Spoiler Warning: This story is a sixth year fic that follows on from the events of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As a conseqeunce this story contains major spoilers for book 5. You have been warned.
SNAKE HEALER: THE MALFOY MUGGLE LOVER
CHAPTER 20: DEBATE
I do not wish to repeat the words of my friends and former colleagues, we have heard more than enough about the failings of the dark lord. Instead I wish to highlight the main reason why we let ourselves fall into his trap in the first place and how we can prevent a repeat. Many of you will not like what I have to say." Montague declared seriously when he stood up to speak. He was a tall muscular man with short black hair Unsurprisingly, he possessed a striking resemblance to his son, Uther, who had been captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team last year. Like his son, though, he spoke with an intelligence that belied his Crabbe and Goyle like appearance.
"Lucius has already alluded to it when he said that we were desperate for a powerful leader to defeat the muggle lover Dumbledore. Yet, unlike his late brother he refuses to accept that his brother provided exactly that. All we wanted was a powerful Slytherin who shared our puritanical beliefs, and in the dark lord we got one. He has done all we have asked of him – he has eliminated many of our enemies and killed a large number of mudbloods. That such actions are slowly destroying the possibility of our dream of a wholly pure wizarding society shows not that his methods are flawed but that our dream is misguided. We are wrong to desire a wizarding society completely free from the corrupting influence of muggle blood." Harry was not the only one shocked by the former death eater's words. Judging from the amount of whispering most of the Slytherins were surprised too and some of them looked outraged, Lucius being a prime example. As Harry expected, though, his words were accompanied by a qualification, "I am not saying that we should suddenly welcome mudbloods with open arms as Dumbledore wants us to," he continued, stressing his words so as to ease his audience's fears. "There are certain standards a witch or wizard must meet and which many fail to meet, mudbloods among them. It is often wrongly assumed that blood determines whether a witch or wizard meets these criteria, when in fact it is knowledge that is the determing factor. Status, like talent does not depend on a person's blood. We all remember the talented mudblood from our school days, who was among the best in our year, both in terms of knowledge and power, as well as the near squib pureblood who lacked both. Neither of these two former classmates ever achieve respectability and dignity, the near squib lacks the necessary power, whilst the mudblood, held back by his or her muggle upbringing, does not possess the required knowledge needed to become part of the elite, knowledge that we take for granted. They are, however, more than capable of achieving greatness, we just need to teach them properly."
"Of course some of you disagree with the presence of mudbloods within our society because of the danger to our existence presented by their unbreakable bonds to the muggle world. We all know of the witch burnings of the middle ages and the persecution our kind has faced throughout history at the hands of muggles, yet we seem to conveniently seem to forget that muggles no longer even believe we exist and that many of those that know otherwise do not hate us. If a mudblood or one of their relatives told the muggle world of our existence they would be laughed at and detained in a mental hospital. No one would believe him or her and everything would continue as it is. It is easy to conclude, therefore, that the contribution mudbloods make to our society, however minimal, outweighs the risks associated with their presence. They are an integral and inalienable part of our society as a whole. They are also a part of society that has no place within our number," Harry was not the only to be depressed by the fact that this was the only part of Montague's speech to receive applause. Indeed, Montague himself looked less than pleased by his audience's reaction to his words about the place of muggleborns with in Slytherin, a point he expressed only through his stern facial expression and the harsh tone of his following words. "We are first and foremost the house of the pureblood elite, our values and ideals are those of the wizarding aristocracy, among whom mudbloods have no place. Many of us see mudbloods as a threat to your position in society and therefore adopt anti-muggle beliefs, which we then mistakenly to be core Slytherin ideals, when they are in fact pragmatic reactions to an imagined threat. Any real threat to our position, from rich and poor, mudblood and pureblood or Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw is a direct consequence of these paranoid mugglephobic prejudices. If we wish to heal the rift that exists between ourselves and the rest of our kind then we must make the first move and adopt a more sensible and pragmatic attitude to mudbloods. It is the only way; anything else is doomed to failure."
This final sentence seemed to linger in the air for several minutes after the end of Montague's speech, imposed by the Slytherin's dominating presence, which whilst aimed solely at Lucius, seemed to spread throughout the hall stilling all possibility of conversation and further speakers. It was as if the whole speech had been aimed solely at usurping Lucius' position as the unofficial head of the former death eaters, a challenge neither Lucius nor Draco seemed to take kindly to, if their intense reactions to the ongoing staring contest between Harry's father and his intellectual challenger was any indication. Lucius was clearly scowling, whilst Draco was openly shooting death glares at Montague. Everybody and everything was deadly silent, especially Lucius. Nobody dared interrupt the battle for power that was going on before their very eyes, except that is for Blaise Zabini. Harry hadn't noticed the newcomer enter the great hall towards the end of Montague's speech, but the young elf obviously had as after several minutes after tense silence he waved towards a tall, blond haired elf standing at the back of the room and indicated for the newcomer to come and sit at the front. When the mysterious elf shook his head, Zabini stood up and made his way to the late arrival. He made no sound, but his movement was enough to diffuse the tension and allow the speeches to continue.
