Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Unforgivable
By: ChoCedric
In her youth, Betsy Finnigan loved Albus Dumbledore. His kind smile and twinkling eyes always let her know that everything was going to be all right. But when Seamus comes home after his first year, her opinions begin to change as he tells her all about his year.
What kind of Headmaster wouldn't evacuate the students from the school immediately after he knew that a troll was inside? Her Seamus could have gotten killed! When he tells her about Harry Potter and Ron Weasley saving Hermione Granger, she's proud, but disgusted. Why do two eleven-year-old kids need to go and save someone when the clever, wise Albus Dumbledore could have done it, or another experienced adult? What were the staff thinking, losing sight of their students like that?
When Seamus tells her of the Sorcerer's Stone story with Harry, Ron, and Hermione being the heroes once again, she starts to feel panicky. Did she really allow her son to go to a school where the Headmaster leaves a prized possession in its corridors, promising to keep it safe, but then goes and leaves when he receives an urgent owl? If it wasn't for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, she thinks bitterly, everyone could have been killed, including her darling son.
This is why she kisses Seamus for an extra moment before sending him off to his second year, for she is completely worried about him. Her worries are not unfounded, either, for when she receives word that a monster is attacking all Muggle-borns, she paces up and down the room, wondering why on Earth Albus Dumbledore didn't shut the school down after the first attack. It's true that Seamus is a half-blood, but she remembers the First War and how You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters didn't hesitate when it came to attacking half-bloods and even purebloods who associated with Muggles and Muggle-borns. She has a right mind to pull Seamus out right now, but she lets his letters ease her mind. They tell her that everything will be fine, that she shouldn't go off the deep end.
But it is at the end of the year that she writes to Dumbledore in complete fury. Once again, the old man let himself be taken from the school. And his being gone allowed the monster, a basilisk, for Merlin's sake, to take a student into the chamber. And instead of a professor dealing with the situation, Harry and Ron once again had to be the heroes. They're only children, she writes furiously. How could you let things of this magnitude happen in your school, Dumbledore?
At the beginning of Seamus's third year, she is even more frightened. Sirius Black is on the loose, and she's heard whisperings and rumors that he's after Harry Potter. And Harry is in the same place where her son is, her son who she wants to keep safe with all her heart. She hates the thought of the dementors being at the school, but she comforts herself with the fact that it is a safety precaution and that Seamus and his friends will not be in as much danger with them around.
But guess what happens? Mrs. Finnigan finds herself shaking with rage as she receives another letter from Seamus, informing her that Sirius Black was apparently on the grounds last night and that he escaped. And of course, Albus failed to act, failed to have the school evacuated; she believes that sending everyone to the Great Hall wasn't enough. She even shows up at the school this time, shrieking at Dumbledore and cursing worse than a sailor. She wants him to get angry, to yell back, but he just sits there in his office calmly, steepling his fingers and looking at her with regret. She cannot bear it.
She knows something fishy's going on when Harry Potter is the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament. And when he comes back, shaking, with Cedric Diggory's lifeless eyes staring, staring, staring at the wailing, weeping crowd, she once again feels anger, but this time it has turned to hatred. Now Dumbledore has let a student die in a horrific, tragic accident while claiming the tournament was perfectly safe. What a waste of a life, she thinks angrily. Diggory was only seventeen, and he was dearly loved. She knows this just from the reaction of the crowd. And the whole school had to see a dead body! How traumatic that is! They're too young for this, too young to see lifeless eyes, eyes that will take in nothing more.
She doesn't know what to think when she hears the claims that Diggory was killed by You-Know-Who. She thinks Dumbledore's just trying to save his butt again, trying to deny that the death was entirely his fault. So he's trying to take the blame off himself by pinning it on a deceased-for-thirteen-freaking-years You-Know-Who. The Ministry and the Daily Prophet say over and over again that there is no threat, that Diggory's death wasn't murder, just a terribly unfortunate accident. The newspapers even start to say what Betsy is feeling, that Dumbledore is going senile and that he doesn't know how to take care of and protect students in his own school.
When she reluctantly sends Seamus back for his fifth year, she tells him not to get too friendly with Harry Potter, for she thinks the boy's off his rocker, making up stories about a dead Dark Lord. As the year progresses, Seamus informs her of all the goings-on, and it is then that her opinions start to change again. Could Dumbledore and Harry be telling the truth? It seems like this Umbridge woman is hurting the students instead of helping them, not even letting them learn one iota of proper Defense Against the Dark Arts. She doesn't want to think You-Know-Who somehow came back, but at the same time, the Ministry's getting ridiculous. She's never much liked Cornelius Fudge, and she thinks now that maybe he's in denial. She thinks of the look of fear and hopelessness that was prominent on Cedric Diggory's face when Harry arrived back with him after the third task, and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong all these months.
But she still can't help but hate Albus Dumbledore, for if You-Know-Who truly is back, he is doing nothing to protect the students. Everyone says he's the only one that the monster ever feared, but if that's so, how could he have let Cedric Diggory die so needlessly? How could he not have known that a plot was afoot to get young Harry to You-Know-Who's rebirth? She vows to hate him whether or not he is telling the truth.
And all goes to hell at the end of the year when the Daily Prophet proclaims that Harry Potter and five of his friends went to the Ministry of Magic, and they were lured there by You-Know-Who himself. The article's very vague, but it basically says that Dumbledore and the boy were right all along. Seamus also explains that for part of the year, he rebelled against Umbridge by joining Dumbledore's Army, a group started by Harry himself, which resulted in the loss of Dumbledore again, causing the whole Ministry fiasco to happen. She once again thinks that if Dumbledore didn't leave the school, he would have sorted the whole situation out. She can't help but blame Harry a little this time, for putting her son and the entire school in danger.
And now, she's staring as flames lick at Dumbledore's dead body. She hates to think it, absolutely hates to think it, but she can't help but feel that this was a fitting end for him. He was such a trusting fool, reassuring everyone with his twinkling eyes that everything would be okay, but he trusted too much, and he was now betrayed by someone he thought was an ally, one of his staff! How ironic, she thinks cynically. Maybe he really was getting senile in his old age, not to see the signs of murderous intent on Severus Snape's face. Everyone is claiming Dumbledore a hero, but she can't help but think he was a coward, a foolish coward who was too chicken to help his students when they needed it, even too chicken to help himself. Dementor attacks, the whole school having to see a dead body, trolls, basilisks, and sadistic teachers don't all happen in regular schools, she thinks bitterly as she stares at the white tomb. You got what was coming to you, Dumbledore. Now how do you feel? Now you know what' it's like to be betrayed by someone you fully trusted. That was how I felt about you in my youth, she thinks.
And with that, she collects her son, and they Apparate away, both lost in their own thoughts. She wishes she could forgive Albus for all the mistakes he made. But some things, she reflects, are truly unforgivable.
Author's Note: Of course I read DH, so I know that Snape really didn't betray Dumbledore, but this is as far as I'm, taking this fic, and at this moment, Betsy would have thought the betrayal was genuine. Please review and let me know what you thought of this piece. Thanks!
And also, I like Dumbledore way more than Betsy does. Lol.