Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did, I never would have written the end like that.
Author's Note: Don't worry, Remus will see the error of his ways soon. If not in this chapter, then the next. Dumbledore's going to take some time.
Chapter 7 Christmas and Beyond
The day after Halloween, Harry told McGonagall about Pettigrew being in his dormitory the previous night. She was surprised that he'd gotten in so easily, and very concerned that someone within the castle might be helping him. "It sounds like there's a leak, and I don't know who it could be. Hell, Dumbledore could be a suspect," she said.
"It wasn't Dumbledore. I know who it was, but only because my hearing and night-vision are more acute," Harry replied calmly.
"Well then, who was it?" McGonagall asked, ready to take the information to the Ministry.
"I'll tell you, but you can't tell Fudge or the Aurors yet. I need to stop him myself, as part of my plan. No one but you, Hermione, and Sirius will trust me otherwise." Harry was still keeping watch on the corridor outside, listening for eavesdroppers. He sensed Remus approaching, and the hate he felt nearly sent him to his knees.
"I promise," McGonagall replied. She had seen Harry's reaction, and guessed someone was coming.
"Professor Snape isn't teaching anyone but the Slytherins anything, and he's teaching them how to cheat and sabotage others' work!" Harry complained suddenly. He had heard Remus' footsteps stop outside the door, and tried to tell McGonagall who the spy was in code. It worked.
"I'll look into it, Potter, but I can't promise anything. He's been teaching here as long as you've been alive, and the Headmaster trusts him," she replied, also in code. Harry left, not looking at Remus.
Remus walked in and asked, "What did he want?"
"He was just filing a complaint against Snape. Truthfully, that's not the only thing I've heard against Snape, but Harry was the only one brave enough to come right out and say it," she replied, businesslike. She didn't look at Remus, fearing she'd get the urge to hex him into the next century for his treatment of James and Lily's only son.
"Severus is an alright sort," Remus replied. That was the last straw. McGonagall faintly heard Harry cry out in pain, and a thud before exploding. "That is not true! Severus Snape is a dirty, rotten Death Eater! And you had better open your eyes soon, or I'll set Sirius on you! Believe you me, I'm going to be racing him for the privilege of hexing you first! You know what, I might just start now," she screamed. She drew her wand and cast the Empathy Curse before Remus could even draw his wand. The Empathy Curse is a fairly Dark spell, used to make the victim feel the pain of their own last victim. Remus didn't know it was Harry's pain he was feeling, and he was screaming like McGonagall had cast the Cruciatus Curse on him. Dumbledore ran in, thinking she'd done just that. She trained her wand on him, but he disarmed her before she could cast the spell. "Black called me a Death Eater, when it's actually you. The Ministry would love to have you," Dumbledore said gleefully.
"Go to hell, old man. Oh wait, Satan doesn't want competition," McGonagall ground out. Dumbledore used his power as Headmaster of Hogwarts to arrest teachers who put the school in danger. Within an hour, she was locked in a Ministry holding cell, awaiting the next launch to the island fortress of Azkaban. The guard walked past the cell, and gasped when he saw who was inside.
"Professor McGonagall! What are you doing here? Hold on one moment, I'll have you out in a jiffy." the guard started searching his keys, looking for the right on to unlock the cell door.
"Wait. Please tell Minister Fudge I'm here, and that I'd like to speak to him," she asked calmly, though she was roiling inside. How dare that man accuse me of being a Death Eater, when it was he who hires them regularly?! The guard, whose eyes had widened upon hearing her request, had gone to get Fudge. He returned a moment later, with Fudge in tow, and panting.
"Let me guess, it was Dumbledore who locked you in here. Guard, open the door. She's no more a Death Eater than my grandmother," Fudge stated, not very surprised. When the door opened she stepped out and said, "Thank you Minister. Yes, it was Dumbledore. Now I need to get back to Hogwarts and check on my student. The damn Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher seems obsessed with criticizing him."
She left the Ministry, and returned to Hogwarts, only to find Harry missing. She checked the forest, where he sought solitude when it all became too much. Sure enough, he was up a tree, but this time Hagrid was there. The huge half-giant was threatening Harry, and the young vampire was looking angry and deeply hurt. Harry lashed out with his claws, trying to drive Hagrid away. He bared his fangs, but did not pounce; he was trying to instill fear in his tormentor, but all it did was get Hagrid to aim his crossbow and prepare to fire.
