ease Harry's anger toward her, but that hadn't happened. Harry had treated her like she didn't exist for the most part. At other times she had the feeling he was thinking he should have left her in the Chamber of Secrets all those years ago. Well she wasn't giving up. He might hate her now, but he was hers and no other witch was going to take him away from her. She'd already had to take steps to discourage several of the more determined and predatory witches from their pursuit of her man.
….
Ginny didn't see Harry again until dinner. He was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table his attention fixed on the pages of the book he was reading. She started to go over to apologise for her earlier behaviour, but Ron intercepted her.
"Ginny," he hissed, "don't rock the boat right now. According to what I heard from McGonagall the replacement Firebolt will be here tomorrow. We need to give it to him and get him back on the Quidditch team before that game against Slytherin next week. If you make him madder than he is right now, he'll refuse to play and I don't want to see us flattened like we were by them in last year's game that was embarrassing. Not to mention the fact that Draco Malfoy was positively disgusting the way he gloated over the fact that he got the snitch before you."
"What makes you so sure he will want to play Quidditch for Gryffindor?" Ginny asked. "I mean given that he hates our entire House right now, why would you think he would want to help us beat Slytherin?"
"He loves to fly and he loves playing Quidditch. He also hates Malfoy." Ron reminded her. "Even if we can't get him to play Seeker for any of the other games, I'm sure we can convince him to play in the one against Slytherin. And I'm sure that once we've got him back on a broom, he'll want to continue playing and the Quidditch Cup will be ours once more."
Ginny just shook her head at her brother's priorities as she allowed herself to be dragged away. Hermione was right. Ron was Quidditch mad. She was certain that if he were to die tomorrow, Ron's last thoughts probably wouldn't be of his family, they would probably be about the Chuddley Cannons and whether or not they would have a winning season and lamenting the fact he wouldn't be able to see it.
As she ate her dinner, Ginny watched Harry and tried to work out what she was going to say to him so he wouldn't freeze her out again. She would have the man she'd dreamed of having since she was a little girl and had first heard of Harry Potter. Even though she made some mistakes early on, she knew he liked her or rather he had until she had turned against him last year. He just needed to see that this time it would be different. She needed him to see that she'd regretted what had happened last year and her part in it. He had to see that she wouldn't make the same mistakes again and that it was safe for him to trust… no love her because she would never betray him again. She would die before she did that!
….
"Potter," Colin Creevy poked his head into the fifth year dorm.
"What is it Creevy?" Harry looked up from the notebook he was writing in to look at the person who call him. His eyes glow red for a second scaring the boy a bit.
"You're wanted in the Common Room by McGonagall." Collin told him before ducking back out of the doorway.
Sighing Harry put the thick book he was reading and his notebook back into his book bag and took it to the Common Room with him.
As he reached the final stairway that led to the Common Room he saw the room was full of people and level of noise from their conversations sounded like a large hive of bees. A quick check showed him that none of the first years were there only the second through seventh years were waiting there with McGonagall. What was going on now? He tensed, determined to be ready for anything. They weren't going to catch him by surprise like they had last year.
McGonagall seeing him at the top of the stairs called, "Please come down, Mr. Potter. We're all waiting for you."
Sighing, Harry headed down the stairs, wondering what Dumbledore and McGonagall had planned now.
As he was heading down the stairs, Harry saw all the Gryffindors, carefully manoeuvre around until their Head of House was closest to the foot of the stairs and Harry. He smirked at their actions So much for the bravery of Gryffindors.
"What did you want to see me about Professor?" Harry asked as soon as he reached the foot of the stairs.
"Your fellow Gryffindors would like to make a little presentation to you, Mr. Potter." McGonagall told him.
"Oh and what might that be?" Harry folded his arms across his chest, now certain that Dumbledork was trying to manipulate things again.
McGonagall stepped to one side, revealing Ginny who had been concealed behind her. Ginny was holding a broom in her hands and around the handle was tied a red and gold ribbon.
"Harry," Ginny's voice squeaked. She took a deep breath and tried again. "Harry, we your fellow Gryffindors would like to apologise for our behaviour last year and for destroying your possessions and to let you know how sorry we are for what we did. While we can not replace everything that was destroyed, we have gotten together to replace your Firebolt."
She stepped forward and held the broom out to him a slight smile on her face. Her smile faltered when Harry made no move to take it. "Harry, please take it. It is yours."
"And your place on the Quidditch team is waiting for you too!" Ron called from within the crowd behind Ginny.
Harry shook his head. "This isn't mine. The Firebolt I got as a Christmas and birthday gift from my godfather was destroyed last year. This is a guilt offering. I rather imagine that Dumbledore and McGonagall thought of it. I mean I doubt the Gryffindors wouldn't have thought of this themselves, especially given that a Firebolt is a very expensive broom."
"What does it matter who thought of it?" Ginny was beginning to get a little angry. This wasn't going at all like any of them had planned. They had all thought he would be pleased to have his broom back instead he was acting like an ungrateful git. "The point is we all paid for it so we could give it back to you."
Harry looked around the room for a moment and then at the floor before saying. "So this is for me. Mine to do with as I please."
"Yes, Harry," Ginny said pleased that he seemed to be accepting their gift and apology. This time when she handed him the broom he took it.
"So you don’t mind if I do this ." Harry said as he snap the broom in two and set it on fire before dropping it on the ground. Everyone stare at him in shock.
"Why would you want to do that?" Ron shouted. "You need a broom to play Seeker. You can't fly without a broom."
"Who said I wanted to be Seeker? Especially Seeker for this House." Harry shot back meeting Ron's gaze.
"Well you surely don't want Slytherin to win the Quidditch Cup or the House Cup do you?" Ron countered.
“ Is that what you care about the house cup.” He said angrily while letting out a large aura which frightened everyone.” You think I care if this house get the house cup or not. You spent the last year alone bullying me and when I was taken to Azkaban you burn all my things. I saw the way how you all smile as you burn my things. Did you think all you have to is buy me another broom and immediately I forget everything you did. My previous broom was given to me by my godfather and it is only the few things I have left of him and you destroyed it. How you like it if I burn down you house and all you family heirlooms and try to apologize by giving a cheap knockoff. Well how would you like it f I do that.”
When no one answer Harry snap his fingers and disappear from the room leaving a group of scare Gryffindor.
…..
When he appeared in her office doorway, McGonagall ordered, "Come in, Mr. Potter, and close the door behind you."
Harry did as she asked. Then without waiting for an invitation he sat down in front of her desk and waited quite patiently to see why she had summoned him.
"I called you here to undo the spell you placed on Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall placed a cage holding a snow-white ferret on her desk.
"You mean the spell he cast on himself." Harry reminded her with a smile, pleased that Malfoy was still a ferret. He'd always thought the blond Slytherin made a better ferret than a person. "He cast the spell, I merely sent it back to him."
"Well whatever you did to the spell when you returned it to him, has prevented me from undoing the change." McGonagall told him crisply.
"You mean that a Transfiguration Mistress can't undo the spell that Malfoy cast?" Harry glanced at the caged ferret. "Damn Malfoy, you're good!"
The ferret chattered angrily at him.
"I'm not the one who acted without thinking, remember Malfoy?" Harry reminded the angry ferret. "You definitely aren't living up to the qualities of your House, which I believe include cunning and patience. Are you sure you weren't sorted into the wrong house? I mean you are acting more and more like a Gryffindor every day."
If it were possible for a ferret to give someone a death glare, ferret Malfoy managed it.
"Beyond returning the spell to Mr. Malfoy, did you alter it in any way?" McGonagall was fairly certain he had, but wanted to get it confirmed.
