Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter characters.
Chapter Eleven: Know Thy Enemy, Know Thy Self
Harry ignored the startled gasps that followed him as he marched thru the Ministry's reception area with his auror escort still struggling to catch up.
Harry paused at the Wizengamot branch, pulled his Diplomatic Immunity document from his pocket, waved a hand over it duplicating the document. He ignored the surprised gasp from the clerk as his casual display of wandless magic and handed the witch the duplicate.
" File this, please." he reguested.
" Y-yes, sir, right away." The clerk seized the document, stamped it with the current date and time and sent it off to her department head with a flick of her wand.
She wrote Harry a receipt, which he pocketed thanking the clerk and stolling away to a nearby lift.
Moments later, Harry, Kingsley, Tonks and one other still able bodied auror exited the lift and proceed toward the Minister's office at the end of the Hallway.
People gasped and dodged into nearby doorways at seeing the famous person grimly marching their way.
Harry and company entered the Minister's reception area. Susan Bones was manning the reception desk.
"Harry" She greeted off handily before shrieking "H-Harry!"
Not bothering to wait on formality, Harry brushed past offering." I'll just see myself in, thanks."
"B-But the M-Minister's in a m-meeting with the Department heads?" Susan blurted in alarm.
"So much the better." Harry called over his shoulder , throwing the door open and marching into the Minister's office with the three auors jockeying to get to the minister first and deliver their report.
Two department heads fell over backwards in shock at seeing the infamous 'weapon' suddenly amongst them. One spilt a glass of water he was pouring and another actually fled from the room suddenly remembering an important matter he needed to attend to.
"I-I'm sorry, minister." Susan called out over the din.
"Quite alright, Susan." Dumbledore replied pleasantly with a bemused expression on his face. He instructed Susan to close the door behind her and then turned his attention to Tonks.
Noting his lead aurors tattered appearance, he asked. " I take it he resisted your invitation?"
" A-Actually no." Tonks stammered and proceeded to give the minister a brief report, notably leaving out her and Kingsley having granted Harry diplomatic immunity.
Dumbledore leered in a rather smug fashion at Harry assuming,"It appears you've landed yourself in a spot of trouble, my boy. I suppose allowances could be made if you were willing to make a few concessions on your part- for the greater good?" Dumbledore smirked triumphantly.
Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head disappointedly. "Same old, same old, eh? Still think you can manipulate everyone to your own ends whilst taking credit for the sacrifices they make for your vision of " The Greater Good"." He drew quotation mark in the air pointedly.
"Show some respect, Potter." an all too familiar voice barked out from Dumbledore's right side.
"Ah, Percival, still sucking up to the minister's arse, I see. Still, I suppose that's a step up from on your knees under Fudge's desk."
Kingsley snorted despite himself at that. Percy just stammered impotently while his Father sitting on Dumbledore's left just shot Harry a disapproving parental look.
"I like the change, Harry." Dumbledore distracted benignly. "The beard and moustache suit you." he complimented.
"Don't expect that it'll ever be tickling your backside with it in this life, you decrepit old bungler." Harry spat back.
"Harry, please?" Mr. Weasley tried to dissuade the growing tension.
"Weapon" Harry offered blankly.
"Pardon?"
Kingsley muttered Harry's insistence on being called by his alias.
Mr. Weasley looked disgusted at that and made no attempt to correct himself just to appease Harry.
"Gentlemen, please?" Dumbledore attempted to reestablish control of the room.
" Now then. I'm prepared to offer you some form of clemency for your impulsive actions today, if you'll but agree to a few concessions of which, I believe you know what I refer?" he directed coolly to Harry.
" Stick it" Harry snapped.
Dumbledore looked gob smacked. Rarely did any one dare defy him and when they did they tried to do so with the utmost of respect.
"Am I to understand that you are willing to face criminal charges for the heinous acts that you committed today?"
"You can take it up the arse. If that answers your question?" Harry sneered.
Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
Mr. Weasley rubbed his forehead as if warding off a growing headache and Percy…?
Percy was actually stupid enough to draw his wand.
Great waves of blistering hot magic poured off of Harry like a tidal wave and pounded across the room, slamming into Percy Weasley and tossing him through the door on the other side of the minister's office.
Obviously, there must have been a stairway beyond the door as Percy could be heard shrieking as he tumbled downward. A last thump heralded his arrival on the floor below as moans and groans of pain drifted back up to the Minister's office.
"Pretentious git." Harry grumbled, ignoring the angry look Arthur Weasley shot his way as he hurried out the door to see to his ailing son.
