A/N: Admittedly, this probably wouldn't work in Britain, Magical or Muggle, but let's pretend Hogwarts was either magically transported to America, or Britain started acknowledging the God given rights of self-defense.
"Cruci—"
As Harry heard Draco start to cast the Unforgivable Curse, he threw all standard dueling protocol out the window and cast the most powerful spell he could think of, the one the (clearly smart and powerful) half-blood prince had said was for enemies. If ever there was a time to use a spell designed for enemies, it was when his enemy was trying to cast an illegal curse against him.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!"
His spell cut across Draco's body, leaving giant gashes across his chest. For a second, Harry wondered if the blonde was dead, before seeing a faint rise and fall of his chest. So not dead, but looking like he might be very soon from blood loss.
At that moment, he was made acutely aware of exactly where he was by Moaning Myrtle's screams of "MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!"
With uncanny quickness, the door burst open to present none other than Severus Snape, several floors above where he was normally seen lurking, whether it be in his office in the dungeons seven floors below the sixth floor bathroom Harry was currently in, or even the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom three floors below. Admittedly, the Snake was known for wandering all of the halls at night looking for anyone to take points away from and give detention to, but during the day he usually stuck to his office or the third floor corridor near his new classroom.
When Harry looked back on it all later talking with Hermione, it almost seemed like the Snake had not even just been walking down the sixth floor hallway when Myrtle had shrieked her head off, but had actually been waiting right outside the bathroom for something to happen. Had he been anywhere other than within ten feet of the door to the bathroom, a statistically unlikely place for him to be even if he had been randomly walking down that hallway, it still would have taken him at least five to ten seconds at a full run to come bursting in the door after Myrtle screamed — reaction times weren't instantaneous, after all. But instead, he burst in practically the moment Myrtle had screamed. It certainly wasn't enough to accuse Snape of setting the entire thing up to punish Harry, but it was highly suspicious — there was certainly something odd and even bothersome about how he'd been able to respond so quickly.
Hermione suggested that perhaps he'd been coming to find Draco himself, given the fact he was clearly trying to help Draco and had even made an Unbreakable Vow involving Draco, but with no more information than they had, Harry and Hermione couldn't do any more than speculate on the matter.
But regardless of how, Snape burst into the bathroom, paying Harry no attention and instantly beginning to wave his wand over Draco, some almost song-like incantation Harry had never heard before, even as many times as he'd been in the hospital wing and as many injuries as he'd seen fixed in his nearly six years in the wizarding world. It briefly flickered through Harry's mind that it seemed like Snape instantly recognized the spell wound pattern when Harry didn't even know what the spell was, but he didn't have long to think on this as he was soon watching the wounds start knitting themselves back together under the influence of the mysterious spell Snape was using.
After performing the spell three times, Snape supported Draco out the door and towards the hospital wing, barking at Harry on his way out in a voice of cold fury, "And you, Potter...You wait here for me."
Harry stood around for ten minutes in the flooded bathroom, wishing he had some way to directly contact an auror or someone in the DMLE himself — it was always better to be the one to call the police yourself when you were the innocent party. But he had no way, so he just waited.
As soon as Snape finally returned, he closed the door behind him and ordered Moaning Myrtle out. Harry briefly considered demanding she stay as she was the only witness to the incident, but he figured she could just be called back out of the toilet she was probably eavesdropping from if he needed her, so he remained silent, waiting for Snape to accuse him of something.
"Apparently I underestimated you, Potter," Snape said quietly. "Who would have thought you knew such Dark Magic? Who taught you that spell?"
"I was in fear for my life. I want Malfoy arrested for using the Cruciatus curse against me. And I want a lawyer," replied Harry.
But Snape ignored him.
"Who taught you that spell? Where did you learn it?" he growled out again.
Harry remained silent.
"Tell me," demanded Snape, bearing down on Harry, staring him in the eye.
Harry knew exactly what Snape was about to do, so before he could Harry turned and started walking toward the door.
He had nearly made it to the door when Snape shouted (the first time Harry could remember having ever heard him actually shout), "Get back here!"
Harry turned back just enough to address Snape without letting the Slytherin Head of House make eye contact, and said, "Then stop trying to legilimens me."