There was a pleased look on Harry's face as he contemplated the ferret. "Maybe just a little," he admitted. "Malfoy had intended the change to be permanent. I altered it to give him an out if the spell he'd cast couldn't be undone."
"What kind of out?" McGonagall asked since Malfoy couldn't.
Harry shrugged. "He simply has to admit that he was wrong and truly believe he was in the wrong for attacking me in the Great Hall, not just say it because it will undo the spell."
"Since it is doubtful that Mr. Malfoy will ever admit such a thing, can you undo his spell?" McGonagall wanted to know.
Harry looked at the ferret for a moment his gaze slightly unfocused as if he were seeing something she couldn't. "I could but I won't."
"Why?"
"Because he wouldn't learn anything if I did." Harry told her.
"And what is it he has to learn?" McGonagall inquired.
"He, in fact the whole of the wizarding world, needs to learn that actions have consequences." Harry told her. "For years if not centuries, witches and wizards have attacked each other because of petty things or over their view of how the world should be. What you do to yourselves doesn't matter." Harry's once vibrant green eyes turn red as he continued. "You can totally destroy yourselves for all I care, as long as you don't try and bring others into your fights. The problem is that you don't care about who suffers because of your actions. The last two Dark Lords brought your squabbles out into the muggle world and nearly destroyed it. You also involved or tried to involve other magical creatures in your fights down through the years and then once the battles were over, you broke the promises you made to them or made them pay because they chose the wrong side."
"Those were Deatheaters, Mr. Potter." McGonagall pointed out. "Most wizards are quite content to live and let live with regards to muggles and other magical creatures."
Harry shook his head in disbelief. "Did you have Binns for History of Magic, Professor? I mean you can't be that blind to how the wizarding world treats those they consider inferior to themselves. Personally I was amazed at what you can learn about magical history, if you don't have to rely on a Professor who is fixated on the goblin rebellions and is so boring he could put a hyperactive child to sleep for your information. I've learned that up until about 1945 muggle and squib baiting was quite common among the members of the magical community and considered only a minor offence. I personally think that the only reason the Ministry has made it a crime is because of how quickly muggle science have advanced and they've realised just how dangerous the muggles can become if pushed into a corner. In my opinion, I think the ministries want to avoid provoking the muggle people, given that they out-number you by at least a hundred to one. Even with the change in policy though, I've noticed that even when a witch or wizard is caught using their magic against a muggle in a harmful way, they're not really punished. They receive a slap on the wrist and the muggle who was attacked is oblivated so they don't remember the crime perpetrated on them."
He paused for a moment waiting to see if she would comment. When no comment was forthcoming he continued, "I can't help wondering what will happen if a witch or wizard attacks a muggle who can't be oblivated. Will it spell the end of the wizardkind? Will the Ministry order the defenceless muggle killed because they can't block the memory? Or will the Muggle pretend that it worked and then come back to wreak vengeance on the wizarding world because of the actions of one witch or wizard?"
At her expression of disbelief, he told her. "It is entirely possible for them to do so, you know. In the last fifty years muggles have shown they can be quite ingenious when they need to be or there is a great enough threat. I know for a fact that muggle science is working on a way to modify cells to target specific diseases like cancer and AID's, because I've invested in several of them. It wouldn't take much effort to turn that into a weapon of war, if there were a good enough reason and a non-magical person were to get a sample of magical blood. They could probably tailor a disease that would wipe out anyone with magical ability and leave those without magic completely alone and they wouldn't even have to find the places where you live to make sure you are infected by it. All they would have to do is infect a muggle-born and they are fairly easy to find, given that they go to platform 9 and 3/4's every year to go to Hogwarts."
Harry didn't bother to conceal the smirk on his face at the sight of McGonagall stunned into silence by his words. Apparently she like the rest of the wizarding world had never considered that muggles could and would find wizardkind and wipe them out if given sufficient reason.
When she remained silent, Harry asked her, "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me, Professor? If not then I need to get to my next class. You wouldn't want me to lose any more points for your House now would you."
McGonagall finally managed to recover her voice and said crisply. "I don't know why you are so eager to get to class. According to all your teachers, you just sit there and do nothing."
Harry shrugged. "It gives me something to do while I'm locked up in this prison of yours."
"Hogwarts is not a prison, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall snapped offended. "Hogwarts is a place of learning where students receive the very best education they need to make it in the wizarding world."
"I'm certain that the other inmates would all agree with you about this being an institute of learning but I do not. There is nothing being taught here that I need to learn, unless it is how to betray others." Harry told her coldly. "And I do have express my doubts about the quality of education received here given the teachers I have had in the years I been in this death trap you call a school. If those teachers are an example of the quality education students receive, it's a wonder more of them weren't killed by Moldyshorts."
"How dare you!" McGonagall's anger was clearly visible. "You have no idea what you are talking about! The Headmaster always does his best to insure that the students have the very best teachers available to teach them."
"Then let's look at these teachers shall we." Harry was unphased by her anger. "I can only speak for the past four years of course, but in that time, this supposed exemplary learning institution only had two, count them, two competent DADA teachers; Lupin and the polyjuiced Deatheater, Crouch. The rest were a joke and shouldn't have even been allowed to teach because they all turned out to be tremendous wastes of time and space. No wonder they never lasted more than a year."
"They were the very best available." McGonagall repeated then added, "Until Professor Quirrell met up with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, he was an excellent DADA teacher. Professor Lockhart were as well."
"The only thing Professor Lockhart was good at teaching the students was how to preen for the cameras… the stupid fop. He was also good at making the girls and women go gooey-eyed and gooey-brained. Personally I think that Filch would've been a better DADA teacher than Lockhart."
McGonagall said nothing remembering all too well how her fellow female teachers got all mushy at the sight of Lockhart. She had been largely immune to him, having better things to do with her time, especially once the basilisk was let loose.
"Let's move on now to what could be termed the more permanent staff that I have had for classes," Harry continued with an evil grin. "First we have a Potions Professor who for at least the last twenty years loved to terrify the students and favoured his own house so much that only heaven knows how many potential Potions Masters were destroyed by his teaching methods. I won't even mention the grudge he carried over to me because he hated my father."
"That matter has been resolved." McGonagall reminded him. "Snape is no longer teaching here and had die ."
"But not before the damage was done." Harry countered. "There were a number of complaints about his teaching methods, but the Headmaster never removed him."
"And you know very well why at the time he was not removed." McGonagall retorted.
"The Headmaster could have found another kind of work for him to do that would have kept him close and a viable source of information on Moldyshorts." Harry pointed out. "The Headmaster made no attempt to rein him in or force him to change his teaching methods and if he really had cared about the students he would have done so. But as you pointed out, Snape is no longer an issue, thanks to me putting him in his grave."
He held up one finger "Let's now turn our attention to the current Care of Magical Creatures teacher. While I have nothing against Hagrid personally, I can't help wondering how many students who might have had an interest in magical creatures were frightened away, because of the creatures Hagrid chose for them to study. That particular class is both similar and the opposite of Potions, because unless you have a love from the very beginning for large dangerous creatures, it is not a class you want to take. Hagrid is a half-giant, so there is very little that can be a threat to him. Unfortunately he is in love with large and dangerous creatures, and thinks that everyone will see them like he does as harmless puppies and kittens. Instead of starting with small, harmless, nice looking creatures, he brings in the biggest, most dangerous and sometimes the ugliest of creatures to have his students learn about. He needs to learn to gauge his classes to the students he is teaching. In other words a third or fourth year student shouldn't be expected to be able to handle a Hippogriff or a blast ended Skrewt. A sixth or seventh year might be able to, but nothing earlier. Third through fifth years should be exposed to relatively harmless animals like unicorns, then gradually work up to the more dangerous creatures. And don't even get me started on that fraud Trelawney who predicted my death every year I had her class or Binns who is so boring, that it's a wonder no students have died in his classes."