"Your department heads seem to be finding other duties more pressing this morning." Harry quipped to Dumbledore.
"Apparently" Dumbledore grumbled his agreement. "Are you quite finished now?" He asked blandly.
"Depends on whether you have any more idiots with itchy wand hands about?"
"Don't you think you've sufficiently added to the charges against you already?" Dumbledore countered, playing his trump card far too early in the game.
Harry only had time to answer with an incredulous look, before being distracted by Arthur Weasley rushing in to berate him.
"Damn it Harry, he's got a broken jaw and a dislocated shoulder." he complained out of concern for his injured son.
Harry brushed a bit of none existent lint of his armored chest answering incredulously.
"He wouldn't have anything if he'd kept his head, or his hands off his wand for that matter. Furthermore," he countered with growing vehemence, "nothing that I've put my hand to today would have transpired if I hadn't been kidnapped here to this God forsaken island against my will in the first place!"
Dumbledore seated himself nonchalantly, steep-ling his finger together and asked with sic kingly false sweetness. " That's a rather serious accusation, my boy. One can only hope you have evidence to support your claim, not that it will matter at your trial."
Harry refused to be baited returning with cool confidence."As a matter of fact,.. I can."
The smile on Dumbledore's face faltered for a moment, but it was just long enough that Arthur Weasley caught it and was shaken by his idol's guilt ridden tell.
Harry calmly unsnapped the fasteners down the side of his chest armor and withdrew a thick packet of legal documents from a bottomless breast pocket that was charmed to bring to hand the object of it's wearer's search. He tossed the packet toward Dumbledore, who, for his part, smiled with smug indulgence as he opened the packet and browsed through it's contents.
He highbrows raised higher and higher in alarm as he scanned with increasing rapidity the legal forms contained within. At last finishing, he slumped back wearily into his chair with whispered "NO"
Harry quirked a half smile at his expense. "Why don't you tell your anxiously waiting cabinet the gist of the contents you've just perused-Sir?" The sir was said with a complete lack of respect that was noticed by everyone in the room.
Aggravated, Dumbledore drew his wand and burned the documents to ash with a quick enflambre spell.
Harry sighed in a bored fashion as he waved his hand and the ashes reintegrated themselves back into the documents they once were.
Seeing that Dumbledore was about to try and destroy them or just vanish them outright, Harry interjected. "They are, of course, only legal copies of those already both filed with the Wizengamot, the Confederation, the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, International Wizerd's Weekly and Quidditch Weekly.
"Quidditch Weekly?" Arthur Weasley asked in surprise.
Harry shrugged, "I like Quidditch Weekly, they at least report accurately."
Dumbledore vanished the documents he'd read with a casual wave. "None of those agencies would believe such lies , especially not with my endorsement to the contrary."
"Ah" Harry nodded in understanding. "Quite confident in your position of power, are you? I suppose onn could argue that being the head of both the Wizengamot and the Confederation gives you jurisprudence to refute any claim regardless of factual documentation presented in evidence. I mean, after all, you were able to manage to get an unearned Order of Merlin for which you rode a wave of unearned gratitude to the lofty position to which you now are perched on your skinny arse." Harry ignored the startled gasps that followed his accusations, continuing…" As Minister , I'm sure, like Fudge did in past, you can readily manipulate any and all news stories… But there is, however, one agency to which even you, Your Supremeness, must bow to." Harry spat triumphantly.
"You couldn't have!" Dumbledore thundered, jumping from his seat.
"I could and I did." Harry smiled broadly.
"They would never accept such a claim?"
"Actually they found the evidence quite compelling. Not to mention the sworn testimony of your former Azkaban Warden's, (James Marquist), testimony as to my illegal incarceration and subsequent torture in an attempt to extort my services against your current terrorist problems. They also found it curious, the absence of your famous familiar- Fawkes. Phoenixes , as you know, bond only with champions of light and justice, and they do so for the life of their bond-mate, but also only as long as their bond-mate holds true to the light. Why is your phoenix no where in evidence-SIR?" Harry challenged.
Dumbledore stammered embarrassedly under the sudden scrutiny of his present staff. "H-He , er, has undergone a recent 'burning day', and is still to young for flight, let alone to be out and about. Rest assured he will make his presence known at my side, shortly." He said with a semblance of false confidence.
Harry looked less than convinced, although the rest of Dumbledore's cabinet were hopeful, that is except Arthur Weasley, who was contemplating his head with a shrewd expression of dawning realization that his idol was less than he thought,… much less.