"Hagrid, don't you dare fire that crossbow! Put it down, now!" McGonagall screeched, enraged. Hagrid just glared at her and said, "Get away from here, he's put a spell of some kind on you. He's got you thinking he's not an evil creature, but he is. Dumbledore said so." Hagrid almost glowed when he spoke of Dumbledore, but Harry flinched. It seemed to McGonagall that if someone mentioned a name in front of Harry, he'd feel that person's emotions. He had just got a blast from Dumbledore. "Harry, go now. I'll take care of this," McGonagall said softly. Harry obeyed, and, jumping down, ran deeper into the forest. "Hagrid, I will be informing the School Governors that you were threatening a student, and actually raised a weapon on him. I have no choice, and you are not the only teacher getting reported."
"You can't do that!" Hagrid yelled, outraged.
"Yes, I can, as Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. No teacher, not even the Headmaster, can threaten the life of a student." She turned on her heel, and stalked out of the forest. She returned to her office, knowing Fudge was haranguing Dumbledore. She drafted a report to the School Governors, informing them of all the teachers who had turned militant against one student.
To whom it may concern:
The following teachers have been abusing a student. The Third Year in question has had his life threatened, and he has suffered mental abuse and extreme discrimination. The teachers responsible for this are:
Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore
Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin
Care of Magical Creatures Professor, Rubeus Hagrid
Potions Master, Severus Snape
I am filing complaints about all of these teachers. I request that someone see to a suitable punishment, perhaps jail time.
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Over the seven weeks, owls flew between the Ministry and Hogwarts almost daily. McGonagall's letter to the governors had sparked intense investigations into the teachers she had mentioned. They had asked her about what kinds of torments the unnamed student had faced, and they were very alarmed that Hagrid had threatened a child with a loaded crossbow. In fact, they had taken Hagrid in for questioning, and had confiscated his crossbow. Dumbledore spent the time trying to placate the Ministry, but his earlier record of having been removed from the Wizengamot after a No-Confidence vote made him look worse. Lupin was already damned because he was a werewolf. The governors had got it into their heads that the unnamed student might be in danger of being bitten by his teacher on purpose. Snape, of course, was seen as a Death Eater who had perhaps marked a child for death.
When Sirius heard, which was almost immediately, he went to Hogwarts. He tried to talk to Remus again, but ended up berating him for diving head first into Dumbledore's pocket. When Dumbledore walked into Remus' office and saw Sirius, he snapped, "I thought I told you to get out of my castle months ago."
"I thought I told you, months ago, to leave Harry alone. Remus, I'm almost ashamed that you're a Marauder. Dumbledore, you are going too far, you're pushing him too hard." Sirius glared at them one last time and left the room.
It was Christmas the next day. Harry woke early that morning, not expecting gifts, and saw the sun leaking around the curtains. He smiled, knowing it was a beautiful day. He looked around and saw the other boys stirring. "Hey Harry, Merry Christmas!" Ron yawned, and then grinned. "Wow thanks! A Chudley Cannons hat!" He put on the orange hat, and Harry chuckled as his friend's hair turned a matching shade of orange. Harry opened a lumpy package he thought might have been a Weasley sweater sent by Molly, but it was actually a string of garlic cloves.
"Who the hell sent you that, Harry?" Ron was eying the garlic suspiciously. "Was it Fred and Goerge, trying to pull a prank on you?"
"It was Dumbledore. There's a note from him, laughing." Harry handed the note to Ron, as Seamus said, "I heard that Dumbledore's calling you a vampire." Ron laughed and said, "Not likely. But anyway, Harry, prove you're not one." Harry went over to the window and said, "It's going to be cold when I open this," before throwing the window open. He stood in direct sunlight and continued, "Well, I don't think I'm bursting into flames." After that, all the boys were muttering imprecations about Dumbledore and his parentage.
Harry continued opening presents, until he found a long, thin package from Sirius. He tore it open, and exclaimed, "Wow! Look what Sirius got me!" All the boys crowded around, exclaiming about the brand new Firebolt sitting on Harry's bed. "Wow, Harry! Now you don't have to fly a school broom for Quidditch next month." Harry's old Nimbus Two Thousand had been sabotaged two weeks previous when someone snuck into the boys' dormitory and destroyed it out of jealousy.
Hermione came in, carrying an armload of gifts for Harry and Ron. She tossed Harry a box and sat down next to Ron. Harry opened the box, and muttered, "Harity har har, Hermione. Blood pops. Do I have stand in the sunlight and freeze my backside off again to prove I'm not undead?" Harry asked jokingly.