McGonagall looked slightly annoyed at him for pointing out the flaws in the school's teaching staff. "While I will admit we have some problems with a few members of the teaching staff, Hogwarts is internationally renowned for providing the very best magical education a witch or wizard needs to succeed in the magical world."
Harry snorted at this claim. "Yeah I'm sure that being able to turn a porcupine into a pin cushion is really going to help me succeed. I bet it's something I'll be doing every day. Who knows maybe someone will be elected Minister for their ability to do it."
As McGonagall bristled at the implication that her class was a waste of time, Harry continued, "I'm not stupid, I know why Dumbledork forced me to come back and it wasn't to complete my education. He thinks that with time I will forgive my former friends as well as the rest of the wizarding world for what you all did to me last year, but I told him and now I'm telling you, that isn't going to happen. Nothing I learned before I went to Azkaban will be useful once I get out of here, unless it is just how treacherous and backstabbing witches and wizards can be. I learned that lesson the hard way. Like a fool after each occurrence, I expected people to learn from their mistakes and not repeat them, but they didn't. Now I have no intention of allowing wizardkind to betray me again. I am just marking time and taking care of some unfinished business before I can finally leave this school . Once I turn eighteen, no one will be able to force me to do what I don't want to do ever again."
He left her office without waiting for permission to go.
McGonagall shook her head and wondered yet again if the Headmaster might not be too optimistic about their being able to get Harry forgive his friends and be willing to stay in the wizarding world. She knew the Headmaster was right about one thing though, there were so many problems in the wizarding world that given the current divisions would never be resolved, especially with someone like Fudge in power. However if the Daily Prophet was to be believed, Fudge was to face a vote of 'no confidence' in front of the Wizengamot before the end of the year and in interim Minister would be appointed to fill the remainder of Fudge's term which would end in 2000.
….
The day of the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match dawned clear and cold. Everyone agreed it would be good flying weather and nearly every one agreed this was going to be an interesting match, given that the traditional rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin had escalated to fever pitch.
Over the past week, the Gryffindors and Ron Weasley in particular had again been providing a source of entertainment to the other Houses, whether they'd intended to or not. Rumours had been running rampant that the Gryffindors had tried to bribe Potter into becoming their Seeker again by replacing the Firebolt they had burned up the previous year. Apparently they weren't all that confident about their ability to win against Slytherin, even though Malfoy was not playing because he was still a ferret. Rumour also had it that Potter had turned them down flat. There were also reports that the Firebolt he had been given was snap into two and burn.
Weasley had made at least one attempt a day to try and convince Potter to play, usually in-between classes. Potter had begun wearing a badge after the first attempt that either said: I see your mouth moving, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah., or I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. The sight of the badge would make Potter's former best friend go red in the face, but he was so determined that Potter was going to play that Weasley persisted in spite of it.
The question about whether or not Weasley would make a last minute attempt to convince Potter to play, even though he'd had no time to practise was answered for the Ravenclaws as Weasley followed Potter into the great Hall.
He was practically shouting, "Harry, you are a Gryffindor. I can't believe you would want the slimy Slytherins to win the Quidditch cup. It should be ours."
Harry continued to walk away from him until Ron darted forward and grabbed his arm, and swung him around. "For the honor of Gryffindor, we need you to be what you were and are: a superb seeker and the finest one Gryffindor has ever had."
Several members of the other houses moved in to surround the pair, along with a few of the Gryffindors. They all wanted to see the confrontation that had been building for a week now between Potter and Weasley.
Harry jerked his arm free of the weasel's grasp with a growl, and the expression on his face was one of contempt. "I am not a gryffindor!" Harry's voice was cold as ice. "You made that clear last year. Then again, you have a short-term memory since the only thing in your head is food and Quidditch. You said the honor of Gryffindors; don’t make me laugh; Gryffindors have no honor. But then again, why am I not surprised since, at the end of the day, Gryffindors are nothing more than a group of idiots who only care for themselves, which makes it the perfect house for you, the king of idiots.”
Ron's face reddened as he registered the insult. To hell with making up with Potter! he thought to himself, lunging forward. Harry just snapped his fingers, and Ron was thrown to the ground. He tried to get up, but Harry shot lightning at him from his hand. He screamed as the attack hit him. Harry can’t help but smile seeing the person who was responsible for making the last year of his life hell in pain. However, that smile stopped when his hand turned into a claw. He quickly stopped and put the hand in his pocket to hide it before anyone noticed it. Luckily, it seems everyone was too busy looking at Ron to notice the sudden transformation. He quickly concentrates, and he can feel his hand turn back to normal.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, stop this at once!"
Harry turned and saw McGonagall hand push her into the crowd. He then turned and saw that Ron had gotten up.
"Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall decided to start with the prefect. "I expect better behaviour out of a fifth year prefect and yet I find you trying to start a fist fight like a common street thug in the middle of the Great Hall. Why did you feel the need to get into a school yard brawl with your best friend?"
"He's not my friend!" Ron told her hotly, still angry about the insult Harry said to him. "No true friend would said that."
"Well, you've never been a true friend, Weasel. A true friend wouldn't be interested in someone solely for the use that they can make out of them. The only thing about me that ever interested you was being the best friend of the Boy-Who-Lived." Harry countered. "And you turned on me the minute you thought I was trying to take the glory without you or you thought you could gain the spotlight without me in the picture, by denouncing me as an evil, dark wizard. You are no friend, Weasly; you are just a leech, a parasite that latches on to someone, and when they are no use to you, you turn your back on them. I am the biggest fool here to not realize that my so-called friend is nothing more than a parasite."
"Enough!" McGonagall broke in before the fight could start again. "Mr. Weasley, what happened?"
"I was trying to get Potter here to agree to play Seeker today and he insulted me and Gryffindors Honor ." Ron told her.
"Is that essentially correct Mr. Potter?" McGonagall was certain a lot had been left out.
"Essentially," Harry agreed, "but he forgot to mention that I had already turned him down at least fifty or sixty times this week. I told him I had no interest in playing on a team of traitors, but he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."
"Who threw the first punch?" McGonagall wanted to know.
Ron looked back down at the floor and said nothing as Harry told her. "The Weasel did."
McGonagall looked very disappointed. "Twenty points each for fighting. Mr Potter, you will also be serving detention." Harry snorted at this but McGonagall continued. "And you Mr. Weasley will be turning in your Prefect badge for conduct unbecoming a prefect…"
"That's not fair!" Ron interrupted. "He started it!. Why are you punishing me?"
McGonagall glared at him. "Be grateful, I don't remove you from the Gryffindor Quidditch team as well, Mr. Weasley. I notice that you didn't deny throwing the first punch. You need to learn to control your anger, young man. Apparently the time you had spent at Hogwarts hasn't taught you that control and it should have. Life is very rarely fair and you will occasionally encounter things or people who upset you. However you can't continue to act first and think later the way you have been these past seven years, or your chances of earning a decent livelihood will go down considerably once you leave school given that your grades are barely acceptable right now."
….
The Gryffindor-Slytherin game lasted until evening and probably would have gone on longer if Ginny Weasley hadn't finally caught the snitch. It proved to be a hollow victory for the Gryffindors though because the game had ended in the first tie in Quidditch history with a score of 510 to 510. Usually catching a Snitch gave the team whose Seeker got it the victory, however the World Cup during the summer of Ron's fourth year had proven that wasn't always the case when Krum caught the Snitch but Ireland won the game. Madame Hooch had declared Gryffindor the winners because of Ginny's catching the Snitch, but Slytherins were requesting a rematch since they had been ahead by 150 points until it had been caught and no game was supposed to end in a tie. Madame Hooch had refused. Pointing out that the rules never said that a game couldn't end in a tie, just that it never had before.