"I would hope so." Harry agreed with obvious distrust, explaining. "Fawkes himself has charges to answer for. I managed to keep the port key upon my person, purely for sentimental value. The council ran a battery of diagnostic tests upon it. As it clearly showed it was delivered by the magical signature of a phoenix, and your particular phoenix, it seems it the only one currently in known existence,… you can understand that they would very much like to compare his particular magical signature against that of the one still present on the port key that was used to kidnap me from my home. I believe there's a warrant within the documents you hold that directs you to present your phoenix within the week or face sanctions by the council. I'm reliably told that such, er, "sanctions" are quite unpleasant." Harry smiled evilly at the paling face of his former head master.
"Council? What council?" Arthur Weasley questioned with curious interest at what agency could make even the great Albus Dumbledore quail impotently.
"I-It would seem our young, er, guest has petitioned the Wizard's War Wouncil." Dumbledore muttered fingering his brow in exasperation.
"The War Council, b-but that would m-mean…?" Arthur stammered in dread before Harry cut him off.
"That a state of War now exists between Great Britian's magical realm and the island of LILIPOT."
"Lilipot?" Arthur asked vacantly catching the familiar reference.
"You'll have to forgive my play on "Gulliver's Travels" and the use of both my mother's first and my surname in titling my realm." Harry explained blandly.
"Your realm?" Arthur continued his questioning.
"Yes, yes,.." Harry waved airily. "It's all there in the paperwork and all quite legal and as they say-above board. I had the foresight, when I left these accursed shores, to not only buy my own island, but to declare it my own sovereign state . As I, myself, was the legal owner and only party in residence, it was a rather easy matter to have it declared my own sovereign land which was ratified by a unanimous vote of the United Nations October thirty first, 2001. By the ministerial and confederation's sanctioning of the illegal kidnapping, incarceration and torture of the sovereign leader of Lilipot, a state of war has been declared by Lilipot against those parties responsible, namely; the British Magical world and the Confederation of Wizards. The declaration was accepted into record and is pending review by the Wizard's War Council, pending evidence to the contrary submitted by the British Ministry."
Arthur Weasley whistled under his breath as he fell back in his chair. He was well impressed by Harry's actions thus far in circumventing Dumbledore, something not easily accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. He could not help but admire the young man standing confidently before them. He had grown as cunning as he obviously had powerful, but at what cost? Not for the first time, Arthur Weasley wondered what was done at this boy's expense, 'For the Greater Good'.
Dumbledore , however glared venomously at his former student and protégé. "The Confederation won't stand for your treasonous lies. Your impudence will cost you much, Harry." Dumbledore seethed.
Harry only smiled condescendingly."Did I, er,.. forget to mention that the Confederation has already admitted it's wrong doing and in an emergency council meeting, which I'm reliably informed you were not party to as that would necessitate a conflict of interest as you are the current Minister for the British Magical Ministry, the council sued for peace… rather vehemently I might add. Seems they felt there fearless leader led them a bit astray. I believe they're probably arguing over your replacement while we speak, They've made some rather generous reparations. I hardly need the galleons, but I'll see that they're put to good use in charitable institutions around the world. Ones without British ties, of course."
For all that, Dumbledore still smile benignly as he played what he thought was his trump card. " You say that the Council has as yet to endorse your,.. er, country's declaration of war?
Harry nodded."Pending investigation. I believe they expect you to submit yourself for inquiry by the end of the week. Fawkes too,… if you can conjure your suspiciously absent familiar?" He added doubtfully.
"I wonder how's they respond to learn that you've committed some very serious criminal acts today. Not acts of war as no such article of declaration currently exists, but ones of criminal intent, resulting in death of British citizens on British soil this very day?" he mused.
Though silently watching the proceedings, up till now; Tonks gasped and Kingsley shifted uncomfortably next to her at hearing their minister's accusations.
Harry smirked, withdrawing another document from his charmed breast pocket. "I believe this document can testify to the legality of my subsequent actions today in rendering aid and assistance to the British MLE. You'll find this document has already been filed with both the Wizengamot and if your staff is competent, the War Council as well, by now." Harry waved the paper toward Dumbledore.
Dumbledore seized the paper greedily from his hand and scanned it's contents not once but twice, finally turning a glare on the his senior aurors present.
"You granted him immunity!" He hissed icily.