"Ten points for telling me what to do, and another fifty for walking away from me," growled Snape, stalking towards Harry. "And I haven't even gotten started with what you did to Malfoy."
Knowing it would do as little good as it had the first time, Harry repeated anyway, "I was in fear for my life, I want Malfoy arrested, and I'm not talking without a lawyer."
Then deciding he had nothing to lose, continued, "If you don't believe me, ask Moaning Myrtle, or take my memories, or use Veritaserum. But unless you're planning on taking me to Dumbledore or pressing charges with the Ministry, I'm leaving. And if charges are pressed against me, I'm pressing charges for the use of an Unforgivable Curse by Malfoy against me."
Almost as soon as he started walking out this time, he felt Snape's fingers close painfully around his ear — so Dumbledore it was apparently.
Because if six years in the castle had taught him anything, it was that the staff avoided the DMLE like it was the plague, even when giant snakes were petrifying students, a fugitive had made it into the castle and threatened a student (or so they had all believed at the time), a teacher was found out to have actually been a supposedly dead Death Eater, or a teacher/Ministry plant was physically abusing students (surely the DMLE wasn't so far under the Minister's control that they couldn't or wouldn't arrest a child abuser). But not once had the DMLE been called to the castle that Harry had ever seen, or let in if they'd come calling on their own.
Snape drug Harry down the hallways to the stone gargoyle standing guard in front of Dumbledore's office, and up to where Dumbledore was, seated at his desk.
As Snape began in his normal sneer, "Potter here attacked Malfoy and tried to kill him —", Harry quickly said loudly and firmly through him, "I was in fear for my life, I want Malfoy arrested, I want the DMLE called, and I want a lawyer."
Unable to understand either of them clearly, as had been Harry's hope, Dumbledore held up his hand.
"Professor Snape, what happened?" he asked to absolutely no one's surprise.
Harry just hoped that by trying to talk over Snape, and putting it out there at the very beginning that he had something to say, that Dumbledore would actually give him a chance after Snape finished smearing his name despite having absolutely no clue what had actually transpired, to give his own account of the incident.
"Potter here attacked Mister Malfoy in the bathroom, and cast a curse at him that gashed his chest open, nearly killing him if I hadn't fortunately been close enough to make it in there just in time to perform a counter curse, saving Malfoy's life," said Snape.
Harry noted that Snape didn't call the curse by its name, despite Harry's growing suspicion that he had to have known exactly what the curse was in order to perform the countercurse so quickly and effectively. Harry also wondered for the first, but certainly not last time why exactly Snape had been close enough, when he was never seen that high up in the castle except in the middle of the night.
"Then when I asked Potter what happened, and how he knew the spell, he refused to answer me. And when I asked him again, he turned and started walking away, so I brought him to you," finished Snape, as Harry thought to himself, That's a larger pile of dragonshite than Madam Sprout keeps in the greenhouses.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" asked Dumbledore gravely, looking disappointingly at Harry.
"I was in fear for my life, I want Malfoy arrested for using the Cruciatus curse against me, I want the DMLE called, and I want a lawyer," answered Harry, before adding, "And most of what Snape just said was a complete load of bullshite. And no, I will not call him Professor, especially after that pure slander."
Harry noticed that Dumbledore noticeably paled at the mention of the DMLE being called, leading him to wonder if there was even more going on at the school than just what he'd run across in six years or suspected with Draco this year, that Dumbledore was hiding.
"What do you mean you were in fear for your life? Professor Snape just said you attacked Mister Malfoy," replied Dumbledore in confusion, because of course his pet snake wouldn't lie, and couldn't be wrong.
"And how exactly would Snape know any of that when he wasn't in the bathroom for any of it?" countered Harry, before adding sarcastically, "Oh, right, because maybe that's what Draco told him as Snape walked his favorite student down to the hospital wing. Never mind of course the fact he never asked me what happened, or Moaning Myrtle who was in the bathroom the entire time and probably saw at least some of what actually occurred, and ignored me when I did tell him what happened — multiple times in fact."
"Then what did happen that led to you attacking Mister Malfoy with this curse?" asked Dumbledore.