Ron, instead of being pleased with Gryffindor's victory over Slytherin, had been spent the better part of the evening snarling at his sister telling her she should have held off long enough for them to get another goal, so they would have been the clear winners. It had taken Ginny cursing him with her favourite curse, the Bat Bogey Hex to get him to shut up. While he was suffering the results of Ginny's hex, Ron spent the evening glaring at Potter, certain that if he had just co-operated, their victory would've been a clear one and not just one won by default because they gotten the Snitch. He wisely kept his thoughts to himself though not wanting to get in any more trouble with McGonagall, Hermione… or Merlin forbid his mother. He winced when he thought of what his mother's reaction would be to his no longer being a prefect.
Hermione had made it clear that she was disappointed that he had lost his Prefect's badge because of a fight over Quidditch. He would have thought she would be on his side given the fight had been with Potter but she hadn't been. She had just told him it was stupid to lose his Prefect status because of a stupid game. Even after all this time she still didn't understand that Quidditch was just as important to him as her books were to her and he realised she probably never would. Just like he would never understand her obsession with books and learning.
He found Hermione's obsessive need to know everything about anything new she encountered very unsettling, especially when she expressed her annoyance because no one else, usually meaning he and Potter, wanted to do the same. They really had very little in common and it had only been their both being friends with Potter that had brought them together in the first place. In fact he was beginning to rethink his idea of asking her to marry him once they got out of school. He cared for her, he really did, but he didn't think he could live with her for the rest of his life.
….
“ Harry” A voice said causing him to turn and saw it was Luna lovegood. Luna was possibly the only student in Hogwarths he tolerate as during the tri wizard tournament she was the only person who believes him when he said he did not put his name in the goblet and how he heard she did not believe him being a dark lord. It was due to that he didn’t mind her company.
"I'm glad I was finally able to catch up with you." Luna told him as she got closer. "I have something for you."
When she handed over the wrapped present, Harry told her, "Luna, you didn't have to do this."
Luna waited until he had opened the present and was looking at the photos in the album before softly telling him, "I didn't do it… Hagrid did."
Harry looked up startled but smiling. "Hagrid?"
Luna nodded. "He wanted you to have something to remember your family by and asked me to give it to you. He didn't think you would accept it from him."
Harry ran his finger across the moving picture of his parents, Sirius, and Remus before admitting. "I don't hate Hagrid. I'm just not fond of him right now."
Luna gave him an understanding look. "You might want to at least tell him thank you for all the trouble he went to."
Harry nodded before reaching out and giving Luna a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"See you later, Luna, "he said as he began walking away from the shore. He doesn’t know why, but holding the album in his hands and looking at the pictures of his parents, Sirius and Remus, make him feel better. He felt like the urge was weakening somehow. For the first time since he left Azkaban, he smiled. Not the cruel smile or the joyless smile, but the smile of true happiness.
….
When Luna got a hug and kiss from Harry because of the present she'd given him, Ginny saw red. How dare she! Harry is mine! Well she's not going to get away with this! No one takes what's mine!
Pulling her wand out, Ginny conjured a jar with a few live bees in it. She knew from prior conversations that Luna was allergic to bees, though she didn't know just how allergic. Shaking the jar gently to agitate, but not kill the bees, Ginny unscrewed the lid and took it off. Using a levitation spell, she sent the angry bees over to Luna and watched as their landed on her neck.
….
Anger flowed through him like a river. The only decent student in the school was gone. She was possibly the only person in the wizarding world that he cared for, and she was gone. Any control he had over his emotions and over the urge was gone as he felt his anger grow out of control. But he didn’t stop the anger; he didn’t stop the urge. He let them overflow him. He now felt the changes growing stronger. He felt they were almost complete. He can already feel his mind already beginning to chance, but he doesn’t care anymore as the only thing he wants is revenge. His eyes grew red, and his teeth clenched. There was hell to pay, and he knew who was his first of many victims.
The wizarding world had made him suffer, and now he was going to make it suffer in return.
The secret origin of Discord
The doors in the Great Hall was forcefully slam open so hard that their were break from their hingers and were sent flying where their landed on the ground with a loud thud.Both students and teacher who were eating their dinner were silent. At one everyone look at the entrance and was shock and what their saw as standing in the door way was Harry who have a murderous expression on his face. His eyes glow red and he let out a terrified magic aura that covers everyone in fear. Even Dumbledore himself was terrified as the magic aura he unleashed surpassed even both him and Voldemort by a large margin.
"GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY!" Potter's angry voice echoed off the stones of the Great Hall. "STAND FORTH AND FACE JUDGEMENT FOR YOUR ACTIONS!"
Those sitting at the Head table tried to get up but found that they couldn't move. Apparently Mr. Potter intended to allow no interference in what was about to happen.
When Ginny Weasley failed to appear, he said sarcastically, "so much for Gryffindor bravery."
A spell shot from the staff he was holding , and headed toward the Gryffindor table. The Gryffindors shrieked as they tried to scramble out of the way, not knowing what would happen if that spell hit them. The yellow beam of light zigzagged around them until it found the one it had been sent for and wrapping itself around her, pulled Ginny away from the Gryffindor table and out into the middle of the aisle.
In the deathly silence that followed Ginny being pulled away from the shelter of the Gryffindor table, Harry stalked toward her and the students could hear his staff thud as it came down hard against the flagstones of the Great Hall with his every step.
"Did you or did you not attack Luna Lovegood ?" The volume of Harry's voice had dropped, but it was still echoing off the walls.
Ginny stood there, determined not to show her fear. She hadn't expected him to find out that it was she who attacked Luna and even if he had she hadn't expected this level of anger. He shouldn't care what happened to that weird little nobody. Luna wasn't anybody important. He should only care about what happened to her. She was after all going to be his wife. She'd had it all planned out from the day she first met him.
Several of the students gasped as a pale blue light surrounded Ginny Weasley. They also noticed that right next to Ginny the colour of the light was a deep, pulsing red.
"I'm waiting, Miss Weasel." Harry hissed, "but my patience is not limitless. Did you attack Luna?"
Ginny opened her mouth intending to deny the accusation, but what came out was, "Yes, but I didn't intend to kill her, just warn her off. I knew she was allergic to bees and that it would make her sick. She has no right to you. You're mine. You've always been mine and you would realise it if you could see past your anger over how you were treated last year. We belong together and you know it."
"Luna is dead because of what you did!" Harry growled , circling her like a wolf. "You attacked and kill your best friend because you saw me give her a kiss on the cheek and somehow in your warped little mind, you equated that to her taking me away from you! Would that be an accurate statement?"
Ginny tried to keep her mouth closed, but "yes," came tumbling out.
"Well listen and listen well bitch because this is the last time I'm going to say this! I am not yours! I will never be yours! I want nothing to do with you! Get that through your empty head. I want you to stay the fuck away from me!" Harry was now back in front of her and the light coming from his staff was pulsing even stronger. "And I think it time you learn you lesson once and for all. And what better way then to make you outside match your inside."
Before Ginny had a chance to run, a grey light engulfed her and a moment later everything in the world was taller than she was, even the seats at the tables.
Opening her mouth to demand an explanation, she was surprised when what came out was not words but barking. Ginny looked her body over and found she was a tiny red poodle.
"Yes," Harry told her. "You are now what you have always been, a real little bitch. I should also tell that you are in heat so you will be attracting every male dog for miles around. If you get caught by any of them, that itch of yours should get thoroughly scratched. I would suggest you start running now if you want to avoid Fang and Fluffy because they will find you."