Hermione laughed at Harry's joke, then saw the garlic. "Who sent you garlic, Harry?"
"Who else, but Dumbledore. It must be his idea of a joke." Harry waved his wand and opened the window again, before tossing the garlic out. A second later, they all heard a bunch of curses being shouted. They ran to the window and looked down, only to find Snape standing on the ground far below, wearing the string of garlic and jumping up and down. He was shouting up a storm. They looked up and saw the Weasley twins standing at their window. "Who's that down there, shouting? Can you see?" The twins were straining to see, until Harry called up an answer. "It's Snape. Someone had good aim with a string of garlic. It went around his neck like a necklace." The twins vanished, but they could still here them laughing loudly.
"Hey, Harry, where's that note Dumbledore sent with the garlic? I wonder if you can toss that down and frame him for it," Ron said.
"You like framing people, don't you, Ron?" Harry chuckled and folded the note into a paper airplane before setting it spiraling down to the ground. They saw Snape pick it up, then crumple it up, and laughed. "Good idea, Ron. That was brilliant," Hermione said. She kissed him on the cheek while Harry looked away.
In the weeks preceding the Quidditch match, the deep friendship between Dumbledore and Snape soured. Snape took every opportunity to accuse Dumbledore of pranking him with garlic, then laughing at him. Dumbledore denied the accusation vociferously. In the end, he tried to make amends by formulating a plan that would force Harry out in the open. He wanted to prove Harry was evil by backing him into a corner.
The night before the match, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, Harry had the strangest dream. It was a vivid dream of there being Dementors at the match. A handful of the creatures were on the pitch, staring up at him. When the next day dawned, Harry went down to the Common Room. He saw a Sixth year finishing up an essay, and wandered over. "Excuse me, you're in Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts, right?" The Sixth year looked up at the Third year and said, "Yeah. Why?"
"You know how to fight Dementors, right?" Harry asked, trying to look innocent.
"Yeah. It's called the Patronus Charm. It's really hard to use, but you need a really happy memory and to say the incantation, which is 'Expecto Patronum'," the sixth year said. "Even grown wizards usually can't cast it." The boy went back to his essay and Harry went down to breakfast. When he got there, he saw Remus. The Defense teacher glared at him and went back to talking to Dumbledore. Harry had been getting waves of emotions, all of them negative and focused at him, by the time he went down to the pitch. Wood was telling the team their strategy while Harry was trying to block out the emotions of certain teachers.
The match started, with Lee Jordan yelling out the players' names. The bludgers were released, followed by the snitch and quaffle. Ravenclaw immediately started by taking the quaffle and trying to put it in Gryffindor's hoops. The Weasley twins sent both bludgers at the Chaser, while Harry sped by and knocked the quaffle from Goldstein's hands. "Wow, look at that! Potter's slipstream knocked the quaffle from Goldstein! That's what happens when you fly a Firebolt!" Lee Jordan was having the time of his life praising Harry's new broom, until McGonagall stopped him and made him focus on the match.
"Gryffindor scores! Katie Bell of Gryffindor was flying beneath Goldstein and caught the quaffle when he dropped it! That's ten-nil Gryffindor!" Harry swooped around, looking for the snitch, when he sensed the emotional void. He heard his parents screaming in his ears, and plunged his hand into his pocket to find his wand. It's a good thing I brought this today, he thought.
He focused on the memory of Sirius not abandoning him upon the revelation that his godson was dead. That was the happiest memory he had, besides McGonagall's trust of him. He screamed, "Expecto Patronum!" and watched as a gigantic silver stag burst out of the end of his wand. It scattered the five Dementors that had been on the pitch, just like in his dream, and then the stag careened into the teacher's stands. It kicked Dumbledore in the head, charged at Remus with its antlers lowered, and then flew up to kick Snape. It went back to Remus and glared at him before it vanished. Harry then proceeded to catch the snitch, which was just above him. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, had been hovering and staring at the spot where Harry's Patronus had vanished. Harry flew down with the snitch clutched tightly in his fist while McGonagall ran over to him.
"How did you do that? That was amazing, Harry!" she exclaimed.
"I'm not sure. All I did was ask a Sixth year how to fight Dementors because I had a dream last night that there would be some here. But he said it was really hard for even fully qualified wizards to cast that spell. And I'm surprised I was even able to hold onto a happy enough memory long enough to cast it," Harry said quietly. McGonagall awarded Gryffindor fifteen points for Harry's skill in chasing away the Dementors with such an advanced spell.