It took everything Harry had not to roll his eyes at Dumbledore's continued belief that he, Harry, was the guilty party here, but he just barely managed to hold it in. "I went into the bathroom. Draco saw me in the reflection of the mirror and spun and cast a curse at me that just barely missed. We started trading curses. I heard Draco start to say 'Crucio', so, in fear for my life and certainly my physical safety, I cast the most powerful spell my mind could come up with in the split second I had. And I want Draco Malfoy arrested for attempting to use an Unforgivable Curse on me.
"Then Snape burst in, healed Draco and took him to the hospital wing before returning. He never asked what happened, only who taught me the spell, having already made the assumption that I had to be the guilty party without knowing any of the facts. I told him what I've told you, that I was in fear for my life, I wanted Draco arrested, and I want a lawyer, all of which he of course ignored. Then he repeated his question, before starting to try to use legilimens on me when I refused to answer, so I turned and started walking out since he has no legal right to pry into my mind, not being a part of a trial and having no warrant. He told me to stop, I did, he took sixty points from me, I repeated that I was in fear for my life, etcetera, before demanding he either take it to you, the DMLE, or I was leaving. At which point he brought me here."
There was all of two seconds silence before Snape's silky voice cut in, "I suggest detention every Saturday for the rest of the term, and possibly into the start of the next term, along with at least another hundred points off for attacking a fellow student and flagrantly violating the school's no spells in the hallway rule."
"And I won't be attending any detentions period, unless they're ordered by the DMLE," replied Harry, never taking his eyes off Dumbledore. "As for points, I really couldn't give a shite. With Snape over there allowed to give and take away points at all when he shows clear favoritism towards his own house and outright animosity towards Gryffindor, and no clear rules for any of the teachers as to what anything's worth positive or negative, it's never been even vaguely close to a fair system. And someone usually just ends up handing Gryffindor an arseload of points at the very end to make them win."
After several seconds, Dumbledore said in what he clearly thought was a fatherly, understanding voice, "Harry, my boy, you did attack a fellow student. I'm sure you understand that that kind of behavior can't be tolerated here. Now, I'm sure we can come to some kind of agreement though on your punishment, as curses were cast by both sides. I think a total of a fifty point loss and three detentions, not falling on the final Quidditch match, should be satisfactory."
"Nope. DMLE or free," replied Harry, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at Dumbledore resolutely.
"One detention and twenty-five points, and Mister Malfoy gets the same?" countered Dumbledore in a last ditch effort, though the look on his face made it clear he already knew it wouldn't be accepted.
Harry merely shook his head.
Dumbledore sighed, deflating completely. "Department of Magical Law Enforcement it is, then."
Pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the black kettle that he'd used as a portkey the year before to escape Umbridge before Christmas. A second later it glowed a pale blue, before returning to normal.
"Let's go. You too, Severus. We'll leave Mister Malfoy in the hospital wing unless we need him."
The three of them touched the portkey, and a second later they had their insides yanked out through their navels, before landing in what appeared to be a waiting room for what Harry assumed must be the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Dumbledore strode over to one of the doors and opened it, where Harry could see through the open door the lady he recognized as Madam Bones from his Wizengamot trial nearly two years earlier, sitting behind a large, ornate desk.
"Dumbledore, what a surprise to see you," said Madam Bones neutrally as Dumbledore walked in.
"There was an incident at the school earlier this evening, and one of the students involved insists on an official trial," answered Dumbledore wearily. "I really don't think it's worth wasting your time over, but —"
"Bring the student in," cut off Madam Bones crisply, secretly pleased that something at Hogwarts would finally be making it to an actual trial by law, instead of the made up rules the Hogwarts staff went by — after all, she had spent seven years there herself, she knew how things operated there.
Dumbledore motioned back to Snape and Harry, who came walking in.
As soon as he was in the room, Harry looked at Madam Bones and said, "Madam Bones, I want Snape out, as he is at most a highly biased witness, and so shouldn't be part of the opening statements."
Madam Bones nodded, before glaring at Snape, who sulkily slid out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Motioning for Harry and Dumbledore to sit down in the chairs across from her, she turned to Dumbledore and said, "As I assume you are the prosecution, what is your case against Mister Potter?"
"According to Professor Snape, Mister Potter attacked Mister Malfoy in the bathroom, eventually using a spell that nearly killed Mister Malfoy, and would have killed him without Snape's timely arrival to heal him and get him to the hospital wing. But Mister Potter refuses to accept any amount of detention, insisting on his complete innocence, and demanding it be brought before you," answered Dumbledore.