Tonks nodded worriedly, but Kingsley stood his ground. "We were seconds away from being wiped out. We were only six aurors against a score of Death Eaters, Ravenwood and Dolohov amongst them! I admit it seemed an extreme measure at the time, but in retrospect I can see why Harry would be reluctant to render assistance, what with not even being a British subject. He could expose himself to all sorts of litigation even with the noblest of intentions." Shacklebolt smirked knowingly at that, casting Harry an appreciative look of admiration. The man was no fool. He too, like Arther Weasley, was seeing Dumbledore in a new light. One far dimmer than previous.
Dumbledore fingered his wand as he considered the young man before him with barely concealed fury. " What's to stop me from incapacitating and imprisoning you this instant, thereby effectively winning the war with Lilipot before it's even begun?"
"By all means-try…" Harry returned ,coolly reminding him. "You found yourself inadequate to the task when I left your prison training camp of a school my seventh year. I like not your odds now that you are no longer augmented by the school's own ambient magic, in addition to the fact that I have grown magically since then, more so than you can possibly suspect. Go on… Try." Harry goaded darkly. His green emerald eyes flared and the temperature in the room rose to an uncomfortable level as magic crackled in the air like static electricity around Harry.
"Harry, Albus,..Please?" Mr. Weasley interrupted anxiously, his eyes darting back and forth between the two wizards squaring off against each other. " Please,.." he begged, "Can't we work this out peaceably?"
Harry's eyes shifted cautiously in his direction as he scoffed. "Like Percy , or…Ron?"
Arthur's face fell at that. "H-He was wrong, Harry." He entreated, not bothering to distinguish that he was talking about his youngest son "He knows that. He's sorry, Harry,… truly sorry for what happened." Arthur pleaded with Harry.
Harry snorted a laugh of contempt.
"Everyone's, sorry,… after the fact. I imagine you're probably the most sorry of all, aren't you Dumbles?"
Dumbledore at first puzzled , then shaken, he slumped into his chair as understanding dawned on him.
"V-Very, Sorry." he murmured dejectedly, looking more ancient than he had in years. He pushed the documents Harry had presented away with a defeated air.
"What do you want, Harry? What?" He bit out impatiently.
Harry's face turned cold, impassive. " What I want is irrelevant. Wants and desires are for human beings not things. I am but a WEAPON, a thing. For that is what you made me. That is what you wanted. This is what you got. You forged me to be your greatest weapon against Voldemort, but your blacksmiths took it upon themselves to make me more than this. Mad Eye and Remus fashioned me to be the ultimate weapon of all things that threaten the British public, both foreign and domestic. I could not dispose of one Dark Lord only to leave the populace at the mercy of another. One who masquerades as a benevolent champion of the light, but is in actuality a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Arthur Weasley stared wide eyed, shaking his head in abject disbelief. He was not so much shocked by what Harry had said, but by how he had said it; with cool indifference. The change in his persona was shattering. He seemed to truly believe that he was nothing more than a tool,.. A weapon.
" What would you have me do?" Dumbledore intoned humbly.
"You will go this very day and tender your resignation to the Wizengamot as not only Supreme Mugwump, but as Minister of Magic for the British isles."
Harry began with cool efficiency to list his demands. With each new demand, Albus Dumbledore winced and sank lower into his chair, but made not the slightest protest as Harry continued.
"You will not endorse Mr. Weasley as your replacement for Minister, that would only shed a negative light on a good man. The Wizengamot is capable on their own of reaching the obvious conclusion that Arthur Weasley is the best man for the job. You will also return your second "Order Of Merlin" citation to the Confederation. You will divulge to them the complete circumstances regarding Voldemort's having surrendered himself two years ago, with your apologies on your subsequent lack full disclosure in the matter."
"Fancy yourself a hero, eh?" Dumbledore quipped .
Harry rolled his eyes. "They can wipe their arse with it individually or as a whole for all I care. Once having fulfilled these requirements, you will retire to private life. You will never again seek public office or any role as an educator. You've done enough damage already in those capacities."
That last comment struck Dumbledore like a blow. "I admit I made some mistakes, but I've only ever done what I did for the…"
"Greater Good?" Harry suggested, cutting him off. "Yes, your greater good, never the greater good of the public as a whole. Was it for the greater good when you released Bellatrix Lestrange, wrongfully thinking she'd afford you another spy within Voldie's inner circle? Was it for the greater good when her fist act of a supposed changed life was to then torture and kill the Bell family just to send me a message?"
Arthur Weasley startled at that.