Harry then zap lightning near Ginny. This scare her enough to flee from the great hall. After that was done harry then turn his attention to Dumbledore.
“ Dumbledore it is time for you to pay for you crimes.” Harry said as his left arm transform into a lion paw and right arm turn into an eagle claw. However unlike before he make no attempt to hide them.
“ Harry ,you hands” Dumbledore said in shock.
“ That not important right now.” Harry said in anger.” What important right now is you finally facing the consequences of breaking a magically binding contract.”
Dumbledore paled and his eyes lost their twinkle as the students gasped at the accusation. "I'm afraid I don't know what magical contract you are referring to, Mr. Potter. I have a number of them to deal with every day, but none of the ones I have dealt with recently have involved you or the House of Potter in any way."
"The contract I am referring to was not a recent one." Harry countered. "Were you not the executor of my parent's wills?"
"I was." Dumbledore remained seated at the high table, giving the appearance of having nothing to worry about. "Perhaps we should discuss this matter privately, Mr. Potter. I am certain you do not want your personal business spread all over the wizarding world before nightfall."
"My life has never been a private matter as far as the wizarding world is concerned. They've poked their noses into every aspect of my life, except where you managed to keep them out, so why should that stop now. You only want privacy because you don't want them to know what you did." Harry retorted. "Merlin forbid that the wizarding world should ever think of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as anything less than the guardian of light and an honourable man."
"Mr. Potter, how dare you accuse the Headmaster of doing something so dishonourable as not honouring a magically binding contract?" McGonagall demanded. "He has never been less than honourable in all of his dealings."
“ Oh shut up” Harry said as he snap his fingers causing McGonagall mouth to vanished.” I am getting sick and tired hearing anymore of you double standards words. Since anything that came out of you mouth is always doubled standards. Then it is best you not take at all. Now back on topic. Remember our conversation back in Ollivander's shop, Professor McGonagall?"
McGonagall and the students looked back and forth between Potter and Dumbledore wondering what was going on. McGonagall remembered Harry accusing Dumbledore of violating the terms of his parent's wills the day she had taken him to Diagon Alley, but since he hadn't done anything about it she thought the matter had been settled. Breaking a magically binding contract was a very serious thing. A person could lose their magic or their life, depending on the terms of the contract.
"Harry, this is really a matter we should discuss in private." Dumbledore made one more try even though he knew the students would assume the worst, but given they didn't know what part of the will had been violated, he might be able to come up with an explanation that would satisfy them and their families. If he was lucky they might assume it was a minor breach, that he wanted resolved publicly.
"I did not give you the right to be so familiar with me Dumbledore." Harry countered. "And neither of us is going anywhere… at least not yet. Did you think I would not find out what you had done? Or maybe you thought I would forgive and forget it because your ignoring the instructions in my parent's wills was for the Greater Good?"
"Harry," Colin Creevy spoke up from his seat at the Gryffindor table when it became evident that Harry and the Headmaster were going to engage in a staring contest until something broke the stalemate. "Just how did the Headmaster violate your parent's wills?"
"Well I did some research and discover that my parent's wills contained a list of those they considered suitable guardians for me if my Godfather Sirius Black was not available to take care of me." Harry answered his question without taking his eyes off the Headmaster. "Their list also contained one exception. They stated quite clearly that under no circumstances was I ever to be placed in the custody of Petunia Evans Dursley or her husband Vernon Dursley at any time or for any reason. Their wills said that their even consider Voldemort of all people as a better choice for guardian than Aunt Petunia, given how she loathed magic. And yet knowing that, Dumbledore went against my parents stated wishes and placed me in that hellhole and not only that he also used every connection he had so that other family members from my father side of the family won’t gain custody of me."
"Harry…" Dumbledore began.
"I told you, you do not have the right to use my name. I am Lord Potter to you." Harry interrupted him.
"Very well, Lord Potter," Dumbledore said placatingly. "While I will admit I knew that your parents didn't want you placed with the Dursleys it was necessary to keep you safe. Remember what I told you During the triwizard tournament . The protection your mother placed on you required you be placed with your mother's blood kin to work. Petunia and her son Dudley were the only ones you could be placed with to keep you alive, until the time came for you to fulfil the prophecy. I am fairly certain your parents would have understood and I'm certain you understand now why I had to ignore their wishes with regard to your placement. They kept you safe."
"Well you were wrong, not once but twice." Harry countered. "I had a goblin ward master check out Privet Drive this past month. And while he admits there were blood wards there, which is Dark magic by the way according to the Ministry, he told me they collapsed due to lack of power to maintain them nearly fourteen years ago. Your claim that even though my Aunt took me in grudgingly was enough to provide the protection was wrong. They collapsed within a year after I was placed there and you knew it. There were other wards placed there afterwards that were also detected by the goblins and I was told that my magic had been powering them. No wonder I sometimes had problems making spells work right, given that you tied my magic into the wards that were protecting those wastes of space I laughingly call my family. Do you remember what else you told me that night? About when I arrived at Hogwarts that first night?"
"Yes," Dumbledore didn't elaborate. He could see the looks of shock and disgust on some of the faces in the Great Hall. He knew was going to have a lot of explaining to do later on.
"You didn't place me with the Dursley's for my protection. You placed me there so you could mould your weapon to defeat Voldemort without getting your own hands dirty." Harry told the room at large. "According to your own words, which I remember very well thanks to the Dementors, 'five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy or as well nourished as I would have liked, but you were alive. You were not a pampered prince but as normal a little boy as I could have hoped for under the circumstances. Thus far my plan was working well.' I was not a normal little boy, unless it is considered normal in the wizarding world for a child to be treated as a slave from the time they are four years of age. Forced to watch as my cousin is showered with love and all the things that go along with it, while I am called a freak, starved, worked nearly to death, beaten for things that were not my fault, and not even knowing my own name until I went to school, and that only happened because they couldn't hide the fact I lived there. If they could have, I don't think I would have gone to school either."
"You were safe there." Dumbledore insisted. "That was the most important thing. I tried to make up for the rest while you were here. It had to be done that way you had to understand suffering to be able to overcome it. And you are overcoming it. You will be a great asset to the Wizarding world because of all you have gone through."
"I do not hate to tell you this Dumbledork, but I have enough with this stupid backwater world. All you wizards do is care for yourself. You create problems that not affect yourself but also the innocent muggles who had no business with you problem. But instead of fixing it you ignore them and expect others to do it for you. Well I am now done with all you wizards as every last one of you are nothing but entitle and spoiled brats who only care for yourself. That goes doubles for you Dumbledork as I have enough of you and manipulation. Your plan to make me the saviour of the wizarding world because of its own stupidity, has failed as well. I know you hoped that I would forgive all those who wronged me last year, but that won't happen until the sun is a burnt out cinder in the sky and we all are dead, and maybe not even then." Harry disagreed. "You are condemned out of your own mouth. You have admitted to knowingly breaking the contract."
"Your parents would have understood why I did what I did." Dumbledore insisted.
"But they aren't the ones you have to answer to, I am." Harry reminded him. "I am the one who suffered the most because you felt you had the right to play God with my life. I am the one who spent almost a year of my life in hell, because you thought you had failed to correctly mould your weapon and it was going to turn on you so you wanted it put away before it had the chance to. I am just grateful you didn't choose to steal from me in addition to your other crimes. Now is time to pay for you crimes."
Harry then raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and immediately the ground shook. Everyone quickly looked around in confusion.
“What have you done, Harry?” Dumbledore asked fearfully.