"And the defense?" asked Madam Bones turning to Harry, knowing there was clearly more to this story than what Dumbledore had just said.
"I was in fear for my life when I cast that spell," replied Harry. "Draco attacked me first, we traded several curses, then he began to cast the Cruciatus Curse at me, so I cast the most powerful curse I could think of in the split second I had, to prevent great bodily injury to myself, as is perfectly legal under stand your ground, castle doctrine laws. Also, separately, I would like Draco Malfoy arrested for the attempted use of an Unforgivable Curse against me. And for both cases, I am willing to take Veritaserum, if you can extract my memories of the event and put them in a pensieve I'll give permission for that as well, and the ghost Moaning Myrtle can be called as a witness if ghosts are acceptable as witnesses, though I don't know how much she actually saw, and I insist upon Veritaserum or some other truth potion as I don't trust her not to be on Draco's side as they've clearly been associating with one another."
"An Unforgivable Curse?" gasped Madam Bones to herself, before addressing Harry again. "Extracting memories from someone else is a difficult process, but Kingsley is one of the best there is. Additionally, as memories can be altered, and aren't necessarily one hundred percent accurate in cases of trauma anyway, they are not considered the most reliable sources of information. But as you are just a student and unlikely to have learned how to intentionally modify memories, and modified memories can usually be detected, plus the memories can be extracted under the influence of Veritaserum, I will allow it, and your testimony under Veritaserum, to be entered as evidence in both cases. Additionally, if your memories provide sufficient compelling evidence, Mister Malfoy will be given Veritaserum and his testimony taken, to see if it aligns with yours."
~HP~
Fifteen minutes later, Harry had taken a drop of Veritaserum, and Kingsley was waiting to extract Harry's memories as Harry gave his testimony.
"Start from the beginning," ordered Madam Bones.
"I entered the sixth floor bathroom," began Harry in a slightly flatter voice than normal. "I saw Draco crying at the sink, Moaning Myrtle trying to comfort him and offer help. Draco said that no one could help him, he couldn't do it, and someone would kill him for failing. Then Draco looked up and saw my reflection in the mirror. He spun and cast a curse at me, that felt like it just barely missed me and hit something right behind me, as I drew my own wand in self-defense. I cast a curse that he blocked, then we both cast several more curses at each other that missed, but destroyed large parts of the bathroom and made it start flooding as pipes broke. Moaning Myrtle was yelling most of the time. I slipped in the water, and heard Draco start to say, 'Crucio'. So my mind went to the most powerful curse I could think of, 'Sectumsempra', which I'd seen labeled in a book as 'for enemies', and I cast it, not knowing what it would do but assuming it had to be stronger than any other spell I knew. It cut giant slashes across Draco's chest. I briefly thought he was dead, before seeing his chest faintly rise and fall. Before I could even think to begin trying to do anything, Moaning Myrtle screamed 'Murder!', and the next instant Snape burst in and started healing Draco before taking him to the hospital wing."
Madam Bones looked over at Kingsley.
The tall wizard nodded. "I got it," he said in his deep, rich voice.
"We'll return in a moment," said Madam Bones to Harry and Dumbledore, before she and Kingsley walked through the door behind her desk into another room to review the memory Kingsley had pulled.
Silence reigned for several minutes, as Harry refused to even glance over at the headmaster, until finally Madam Bones and Kingsley returned.
Looking at Dumbledore, Madam Bones said, "Dumbledore, you, Kingsley, and I are going to your hospital wing to take Draco's testimony. And Snape will return to the castle with us, but will not be allowed in the hospital wing or anywhere near Mister Malfoy before his testimony." Turning to Harry, she said, "Auror Tonks will be along soon to stay with you until we return."
With that she and Kingsley strode out of the room into the waiting room Harry, Dumbledore, and Snape had arrived in, with Dumbledore following reluctantly behind them. Harry had only been sitting alone in Madam Bones' office for a couple minutes when he heard an excited squeal from behind him. "Harry!"
Harry turned to find his godcousin standing in the doorway, practically bouncing up and down in excitement. Harry stood up and walked over and hugged her tightly.
