After dinner, same day

"Remus?" Harry asked quietly.

Remus turned to Harry, a questioning look on his face. "Yes? What is it?"

Harry swallowed thickly before continuing, "Do you have some way of contacting Professor Dumbledore? I've been thinking about what you said earlier and I need to talk to him."

Remus looked at Harry for a few moments, seeming to be debating whether or not it would be a good idea to agree. Finally, Remus reached his decision, "Very well. I cannot guarantee that he will come immediately but I will go speak with him." And with that, Remus left the room, leaving Harry to his thoughts.

However, Harry did not have much time to think before the Headmaster came through the door, catching his attention.

"I was told you wished to speak with me?" Dumbledore stated pleasantly.

"Yes, maybe you should sit down." Harry waited for him to do so before going on, "We talked a while back on the reasons that I think you have failed as a headmaster. I think I need to tell you everything right now before we continue.

"My first year you hired a clearly incompetent teacher. More than that, I think you knew Quirell had Voldemort in the back of his head. If that is true, you knowingly had a Voldemort-possessed teacher in a school full of children that would not have been able to defend themselves. The stone itself is another concern. Why did you have it? You said that Flamel thought it might be in danger, but in six hundred years the stone never left his care and the one year it was with you it was successfully stolen by an eleven year old. You but quite possibly the most desired magical object in the entire world in a school full of children. And you claimed that it was very well protected. Need I remind you that three first year students beat every obstacle? And don't think I didn't notice that there was a test ideal for the youngest seeker in a century, the best chess player in years as well as the most logical student in Hogwarts.

"And as much as it creeps me out to even think about it, you could have caused unimaginable harm to the students in second year. Maybe you were never able to find the Chamber of Secrets. And maybe there was nothing you could have possibly done to help. But I want you to focus on Lockhart. Moving beyond his incompetency and idiocy I want you to realize what could have—and maybe did happen. You brought a man with obviously low morals into a school full of children when you knew he had a thing for memory charms. You can't deny it; I heard what you said after he lost his memory. How do you know he wasn't a pedophile? He could have been molesting students all year and getting away with it by erasing their memories.

"Third year I do not know how seriously you could have considered my safety considering you never told me a thing about Sirius. You honestly believed he wanted to kill me and yet you never tried to tell me anything about him that may have helped me to learn how his mind worked so I could have better avoided him. And as much as I hate to say it, Professor Lupin. I loved him, he was the best teacher we ever had, but he should not have been allowed into the castle. Ignoring the fact that he almost killed us because he forgot the potion that he was supposed to be taking, you need to consider the fact that he also thought Sirius was guilty. He told us in the Shack that night that he had been struggling with whether or not to tell you Sirius was an animagus. He told us, flat out, that he didn't because he didn't want to admit what he had done. He risked the entire school full of children and my own safety rather than tell you that he did something behind your back fifteen years ago. He would rather allow Sirius to sneak into the castle and into Gryffindor that admit that he was stupid when he was fifteen. You should not have hired him.

"Fourth year you didn't even try to get me out of that tournament. You threw me to the wolves and never even tried to talk to me about how I was holding up. And after the final task, you allowed a man that you have "realized at once" as clearly not being who he said he was and rather than save me the trauma of being ambushed so soon after being tortured you waited until he tried to kill me before stepping in. And though I was obviously in dire need of the Hospital Wing you took me to your office to tell you what happened. Maybe at the time I felt relieved, but reliving it so soon made it even clearer in my memories and it made the nightmares worse. Not that you would know. I had just been tortured by Voldemort, seen a classmate murdered, and saw an echo of that classmate as well as my parents and rather than try and arrange some sort of therapy you ship me off to my magic-hating relatives that I have told you repeatedly hate me and that I don't want to go back to them.

"You told me that you make mistakes, I agree with you completely. And I really do think you need to pay for them. It isn't right for you to continuously when it comes to the welfare of your students. You don't seem to care when they are being placed into danger or even when they are being verbally and emotionally abused by your teachers. Professor Snape is terrible to every student that isn't a Slytherin. He ridicules students, Gryffindor's especially, and acts like the immature, arrogant brat he so often accuses me of being.

"I don't think you should be responsible for the safety of students when you have so consistently shown them little regard. I personally think you have no business involving yourself in a great deal of things that you do involve yourself in. But—" And here Harry paused, looking as though it was difficult for him to continue speaking, "I am going to drop my charges."

Dumbledore, who had seemed to age fifty years during Harry's speech, jerked in surprise, "May I ask why?"

Harry looked at him, eyes hard, "Because of Remus. He made me see what getting rid of you would do. I will follow up sometime in the future because what you are doing isn't fair to the people trusting you with their safety or the safety of their children, but that cannot happen now. We need to be united to face Voldemort. And Remus made me realize how stupid I have been. With as many times as I have faced death, I've learned a great deal about life. But I haven't learned as much as I thought I had about the world. I haven't been as conscientious as I thought and that is going to change. It's too late to worry about the Ministry but not too late about you."

Dumbledore looked at Harry for several moments before saying, "It fills me with pride to hear that you have grown wiser to the consequences of your actions. And it pains me deeply to know how deeply I have wronged my students. I can only say that I always had the best of intentions."

Harry snorted darkly, "Yea well the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You have an unseemly amount of power for a headmaster. You have been playing god to people for too long. You act as though you know what is best for everyone and you ignore all evidence that support the fact that you are wrong. However "safe" you think I am at the Dursley's think about the fact that I have never been in more danger than when I am at Hogwarts. And how "safe" am I from my relatives? Because I pretended to do magic, my aunt tried to hit me in the head with a frying pan. And I've never been able to decide whether or not you knew about the cupboard. My first letter was addressed to it. And just looking at me is all the proof you need to know that I am obviously not getting the care I should at home. The fact that Ron and the twins had to rescue me in second year is proof of that. But you've never listened to any of that. You were just so sodding convinced that you knew what you were doing.

"Same with Sirius, you forced him into a home he clearly resented and despite the fact that everyone could see how badly it was affecting his mind you never let him even go outside. How is that any different than being in prison? If not for the lack of dementors, I'd say it's worse! There are a lot more memories attached to this house as well as his mum and Kreacher there to help drive him mad. But you ignore that too because it's all part of your "master plan." You worry too much on whether or not people are "safe" that you don't stop to consider how much they are being hurt."

Dumbledore's gaze was heavy as he spoke, "I was only trying to help."

Harry looked at the headmaster with a sudden pity. "I know you were. You just haven't gone about it in a good way of done as good a job of listening as you should have. But, you can still change that. I want you to answer for what you've done. Now simply isn't the time for that. However, I fully intend to take you up on it once the danger is passed. Until then you should do your best to try and make up for what you've done." At this, Harry broke off, biting his lip to keep from speaking further.

Seeing this, Dumbledore grew curious, "What is it, child?"

Harry let out a long breath. "I'm trying to do the right thing by not going through with your trial right now. And I know that taking you down right now could not possibly end well, but there is a very large part of me that cannot stand the thought of you having further opportunity to make people suffer for your carelessness. I would like to believe that you really will change for the better now but I know you won't. After over fifty years of having the power you have I sincerely doubt that the fact that one student is disappointed in you is going to change you. But, for better or worse, this is my decision."

With that Harry left the room, not allowing Dumbledore a chance to reply.