"I'm just giving you a piece of your own medicine. You wanted to play god with other people's lives; well, let’s see how you like it being done to you.” Harry said as a dark aura covered his body, and immediately on his head, a deer antler and a blue goat horn appeared. This, combined with his red eyes, gives him a demonic appearance, scaring everyone in the great hall more.
“Harry, you need to stop.” Dumbledore pleaded. ”The magic you are using is corrupting you.”
Harry just responded by blasting a lightning attack at Dumbledore, causing him to scream in pain. After that was done, Harry stopped and glared at the old man.
“As I said before, you don’t have any right to call me Harry.” Harry said before he had a thoughtful look on his face. ”You know, the name Harry just doesn’t do well with me anymore. No, from now on, you shall call me discord for the chaos I will bring. It is quite appropriate, if you ask me. You use your powers to bring what you deem as order, and I will use my power to destroy your order as revenge. But why stop there when I can destroy the order of the wizarding world? In fact, why don’t I destroy the order in this world as well? Hahahaha” Harry laughs instantly as he floats into the air. He can feel it. His mind had completely changed, and he now felt any self-control he might have lost as he had fully succumbed to the urge and their desire to let the magic out.
“Today is the day Harry Potter died, and from his death came the birth of discord, the lord of chaos.” Harry said he raised his hands into the air, and immediately Hogwarts was lifted into the air. It managed to break its foundation and began flying into the air.
“What are you doing?” Ron asks in fear of what is happening.
“Taking you all to my home.” Harry, or Discord, as he calls himself now, said as he snapped his fingers, and immediately a large portal opened into the sky. The entire building flew through it, and as soon as it went through it, the portal closed.
….
It started on a bright and sunny day, just like any other day. It was peaceful, and everything was normal as people go through their daily lives. However, that all changes when a large portal opens up in the middle of the sky and out comes Hogwarths Castle. However, it’s been remodeled and redesigned to resemble a more sinister castle, and shortly after, a large purple wave swept all over England. Then everything changed. The sky turned blood red, and blood rained out of the sky. Inanimate objects on the streets, such as trees, cars, trash cans, buildings, etc., began to undergo various forms of change. Such as gaining spider legs, human body parts, animal parts such as wings that allow them to fly, or simply coming to life, as in the case of statues and billboard images. Animals were also affected, as people saw giant caterpillars roaming the streets, bears with eagle wings, large squid-like tentacles coming out of manholes, flying fish, bunnies with deer legs stamping around, and many more. The minster of magic quickly sent aurors to handle this mess, but they found that their magic couldn’t reverse the effects. They quickly decided to go to the castle, believing that the answer to the problem was in it. However, none of them return after entering the castle.
Realizing how dangerous the situation is, all the high-ranking ministry members quickly gather to have a meeting on how to handle the problem. They also contacted other branches of the minister of magic and even contacted Macusa for help. Hence, many foreign ministers of magic or their representatives are also in the meeting, along with Macusa representatives. However, while there were discussions, the entire ministry building shook as it was dragged out of the ground itself and pulled to where Hogwarts is located. Both buildings were quickly torn apart and merged together. The end result was a new, bigger castle that was made from both buildings . Many officers or ministry workers who were in the building were crushed or suffocated to death as they ended up being trapped in the wall as it rebuilt itself. As for the high-ranking ministry members and foreign leaders and representatives, the room they were in was torn apart, resulting in their deaths as they fell from great heights or were crushed by the moving bricks. As for the wizards and witches who survived, they were locked into the castle dungeon, where the students and teachers of Hogwarts were kept.
As if to add insult to injury, the Fountain of Magical Brethren that the ministry kept in their building was transformed into what would later be called the Fountain of Retribution, which depicted the golden statue of a wizard and witches that were so disfigured that they resembled more hideous monsters than humans, being burned at the stake while being surrounded by a furious goblin, house elf, centaur, and muggle. This statue was then placed in the throne room of the castle.
Watching the destruction from the throne room of the castle was Harry Potter, or, as he now calls himself, Discord. He smiled in glee as he took enjoyment of the chaos that he unleashed on the world. His body had greatly transformed, as in addition to his previous transformation, he now had the right leg of an eagle, the left leg of a horse, a dragon-like snake tail, and the wings of a bat and a pegasus.
He then snapped his fingers again, and immediately every continent of the world was pulled together until they merged into one whole continent. Immediately after that, large purple waves quickly covered the entire continent before spreading to the entire world, creating chaos everywhere. Afterward, he had his castle begin to move through the land to cause more chaos. However, he makes a few stops at some places to add more to his castle. Such as the entire Diagon Alley, which he adds to decorate his castle by placing all the shops and buildings on the castle wall, or the Malfoy Manor, which he tears down brick by brick and adds to his castle. He also adds other things, such as the Big Ben clock, which he used to replace one of the castle towers, or Buckingham Palace, which he placed on his castle wall. His next addition was the entire private drive street, which also included all the houses by placing them on his castle walls, and the wizard prison Azkaban. His final stop was the burrow. However, instead of adding it, he simply burned it to the ground. He could hear the screams of the house residents in it as they tried to escape, but couldn’t as Discord used his magic to prevent anyone from escaping. After that was done, he left for other parts of the continent to spread chaos and terror from the comfort of his floating castle, which flew all over the continent. He encountered many resistances, both magical and non-magical, but they were easily dealt with as all he had to do was snap his fingers, and he would immediately win.
With each continent he invades, he will add more buildings to his castle, such as the White House and Congress building or the pyramid and sphinx. Eventually, the wizards and muggles government got so desperate that they formed an alliance and tried to attack him with everything they had. However, like always, he would snap his fingers, and they would be defeated just like that. With their entire forces gone, the muggle government got so desperate that they fired all their nuclear missiles at him. This, however, proves to be pointless, as Harry just snapped his fingers, and all the nuclear missiles would just disappear or turn into something harmless. With their entire options being used and their forces being destroyed, all the world leaders surrendered to him in the vain hope he would stop his destruction. Harry just ignores them and continues to spread chaos around the world.
As he sat on his throne, he couldn’t help but be bored. Don’t get him wrong; it was fun for a while as he got revenge on those who wronged him.
Such as the case of Ron Weasley and the entire Gryffindor. Their want to be in the triwizard tournament ,well wish granted. Discord has used his power to make them compete in the game. Which if they try to refuse the spell he places on them will cause them unbearable pain that won’t stop until they compete. The events of the tournament were trying to steal the eggs of a vicious and angry dragon, going to the bottom of the lake where they are supposed to retrieve the items he places there while trying to avoid the merpeople who will instantly attack them, and finally being put in a maze where they have to find the way out while trying to avoid the traps and vicious creatures he places there. The best part is that the spell he places on them will teleport them out of the games when they are close to death doors and into an Azkaban cell, where they will heal up. Unfortunately for them, they will not be able to rest properly as the dementors will attack them, and once they are healed and well rested, they will be automatically sent back to the beginning of the tournament. The same will happen if they win too. In addition to that, he places a spell on them that prevents them from aging, committing suicide, or even dying. This means they will spend the rest of their lives playing in the tournament over and over again. And they will stay like this for an eternity.
Hermione was placed in a cell in Azkaban, where she is surrounded by countless books, which, if she so much as attempts to touch them, will cause her unbearable pain. It is the perfect torture to be surrounded by her precious books but unable to touch them. Her torment is made worse by the dementors who will torture her.
Fudge and umbridge were placed in one of the cells in Azkaban. It was a fitting punishment for them, as they had sent hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people there just to maintain their image. They now face the same torment that their dooms countless others, as the dementors would torture them. And just to add extra torture, he made them write with the bloody quill he found in the ministry. Thanks to the spell he places on them, they are forced to write, I am a foolish and corrupt person, a hundred times every day, and thanks to the spell he places on them, their bodies will heal up instantly, meaning they will have rooms on their bodies for the words to be placed on again.