"So what trouble have you gotten into this time?" asked Tonks as she led him out through the main DMLE offices, towards the Auror department.
"Fight with Draco that ended with him trying to use Cruciatus against me and me nearly killing him in self-defense. Which would have been fine and all to the Hogwarts staff, except I refused to accept any detention for protecting myself, and demanded I either be let free or to bring it here," answered Harry.
"Good for you," replied Tonks as she led him into her cramped and messy office, shoving several official-looking things unceremoniously off her desk and onto the floor so she could sit on her desk as she offered him her chair. "It was about time someone started standing up for themselves, especially now that Voldemort is back and we're all going to have to soon stand up or become slaves."
~HP~
Meanwhile, in the Hogwarts hospital wing, Draco Malfoy had been given a drop of Veritaserum.
"What happened in the bathroom early this evening?" asked Madam Bones.
Like Harry, Draco's voice was flatter, and certainly less sneery and drawling than normal. "I was in the sixth floor bathroom crying after returning from another unsuccessful attempt at trying to fix the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. Myrtle was trying to comfort me and offer help, but she doesn't understand that if I can't get this fixed, he's going to kill me.
"Then I looked up and saw Harry staring at me in the mirror. I didn't know how much he might have heard, so I pulled my wand and spun and tried to curse him, but it missed. I blocked his countercurse, and then we both sent a few more curses at each other. I saw him slip in the water, and knew I had my chance. I summoned all my anger and hatred towards him and tried to cast 'Crucio'. But before I could finish, he cast a spell against me, and the next thing I knew Snape was muttering some incantation over me, and then helping me here."
Madam Bones gave a sharp look at Kingsley, before asking Malfoy, "Why are you trying to fix the Vanishing Cabinet, and who is going to kill you?"
"The Dark Lord wants a way into the castle for his followers to attack, and after my father's failure last year he tasked it to me to make it happen. The other half is at Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, but I can't make them connect. And if I can't figure it out by the end of the year, he's going to kill me, and I'm sure my mother and father as well. Azkaban can't keep him out."
Madam Pomfrey was staring back and forth between Malfoy and Madam Bones & Kingsley, while Madam Bones and Kingsley were looking at each other, communicating with just looks. Dumbledore, meanwhile, was on the other side of the room, trying to avoid attention.
"Arrest Mister Malfoy, take him to the prisoner ward of St Mungo's, and charge him with attempted use of an Unforgivable Curse, along with colluding with a known terrorist and plotting to bring known criminals into Hogwarts. And increase the Auror security around Azkaban — the Minister may still trust the dementors, but if Voldemort is planning another breakout, I want some real people there," ordered Madam Bones crisply to Kingsley, standing up suddenly. "Dumbledore, you're returning with me to the DMLE."
~HP~
Back in Tonks' office in the Auror Department, Harry and Tonks were catching up on what they'd both been up to since she'd rescued him on the train after Draco had left him stranded there, not having actually talked when she'd seen them in Hogsmeade after Mundungus had filched from Grimmauld Place.
"You and Hermione finally figure out you're supposed to be together yet?" Tonks asked when they'd caught up to the present evening that'd led him to be sitting in her office in the first place.
"Actually, yes," answered Harry. "One night Ron and I saw Ginny and Dean kissing in a shortcut to the tower, which ended up with Ron believing Hermione had kissed Krum two years earlier, and me realizing that any feelings I might have had for Ginny were clearly unhealthy when it felt like a monster in my chest seeing her kissing someone else. Then Ron shunned Hermione and treated her like shite the remainder of the week leading up to the first Quidditch match. Following a nasty row between them after the match, Ron lept on Lavender at the post-match party to get revenge on Hermione for supposedly kissing Krum. I went and found Hermione, who after another row with Ron when he burst in snogging Lavender, ended up crying on my shoulder for half the afternoon. During which it finally dawned on me that Hermione was the one who'd always been there for me, the girl I always went to when I really needed something. And her crying on my shoulder ended up with her kissing me, and after that we started spending a lot more time together, especially as Ron was still half shunning her, half flaunting his new fling with Lavender in front of her. A few weeks later we officially admitted to each other that we were dating, and then made it public by going to Slughorn's Christmas Party together."
Before Tonks could give more than an, "About damn time," Madam Bones knocked on the doorframe of Tonks' office.