Such tension was typical of the ensuing debate about whether an anti-muggle ideology was part of the 'Slytherin Legacy', a term that was used to describe the traits and beliefs which defined what made someone a Slytherin. The discussion was extremely fierce and the participants were not above personal attacks on those on the opposing side. To Harry the passion aroused by the debate was rather bemusing, although he could understand why they took the subject matter so seriously, it was just that he found the whole idea of debating what it meant to be a Slytherin rather than simply accepting the sorting hat's verdict as quite odd and rather pathetic. He wasn't particularly surprised though; it was just another facet of Slytherin elitism and the extreme pride, which the serpent house seemed to generate within its members. Despite this rather bemused reaction he recognised the importance of the issue, he did feel quite strongly about the injustice of discrimination and prejudice against muggle-borns and consequently found himself agreeing with many of the arguments put forward by Montague's backers, many of whom were more pro-muggle than Montague himself. The type of passion which lead to Professor Umbridge angrily accusing Julius Flint of branding half of Slytherin house as traitors to the Slytherin Legacy escaped him however. Flint, of course, denied the accusation in an equally vehement manner. Nonetheless it was precisely such displays of strong feelings and raw emotion which made the whole spectacle so interesting, as whilst each put forward different arguments they all boiled down to Montague's side claiming that many Slytherins throughout history, famous of otherwise, had no particular dislike of muggle-borns, whilst Lucius' side took Salazar Slytherin's own legendary hatred of those with less than pure blood to indicate that all Slytherins had a moral responsibility to adopt such views themselves. To Harry this later argument seemed ridiculous, but even Montague's proponents seemed to think otherwise as they made a great effort to provide dubious counter examples or vain excuses as to why muggle-hating should not be part of the Slytherin Legacy. Strangely, the points Montague had made in his own speech were hardly referred to.
It was just after Flint's response to Umbridge that Pansy Parkinson's rather frustrated father leaned towards Lucas' Mother, Maria, and asked her whether she would put an end to the debate, which he described as a glorified shouting match, and speak of her husband's work on the Slytherin Legacy. Maria's reply was to say that Snape would call on her when he was ready to do so, an eventuality that came to pass just a few minutes later. Her speech was delivered in a dry, academic manner that was complete contrast to the emotion of the previous speakers, however, the content more than made up for the boring manner of its delivery. Her explanation of 'the healer', an aspect of Slytherin's legacy that Janus had mentioned several times in Harry's presence, left Harry pondering whether her words had any relationship to him. This was so mush so that he barely listened to Ellanora Lacetter's shrill protestations that she was in fact referring to Voldemort.
"I do not possess my husband's expertise on the healer legend," Harry's red-headed aunt began, "Nevertheless, I shall make a contribution in his stead. I am sure most of you know the legend, but for those who don't I shall repeat it anyway," she continued. Lucius' glance in Harry's direction made it perfectly clear that the explanation was being made mainly for the Gryffindor's benefit. The legend is derived from Salazar's final letter to Edward Timmes, dated 21st August 1014, in which he bemoans – and I quote – 'the legacy of antagonism, hatred and destruction that has overcome the Hogwarts house that bears my name since I was forced from the school.' He follows this line with an unusually optimistic comment, saying that and again I quote, 'You and I both know that such a legacy cannot last forever. There will come a time when my legacy shall be healed from the evil that has usurped it. I cannot envisage any such action being initiated from within the house; Godric always maintained that we Slytherins are far too attached to our prejudices and for once he was right. All that matters is that my time shall come, it saddens me that I shall not live to see it.' These lines of Salazar's have often been linked to the final prophecy of Morgana, the famous celto-roman seer who lived just after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The prophecy states that:
"The healer shall come with the lightning to heal the thousand-year legacy of destruction. He shall be the serpent tongue who is not a serpent, the son of the lioness estranged from his serpent kin. By his side his kin must stand and by his hand the destroyer must fall or nothing shall withstand the destruction.
"There is no indication that Salazar Slytherin was aware of the prophecy, although Timmes was known to have been and was the first to link the two. He came up with the idea of the mythical healer, who he saw as a young Gryffindor unwillingly estranged from his family and that consequently he belonged in our house but had rejected us on the basis of our bad reputation. According to Timmes, the healer would reconcile with his family and show the other houses that we are not as they believe us to be, thus fulfilling Morgana's prophecy.
"My point is that anti-muggle prejudice cannot be part of Salazar's legacy, because it is the one thing that the other houses hate about us the most. They see such prejudice and our backing of those who act on it as morally unacceptable and a declaration of inter-house warfare. I cannot envisage the healer as being an exception to this. The healer is still an outsider, a Gryffindor outsider at that, regardless of who his family is. As it is the job of the healer to show us Salazar's true legacy, the legacy cannot contain anything, which would the more sensible elements of the other houses, as anti-muggle prejudice undoubtedly does. We can only speculate as to how a Gryffindor is supposed to show us Salazar's legacy, as many have, my husband and I have always maintained that it would emerge as a by-product of the healer's attempts to reconcile our differences with the other houses, although there are those who disagree with us. There is another unresolved question regarding the healer's attitude to the dark arts, upon which I cannot comment, I believe it would be best if I let the healer himself speak on such a sensitive matter." Harry was almost certain that the last point regarding the dark arts was in response to an argument put forward by Julius Flint, which was based on his assertion that Gryffindors objected more to the dark arts than to anti-muggle prejudice. Harry himself certainly thought that the later was worse, as the unforgivable curses, as proved by the aurors in the previous war against Voldemort, could be used for the right purposes even if they were inherently evil, whereas nothing good even came out of hating muggles. Such thoughts on the nature of the dark arts were secondary, however, to the overwhelming suspicion that the speech had been aimed at him. This was backed up by the glance directed towards him by Maria as she sat down.