The Dursley, Aunt Marge, and all of Dudley's friends were also the victims of his fury. He used his magic to turn them into hideous monsters and place them in a mansion where a large group of goblins would boss them around in a harsh manner, whipping and beating them up if they did so much as make a single mistake or not complete their task on time. They now have to work almost nonstop as the goblins give them many tasks that they have to do as soon as they wake up, from cleaning the house to washing the dishes and preparing food for them. Food they can’t eat as the goblins forbid them. The only food they could eat were the leftovers. In addition to that, they can’t fight back, as the spell he places on them will cause them unbearable pain if they try to hurt them. What more if they try to escape They will be instantly attacked by a large mob of people who will attack them while calling them freaks. This means the only safe place for them would be the mansion, where there are nothing more but slaves for the goblins. Their now doom to spend the rest of their lives serving the goblins, and the only time they can gain any form of rest is when they go to sleep in the small boiling room that serves as their room.
Dumbledore was strapped into a chair, where he was forced to watch as the world was destroyed and the fates of everyone who wronged him. What more Harry made the images of Sirius, Voldemort, his parents, and Remus Lupin appear next to him. Their will curse him and keep telling him how this is his fault with them occasionally hitting him.
The rest of the students, staff, and everyone he captured, such as Malfoy and Ginny, were simply placed in an Azkaban cell where the dementors would torment them.
All of this brought great joy to discord at first as he watched those who caused him suffering finally get their punishment. But as time went on, he grew bored. Watching them be trapped in eternal pain wasn’t as fun as it used to be. This also goes for the world itself. It had been fun at first, seeing as there used to be a small pocket of resistance of muggles and wizards who tried to overthrow him. But as time goes on, he manages to get rid of them all. Now there isn’t a single person who would try to fight him, as they consider it pointless. That is when things had gone downhill, as now the only form of entertainment he has left is watching the humans attempt to survive the barren wasteland. The only time it was interesting was when a tribe of humans would wage war on another tribe for any resources they managed to find. Of course, he is well aware that his current form of entertainment won’t last long, as eventually the human race will be extinct as more than fifty percent of them are already gone. This means eventually the only entertainment he will have left is watching his old tormentors, classmates, and teachers in pain.
Discord sighed.
“How boring.” Discord said this before he suddenly felt something. ”What was that?” He snaps his fingers, appears above his castle, and looks above him. Above him was the large portal he opened. He immediately noticed something was coming out of it. He decided to stay and see what it was. The object came out through the portal and landed on the ground. He snapped his finger again and appeared in front of the object. The object turned out to be a creature of some kind. It was a bird-like humanoid creature, and from what he can tell, it is female. However, he can feel the powers radiating from her. It was the same power he himself possessed.
“So you must be the chaos spirit that caused all this.” The creature said observing the wasteland. ”I say you are quite impressive. May I know your name?”
“Discord is my name, and now tell me who are you .” Discord said eyeing the creature in front of him suspiciously.
“Oh,where is my manner?" The bird creature said, “My name is Eris, and I must say you did a great job spreading chaos in this world.”
“What the heck are you?“ Disocrd demanded.
“I am a draconequus like you.” Eris said confused before she took a closer look at him. She then had a look of realizations on her face. ”I see you not a naturally born one but one who transformed into one through overuse of chaos magic.”
“Chaos magic,” Discord said. ”Is that what it is called?”
“Yes,“ Eris said. ”But for one to achieve this level of control over it is quite impressive indeed.”
“So tell me more about this chaos magic.” Discord ask.
“Chaos magic, as the name implies, is magic that is wild and unpredictable. However, the one thing that is known is that it has a single desire to destroy order and spread chaos. Through the use of this magic, its user will be able to bend reality itself. My, or this case, our kind, the draconequus, are the living embodiment of chaos itself, and thus we are able to use it to its full potential.” Eris said.
“But that doesn’t explain how I became a draconequus,” Discord said.
“As I said earlier, you transform into a draconequus by overusing chaos magic.” Eris said. ”It isn’t rare for that to happen. What is rare, however, is that most don’t become as powerful as you or are able to maintain their sanity. The fact that you manage to somewhat maintain your sanity is an accomplishment in and of itself.”
“Well, thanks,” Discord said, unsure.
“Well, this world seems to be on its last leg.” Eris said. ”Are you planning on moving to another world soon?”
“Another world,” Discord asks. ”There are other worlds.”
“Of course there are other worlds,“ Eris said. ”Since you didn’t know there were other worlds, do you want my help in finding them?”
"Why do you want to help me?” Discord ask.
"There is no reason but to ensure the spread of chaos.” Eris said. ”As draconequus, the living embodiment of chaos, it is our job to spread chaos throughout reality itself, and thus I see it is necessary for me to assist my fellow draconequus to achieve that endeavor.”
“So you want to help me go to different worlds where I can spread chaos and destruction?” Discord ask.
“Pretty much yes.” Eris ask. Discord stared at her for a moment before smiling an evil grin.
“Well, all I can say is thank you.” Discord said happily. ”I thought I was doomed to an eternity of boredom, but I guess now I am doomed to an eternity of fun.”
He laughed evilly as soon as he said that. After stopping, he went back to talking to Eris.
“So how can I find these other worlds, and how can I get to them?” Discord asks eagerly.
“Simply follow this map I make.” Eric said as she made a map appear in her hand and gave it to him. ”The places I mark on the map are the countless worlds you can go to. Just travel to the chaos realm, and you will get to them.”
“Chaos realm?” Discord ask confused.
“It is the realm where that portal of yours leads to,” Eris said.
“Why is it called the chaos realm?” Discord ask.
“It is because it is full of raw chaos magic, and in addition to that, that is where all draconequus are born from.” Eris explain. ”It is also how we go to different worlds to spread our chaos, as we draconequus use them to travel to different worlds.”
“Well, anywhere, thank you.” Discord said happily.
“It was no problem.” Eris said.
“No, really, I am grateful,“ Discord said as he snapped his finger, making a briefcase appear in one of his hands before flying into the air. ”To show how thankful I am here.”
He snapped his fingers, and a pair of keys appeared in the air and went flying towards her. Confused, she took the keys and looked at them before looking at Discord.
“What is this?” Eris asks him.
“The keys to my castle.” Discord said, gesturing to his castle. ”Consider it my way of repaying your kindness. Anywhere, I need to go now. Bye.”
Discord waved goodbye at her before flying through the portal. Eris just stared at him as he went through the portal before looking at her new castle.
“ Could use a new paint job.” Eris said as she stared at the castle and thought of new ways she could decorate her new castle.
“It says here the closet world around is somewhere around here.” Discord said as he stopped at an area where the map said the world was located. He placed his hand over it, and immediately a portal opened up. Through the portal was a world inhabited by lizard-like people who seemed to live in a futuristic city. Discord smiles seeing this.
“Well, it looks like I found my stop.” Discord said as he flew through the portal to begin his reign of terror.
“Maybe I should tone down my antics for the next one.” Discord said as he was getting annoyed with having to always keep moving to a new world. He was currently in the house that he created in the chaos realm. He went and checked on his map and saw there was a world called equestria not far from him.
“Let's see if there is anything interesting for me in this world.” Discord said as he began to make the trip to Equestria.
“This isn’t over.” Vorak said as he tried to get up.
“Don’t you ever quit?.” Discord asked, annoyed.
“Not until I save my kingdom.” Vorak said as he tried to reach for his sword. Discord just snapped his fingers, and immediately he was launched off the ground and onto the staircase that led to his throne.