"I'm ready to give my ruling," she said. "And you're welcome to come along too, Auror Tonks."
Harry and Tonks followed Madam Bones back to her office, where they found Dumbledore already seated. Harry and Madam Bones took their respective seats, as Tonks plopped herself down on the edge of Madam Bones' desk.
"First, the case of Potter vs Hogwarts," said Madam Bones. "According to self-defense, stand your ground, no duty to retreat laws, Mister Potter was completely justified in using deadly force against Mister Malfoy due to Mister Potter's belief that Mister Malfoy was about to do great bodily harm to Mister Potter with the curse Mister Malfoy was trying to cast. Therefore, Mister Potter cannot be subject to any punishment or loss of points at Hogwarts, since this case has been turned over by the school to the DMLE.
"Secondly, the case of Britain vs Malfoy. Draco Malfoy has been charged with the unlawful use of an Unforgivable Curse, collusion with the known terrorist Voldemort, and plotting to bring known criminals into Hogwarts. He is currently under arrest at St Mungo's, awaiting a Wizengamot trial when his injuries have healed sufficiently, which should be within a week according to Madam Pomfrey's assessment of his injuries."
Harry raised his hand. Madam Bones nodded for him to speak.
"It should also be investigated whether Draco had anything to do with the cursed necklace that sent Katie Bell to St. Mungo's over the winter, along with the poisoned cask of mead given to Professor Slughorn that nearly killed Ron. So he may be trying to kill someone at Hogwarts as well."
Madam Bones turned to Dumbledore sharply. "Why is this the first time I have been hearing about either of these incidents?"
Dumbledore didn't answer, refusing to look at Madam Bones.
Madam Bones turned back to Harry. "What suspicion do you have that Mister Malfoy could have been behind these attacks?"
"I overheard Draco on the train in September say that Voldemort had a job for him. I saw Malfoy looking at the necklace a few years ago in Borgin and Burkes, and then Hermione, Ron, and I saw Draco buy something in Borgin and Burkes this summer right before the start of the school year that he told Mister Borgin he didn't want to be seen carrying down the street. Then after the poisoned mead, Hagrid said that he overheard Dumbledore telling Snape to investigate his own house, of which Draco is part of, and with his father having been locked up as a Death Eater last summer, he would have motive to get revenge against anyone at Hogwarts who had to do with his father getting captured and sent to Azkaban."
Madam Bones nodded along as she listened. "It's very circumstantial, but as we know Mister Malfoy has been colluding with Voldemort, and Voldemort would certainly like to kill just about everyone on the Hogwarts staff, it should be enough to question him about it. Is there anything else?"
"I overheard Snape telling Draco right before Christmas break that he'd made an unbreakable vow with Draco's mum to protect Draco," replied Harry.
"Any actions of Professor Snape are under my orders," cut in Dumbledore almost before Harry had finished speaking.
Madam Bones quickly glanced over sharply at Dumbledore, before returning her attention to Harry.
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention — I will look into it. Is there anything else, Mister Potter?"
"No ma'am."
"Then you are free to return to Hogwarts with Auror Tonks. I have several matters to discuss further with Dumbledore about incidents that have not been reported to this office and orders to have his staff members protecting Death Eaters," said Madam Bones, glaring hard at Dumbledore.
~HP~
Harry and Tonks quickly left Madam Bones' office and portkeyed back to Hogwarts, where they walked up to Gryffindor Tower together to find Hermione to tell her everything that had happened. As late as it was, the hallways were empty, but as soon as Harry gave the password and they entered Gryffindor common room, every head in there turned to stare at Harry.
Before Harry could wonder why everyone was staring at him like they were scared of him or he'd committed some terrible crime, Hermione rushed over, throwing her arms around him and practically squeezing the life out of him, before leaning back just far enough to give him a quick kiss.
"Where have you been?!" she squeaked when they broke apart. "Insane rumors have been circulating the castle, that you attacked and killed Malfoy!"
"Sadly, he isn't dead — but he is at least under arrest," chirped in Tonks with mock sadness and then glee before Harry could say anything.
Hermione stared at her in shock for several seconds, before turning to stare at Harry.
Harry shrugged. "It's true."