Ellanora Lacetter spoke next, her speech, if her crazed ramblings could be described as such, did nothing to convince anybody of her argument, except perhaps the old woman who followed her. Like Lacetter, the old woman, whose name seemed vaguely familiar seemed to think that Voldemort was the mythical figure Maria described. He got the impression that the old woman seemed to think that the dark lord was some sort of omnipotent god come to deliver the Slytherins from the tyranny of being oppressed by the other houses. As far as Harry was concerned both women were clearly insane and talking absolutely nonsense, thus he paid little attention concentrating on Maria's speech about the healer. Despite such insanity, the old woman succeeded in aggravating Harry's rather short temper due to her comments about various things, distracting him from his thoughts. One such remark about the supposed glory of muggle hunting reminded Harry of where he heard the woman's name before. Sirius, Harry remembered, had pointed out Araminta Meliflua on the Black family tree as being the woman who had tried to legalise muggle hunting, a realisation that only made Harry hate the woman even more. What annoyed Harry the most, however, was her characterisations of the light side and Gryffindors in particular as arrogant self-righteous lunatics whose pompousness was only matched by their incompetence. It was an indication of Harry's anger that he was riled by the obviously ridiculous claims that the light side was secretly plotting to destroy the ministry, disband Slytherin house and kill all that opposed them. It was a claim best summed up by Draco, who muttered that she seemed to have confused the objectives of the light side with those of the dark lord. However, her repetition of the Daily Prophet's old portrayal of Harry as a deranged attention-seeker who rushed into things with the aim of harming those around him had no effect, simply because he heard it so often before, mainly from Draco. As it was by the time Araminta Meliflua sat down Harry was fuming and by the looks of things as was Lucas and, judging from the expression of loathing on his face, Snape, who rather than simply saying the name of the next speaker, stood up and said a few words.
"Whilst I can only agree with Mrs. Meliflua's comments about Harry Potter, having taught him for five years, it is customary for the chair of the council to allow guest's an opportunity to respond to attacks on their character," At this point Lucius appeared to matter a few words to Snape, presumably to remind the potions master that no-one by the name of Harry Potter was present and that giving such a person an opportunity to respond would result in silence. Judging by the expression on Snape's face it appeared that such a reminder was not needed. "I am aware of the fact that Potter is not present, however, due to special circumstances, Leo Malfoy has been nominated to speak on his behalf."
Harry had been warned by Lucius that Snape would find an excuse to call upon to speak and that he should be prepared to say a few words about inter-house relations. Despite Lucius' warning, he hadn't been planning to actually say anything though, consequently he hadn't prepared anything to say. Araminta Meliflua had changed the situation though by annoying Harry so much that he wanted to punch her or at least tell her how wrong she was. He was too angry to care that such a course of action would provide the worst possible advertisement for inter-house relations. Thankfully, Lucas, who was well aware of what Harry was about to and the stupidity of doing it, intervened.
"Calm down!" He hissed quietly at Harry, just as the Gryffindor was about to stand up to speak, "I know you're a Gryffindor, but here that's irrelevant. Here you're a Malfoy, from the top of your perfect platinum blond hair to the tips of the second sexiest toes in existence. You're an ally of Slytherin, an enemy of those that think you evil simply because your family is mainly Slytherins. You can shout at deranged old women all you want, but that's not going to stop your housemates from hating you and hating us because of some ridiculous stereotype."
"Stop thinking like a Potter!" Draco intervened, picking up on what Lucas was trying to do, "All shouting at Meliflua will do is prove to everyone that you're just as prejudiced as your housemates! You're better than that. You want to eliminate their prejudices. Prove it!"
It was hardly the most effective way of calming Harry down, but combined with Draco's look of fierce determination the two boys at least succeeded in convincing Harry to not shout wildly at Araminta Meliflua. He spoke though with the old woman in mind though, just as he kept in mind the anti-Slytherin prejudices of the people he had seen in Diagon Alley that afternoon. Lucas and Draco had reminded him of the people who should be the true targets of his anger and for that Harry was thankful.
The next chapter shoul be out soon. It's already written (albeit on paper), it just needs typing up and some revising. I know I've been a bit sporadic with my updating, but I have been writing, it's just that most of it's not on the computer yet. Consequently, I should be able to complete this fic within the next few months, as long as real life doesn't intervene too much.
In case you've forgotten Harry is 'Jason' and 'Leo' whilst Ron is 'Caranthir'.
Thank You to all those who reviewed chapter 18, your reviews were most appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.