"I bet you think you're so clever, don't you Potter?" Malfoy snarled, stalking up to the Gryffindor table during breakfast.
Harry looked at Malfoy with a thoroughly bored expression. "Can I help you, Malfoy?"
Malfoy flushed at being so casually dismissed as unimportant before saying, "You think you're being clever at trying to mess with the world but little Gryffindors like you have no idea how to handle things like the Ministry. Leave that to the Slytherins."
Harry looked up at him and said in an amused voice, "You know, I've never really understood people like you. The whole premise of your house is that you're sly, cunning and willing to do anything to achieve your own ends. And the lot of you go around shouting about how sly and cunning you are. But tell me this, how is telling the world you are sly and cunning in the least bit sly or cunning?"
At seeing Malfoy's confused look, Harry continued, "What I mean is, isn't telling someone you are likely to use them for your own benefit completely counterproductive? If you are all supposed to be so sneaky, why are you advertising that to everyone? Seems as if that should be the last thing you tell people. It is so much harder to use people when they are expecting you to try. It seems to me that the true Slytherins are the ones that aren't Slytherin."
Turning to address the entire hall, whioch had fallen silent and had been watching the confrontation, Harry said, "If a true Slytherin knew that simply being in Slytherin would cause people to be suspicious of your every move and nobody would ever trust you to be anything but an evil scumbag, would they willingly go there? I think not. I believe that a truly cunning person could convince the Sorting Hat to sort them into another house. I did."
Harry couldn't help snorting as the entire hall seemed to gasp in shock. "Please, you would think that my actions so far this year would have given me away. The hat really wanted me to be in Slytherin, told me I could be great, but a combination of not wanting to be anywhere near an inbred little git like Malfoy—"
At this Malfoy let out an angry shout of, "Take that back, Potter!"
Harry looked at Malfoy incredulously, "What you can dish it out but you can't take it? You have been insulting mine, Ron's and Hermione's parents since we started school. In fact you regularly go on about how my parents' got what was coming to them and that I'm going to meet the same end if I don't wisen up." Harry paused here to enjoy the looks of fury being directed at Malfoy, how was cowering already.
"But you want me to take back my statement? Why? It's true. I learned about family trees this past break and I was told very clearly that all purebloods are related. Ron told me second year you all would have died out if not for marrying muggles. And I happen to know for a fact that your grandparents were cousins. And that makes you inbred. Just the fact that all purebloods are related makes every single one of you inbred. There isn't a point to denying it. And the fact that you are all so proud of the fact is seriously disturbing. In fact, muggles have made it illegal to marry your cousins because it can be bad for the children. It makes them more susceptible to sickness."
Malfoy stood there looking utterly shocked at Harry's well-reasoned argument and before he could think of some kind of comeback, Harry continued, "Now as I was saying, in addition to not wanting to be near Malfoy I am smart enough and cunning enough to know that nothing good could possibly come from being in Slytherin. On the train here I learned all I needed to know: Dumbledore, who you all revere as if he is the second coming of Christ, was a Gryffindor and therefore that's where all the 'good' people go. And "there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." That's all I needed to know to know not to be in it.
"In addition I am going to correct that stupid idea. Voldemort was in Slytherin, there's no getting around that. But Sirius Black, recently innocent, but whom many believed to be seriously evil was in Gryffindor, but nobody seemed to notice that cause all Gryffindors have the sun shining out of their asses. Peter Pettigrew was, and is, evil and he was also a Gryffindor. He's also in Voldemort's inner circle.
"So if two of the 'good guys' could be presumably—and one definitely—be on the ark side then why couldn't some of the 'bad guys' be on the light side? And while on that note, the notion of light and dark is bullshit. The Avada Kedavra is thought to be incredibly dark but what if it was used as a mercy killing? If somebody were in so much pain and there was no way to save them and you knew for a fact they had hours of nothing but agonizing pain to look forward to, would putting them out of their misery be wrong? And the Ministry doesn't seem to be all too concerned with using the Cruciatus curse as a means of interrogation, and before anybody accuses me of making that up, I've spoken to the head of the DMLE and she told me it is authorized in extreme cases. And 'light' magic. Let's just consider the summoning spell. Perfectly innocent, right? What could possibly be the danger of learning how to make your bag fly to you? What if you used the spell to summon someone's heart? Would it be okay? Why not? It's a 'light' spell."
Harry paused here to consider his next words. While doing so he noticed that the majority of the hall seemed to be considering his words. The Ravenclaw table in particular looked very excited at the potential new topics for debates. "That, however, is neither here nor there. What I am trying to do is force the Wizarding world to grow the hell up. The sixteenth century had been over for a long time and none of you seem to realize it. You hold on to seriously outdated traditions and I think it needs to stop.
"More than that you all need to think for yourselves. The majority of you all subscribe to what is called the 'mob mentality.' This is when you allow yourself to be influenced by what everybody else is doing. My first year none of you would leave me alone. I kept getting lost because people would follow me around in order to get a better look. And this is what almost everybody did till I lost all those points. Then I was the school pariah. Not even my Quidditch team stood by me, the didn't even acknowledge I had a name—the just called me 'the Seeker.' But once I saved the school I was amazing again.
"Second year, even though Malfoy was the one going around telling muggleborns that they would be next and that it was a shame no one had died yet, when he summoned a snake in a room full of children that wouldn't be able to defend themselves and I told it not to attack anyone, I was the one that became the most feared student in school. And it stayed that way until my best friend was attacked. Once I saved the school suddenly nobody really believed I had anything to do with the attacks, funny enough.
"Fourth year everybody hated me for being in a tournament I didn't want to be in. Nobody listened to me constantly saying that I wanted nothing to do with it because that would entail actually having your own mind.
"And this year despite the fact that a lot of you have known me for years, you all believe the Prophet without considering the fact that you have never heard me lie and I have never come off as mentally unstable before.
"I want you all to stop just blindly listening to a rag that is so obviously controlled by the Ministry and just feeding you propaganda. You all need to start paying attention! The Ministry is corrupt. Dumbledore does not have your best interests at heart. And you need to accept that. The basic foundation of a good government is one that the people are always suspicious of. If they have to explain themselves to people they won't get away with as much as they have. And to the people that just sit there and wait while things happen around them, there is a famous quote among muggles: "If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem." You have made the problem worse by ignoring it. I fixed the government as best as I am able, you all have to pitch in and be better about it. I've told you all just how much the headmaster has failed at keeping you safe, now you have to be on guard and not blindly expect people to be watching over you."
Harry looked at the entire hall, sighed quietly and said, "I am not a miracle worker. I will not fight for a world that will not fight for itself. You want something done? Do it yourself. I will be there to support you every step of the way, but that doesn't mean you can make me into this hero that you expect to solve all of your problems. It doesn't work that way. I won't do it any longer. You need to take responsibility for your own safety."
With that Harry sat down and pointedly ignored the rest of the hall as they sat there silently, contemplating his words.