As Hermione continued to stare at him, he explained on, "Remember when I kept insisting Draco was a Death Eater? It appears he not only was, but he was also attempting to lead them into the school. But as for me nearly killing him, he attacked me in the bathroom on my way down to supper, we fought briefly, he attempted to cast 'Crucio' on me, so in self-defense I went with the most powerful spell I could think of, which was a spell from the Prince's book that said 'for enemies', so I figured it must be better than anything we've been taught here. It slashed his chest open, and he certainly would have bled out if Snape hadn't nearly instantaneously, miraculously burst in. Snape of course wouldn't listen to me when I said I had been in fear for my life and wanted Draco arrested, so it worked its way to Dumbledore, who also wouldn't listen, so I demanded it go to the DMLE. Some truth serum later, and Draco's under arrest and I'm free. That's the short of it, anyway."
When Hermione finally collected herself enough to speak, she said, "Well, that's certainly not the story spreading like wildfire through the castle from Moaning Myrtle, Pansy, or who I'd guess is Snape — Professor McGonagall is looking for you, and she did not look happy. And as that was a good fifteen, twenty minutes ago, I'm guessing she didn't know you were cleared by the DMLE or Draco was arrested when she demanded to see you. And where was that in the potions book? I don't remember seeing it."
When Harry had told her and Ron about his potions book in the Gryffindor common room after he'd gotten it at the beginning of their first Potions class with Slughorn, she'd practically ripped it out of his hands to read through and study it.
"That's probably because you were too absorbed with figuring out why the author made the changes he did and how you could apply them to other potions, to see the spells scribbled in the margins. It was somewhere near the back, I think — I can show you later, if you like. But as for Professor McGonagall, she probably doesn't know. I was only cleared five minutes ago, and I doubt Madam Bones told a lot of people of Draco's arrest when she actually did it," replied Harry. "But how is Pansy spreading stories? Moaning Myrtle I get, she was in the bathroom the whole time and can appear anywhere in the castle she likes, and Snape vilifying me amongst the staff and Slytherin as soon as he was dismissed from the whole trial when they came back to Veritaserum Draco was pretty much a given, but when did Pansy learn anything?"
"I'm guessing immediately after the incident, Moaning Myrtle started popping up in every girls bathroom and spreading the story, so Pansy heard it and rushed off to the hospital wing before whoever you were with came to question him," answered Hermione.
Before Hermione could go on any further, they were interrupted by their Head of House, who'd apparently gotten wind that Harry was back.
"POTTER!" she barked out with a cold fury Harry had never heard out of her before, and she'd been ticked off with him more than a time or two over the years. "WITH ME!"
"No," replied Harry firmly, standing his ground. "Since you clearly don't have a clue what you're talking about, we're having this out right here and now, in front of the entire common room. You want to accuse me of something without proof that it actually happened, do it in front of the entire House."
As McGonagall stared at Harry in complete shock, after a second Tonks added quietly into the dead silence of the room, "I'm his witness."
McGonagall's head jerked over to see Tonks standing there in her full Auror robes, and for the first time McGonagall looked she might be questioning her decision to accuse Harry purely based off something Snape had said. But she'd already committed, and was too proud to admit that she, or Professor Snape, could possibly be wrong, so she soldiered on anyway.
"You attacked Mister Malfoy in the bathroom and nearly killed him, and then refused to accept any kind of punishment for your actions, forcing Professor Snape to take you to Dumbledore!" she snapped.
Every eye and ear in the entire common room was on Harry as he took a slight step forward to face McGonagall head on.
"Draco Malfoy is currently under arrest on charges of attempted illegal use of an Unforgivable Curse, colluding with the known terrorist Voldemort, i.e. being a Death Eater, and plotting to bring Death Eaters into the castle. In light of this, he is also being investigated for the attempted murder of someone in this castle through the necklace and poisoned mead. As for myself, I was the one who insisted the case go to Dumbledore, and then to the DMLE, when neither Snape, nor Dumbledore would listen to me. And I was cleared of all charges by Madam Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, in the justified use of deadly force against Draco Malfoy in self-defense against his attempt to cast an Unforgivable Curse at me."
"I attest to everything he just said," added Tonks as soon as Harry finished.
Professor McGonagall stared at Harry for a long time, occasionally shifting over to stare at Tonks as well, completely clueless as to what to say.