Harry continued. "Was it for the greater good when you allowed Sirius Black to rot in Azkaban twelve years for a crime you knew he never committed and could have easily proved said innocence by allowing him his right to a trial, rather than condemning him without legal recourse? Was it for the greater good when you had me save Sirius only to knowingly sacrifice him later? I know Snape contacted you first after leaving Umbridge's office after I'd warned him that Voldie had Sirius. You knew he was at Grimauld Place. You knew it was a trap when you sent the Order there-him included. Tell me, did you do it all solely for the opportunity to charge in and play the great hero, to prove you were still the most formidable wizard alive, or did you do it solely to get Sirius out of the way so that you could more readily manipulate me to your own ends?"
Dumbledore quailed at the dark expressions sent his way from around the room. His eyes shifted fleetingly to the door behind his left shoulder.
"You'll never make it." Arthur Weasley promised him.
Harry smiled grimly.
"What's to keep me from obliviating everyone here after you've left today?" he suggested in desperation to cling onto his fleeting grasp at power.
"Simple." Harry smirked triumphantly. "My first official act after declaring war will be to end said war by removing your head from it's over burdened shoulders and removing your handiwork from said staff."
"What makes you think you'll even be able to find me, if I just disappear and wait till the smoke clears only to pick up the pieces from a war ravaged society eager for leadership with the promise of new prosperity and peace ? I could while away my time in comfort at Dumbledore Castle, it's under the Fidelius charm."
Harry smiled coldly and called out. "Fawkes"
With a burst of flame, Dumbledore's former phoenix landed on Harry's shoulder and warbled a humble greeting.
"Phoenixes can travel to any destination at any given time. They're quite impervious to all manner of wards and charms and can transport vast loads with relative ease. This particular phoenix owes me a debt that he seems quite eager to repay. Seems his former master led him astray and he wishes to make amends."
Dumbledore's face fell, he was broken- finished. "Is this what you wanted, Harry ? Are you happy now? Am I sufficiently embarrassed and humiliated to satisfy you? Do you at last have your revenge? That is , after all, what you truly want, is it not?"
"Whether you are embarrassed or no is by your own devise. Revenge is fleeting. It's as lustrous as gold on the surface but as hollow and empty as the leprechaun gold it truly is." He refuted sagely.
"I want that which you can never grant. I want my parents, my home, my godfather, my very existence returned to me. Sands that, I want to be what I was before,… just Harry."
Arthur Weasley watched in silence as Harry mourned for what he could never have with a heavy heart. Tears glistened at the corners of his eyes. Tonks wept into Kingsley's shoulder as Harry continued.
"Despite all the fear and death, I was once a boy with dreams and a hope for a better future. I had friends, albeit briefly, but friends I cherished. Was it so important to remove any shred of humanity from me by isolating me from my last shred of happiness when you took me away from my friends? How often I've wondered if Ron acted of his own accord, or, did you guide him a bit?"
Arthur Weasley was shaken to his very core at the suggestion that Dumbledore may have had a hand in manipulating Ron against Harry. It gave him hope, a dark hope though it was.
"Was making your weapon worth it? Do you now feel vindicated that you did the right thing for the greater good?" Harry continued, oblivious to Fawke's mournful warble at his ear.
"Was turning me into a monster to destroy another monster worth your reputation and self respect? Was your thirst and greed for unlimited power worth what it has led you to today? Are you at last satisfied,… for I never will be. Not even death will release me. I will never again see my parents or Sirius. Heaven holds no place for a soulless wretch such as I. Even if there could be forgiveness, I would never accept it. The shame and disappointment I would see in my parents and Sirius's eyes would be worse than perdition's flames. Hell would be a fitting reward for one such as I. A weapon tempered in fire should be unmade within the forge of hell's infero. Are either of us satisfied, Dumbledore?"
Harry turned on his heel and walked from the, (soon to be former), minister's office without a backward glance. The phoenix still clutched his shoulder warbling fretfully though Harry made no show of noticing it in the least.
Arthur Weasley turned baleful, accusatory eyes on his once idol. "Merlin above, what did you do to him Dumbledore?"
The fact that Arthur no longer used his first name nor spoke fondly to him was not lost on the one time "Champion of the Light" and peoples hope of salvation from the terrors of Voldemort. It was yet another pinprick to an already mortally wounded old man.
"I did all that he accused me of, Arthur. All that and more. I did what I did thinking it for the greater good initially, but some where along the line the boundaries blurred and I lost my way. I had a direct hand in destroying a boy unlike any other. One with a capacity to love and care that could inspire even the most jaded of poets. In so doing I damned him and damned myself. I deserve what he has done to me, nay,.. I did it to myself. Harry is but the tool of my destruction. He is, after all, only a… WEAPON."