“You should count yourself lucky that I have no interest in destroying your kingdom.” Discord said as he blasted a hole in the wall. Before he flew through it, however, he stopped when he heard what King Vorak said next.
“Someday you will pay for your crimes.” He said.
“That's what they all say.” Discord said as he flew through the hole and into the air until he disappeared from view. Immediately after he was gone, the cloud monsters disappeared.
Vorak's wife and his youngest son quickly went to check on him. His oldest, however, just stares at the hole that discord makes.
“Tirek.” The older son, now known as Tirek, heard his mother's voice and turned to her. ”Please call the healer over while me and scorpan attend to your father.”
Tirek looked at the hole for a second before answering his mother. ”Yes, mother.”
He then made his way out of the throne room.
“Such powers.” Tirek thought. ”If only I had such powers as well.”
“My queen.” A changeling said as he rushed to his queen side. Chrysalis herself was having difficulty getting up as she was greatly injured from her battle. She fell down and would have hit the ground if the changeling hadn’t caught her on time. It wasn’t long before another changeling ran to chrysalis side. Both quickly grab her front hooves and quickly hover into the air.
“This isn’t over.” Chrysalis said, glaring at Discord. The two changelings then flew away, with the other changelings soon following them.
“That's what they all say.”
“ So much for the great dragon lord torch.” Discord said before he flew away leaving the down dragon, who couldn’t do anything but glare at his retrieving form.
“This was a great ideal; you have adagio,“ the purple siren said sarcastically. ”Let’s leave the siren kingdom and take over equestria for ourselves.”
"Oh, shut up, Aria,“ the yellow siren known as Adagio said.
“What now, Dagi?” The blue one asks.
“It’s simple sonata,“ Adagio said. ”We will look for a place to rest and lick our wounds. Then we will just have to wait until an opportunity presents itself.”
“Oh, just give up.” Discord said as he drank some chocolate milk from his throne or, more accurately, drank his cup while leaving the milk still in his hand. He then tossed it behind him. It exploded on impact.
“ Never.” Luna said as she and Celestia flew into the air and blasted him. Discord simply yawns and snaps his fingers again. The attack was redirected back at them, causing them to be blown away. They fell to the ground again.
“ Sister I believe we should retreat for now.” Celestia said. Luna knew Celestia is right sight before turning her attention to discord.
“Hear me, villain.” Luna said. ”We won’t stop until your reign of evil is over and we free all of equestria from your madness.”
“That's what they always said.” Discord said as he watched both Celestia and Luna retreat.
"Well, well, well! Back again to try and stop me?" Discord asked, lifting his paw up, showing a aurora-like tail held in his fingers. "Would you two like to play a round of 'Pin the Tail on the Pony'?"
"What!?" Celestia looked behind her, her tail no longer present on her dock. Growing frustrated, and embarassed, she turned back to glare at Discord. "That's it, Discord! Play time is over!"
"Oh, I doubt that will be the case." The draconequus pulled out a bag filled with oddly colored black seeds, grabbing handfuls of them and munched them, spilling a large amount of them from his hand, his mouth, and waving the bag around. "You want some?" he asked, both alicorn leering at him while ignoring the seeds he spat in their face. He shrugged his shoulders and continued eating, unaware of the two sisters nodding to each other as they pulled out the Elements of Harmony from their bags. While munching on his snack, Discord noticed the odd shimmer of light coming from Celestia and Luna, dropping his bag as he grew amused at the gems circling them. "What have we here?"
"These are the Elements of Harmony!" Celestia said.
"With these, we shall defeat you and finally end your tyranny of chaos!" Luna added as the two sisters focused their magic in the six magical gems.
Discord snickered, then laughed uproariously, unaware of his eventual fate. "Oh! Oh you should see your expressions! You really think you can stop me!"
He was too busy laughing to notice the beam of rainbow light firing at him, turning the draconequus to stone where he stood.
….
“Oh, this is boring.” Discord, though from within his stone prison. It has been an unknown number of years since his imprisonment, and while a regular person would have gone mad, discord due to his insane mind just grows bored. Suddenly, he heard an explosion from the castle.
“What the heck was that?” Discord, though confused, He wanted to turn and see, but due to him being a statue, he is unable to. He heard what sounded like a magical blast being fired, and what sounded like a fight. And as quickly as it came, it stopped with what sounded like Luna screaming no.
“What was that?” Discord, though, before he felt something was happening. It took a while before he realized what was happening. ”The magic holding me is weakening.” He quickly concentrated and tried to feel the magic on him. ”If my calculations are correct, it will take at least a few centuries for the magic to weaken enough for me to escape.”
“Hahahaha! " Discord laughs from inside his head. ”Well, I guess all I have to do now is just wait for the day I can finally be free to take back equestria. Of course, I should do something about those elements of harmony first when I get out. Oh, well, I have literally centuries to plan, so there is no need for me to rush. Just you wait Celestia and Luna, I will return, and this time I will win.”
“I miss you all.” Discord said as a single tear fell from his eye. He quickly wiped it out before placing it back in the closet. After closing the closet, he turned back into his draconequus form. Discord just stood there for a moment before he heard the clock on the wall ring. He turned and saw the time. ”Oh, it's time for my daily tea with Fluttershy.”
Discord then disappeared from his room and appeared in front of Fluttershy house door. He knocked on it, and almost immediately Fluttershy opened the door.
“Oh, Discord, it's good to see you again.” Fluttershy said.
“You too, my dear Fluttershy.” Discord said as he entered Fluttershy House. While it’s true that Discord faced many hardships and had a miserable beginning, he will admit that his life has greatly improved since he befriended Fluttershy, and he will make sure nothing will destroy his happiness again. Especially since if defending his new home means being with Fluttershy, then so be it.
Discord stone body was in the royal garden, still bored.
“A few more years to go.” Discord though.
“Now here class is what we call a draconequus.” A teacher said to her students: ”It represents chaos and disharmony.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Discord said as he heard the teacher lecture her students. Of course he can’t see anything on the account; his eyes are closed. As the teacher began leading her students away, one Pegasus with yellow fur and pink mane took a moment to stare at the statue in curiosity.
“Come on, Fluttershy, let’s go.” She heard her friend call her. She turned and saw her friend waiting for her.
“Coming rainbow dash.” Fluttershy said as she flew after rainbow dash.
Author's Note
So this is the end of the story so I hope you all enjoy it. Anyhow don’t forget to leave you comment and to check my other stories that I posted on this website.
Anyhow in case you couldn’t tell the way Harry punish all those who wrong him was meant to ironic. Such as with Ron he want to be take part of triwizard tournament well now he and the rest of Gryffindor get to compete forever and ever. Fudge and umbridge throw innocent people in Azkaban just to maintain their image. Well now their get to know how their feel.
His relatives and Dudley friends treat him like a freak and regularly abuse him. Now their know how he feel.
In case you were wondering the fountain of retribution is to represent how Harry see the wizard community. As monsters who should be burn at the stake hence why he turn the statue of the wizard and witches into disfigured monsters.
Another thing. In case you didn’t know is that Eris is an actual character from the my little pony comic and she is in fact a draconequus like discord.
By the way the part where discord battle agains king Vorak,chrysalis,Torch and the dazzling was supposed to show how much influence discord have in equestria history.
Another thing in case you couldn’t tell but the explosion discord heard while he was still a statue was of Celestia battle and banish of nightmare moon.In addition to that Luna become nightmare moon is what weaken the effect of the elements of harmony on discord which will allow him to eventually be free.
Anyhow that is all for now. Leave a comment and don’t forget to check my other story.