"But—! That's not what Professor Snape said happened—!" she finally managed to stutter out.
"Surprise, bloody surprise," muttered Harry under his breath, causing Tonks to snigger and Hermione to roll her eyes. But if Professor McGonagall heard him, she didn't show it.
Silence reigned through the common room for several more long seconds, until Harry finally said, "If you don't believe Auror Tonks and I, ask Dumbledore when he returns from getting chewed out by Madam Bones over several unreported incidents in the school, or ask Madam Bones herself, as she was the one to rule that I acted within my rights."
Then he deliberately turned his back on McGonagall and walked over to the couch in front of the fireplace, where Hermione and Tonks quickly followed him and sat down on either side of him. Professor McGonagall eventually turned around and left the common room, needing to talk to Dumbledore to find out what had really happened.
Over the remainder of the evening, Harry explained in complete detail to the two girls everything that had transpired from the moment he'd stepped into the sixth floor bathroom, Tonks collaborating his story from the point where she'd entered the scene at the DMLE, and the three of them discussed everything they could think of about Harry's defensive use of deadly force and the subsequent arrest of Draco. And amazingly they managed to do so completely uninterrupted, as everyone else in the common room could apparently tell that it wasn't the right time to be asking questions, and no one came over to ask them any anything or bother them throughout the remainder of the evening.
~HP~
The following morning, when Harry and Hermione walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, they were met by mostly glares and looks of complete loathing from the three tables that weren't their own, and even a few glares from fellow Gryffindors who hadn't been in the common room when Harry and Professor McGonagall had had words.
But as they sat down, there were quite a few students from other tables, along with a few Gryffindors, who crowded around them to ask about the rumors they'd heard of a DMLE trial and the Malfoy git being arrested. So while trying to also eat enough before needing to head off to class, Harry explained in complete detail to anyone who would listen exactly what had happened, how he'd been found to have acted within his rights by the DMLE, and how Draco had been arrested for using an Unforgivable Curse and plotting with domestic terrorists. There were of course numerous skeptics who thought he was making it all up to try and get people not to think him the criminal here, but most seemed to believe him, or at least consider it a possible alternative to the story Myrtle, Pansy, and Snape had spread the evening before.
But whether they believed him or not, most of them went back to their own tables and friends and repeated the story, resulting in many more students approaching Harry during every free period throughout the remainder of the day to hear the story themselves, until by supper that evening nearly everyone in the castle had heard both sides of the story, despite Dumbledore (and Professor McGonagall) never addressing the school to correct or affirm either of the rumors that had permeated the castle. And over the next few days, as those students with connections to the DMLE asked those they knew what had really happened, and whether Malfoy had really been arrested or not, common opinion started shifting towards believing Harry's story, as it matched every official report anyone could add to the rumor mill.
But it wasn't until two weeks later, when the Daily Prophet finally reported that Draco Malfoy and eight fellow Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback, and the Carrow siblings, had been arrested in a raid of Malfoy Manor for the attempted murder of Albus Dumbledore and a plot to invade and take over the school, that everyone finally accepted Harry's account of the night as being true, and many of them began celebrating him as the hero he was. Of course, Snape's vitriol, hatred and abuse of Harry only increased from this, as even his own Slytherins no longer believed his story about Harry attacking Draco unprovoked, even if they weren't actually supporting or celebrating Harry's actions since their own families were Death Eaters, and Harry had just dealt a major blow to their hopes of the Dark Lord returning to power sooner rather than later. And as for the Chief Slytherin himself, Dumbledore had apparently covered well enough for him to keep Madam Bones from arresting him for protecting a Death Eater.
But overall, Harry was having a better time of it since he'd had to defend his life against Draco than he would have had he allowed Snape or Dumbledore to give him detention and take points away for defending himself, and most importantly, he was still alive, unharmed, and free to enjoy the remainder of the school year, including the final Quidditch match of the season.
A/N: The Bonus Chapter doesn't add much to the story, as it's just a possible brief excerpt from Harry, Hermione, and Tonks' discussion on the couch that ends up on horcruxes and Tonks' metamorphmagus boobs — you're welcome. But seriously, it just humored me enough as I wrote it to want to put it out there for anyone else who might find it funny — so feel free to skip it if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea.